I am looking at purchasing a 2000 379 Pete dump truck. It has a C12 with a 10spd. It was a former fleet truck and they put a brand new 15' dump bed on it. 12k front and 40k rears. It is not local but I had a trusted mechanic who has done work for me in the past look it over today and he said it looked mechanically sound. Truck has 680k miles and price is 38k. Thoughts?
Ive never liked ten speeds. A 12.5 9 or a 12.5 13 speed are the best trans. they have a low geared first and reverse. and strong enough to hold up.
12k front is lite, it's on air ride thats a problem when dumping and off road did they at least double frame it when installed dump bed. you would be better off with a real factory built dump truck for that kind of money you could find a pretty good one.
I agree. I would be most interested in how heavy the frame is and suspension. What type of air suspension compensating features does it have for dumping.
Eh, if you don't ever tow a pup with it, and live in fairly flat country, that big CAT with a ten speed should do okay. I drove a KW with a 3406B @ 450Hp with a 13 speed pulling a transfer trailer, grossed out to 101,500, some of our passes it was 24 mph up and 27 down, riding the jake. My only criticism would be the size of the box for the front axle and suspension, it's already setting low and it's empty. Without a drop axle to help support the load you'll be overweight before you get half a load in it.
Thanks for the replies. This will be my first "big" truck so I am a newbie at this. I have had a couple international 26k GVW trucks but nothing full size. It is flat as a pancake here. No hills to worry about. The only thing I might tow behind it would be my skid steer or backhoe both of which are under 10,000 lbs. I guess I will keep looking. I was actually thinking of getting a single axle dump but I think I would be disappointed with the capacity. We are currently using a gooseneck dump trailer behind a pickup and hauling 5 yards of dirt and 4 yards of gravel at a time are a drag. The job we are currently working on if it ever stops raining requires about 80 yards of topsoil and that is a lot of trips. We do gravel driveways for people and the two closest gravel pits are 25 and 40 miles away so making multiple trips is no fun. This truck I pictured should be able to haul close to 15 tons shouldn't it? If I could haul 15 yards of dirt or 10-11 yards of gravel at a time it would be great.
As a one man show, I did more than 5000 yards of gravel last year with one trucking company, and have a list of haulers as long as my arm. It's hard enough to keep up on machine maintenance let alone a truck. My advice is to let the truckers do the hauling and charge accordingly.
Around here, that would be a good truck, just a little light on power. They let us gross 54000 with that legally. It does have its own sub frame, so no worries about a double frame.
It seems to be the opposite here. Not a whole lot of haulers here and the ones that are here seem to be busy with commercial projects and don't want to fool with little things. Most of them also have end dumps or belly dump trailers and not dump trucks so they have difficulty getting to many areas and they don't want to haul less than 21 yards or whatever it is those big trucks carry. My thoughts in buying the dump truck is not only for my use but to also do contract hauling for others. There seems to be a niche market here for the small stuff.
TBH I wouldn't even consider an air ride rear end for a dump truck, especially one that is going to be on and off construction sites all the time.
Too bad...I have 10 wheelers, triaxles, truck and pups, end and belly dumps just a call away. I rarely do a job 10 yards or less since I'm allergic to work in town. They're usually 40 yards or more. If you can make it work....Go for it!
For how lightly your going to use it it will be just fine. Make sure it has a dump valve for the susp or put one in. You gotta ditch those pizza cutter steer tires. Go with some 385's Get some blocks under the springs and add a few leafs to the pack. Run the 12k ft till she wobbles out but be on the lookout for a 18-20k setup. What are the rear gears and tire size? The pete air trac is the best air ride for off road. Your not going to go bajaing or stump climbing like a camelback or hendrickson but air ride is the new norm around here. They have the jobs set up for it nowadays. The only bad thing about the dump bed is that it has crossmembers. When the floor gets hammered everything sticks.
I am in no way set on having to get this truck. It is almost 400 miles from me in the Houston area. I am willing to get anything in Texas, Oklahoma, NM. All are about the same distance to me. What would be better choice in the sub 40k range? Seems like everything I see in that price range on truck paper is either 20+ years old, beat up, bazillions of miles, or conversions like this one.
JNB, I am just about 7 miles down the road from you, in Denton. We can never find dump trucks when we need them. Seems like all the trucks are busy hauling asphalt and dirt for the highway projects. Got tired of waiting on trucks, so now we own two. We can haul when we want to, not when the trucker wants to. bdog1234, I think you can do better. I have been shopping in generally the same area as you are. A good truck is hard to find at a fair price. It took us 2 months of steady looking, to find out first dump, and 3 months to find the one I just bought last month. I found both of ours on Craigslist. I will guarantee you that if a dump truck is for sale by a dealer in your search area, it is going to be way overpriced. We gave $8500 for a 1996 Kodiak 10 wheeler with a 17' bed. It looked like heck, but has hauled day in and day out with no problems for the last 10 months. I have under $20,000 in a Freightliner FDL120 tractor and old Hobbs end dump trailer. Again, old, but not pretty when I bought them. That old 18 wheeler hauls just fine too. On Craigslist use the search words "dump truck", search "all" and search only "by owner" listings. Use the website www.searchtempest.com I bet you will find 10-15 dump trucks listed in you search area that are better and cheaper than that one. Jeff
truck is way overpriced for my liking ,try to stay 05 and older ,if you buy newer you are just buying problem with the emission junk on the engine .I run old hwy trucks for dump trucks and tractors for hauling end dump,belly dump and live bottoms ,I only buy air ride now ,last one was a 92 International 9400 ,put heavier front springs in them and wider tires ,315's would be big enough for a 12k front ,make sure you dump the air when dump the load ,they will sometimes rip the shocks of with the high pressure in the bags and no load.
I have a fair bit of time in dump trucks. I would never own one that didnt have air ride. Pete suspension has a horrible antisquat so i certainly wouldnt call it 'the best' for anything but it is miles better then any leaf or rubber block suspension.
The availability of others to haul (either trucking-in or roll off boxes to go off the job) is pretty good around here, so we started with a single axle (way less overhead costs too) and have kept that idea going. The gravel company uses air ride but they have cross lockers on the diffs, in their world it is all about the tare weight and we appreciate the larger payload. My friend has a big dumping fifth wheel for use his late model GMC pickup, and he can almost haul about 2/3 as much as we can with our single axle, but I predict the cost per mile capital outlay on that pickup will far exceed my cost per mile with our single axle. He rides in great comfort in his newer pickup while I ride in the dump truck which we keep fixed up nicely with no goofiness, no holes in upholstery, no loose wires, has matching floor mats, painted up and touched up etc etc.