Bakerallen: That 16K you referred to is GVWR...the total weight it was rated for including the truck. Back then they didn't place axle ratings on the tag(I think)but it was likely 5000 front and 11,000 rear. Not much but about equal to a modern day F*%d F450 or Chevy W4500. (which seem smaller to me)
I have posted this before but in my 40+ years of being in the truck and equipment business I have learned a lot from the old timers and now I am getting to be one
and when I first started in the biz an old truck salesman told me the "ton rating" referred to front axle carrying capacity. Therefore a ton and half truck could carry 3000 lbs of payload on it's front axle. Makes perfect sense to me and I believe that it's the straight skinny. I've heard other theories but none make any more sense than what that old guy expailned to me so I've spent over 40 years explaining it to others. Thats my story and I'm sticking to it.
Likely someone will now add that it came from Military specifications which are notoriously overbuilt or underated (pick one,whatever you think) but it will still boil down to axle capacity IMO.
