I am looking a a local truck to rebuild. Guy has a 96 Pete 357. Only has a 3306 and 9 speed. Runs drives and such, would take 5k for it. I have some parts looking to upgrade to a tri axle dump 90% for pulling equipment around. In Michigan we go off axle weight, so I would like the shortest truck as long as I have 9’ between steer and drop axle I’m good. This truck fits the bill. I need the set back front axle to get as close to 18k on it as possible. I also have a 20k front end out of a newer 357, and a buddy has a pair of 46 rears. I would like to swap in a 3046e and 13 or 18 speed trans. 14’ box, and swap axles and be good to go. Main question Pete 357 possible to swap 3306 for a 3406? Biggest reason looking at his truck is it’s a solid start, it’s the right wheel base. And it’s a good price. I just don’t want the good pricing clouding my vision of swapping things. I have some time to do it all, winter mostly, my tandem dump works fine for right now.
I looked at truck paper a little and saw some pete 357's for sale with 3406's, so it will fit. A donor truck would make everything easier especially the electronics (if it was me). If you could find one that had been rolled or rusted/ twisted frame dump truck that someone laid over, etc. You would get mounts and radiator, fittings, air to air- and all the little stuff that's hard to come up with. Do you have the engine and wiring harness sourced? The 3406e's have been going up in price pretty good by me. The 3306 is mechanical, it might be easier to go to a 3406 b. It would have to save you a lot of money over buying one already set up the way you want it, to make it make sense $ wise. And if you don't need to be working in the winter (you do it as a hobby/ when your slow). The crane's that I've repowered have all taken quite a bit of time, but were cheaper than any alternative. It takes a lot of time and running around sourcing stuff. It all takes longer than you think it will.
These types of build ups take time and more money than one thinks, especially if you haven't done any of that type of work before. One real issue that was not mentioned is the frame. If your building a rig with a 20K front and 46K rears a stout frame is a must. 3/8 with 5/16 liner or 7/16 rails. But with all this swapping of cabs and frames remember vin# and title have to match. Keep all receipts and bills of sale and have them notarized for DMV. Truck Shop
By me, the 3406e would be $4-5,000 for a good runner. The trans would be $3-4,000 (for a 18- 13's are cheaper). The rears would run $2-3,000, maybe a more for a full cut-off with suspension. Used dump boxes are $3-5,000 depending on condition, really good ones can be twice that. You can find prices cheaper if you're willing to wait a little. These would be "junkyard or craigslist" type prices, no warranties, and you really don't know what you're getting. So 5 for the truck, 10-15 for engine, trans, rears, plus $2-5,000 for all the little stuff that you may fix while you're there. Putting in a rear crank seal while its apart. New clutch before you go back together. Bigger rims for the 425's up front, maybe 325's out back so 9" rims back there. New bushings in the rears before you install it. Lights, pintle hitch, wet kit and 15 other things you won't think of until you're there. Probably end up somewhere between $15,000- $25,000 depending on how much fixing you do to stuff on the way back together. You could easily double that if you want to reman engine, trans, rears, before you go back together. If you can buy what you want for $20-$30,000 and be more productive/profitable doing something else it makes sense to just buy one. If you're pretty handy and just shove it together with used stuff you won't spend as much. I bought a day cab freightliner for about $5,000 a few years back, and put a dump truck bed on it and sold it at $14,000 and really didn't make any money on it, with all the things we fixed and the labor. But the buyer of the dump truck essentially paid my guys shop time, instead of me, while we were building it. It was just kind of filler work. But we were able to keep the same engine trans rears, just mounted the used bed and wet kit, tires, and a few little things. The last two cranes I repowered I swapped 3208's out to 8.3 cummins and I probably spent $8 (buying engine, clutch, different bellhousing, a few odds and ends and probably not figuring all our labor), and we did all the work in house. Didn't swap trans or rear ends. The one before that was a Daewoo engine for a L10, and was probably close to that in price. But it was still much cheaper than buying a different crane.
Thanks for the thoughts. Current tandem I built over a winter two years ago, but I’m spoiled with it. 3406b and 13 speed only a 13’ box and 167 wheelbase, I don’t have the room for a drop or would keep it. So I know the work in building a dump, the trans and engine swaps are more than I have done but sure I can Handle. Trucks done are selling by me for 50k+ any Pete or something that can actually pull a load or a pup. Even just a Michigan special speced trucks are 25-30k at the lowest for an autocar or something. Not a T800 or Pete. Then dump Box and such I’m pushing 50ish. The other problem is most tri axles are long 16+ feet. We can only be 57k total in a tri. So with a 16’ box you are barely over half a load. Lots of wasted space. Forgot to mention that in the first of why I want a 14’ box. Then I do tighter jobs sometimes and have a 25 ton tag trailer so i need a shorter truck more often than not.
What part of Michigan are ya from?
Metro Detroit area. I’m in north Oakland and macomb county. Just a small one sometimes two man operation. When I can find decent help.
Dump truck prices by me are all over the map. For quite a while $15-20,000 would buy a pretty decent older dump truck. Nothing pretty with dings here and there, but running/driving. Now it seems like all of a sudden running driving trucks are 30-40,000. And some really bad old cabover 5th wheel trucks they want $15,000 for. There was a 99 kw t800 c12 daycab sold the other day on purplewave auction by me that brought over $40,000. https://www.purplewave.com/auction/180823/item/DD7823 Its a nice looking truck, but that's a lot of money. There was a 97 pete daycab just last week that brought $45,000. It was at least a 3406 and 18 speed. https://www.purplewave.com/auction/180830/item/DE6344 I think everyone is trying to get as close to 2000 as they can without going over to miss the e-logs, and lower mileage ones are getting a premium.
Ya truck prices are nutty right now. Which is why this one sparked my interest. I have a working truck, I can use for now, and then sell for a decent amount afterwards. So slowly build up as I find parts. Luckily I don’t travel more than 100 miles from my home base so I don’t have to worry about an elog. Heck I would buy a newer truck if I found a good priced one.
So found some info. Truck is a 111” bbc Apparently in that set up Pete never offered a 3406, they only did in a 119” and larger. So I would assume that the 3406 will not fit in the 111” truck like this one is. Anyone agree?
I agree, Kustom Truck has a harness calculator, and show a 3406 only for the 119" hood. I am looking at a similar issue, and looks like a C12 would be a decent replacement for the 3306
I know where a running C12 is sitting. Problem is the owner wants to sell the whole truck for a lot more than it's worth. It's a rusted out NY county truck
I pulled my 379 up next to my 357 and have started looking over what required to make this swap, My plan would be to put a 3406E in the 357, pretty easy throttle linkage when it is a wire. My 357 turns out to be a 119 version, and compared to my 119 379 they look very similar. -The rear motor mounts on the 3116 look to be the same as the 3406E, but further back in the chassis, and seem to be indexed off the cab mount brackets. -The front mount will need to be sourced as the cross brace is not existant in the 3306 truck.