PG_DUMP Load

I seem to be having a problem with the pg_dump command on the Linux 2.2.x
operating system. I have found that in doing a 425MB dump via TCP/IP over a
network, I receive up to 90.00 load on the dual P2 and dual P3 servers from a
start of 0.25 or so. This is a gradule increase in load peaking up there, but
still this is completely unacceptable from a systems perspective. Why is the
load going so high? Why is this putting such stress on the system? Why
doesn't this happen on load backups (which only peak up around 1.3 or so).
The server appears unresponsive during these times and processes time out and
fail.

Has anyone else has similar problems with pg_dump 7.1.3?
--
Mike