obscure mechanic question

[Laffs]

Medium duty repairs are a crazy jump from light duty stuff in my experience. We have several 4300 Durastars we run in our fleet, the first time I got a bill for "routine" repairs my eyes nearly came out of my head.

Hammerhead makes a salient point. Know what running these trucks costs you versus outsourcing so you can make a complete decision. We know that our 18t boom truck costs us about a $70/hr premium over outsourcing to a crane company. However we can justify this through the prevented downtime. Each hour that a crew spends idle waiting for a boom to arrive to bring up forgotten materials and equipment also has a cost.

[Quicksilver]

needs a restock lol


also on a similar note. if you have told your employed the required maintenance schedule and assured them of the importance of it and clarified with them that it is in their job description to ensure said truck gets its required maintenance. it is STILL not safe to assume the required maintenance is getting done

I know this first hand. 4 years ago I hired a crew who had worked for me for 20 years, then went out on his own for 10 years. I hired him on the spot, and when his truck blew I made a deal for him to use my 2005 F-150 pickup. Every couple months I checked with him about oil changes. He smiled and said yes, he did it, every 8000 km. halfway through the second season, the rear axle, front bushings, and brakes seized up. On the hoist, my mechanic determined that the truck hadn't been serviced AT ALL. HE just kept adding oil. The rear axle was dry. The brakes were metal to metal. Cost me $3000 to fix, but the truck was never the same afterward. Oddly, the carpenter got seriously sick the day before he gave back the truck and quit. I was stuck with the bill.

As far as bureaucracy goes, We had to get yellow inspection stickers on our BRAND NEW F-250 trucks. Brand new!!

[5.4MarkVIII]

got a call from the mechanic today. still waiting on parts but has a quote finally now that he has heard back from Carrier.

front rotors. front pads, rear. drums. rear shoes, rear adjustors. rear actuators. 3 coolent hoses. with labour

should be about TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS...………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………......

[83 5.0]

got a call from the mechanic today. still waiting on parts but has a quote finally now that he has heard back from Carrier.

front rotors. front pads, rear. drums. rear shoes, rear adjustors. rear actuators. 3 coolent hoses. with labour

should be about TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS...………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………......

Ouch, my sons father in law runs a landscape business, and opted for a dump trailer to be pulled by his Dodge diesel pick up, instead of repairing his Isuzi 2 ton dump truck. His last repair estimate was about $7000 doing the work himself.
You could buy a decent enclosed trailer for less than $10 grand

[Laffs]

Ouch, my sons father in law runs a landscape business, and opted for a dump trailer to be pulled by his Dodge diesel pick up, instead of repairing his Isuzi 2 ton dump truck. His last repair estimate was about $7000 doing the work himself.
You could buy a decent enclosed trailer for less than $10 grand

Still other associated costs with that. Accelerated wear on truck, having to get yellows on both, maneuvering sucks, plus you basically need a 3/4T minimum truck which is costly to maintain over a 1/2T. But ya, we seriously considered replacing our 5T dumps with trailers until we realized we'd need diesel 3/4 tonne trucks at minimum to pull that weight, even then off a bumper is sketch so gooseneck is the only option. Then finding guys to drive em is harder, and our guys hit stuff in basic trucks without trailers, and theft is a concern. Frick its never easy.

Op if it makes you feel better, we just got hit for 4k on an ABS module in one of the Durastars. Picked it up today and get it back to the yard, she's low ridin...blew a rear air bag line.

[5.4MarkVIII]

yeah we used to run pick up and trailer and every time we hired a new delivery guy id have to teach them how to drive. and usually end up with damage from jack knifes or backing into shit.

its my own fault I got complacent and assumed he was ensuring proper maintenance and wasn't driving the truck every now and then to make sure everything was okay. what should have been caught a long time ago turned into a huge problem.

stuck with, if I don't fix it its worth nothing (still owe about 14k on the truck) if I do fix it I could sell it and break even or run it for a couple more years until its payed off and then decide what to do.

problem we have with alot of the new stuff is we need the extra height. for the fridges and stacker washers. they don't fit in a standard cube fan like our old chev. to get the extra height its a medium duty box truck like the izuzu or step up into a sterling or freightliner but then its even more money for purchase and repairs. or back into a custom trailer and deal with the constant cosmetic repairs cuz people cant drive.

[Laffs]

FWIW besides the above noted brake module and air line our late model (13+) Durastars have been very good trucks. DO NOT get the Maxxforce motors, find one with a Cummins and the Allison. I have been getting ours out of North Carolina, former Penske trucks. They have higher miles but loads of service records and even a warranty in some cases (that is border transferable). Also they come super super clean and detailed, and they'll ship them for free to the nearest stateside International used truck dealer. Options there to find the something that can be G licensed are wayyyyyy better than on this side.

We have a Freightliner boom truck, the M2 would be the medium chassis. Initially I wanted that but I struggled to find one that was 11000kg registered and juice brakes. Sterling I wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole. If I wanted to go more beefy I'd spec a Paccar (Pete or KW) truck but those things are all the money.

Have you looked at high roof vans? We have a couple LWB High Roof Ram Promasters, excellent fuel economy and honestly a shocking amount of space inside. Price is right too.

[5.4MarkVIII]

High roof vans aren’t big enough. Some days the 20 ft box truck is barly big enough. Lol

[Laffs]

Got it. Our 5T cubes are 26ft cells. Air ride with lift gate.

[5.4MarkVIII]

How’s your luck with the lift gates? I’ve heard horror stories from other appliance guys about them. Either dumping stuff off or malfunctioning and leaving anything in the box inaccessible. So I avoaided them with this truck. But the ramp is too short for the height of the truck so in slippery weather it can be difficult to load and unload.