Hey everyone, I’m watching a few trucks that are coming out of potentially corrosive work environments. There are three 745’s that look to be coming out of Salt Lake operations judging from location and obvious surface rust on hose connections and other lightly painted or galvanized surfaces. Best example is the hose crimps on the hydraulic lines. They all three seem to be experiencing the same surface corrosion. There are also two trucks that have been working in phosphate mines in Florida. They are much cleaner and have nothing similar to the trucks in the salt lake area so far as the corrosion. The question is would phosphate do the same as salt and for the salt corrosion would the corrosion slow or just continue advancing into the metal until we start seeing failures? The trucks in the salt lake area are Cats and are 2022’s with ~9,500hrs. They look great other than the rust on the hose crimps to be honest. Hours are little high but I’d guess they may sell for a lower price given their prior use. But I have to think they’re well maintained coming off a mine that needed them to run daily. The others are Bell B45e’s coming out of Florida phosphate mines on lease return. I watched an auction last week where a lot of Bell trucks were sold with similar hours and in conditions same as these two that went for under $250k and many for less than that. This would be an accessible price point for us to get into some larger trucks. Anyone have experience with trucks coming out of salt lake or other similar environments? Will they hang together or would we be staring down replacing every hose in an year or two?
Is your budget less than $250K and 9,500 hours? If so there are a lot of options for 745's that may not be as corroded. 745's Sent several pieces of iron down to the Gulf back in the 2000's, 2 of which we still have. The site was 20 miles inland and the corrosion specifically on the hydraulic connections and sheet metal was fairly substantial for only being there for 4-5 months. Worked through the rust issues the best we can and still using the 2 pieces of iron today. Neither one is main line though. 533E compactor and D5G that hasn't been ran in several months. FWIW.
I used to try to keep D6N running that was in beach building operation. Have to deal with bunch of telehandlers and man lifts that was in lime or concrete operations before. Believe me - you don’t want that thing!
The salt lake city trucks could easily be phosphate mine trucks also. There's large phosphate mines in southern idaho. Personally, I wouldn't want the trouble (rust). I've bought truck cranes from the north east that had road salt, and its a never ending problem. I have had much better luck with the equipment from the south west. It may be sun baked from the south west, but no corrosion makes everything easier.
There’s away to keep them going, and it might be barely economically feasible, if you have very cheap labour pressure washing every nook and cranny on those things, wire brushing, applying rust inhibitor, and painting it over. Replacing every darn hose, especially on the bottom. But then rust starts eating in to valve bodies, making walls thin, they start blowing under pressure. That D6N even had aluminium valve body on top of transmission ( under the seat) so rusted out - it blew pieces of O-rings outside.
Yes on budget. But with the hours being as high as they are on those units plus the rust issue I would think the sale price would come down a significant bit. We are shooting to get trucks that are either mid life or just at a good price with the budgets we have. The Bells seem to be the likely candidates to meet that requirement based on previous sales data. Bells: 2022 BELL B45E Upcoming Auctions in Kissimmee, Florida 2022 BELL B45E Upcoming Auctions in Kissimmee, Florida at Equipmentfacts. 2022 Bell B45E 6x6 Articulated Dumptruck, Tailgate, Rear View Camera, A/C, Auto Lube (Meter Reading: 2597 Hours) - B93A645EV03307957 www.equipmentfacts.com Cats: https://www.rbauction.com/pdp/2022-cat-745-articulated-dump-truck/12816679
Wow. Sounds like a nightmare. What I quickly google searched and found was that phosphate isn’t inherently a corrosion agent. In some cases it prevents corrosion. Not sure how that squares up with real life though. The salt seems like a real issue. Hoses are really expensive. Some of the hard lines also are showing signs too.
And hard lines are “Cat special” they are not regular Code62/Code61.
I've lived in a winter environment all my life. I would never purchase a vehicle that has salt damage started, it's EXTREMELY difficult to halt it. In addition, there are spots that could be rusting from the inside out that you can't see until it fails. Unless a shop is super diligent in cleaning and coating their trucks with rust preventatives, highway plow trucks last 10 to 12 years before they are rusted beyond repair. The only way to preserve a vehicle up here is to park it during winter months.