Hello, Could someone give me a idea what would be a better dump truck between 1988 Mack R model and 1995 Ford Lyl your help will be really appreciated since I'm new trying to get into this type of work thanks so much your experience suggestions have a good day
One big thing would be which one is easiest to get parts for. Between those to its almost applies and oranges kind of thing they are so different.
Thanks so much you right about parts , so I'm kind confused orange Ford it's better or mack white? Sorry I didn't fully understood
The mack truck has a really tall bed, if you don't have big equipment, it will be hard to load with a mini excavator or a skid loader. I'd be more interested to know what engine transmission and rears gear ratio are in each truck.
These two trucks about all they have in common is there both dump trucks. Nothing wrong with a Mack but it may be built of all Mack parts were the other truck is built of parts that are generic what 90% of all trucks are built from.
Also would probably help to know what you would be expecting to be hauling. That Mack looks like it was setup for some light material with that tall sided body!
I have a 2007 Kenworth T800 which has only a 430hp Cat motor. I wouldn't want anything with less HP. The high sides won't work to get loaded easily unless you specifically want that. I wanted high sides which is what I got, but I knew I was going to install a highlift gate that allows me to load and unload that way and drive equipment up into it. High sides allow the highlift gate to rise higher up so the excavator can reach in. Adding a highlift gate though is expensive. I got the truck cheap though. I would get the red truck. Maybe look for a Kenworth. Newer is better.
Out of the 2 for me it would be the Ford. Them ltls are my favorite. Or are we to base this off practically and not feelings
Your sides aren’t near as tall as that Mack. If you look at your sides, they are top of the door /window height. That Mack is clear above the cab, probably taller than your headache rack.
Yeah I know. That's why I suggested the red truck to him.
The ford should have a better front axle and possibly cheaper parts, it also looks better to customers which matters sometimes l. The mack r is a tried and true heavy truck.
BOTH are getting tough to get parts for, especially the Ford. Both are steel cabs and more than likely full of Rot. Neither one IMO.
Mack looks like and aluminum box as well. Good for hauling potatoes if you are into that.
The Mack looks like a Pennsylvania coal body.
Have read the LTL's don't have a very sharp turning radius compared to the L9000's. Could be important for a dump truck. They were better for a highway tractor. Having said that I think I read Macks don't turn as sharp to the right. Engine and trans. are important things to consider as are axle ratings. The Ford has a tarp if that's required in your area but also looks like it hit something pretty substantial to not only damage the grill but also buckle the bumper. What are the asking prices of each and the mileage? Are there any maintenance records or parts receipts? I agree loading could be a pain with the Mack and also easy to overload if you're not paying attention or trying to save time by taking fewer loads.
You may wanna consider that many parts for the Ford are obsolete/ unavailable, and the ones that are available are obscenely priced. Had a minor incident with out LTL9000 over 15 years ago. Bent the arm between the spindle/ knuckle and the tie rod. Completely unavailable new. Found a used one. Had vent window hinge rot out. Again, unavailable new. Finally found used. Ever since freightliner took over the big old Ford stuff, prices appear to have skyrocketed, and that was before COVID.
I hope I won't need any Ford specific parts for my 94 L9000. There is a big truck wrecker close to my property that I think has at least 1 Ford plow truck similar to mine. My truck is pretty heavy duty including dual steering boxes. That could be a good thing or a bad thing.
When considering buying a older truck--you have three choices, Pete, KW or Freightliner. When Volvo took over Mack it narrowed the options, plus cut available parts for older units. Freightliner controls about 37.5% of the market, PacCar 33% split between Pete & KW. So the Rest is divided among what's left, and can't compete on the scale of the big three. Mack has 518 dealers to Freightliners 446 but Volvo/Mack will give out a shingle to just about any large shop to try inroads in the Freightliner/PacCar kingdom. Most of those Mack dealers such as the ones in this area have a extremely small parts inventory. Graff below shows who the players are. * https://www.statista.com/statistics/274937/market-share-of-truck-manufacturers-in-the-united-states/
Welcome to the Forums PG! Glad to have you. First and most important questions - What do you plan to do with it? Contract haul stone, asphalt, sand, ect? Haul by the hour in construction? Haul your own equipment and materials?
To me an LTL was just a fancier Louisville with a longer hood. Like a K car and a dodge Daytona
We have a local concrete plant and a different local quarry/ dirt contractor that run a lot of older Mack’s. The dealer calls them looking for older parts. Supposedly the Mack man in Fayetteville is better with the older parts, but I’ve not used them.
LTL is the fancy version with longer hood and larger turn radius. Not the best combination for a dump truck if working off road. That's another consideration. I've heard air suspension sucks, when I was looking for a dump truck, for off road and you could get stuck on a banana peel. Also the air bags tend to make the truck rock and have to be emptied to dump the load.
Air suspensions work great on a dump, just not the same one that a road tractor has.
My LTL had the Neway? air suspension. It would get stuck on asphalt if you drove over a quarter.
Here we are back to air ride on a dump truck.
Maybe not but we haven't heard what the trucks in question have.
That Mack-probably Mack camel back-That Found On Russian Dump-95% chance Hendrickson spring beam.
Owning a 1995 L9000 tandem I can say the cab parts and Ford specific items are hard to find and expensive. At least Mack is still in business. And no proper construction oriented dump truck should have air ride..
Glad no one mentioned that gas is better than diesel for 3/4 and one ton applications
I know a guy with a dump truck and an end dump that also has an old IH tandem grain truck with a 549 gas engine. I wouldn't want to be buying the gas for that truck.
Gas is better for semis, the government said so
Because they make more in taxes?
It's because everyone knows diesel HD pickups are superior...
All depends on what there used for.
It was a joke..
I got it-Diesel pickups became popular around here when gas with catalytic came on the scene. couldn't drive them in wheat fields or stubble. Then when the emissions hit the diesels same issue. So now 50% of farmers have gone back to gas and have a ATV in the back. Wheat/stubble fires travel fast.
At least the ones made by GM, Ford/Ram mmmm not so much. LOL
Diesel's no longer offer better mileage or savings in fuel costs. A lot of people have lifted diesels with huge tires and loud exhaust just for the show off factor. I have to chuckle when I see a truck like that used as a welding truck. The tailgate or fold down table is too high to work on and everything else is out of reach. Not practical at all. If you want a big lifted 4x4 fine but don't use it as a welding truck. You're just making your job a lot harder than it needs to be.
One thing that helps out with the L9000's is that a lot of the cab parts are common Ford stuff. Blower motor resistor, High beam switch, ect I have sourced by thinking 1980's Ford pickup, and digging around finding stuff. It is a pain, but the magic wand that was supposed to turn my L9000 into a Peterbilt malfunctioned and left me stuck . . .
TS and I discussed this air ride and dump truck stuff before.
coal body
I'm going to find a 2000 cc 600 HP hall Scott and toss it in a new semi and show up all those diesel truckers that have to fill def all the time.
You do your Isuzu - whatever floats your boat.
That's true, but it was also part of Ford's down fall using stuff rate for automotive in a truck.
Well, at any rate, I am a Ford [pickup] guy, but the only reason I have an L9000 is because I got the one I have for $7500 as a clean, straight cab and chassis spec'd as a dump with a good running Cat 3406. I had a good box off a junker with a blown L10 already, so here we are . . .
How much you want for the blown l10
I sold it a couple years ago to some guy. It had dropped a valve and pretty much scrapped the head.
When it's a good buy no reason to pass on it.
When i was working on a lot of ford trucks i didnt have much trouble getting parts . I got most of them through Midway Ford . The pickups are another story or nightmare . I never under stood how Ford ran a assmbly line without building stuff with interchangeable parts ?
Not a Tri Axle but it is a 1994 LTL for sale for the meager price of $48,500.
Where is that? I swear I saw that truck at an auction in Wisconsin a couple years ago. I think it was together with a float trailer. I remember it sold for big money, at least considering it was in a line with a bunch of clapped out dump trucks and such.
Marthasville Mo.
I was told the ford front suspension parts were hard to come by, spring hangers, bushings and what not. Thats what my buddy told me who parked his. I'd try to find a 98-03 T800 with a c15 that's been taken care of.
My buddy has a 96 with 425 cat 18sp on Neway, his has a sleeper. Parked it in 03 when he bought a new truck. Still in garage
I have a 06 Sterling, after Freightliner took over the trucks. Lots of interior parts still have Ford logo on the back. Worst plastic parts I have ever seen. Dash is all cracked and broken. It's a common problem. I'm thinking of buying one of the aftermarket fiberglass dashes before it completely disintegrates.
One of the many reasons Golden State Food Corporation dumped there fleet of Sterling's rather quickly.
One of our Sterlings has a brace from the floor to the dash to hold it up. It's a strait truck tandem dump. There is a spare tractor with a 380 cat, They use it on the water tank a lot on road jobs for compaction and dust control. Friggen thing will turn on a dime
All it needs is some spoke wheels, a louisville hood (and I mean the old one with the ford letters, not the oval) and a pair of those rectangular fuel tanks with the cutout step and built in battery box. A 290 cummins, and 10 speed
You in need of an L10?
I would like to get all the l10, m11, and N14 I can get my hands on, unfortunately I'm broke as well. What you got?
I am not sure L10's are such a great find. Compared to the 855's and 3406 they are a lot harder to find parts for, more expensive too. And they are gutless in a dump truck.
I’ve got a running L10 in an International Don’t know any history on it but when I drove home it ran good. Sits for awhile and pops right off.
Gutless is being nice..
It's a bus engine. There, I said it . . .
School bus.
A small bus. Use to see those Safeway drivers pulling Snoqualmie pass, clean shaven at the bottom, at the top a foot long beard and a year older.
Na, won't fit in a school bus, at least not a Blue Bird All American (The only school bus worth driving). Yeah, I worked on and drove those for awhile. The busses we had were 5.9 Cummins (Noisy, gutless rattletraps) or Cat 3126's (Nice)
In my experience they run forever, start easy in the cold, don't run hot, are quiet, and have tons of power. The power I look for is low end power not the top end power. Top end power is relatively useless to me and my rig is only geared to 44 mph anyway. My current engine is a 330 HP n14 and it has more pulling power than most engines I've come across. I will also have stationary uses for them in the future to run pumps. I just need to get my rig insured again so I can start making good money again.
"L10" and "tons of power", don't usually get used as words in conjunction with one another. So I feel like I've had a new experience here. A N14 at 330 and a L10 at 300 are two totally different animals. There's no replacement for displacement. Torque matters.
My current spare engine is a l10 at 330 so hopefully I won't be comparing the HP between the too in a long time. The rated torque is different with the l10 a couple hundred lower
Low end power is exactly what you don't get with an L10 ...
You would be surprised how much more power the l10 has over similar engines rated for more, now all the engines that compete with the N14 and up I'm not counting. And I'm basing this on a 260 hp l10 and a 300 HP l10
Also just wanted to add this is not power down the road because then the l10 is barely better than a boat anchor.
I'm late to the party and it seems there are several conversations going on at this point. My response to the original question is the Mack appears to be set up to haul coal like is mentioned. Unless you're planning to haul a lightweight material loaded from a silo it's going to be difficult to use otherwise. If the chassis is in extremely good shape you could consider replacing the dump body with a more suitable type or perhaps have the existing body shortened if it is determined the aluminum would have enough strength to do the work you have planned. The Ford looks to be set up to work in general construction as is but as mentioned the chassis length and turning radius could be a problem on tight jobsites. On the L10 discussion, the company I worked for had then 855 Cummins in their fleet at 290 and 300hp depending on the year. We hauled dry freight up to 80,000 pounds gross locally here in the northeast. In the late 80s and early 90s the company tried another truck manufacturer equipped with the L10 at 300hp. They initially had cooling problems and as a result head gaskets go bad but after they figured out a solution the trucks became pretty reliable. The manufacturer warranted the upgrades. These trucks pulled as good as the 855 trucks as we often had similar loads going to the same place at the same time and I had no problem keeping up with coworkers regardless of what I was driving. On the plus side the L10 got 2mpg more than the 855 engines. At the end of the year it was a substantial fuel savings. After 5 years of purchasing this truck brand and L10 combination, they went back to buying the original brand again with the 855. I think it was purely a matter of the cost per tractor the manufacturer offered.
Why, just why?
L10s that I have seen often don't have enough gears as the two i have a lot experience with were 7 speeds, 8ll irc. The one I drove a lot had a bad fuel pump and wasn't getting all the fuel and you would be going 50 in 6th maxed out revs, shift to 7th and still just go 50.
Well I've got a older one that still gets out and about when I need it. 350 big cam, 13 speed, 4.88 rears. Got a big PTO mechanical winch in the deck behind the cab, and spring over walking beam suspension. The counterweights make for a pretty good load on the old girl, but it walks it like a champ. Its not the most smooth ride empty. Usually it fires up right when we need it. Had to do a fuel filter the other day, the old steel tanks flake off some rust. I actually think the square tanks were on the later ones than mine. I've got a later aeromax too, but its got regular round truck fuel tanks.
I can hear the squeak of the spring in the hood latches now.
Like this one
Oooh, I haven't seen the round hole step in the square tank, I've only seen the square ones. I thought you were talking about this style ('95):
Canadians have round feet, Americans square feet.
A dump truck for most occasions.
C500?
Actually, French Canadians call English Canadians square heads
I think the one in my picture is a 78
Ha- as shallow as those holes are, it’s barely got room for my toes, forget getting a foot in there. (Steel toes go with my yellow vest). The shallow fuel tank holes are just like old cab over steps, not nearly big enough. I’m just as successful at falling out of either.
Your tall enough why do you need a step?lol
Do you think the OP made his mind up based on all this side chatter? What was the choice again? An R Mack or an LTL ?
Which one has air bags.....lol
Thanks you all for all your comments, i got the orange one , for 16k runs and drives good. I appreciate all your comments guys.
I legit thought you would never come back especially after we derailed the thread left and right......haha Seems like a really good price (cheap) so take care of the old truck and make some money.