I am purchasing a 2000 freightliner fl70 single axle dump tomorrow for 20k and want input pros or cons. The truck has 41k original miles and was never used to plow or sand. Dump body is in excellent condition with the exception of underside needing paint due to peeling. Has a cat 3126 engine with 300hp mated to an 8ll tranny. Brand new tires not recaps along with brand new brakes. Truck also has working A/C as well. Does this sound like a decent deal? I did notice when the truck first started and was running, I pulled the oil fill plug on top of head and had a very small small amount of blowby. Heard if you run the oil low this happens but wanted some advice before I pull the trigger. Thanks in advance.
See this post: HeavyEquipmentForums It might still be worth it, though. Just go into it with eyes wide open that that motor could let go at any moment, or it can run a long time. Those motors do tend to smoke a lot from the crankcase "normally".
Air brakes or Hyd brakes? I wouldnt own a truck that size unless it had air brakes. :my2c
Air brakes..... I read the C7's are less reliable than the 3126's but I guess time will tell.... I will obviously go overkill on oil changes and fuel and air filters just because I believe a pound of maintenance is better than a ton of breakdowns.
Well....luck has it... Had the truck for about 3 weeks... Did an oil change and found a valve adjustment bolt in the oil pan. Guess it fell down there at some point because there wasn't one missing when I pulled the valve cover..... Was backing the trailer and skid steer down a driveway and started hearing a loud ticking..... Well it got worse and then BAM....something let go. I pulled the valve cover to find a pushrod had decided it didn't want to stay put.... I dug it out and it was unbent and un damaged.... The cam follower looked DESTROYED though when I looked down where the pushrod sits.... At the shop now just waiting... Oh ya. And truck has 42k miles on it.
Sorry for your troubles. It sucks when you spend big money and get this as the result.
You say it has only that many miles on it, which is absolutely nothing for miles, BUT how many hrs are on the clock ??? We just purchased an '05 Pete 330 Tanker for our local VFD, with air-brakes and the C-7 Cat ….it only had 21,000 miles on it BUT the hr meter showed just under 7,000 engine hrs …….. We had the truck totally checked out by the near by KW dealer (who also did the MVI on it) before the purchase, to keep a no conflict issue from happening …….. Sounds like a case of Crap happens …….. in the trucking world it happens all the time ….. sorry to hear that it did.
Not positive on the engine hours..... It's a single axle dump that was used to pull a backhoe for a guy that built homes. I can't imagine it sat and idled all that much... He also worked within a 30 mile radius of his home. The truck only had a few thousand put on every year. I spoke with the original owner who sold the truck to the guy I bought it from. He stated the only trouble he ever had with that truck was an occasional fuel filter issue. I REALLY hope this engine isn't destroyed but if it is.... A CAT will not be going in its place. 8.3 ISC was an option in those trucks. Pretty sure I can swap it out with no issues.
Got the word back from mechanic..... the truck ate a cam follower and in turn took out the cam. Must have been a problem in the works fkr a while because one cam lobe was pretty "ground up"... Cat says $1300 for a cam... $740 for a reman and an additional $435 core... they said since my core is junk I'm better with new. Well the hell with that. Found a salvage yard in Lunenberg that has them for $300. So for $650 in parts and an additional $1300 in labor I'm hoping to be back on track. Anyone ever deal with P&S salvage?