Need a bigger truck, up to 26k

[hrcarver]

I need a bigger truck. I have a chevy 3500 dump and its not enough anymore. Recommendations for trucks to 26k gwvr? I would like a dump flat bed. Looking to tow up to 14k with a bed full of fertilizer pallets. Chevy doesn't hardly want to go with 3 pallets and no trailer.

Anyone have any midsize trucks they like?

 

[Heavyduty]

I like the F-800 with the 8.3 Cummins or the Int 4600-4700 with the 466 engine. If you look around you should be able to find a good deal on a 1998-2003 models.

 

[schmism]

thats FL-70 range

or Topkick C6500/7500

Plenty of options out there for either one from 5-10 years old.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Late last fall we picked up an old Ford F-700 with 429 Lima engine, 5 speed split axle 16' wood dump with twin cylinder hoist for $2800 that turned out to be a solid old farm truck. There was a lot of nice newer stuff on Ebay in the $10K-$20K range I remember but since this truck will not be licensed so as it can pay its keep I had to keep upfront cost low for "family" reasons.

I think it is rated at 23,001 pounds total. At this age I stayed away from diesel but did look at some that I am sure would have been OK but I do not know diesel truck engines and plan to keep this truck for 20 years I hope.

 

[hrcarver]

Thanks for the direction, I really had no idea where to start looking.

One more question, do these trucks tend to run as long their larger cousins? Most road tractors are good for 500,000 easy with 1,000,000 miles being a very reasonable target. I'm trying to stay between good use left in it, and a little money left in the bank. Any pointers on picking one out?

 

[rpirkle1]

Longevity is going to be a function of finding one that's been reasonably well cared for.

The chassis mentioned (especially the F700, Navistar and C60/6500) are used in a lot of school bus chassis getting a lot of road miles but a lot of maintenance too.

Still see a fair number of all of them(trucks & buses) from the 1960's models on up so they hold up OK

 

[Gale Hawkins]

hrcarver what and for how far are you going to be hauling? How many miles for this use do you expect to put on each year.

Our F-700 will run 65+ MPH and made the 300 mile trip home back over Mount Eagle without a blip and can set for a couple months and will fire right off and head out on the run. It does take a lot of breaks to eat however.

Navistar was mention and in just north of Memphis (covington,tn) at dealer had a 2000 that looked new like for under $10K and it had the mentioned engine in an automatic (allison?). It had a new like 10-12' steel flat bed.

Go to E-bay and figure out what you want search on and do it once a day using Most Recent Listed option to scan what is out there. In time you will find them in driving range to look at.

Companies trade up after 8-10 years for many reasons but if you are not going to load them to the gills and run them 500 miles a day six days a week they may last another 20-30 years. I see nice 50 year old farm trucks on the road around here all of the time. Some look new like and some are red like rust due to the paint being gone.

 

[some zilch]

Thanks for the direction, I really had no idea where to start looking.

One more question, do these trucks tend to run as long their larger cousins? Most road tractors are good for 500,000 easy with 1,000,000 miles being a very reasonable target. I'm trying to stay between good use left in it, and a little money left in the bank. Any pointers on picking one out?

in general, no. i was just really close to buying an IH 4900 single axle semi truck, to pull my equipment trailer. i was told by the company that used to own it (coke), two local IH truck dealers, and several service techs that 300kmi is really pushing it on the 466 engine. i was actually surprised by that, but they all cant be wrong. i thought a 466 was on par w/a 5.9 cummins, but i was wrong. i was kind of disappointed in hearing this, as i really liked the truck.
another popular engine in this class of truck is the 3116/3126 kitty cat. they are super expensive to fix, but according to cat the 3126 has a 350kmi life span. the 3116 was popular, but not a *great* engine. once you start getting into the bigger cats, i feel they become much more reliable longterm.

in general, most of the "medium duty" trucks are not going to run 500kmi, much less 1million. they just arent built to the same longterm quality standards a class 8 semi truck is. yes, you can get alot of miles out of them oif taken care of, and they can do just about everything better than a pickup-based truck, but you not going to get 500kmi out of it usually.

 

[hrcarver]

hrcarver what and for how far are you going to be hauling? How many miles for this use do you expect to put on each year.

Our F-700 will run 65+ MPH and made the 300 mile trip home back over Mount Eagle without a blip and can set for a couple months and will fire right off and head out on the run. It does take a lot of breaks to eat however.

Navistar was mention and in just north of Memphis (covington,tn) at dealer had a 2000 that looked new like for under $10K and it had the mentioned engine in an automatic (allison?). It had a new like 10-12' steel flat bed.

Go to E-bay and figure out what you want search on and do it once a day using Most Recent Listed option to scan what is out there. In time you will find them in driving range to look at.

Companies trade up after 8-10 years for many reasons but if you are not going to load them to the gills and run them 500 miles a day six days a week they may last another 20-30 years. I see nice 50 year old farm trucks on the road around here all of the time. Some look new like and some are red like rust due to the paint being gone.

I will load it(turf(sod), fertilizer, tractors, and multiple implements), but probably only run 10-12k miles a year on it. Day trips only, usually less than 100 miles. Maybe twice a week.

 

[salopez]

Also are you looking to stay under CDL by looking at a 26k lbs truck? in most states you are already in class A territory due to the 14k lbs trailer. if thats not the case in NC you need to keep under 26k Gross combined wieght. That puts you in a 12k lbs truck or what you already have....so why not just get a truck that can handle all you need? something in the 36-40k lbs truck and call it done.