Medium Duty, or Full size semi

Discussion in 'Experienced Truckers' Advice' started by pressure_welder, Nov 3, 2018.

  1. rcelmo

    rcelmo Medium Load Member

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    Another point for buying a OTR/sleeper truck is wheels and brakes.
    Even Ford 550 don't have near the quality brakes a semi truck has. Brake
    replacement on a semi is the same or even cheaper than a pickup and should
    last about 2 or 3 times as long. Axles are much better built.....suspension in
    general is a lot more substantial. With the pickup you will find yourself
    overloaded time and again.....with the semi truck, pile it on, no worries.

    I would put in a huge vote for a sleeper. So often when traveling home from
    a job you can just pull over and sleep.....job runs later than you planned, just
    lay down and sleep. I once was traveling through Iowa in a service truck and
    planned to get a room......what I did not realize is the Iowa State Fair was going
    on that week.....no rooms for miles around. That night a sleeper would have
    saved me big time. Even if you get a room for the bigger jobs you will use the
    sleeper from time to time.

    As for spending the money for a shower/toilet etc I would be a little slow
    to do that. Now you have to carry water.....keep it from freezing.....stop at RV
    parks to dump the used water tank, etc. Put a microwave in the truck......you can
    heat water and do the sponge bath routine in a pinch. Not ideal but a lot better
    than nothing...….maintenance free and inexpensive.
     
    Mattflat362 Thanks this.
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  3. rabbiporkchop

    rabbiporkchop Road Train Member

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    What about something like this?
    [​IMG]
     
    Farmerbob1 Thanks this.
  4. AModelCat

    AModelCat Road Train Member

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    maxresdefault.jpg
    This is what I'd love to have but as a high hood. Ultimate rig right there.
     
    Farmerbob1 Thanks this.
  5. pressure_welder

    pressure_welder Bobtail Member

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    that's almost exactly what I am looking to do, except being that I am a welder I wouldn't have the service rig amount of tool boxes, add a sleeper and you have one hell of a rig !! sexy as hell. and one of a kind really.
     
  6. Ridgeline

    Ridgeline Road Train Member

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    By the way, I think there is another welding forum where they have a section just for welding rigs.

    I am not at the house so I can not look for it in my millions of bookmarks.

    Do some searching for it.
     
  7. pressure_welder

    pressure_welder Bobtail Member

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    I think your talking about weldingweb? iam definatly part of that forum and have gone through that welding rig page, definatly a lot of cool rigs. However still nothing quite like this. Thanks for offering to look it up for me! I must say this is a very friendly forum not really used to that.
     
  8. AModelCat

    AModelCat Road Train Member

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    I'm on a heavy equipment forum as well and there's a few threads where guys are showing off their service trucks. Some dang nice rigs out there.
     
  9. pressure_welder

    pressure_welder Bobtail Member

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    there sure are some nice rigs out there for sure. Any opinions on a kenworth T800 2006 to say 2013 it looks as though you can get them anywhere from 40-60,000$ anywhere from 5 to 700,000KM. At what point does one have to start looking at rebuilding? from what ive learned from my dad/father inlaw.... your looking at around 1.1 million miles...ish? sooo that would be roughly 1.7mil km? I think based on father inlaw and my dads opinions I am pretty stuck on that T800 or western star.

    would I be correct in saying purchasing a truck with 5 to even 800,000KM would essentially last me a LONG time because like I say, id be lucky to put on 20-30,000KM a year with it.

    Any issues as well firing up a rig like that to make quick trips to the steel supplier if need be? 20KM round trip.
     
  10. Accidental Trucker

    Accidental Trucker Road Train Member

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    The early emission trucks are a crap shoot when it comes to longevity. Some do fine, but the EGR and the associated issues (soot, mainly), cause some of them to fail very early. The rule of thumb seems to be 800K miles and you had a good one.

    That said, I had a pre-emission detroit 60 series that I rebuilt twice in in 1.1 million miles, so it really always has been a crap shoot.
     
  11. Ridgeline

    Ridgeline Road Train Member

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    Thinking what cat said it may be at the heavy equipment forum. I just don't remember, it was a section not a thread and there were trucks with sleepers. You can find cheap expediter trucks on expeditersonline.com and truck paper, some are class eight trucks.
     
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