Allotted weight a mule would carry

[Tuscoro]

We have read of the many mule trains that made their way from the Northern mines of New Spain of the Spanish...
Has anyone ever found credible information which gave a standard of the weight each mule "did" carry, not what they "could" carry...
I realize it would depend on the mule bread but is there any documentation?

Thank you in advance...
Tuscoro

 

[BosnMate]

The US Army, I've read it, and forgotten. It's not as much as you might think. I shouldn't say because I truthfully don't remember, but my swag is 135lbs. That seems light, but it's also dead weight. The army had a mountain howitzer that was packed on three animals, and one mule carried the barrel of the gun, which weighed 224 lbs. When packing that gun, I suppose each animal was packing at least 200 lbs. When I packed mules in the southern Sierra Nevada, we packed pretty close to 200 lbs. per animal. I think the boss advertised 150 per mule, but we'd do the side load at a max of about 75 pounds each, and then throw on a top load. Anyhow, I don't know of any historical information on the weight of the loads, except for the Army manuals, which might be kind of hard to come by today.

 

[Msbeepbeep]

I'm guessing it would also have to do with terrain & distance travelled in a day, or how quick the trip had to be.

 

[notthetreasureyouseek]

The old mule im married to maxes out at the weight of her purse

 

[TheHarleyMan2]

I would say somewhere the equivilent of the average weight for a man maybe a little more. 200-250lbs I would think. Heavy loads on animals can be a slow task on movement in/on certain terrains, especially mountainous or rocky, IMO