Hello gentlemen I'm new to the forum and have a few heavy duty trucks on the road for my construction company. At this point, all of my trucks have been pre emissions trucks and it looks like that's going to have to change as it doesn't seem like I'm going to find an older decent truck. Only truck I've ever owned that had any emissions on it was an International truck with the 6 liter that ford used in there pickup trucks and it was nothing but problems. We sold that truck and replaced it with an older truck that's been trouble free. Anyways, I need a single axle tractor with an automatic transmission which is tough to find as it's going to be driven by novice cdl drivers. I also need something with decent power as it will occasionally used to pull a 15 ton trackhoe sitting on and 20 ton tag trailer that weighs roughly 5.5 tons. I've found a few nice clean used tractors on truckpaper that were 2004 to 2007 model years. A few of them had a mercedes MBE900 engine and a few with the international dt466. I really don't know anything about the mercedes engine but I know the dt466 engines were reliable engines in the pre emissions years. Is there anything I should steer clear of when it comes to emissions engines? Honestly, I'd be happy with a pre 2003 truck that had any smog stuff but that's not easy to find. I just can't afford to buy a truck and have it sit in the dealer while they try and fix it for $100 an hour. Any advice would be appreciated.
Depending on your wheelbase needs, I would check local freight haulers to see what they do with their old in-town delivery trucks.
Nothing local here. Probably want to find something sout or west as the stuff starts to get pretty rusty after 5 years.
Yeah, I forgot about the salt. I am in AK and get quite a bit of snow, but the DOT just plows and uses very little chemicals considering how much we get.
Ex motor freight and beverage delivery tractors would fit the bill if you have the tools and the ability to do the work.