I am looking for an older dump truck around the 10K range +,- in decent shape. I looked at 1990 Freightliner (FLC112 I think) that was originally a plow and sander truck. It still has the console for all the plows and sander controls but it's not connected. The guy lowered his price but wants $9000 and I have some concerns. I may want to get a truck safety inspected because I know a good O/O with an excavator that would rent it occasionally. I guess the seller looked into this and couldn't safety it for a few reasons, 1. The exhaust pipe is less than a 1/4" away from the right side fuel tank. It needs to be 2" away and doesn't look like there is enough room to move it. 2. The back of the left front fender has a big chunk missing in front of the fuel tank and needs to be repaired. Not too big a deal. 3. cracks on the box fenders need to be fixed. Other minor things like marker lights need to fixed, etc. The guy has had it about 4 years but moved and never used it much. It runs and drives great (60 series Detroit, 425 hp and 18sp). I asked him when he last serviced it and he never has since buying it. That's a bit of a red flag too. The other concern I have is the hydraulics on this truck. It doesn't have a PTO pump but a constant running belt driven Vickers vane pump under the hood. No electric clutch just constant running. The pump is constantly pumping/wearing and seems if something ever happened to a hose, you'd be hooped big time. The hoist cylinder is new and works fine but the valve has a slight leak that can probably be fixed pretty easily. For my needs I don't need a truck to be registered as I'll just use it on my land. I could offer say $8000 for this truck take it or leave it or should I run away from it and look at a more conventional dump truck that would be easier to safety for a few K more that I could rent out to recoup some of the cost? Thanks in advance for your opinions.
You're not going to get a sweet road ready truck for 10K yeah? Sounds like a good deal to me, just needs some love. I wouldn't worry about the pump setup too much, if it goes South, replace it with a clutch pump and carry on, they're cheaper than a PTO setup to replace I think and available off the shelf. I'd take a hard look at the suspension and frame, kingpins, etc., and go for it. You could part it for more than he's asking I think pretty easy if it came to that. :my2c
I could get something road worthy for around 12K maybe less. I got a response about a 1989 Western Star that has 438,000kms. It passed safety Oct. 2015 but was never used because there is something wrong with the Series 60 electronic engine control module. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. The truck has no power like it's only running on 4 cylinders sometimes and other times it works fine. A bunch of money was spent on it trying to find the problem and a couple mechanics have said a new electronic control for about $1000 would fix it. It's a very clean truck. I could get it for what the guy has in it, $10,000. I want to do some looking into this problem because 438,000kms is barely past break in. Here's the ad. It is a 1989 though and not a 1987. It has a new hoist cylinder, really good box and 75% tires. Just need to find out more about the engine control. http://www.kijiji.ca/v-view-details.html?adId=1167651833 Here's the first truck. http://www.kijiji.ca/v-heavy-trucks...ed/1203784875?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true