Would you buy a 30 year old truck with 51 miles on it?

[QRTRHRS]

I would at least make a bid. Never know if you don't try. Set a limit, stop there. Back around 2000, I bought a ~70 IH dump that had sat outside awhile though it had about 50k on it. An old municipal truck, it had a 345/5sp/2sp rear/air brakes/10' plow/manual steering. Talk about a bear to steer with the plow on! Anyway, it started up to load onto my trailer to haul it home to my farm where I used it, never on the road. Only thing I had to do was to rebuild the carb. The air brakes were fine. Though I had plated it with farm tags, the only time I actually took it out on the road was to deliver it to the person I sold it to.

 

[Norm W]

I went to an auction to look at some old trucks they had. There was a '76 White Road Commander up for bid. It was dirty, with dust from storage. It had been kept in a warehouse and started only enough to move it around in different parts of the building. The owner had died, he was in the machine tool business and had purchased the truck to deliver the machines. It had a 6V92 Detroit idleing, that was blowing oil out the breather. I got it for scrap value. It had new batteries and 90 gallons of Diesel in the tanks. I checked it for brakes and steering. Put a dealer plate on it and drove it 50 miles home. By the time I got five miles the smoke had stopped. Made it home with no problems. With a complete check over, new fluids, new tires and a good cleaning, it has been running and doing what I've needed for the last eight years. The truck you are looking at is newer, with way less miles. Parts for class 8 vehicles are available and most would be maintenance items anyway. If you don't treat it like a rented mule it should be a good truck. If it is set up as a tractor, I would not convert it to a dump truck. Trailers allow you to haul equipment on flatbed, dirt etc. on dump trailers etc. Why limit what you can do?

 

[s219]

I recently bought a classic car and learned a lot shopping over a couple years. At some point age matters more than mileage (high or low). Low mileage is beneficial for some parts of the vehicle but detrimental to many mechanical systems. The things that suffer are widespread and can come back to haunt you and nickel and dime you to death. Think 10 cent seals that require tons of labor to replace. I had to pass up quite a few low mileage cars that were in nice cosmetic shape but had barely been driven in the last 10-20 years. Too risky.

Now, if it's a special concours car owned by a pro collector and they know how to run and maintain it to keep low mileage, then fine, but very few cars fall into this category. The rest of them are considered to be in a state of neglect. A vehicle with 51 miles in 28 years is risky in my opinion. It may be that an International 4900 is a little more robust than the typical classic car, but it's still got mechanical systems with belts, seals, bushings, bearings, etc. All that stuff doesn't take kindly to sitting around in a state of disuse or neglect.

Is the VIN 1HTSJPCR1PH509232 ? If so, that looks to be in great shape, but there are a lot of hidden things that could come back to haunt you. I might take a chance for local / non-commercial use where you can tolerate some risk. And definitely be realistic and budget $5-10K for repairs, refurbs, and deferred maintenance. It would be highly unlikely for this truck to be turnkey and trouble free.

 

[billypumper]

I own a 25 year old half ton Ford, keep up maintenance on it, but things still arise, 124,000 miles, if it has hydraulic brakes, the fluid back then is corrosive and probably has eaten through the steel brake lines and the rubber connectors from steel to steel are shot, the brake cylinder is probably done too, if it's gas the fuel tank is probably on the verge of rusting through too. Replacing all the brake lines will be costly, new fluid is synthetic, brake lines will be intact until you hit the brakes then pedal will drop to the floor, you will run into a lot of issues, some you might put off but some will need to be addressed immediately

 

[K Arno]

All the rubber bits have perished by now. How hard will it be to find parts for this? Willing to make what you can't buy? Fun project for someone with deep pockets.

 

[Hay Dude]

I recently bought a classic car and learned a lot shopping over a couple years. At some point age matters more than mileage (high or low). Low mileage is beneficial for some parts of the vehicle but detrimental to many mechanical systems. The things that suffer are widespread and can come back to haunt you and nickel and dime you to death. Think 10 cent seals that require tons of labor to replace. I had to pass up quite a few low mileage cars that were in nice cosmetic shape but had barely been driven in the last 10-20 years. Too risky.

Now, if it's a special concours car owned by a pro collector and they know how to run and maintain it to keep low mileage, then fine, but very few cars fall into this category. The rest of them are considered to be in a state of neglect. A vehicle with 51 miles in 28 years is risky in my opinion. It may be that an International 4900 is a little more robust than the typical classic car, but it's still got mechanical systems with belts, seals, bushings, bearings, etc. All that stuff doesn't take kindly to sitting around in a state of disuse or neglect.

Is the VIN 1HTSJPCR1PH509232 ? If so, that looks to be in great shape, but there are a lot of hidden things that could come back to haunt you. I might take a chance for local / non-commercial use where you can tolerate some risk. And definitely be realistic and budget $5-10K for repairs, refurbs, and deferred maintenance. It would be highly unlikely for this truck to be turnkey and trouble free.

It would definitely be used for commercial/farm work and would have to be road worthy. I keep thinking of some kind of big time failure down the road, so I will participate but will back off at 5 figures. As was said by Citydude, someone will be awed by the low miles, not realizing what all has been discussed here.
All 10 tires have 100% tread, but are all dry rotted and require replacement. That alone is $5,000-$6,000. Then we have to figure on changing all fluids from all reservoirs and their corresponding filters. Thats another $500+ doing the work myself. Then we get into the unknowns (seals, gaskets, belts, brake chambers, pads, etc).
If that truck were being sold with a “normal” range of miles, it would sell for about $25,000. Thats just a chassis. It has no bed/body on it.
If I subtract all the cost of tires, fluids and throw in another $2,000 for “incidentals”, we are pushing $10,000. I also have to ship it 750 miles or go get it with my truck & trailer. Also theres auctioneers fee.
So roughly $25,000-$10,000-$2,000-$1,000 is about $12,000.
I’d probably bid $8-10,000 and thats about it.
Its not configured exactly how I want, so I will drop out on the low side. It’ll probably end up someone elses truck.

 

[Hay Dude]

All the rubber bits have perished by now. How hard will it be to find parts for this? Willing to make what you can't buy? Fun project for someone with deep pockets.

I looked at the engine compartment and all the belts and hoses are fine. I listened to it run via phone/video and it sounds just like the DT466‘s Ive owned in the past, but theres probably some seals we cant see that are iffy.

 

[EONE]

Like I said we have a 30 year old truck....1993.... It's been used, but spends most of the time indoors sitting. Never had any issues. Hoses are original, Just changed a a quick release valve and a couple air hoses for the first time last year.....and we are in western ny with bad winters and salty roads..... I think the truck with 50 miles on it would be just fine..Whats the difference from a 30 yo truck running 17,000 miles and one that never got used. A lot would depend on the storage area's climate but I doudt it has real issues. Lots of trucks older than 25 years running all the time with few issues. 50 miles??.....I'd buy it. Run it and see what happens. I bet it's fine.

 

[Jstpssng]

I don’t understand why some of the items mentioned such as bushings would be in any worse shape than a 1997 truck which has been used all of those years. Sure, it might need some maintenance but if it’s been inside then the hard items should still be good.
We might have to all pitch in and ensure that the OP wins the bid, just so we can see how it turns out.

 

[Fielding]

Other than the old truck being a rolling oil leak from dried up seals, lets say all the rest worked.

It will eat more fuel than two new ones. At current fuel prices the operational cost difference could be put towards a newer one. Also just like tractors the newer trucks are generally much more productive at the tasks.

If you can get it cheap enough it may make sense.

The funny part is a 30year old truck is a 93’