New truck for hauling grain

Farmer I worked for had a Volvo for pulling Super Bs. He loved it. It was an early 2000s, ex highway tractor and he loaded it right off the combine. No grain carts. Said it held up well. (I didn't work there long. Hate farming. Give me cows and horses anyday but no farm tractors!!! Haha)

 

Especially the ones built in Kelowna before the Daimler takeover. Ever since they got their hooks into WS the quality is not what it used to be. Still a good truck though nonetheless. Volvo's old Autocar line in the late 90's/early 00's could definitely give a Western Star a run for its money in the durability department. Tough as nails but ugly as hell inside and out.

 

Lots of them down here but not the VNL models
VNX OR VHD are the vocational models. You could spec one of those for off road no sweat.

 

I owned a 1978 Western Star log truck in the early 90's, that truck is still hauling logs today and is a beautiful truck! Second highway driving job I had I was driving an old Autocar, dont remember the year but Im thinking it was maybe White/Autocar, wasnt a bad looking truck, looked similar to the peterbilts and had the large single headlights, got several positive comments on the truck at the 49r in Sacramento, and in them days there were some ###### nice trucks around that area!
Volvos were built for the bean counters not the drivers! There is a couple volvo log trucks running around here, the owners dont seem to brag much about them, and probably spent more money on duct tape than I spent on that WS while I had it.
Peterbilts were always pretty good because they weren’t built flimsy but still needed a little more special attention than the real off road trucks.KW was like an economy version, at least until Volvo came along, lmao.

 

for grain volvo is a good choice they are light. with my grain wagon 102 wide by 72 high my tare weight is 25500. with a 96 inch 66 wide i am 24900 with 100 gallons of fuel. hauling grain it is all about the weight my 07 international was 1500 lbs heaver that is a chunk of change over the life time of a grain truck. down fall you will crawl up hills

 

I was thinking more of this Autocar model. They were very well built. Frames were all huckbolted together and the cabs were very wide. The deep cab option added another 2 or 3 inches of depth to the cab vs. the one in the pic. The VHD is what replaced this model in the early 2000's. I'm not a fan of Peterbilts off road because they like to hang their fuel tanks by the straps, rather than having a nice heavy saddle to support the tank underneath.

 

I remember seeing at least one those trucks at stimson lumber Priest river, Id, they are pretty rugged built! Didnt realize Peterbilt started hangin there fuel tanks by the straps, dont see many new Petes in the woods, and honestly don’t care enough for the new ones to take a real close look at the design. Probably any off road truck will do, if he wants a cheap one, then that’s fine, if he buys a nice one then there will likely be a little better resale value down the road. I hauled a lot of grain with highway trucks, most generally don’t have to worry about ground clearance to much, if a combine can do it most any truck can do it.
If its anything like our family farm, the guy is better off buying a nice 6x6 for fertilizer season and just get a cheap used truck for the grain.

 

That's what's called a "Vocational" truck. Tougher than Vulva highway crap. Took a rental into the bush about 10 years ago and the plastic dash cracked right down the middle.

 

Yeah some of them uh, log trucks seem to have a trouble with everything but the drive train.
There are a lot of subtle differences when you get into a truck thats designed for off road, little things like sapling trees and brush not wedging into gaps in the body and busting the hell out of things, not having to repair the cheaply built hood, hardware and dash,lol. and a whole lot of things people just have to experience first hand.

ETA: Thats a great idea why not rent a penske truck!

 

I think the Volvo Ishift and D13 is pretty formidable on fuel economy and reliability on highway, but off highway and vocational Id avoid them. The Mack runs the same components under different names, Mdrive and MP8. It's painted red too, not green.

A lot of the new trucks in fleet I work in are new Mack's and there are 2014's with new transmissions and a couple 2015's with all new injectors. Not too big of a deal on warranty, but that Mdrive/I Shift is $25,000 off warranty, so it definitely contributes to a reduced resale value once your truck is 4-5 years old. We pull tankers on 3-40% gravel.

I've been running Pete's. They've been pretty good so far, but the 11-12's were not great. The two new ones (2013 & 2015) I had were flawless for the first couple years. The 2013 has had some issues over year #3, so I'd still recommend warranty.