I have been turing wrenches for 24 years. Most of that in a truck. Most all have been 33,000 G.V.W. So a couple of years ago I went to work for my local Case dealer. They gave me a 2008 Ford F-350 with a Douglas bed and a 3200 lbs Auto Crane electric crane. I do work on alot of skid steers and backhoes but we have 8 yard loaders and 150,000 pound excavators also. The proplem is there is not near enough room. I proposed a 26,00 G.V.W with an 11' foot bed and a 10k hyd crane and compresser. They weren't crazy over on the price. The rest of the branches have been buying Dodge 5500 with the Summit 11' bed, 4k electric miller 250 welder. The guys I have talked to that have them say they are already over loaded. I would like to get some more insite on this so I can plead my case for the additional price. That price differance is about $43,000.00. I know thats alot of money but so is $120,000 and you dont have enough G.V.W to haul a bucket. Please let me know you thoughts............Jim
Not allowed to edit my post. Meant to say 4000 pound elcertic crane.
My current service truck at work is a 3500 ram 4x4, long frame with a platform behind the cab that has a miller 251, reading utility body, large IR air compressor, 3200# hyd crane. It carries 5 tanks of gasses for welding, loaded with major tools and test equipment. It's weight is 1700+ pounds over without me in the cab. I am hoping the next one will be 26.000# service truck that also has 4x4. But it will be at least 5 yrs down the road since it's a 2000 with only 25,300 miles on it now. It was a shock to go from a C60, C65, 6000,7000 Chevy/GMC two ton trucks with the 5-6,000 pound crane and a lot more storage. Bigger is not always better and I like the ride, feels like a low rider with flat tires going down the road when I take it out of the shop for a service call or a special needs project. I would keep talking to the owners/ service manager and maybe swap trucks with another tech at a different location. Years ago we would swap trucks with other sites to upgrade. There are lots of used service trucks at good prices out there that could be a good bang for the buck.
buy a good used truck
I agree that a 26k gvw truck is about perfect for the type of work you do. I also agree the 5500 series trucks are to small and get overloaded instantly. I will also say that a new 26k truck has the lower cost per hour, however it's cash flow cost is higher initially. My two bits.....TIO
I have a story that might help you sell the concept to your boss. An area gravel mine has a fleet of dump trucks and flatbeds. There's a rest area on the closest interstate where DOT sets up frequently to do roadside inspections. A friend of mine was a mechanic there and was sent to the rest area in the company service truck to repair a deadlined truck. The first thing DOT did was have him run across the scales. Now the company had two deadlined trucks sitting in the rest area! They had to send a third truck in to offload the mechanic's truck so he could leave after he made the repairs. That day cost them quite a bit of money. A few episodes like that would offset that cost difference in trucks between fines and down time, plus put your mind at ease about being legal.
Every one I know that has 550 size truck is over weight. We got a used kW with 160,000 miles and a brand new bed and crane. Paid about $90,000 for it. It's a 33,000 gvw 11 foot bed and it's to small.
A month or two ago one of our local taxi crane companies had two service trucks both F350s grossly overloaded with rigging, etc, setting in the scale for most of the day while the crane went merrily up the road to the shop 25 miles away. It's not going to get any easier in the scales either. I asked one of the rigging crew that frequents the coffee shop why they didn't throw enough rigging onto one of them to get the other out of impound, He replied "Now you sound like our ***king boss. He asked the same thing."
The only reason the 5500 isn't overloaded is it's not real mechanics truck. I have more hand tools in my 36" montezuma box. With some spare parts, a few specialized tools, and 400 gallons of diesel, the truck is ~18k with me sitting in it. That's with no crane or crane bracing on the box.