Advice on truck to mount crane on

Like M16 said you can still get parts for the B models and they quit making them over 50 years ago. If you do get a R model try to find one with at least 44k rated rears or higher. It'll ride rougher than snot but it can take a lot of abuse.

 

Parts availability is key. When something breaks, you want a local dealer you can work with to get what you need...NOT a 2-3 hour drive (one way) just to get a part...only to find once you get back that the part they sold you wasn't the correct one, so you drive ALL of the way back (this time with both parts...the new wrong one and the old broke one) in hand only to discover they don't have the one you need...but can have it for you first thing in the morning. You just wasted 2 or 3 days driving back and forth and still haven't fixed it, where if the dealer/parts supplier was local, it would've been a day or two down.

I like Macks...but I can pretty much throw a stone in any direction and hit a dealer. 3 within an hour...5 or 6 within 2 hours...and within 3 hours, quite a few more. It doesn't matter where I'm running, there is probably a Mack dealer nearby. Works for me. No other brand has that sort of coverage around here. If I had a ton of Peterbilt dealers around me and no Macks, I'd probably own a Peterbilt. Doesn't do you a whole heck of a lot of good owning the truck if you can't get parts for it...and unless you own a big enough fleet to where the dealers will bend over backwards to bring the parts to you, you have to keep the drive to get what you need in mind.

If you've got a drop axle for a 3rd axle, you're going to want the tandems spec'd heavy enough to carry the weight without the drop. That lets you pick that axle up off the ground for extra traction when off pavement. If it's a tri-drive, then just spec it for at least the weight you'll be carrying. Make sure your steers are also spec'd for the weight both with the drop axle raised AND lowered. And one more thing about the drop axles, if you shorten your wheelbase and put the drop axle behind the drives, you'll tighten your turning radius and cut out a u-joint and carrier bearing or two...but that increases weight on the steers when it's dropped. That might even work better, because when you're going off-pavement and lift the drop axle, it'll lighten the steers so that they don't sink in as much if the ground is a little soft.

 

I agree bulldog, but here is the thing I see. The dealer exclusive parts are pretty much sheet metal and wiring harnesses, and that's about it. All the axle parts are avalible aftermarket, the same goes for an engine/transmission and when we are looking at the application, any truck that comes close to spec - wb, power needed for the pto, etc. ... - will work.

It then comes to service and personal likes, in this case the latter isn't important.

The more important thing is doing the due diligence to make sure that the truck is not a junk truck. Ive bought a few as part of a package that I scrapped out because they were just horribly taken care of, and they didn't have a lot of miles, but the cost to fix them exceeded the acquisition cost and never would have reached the value I needed to justify the repairs.

 

Depends on the engine.

Cat engines are good but very expensive to service. That's why I left them off the list.

 

That may be true for most trucks, but trucks like mine very few items are available outside of Mack. Mack engine. Mack transmission. Mack rears. If you've got Mack's Camelback suspension, you aren't going to find many 3rd party vendors there, either. Also, Mack has the build sheet, allowing them to look up part numbers for anything and everything that was on the truck when it was built. To use a 3rd party vendor for brakes or anything else, I'd have to first find the part number...which gets to be a pain on an older vehicle where part numbers are obscured by road grime, dirt, rust, etc...

If the truck has vendor (not proprietary stuff specific to that truck brand) axles or transmission, it becomes easier to get parts elsewhere.

 

Sorry, I should have said a typical truck with a Cummins or Detroit engine, I have macks in my fleet, Mack drive train and you are right, not a lot out of the dealer network.

 

mid 2003 to avoid egr for mack engines. 1991-2003. 1998 they went fully electronic with EUP's and ditched the Bosch inline pump (p7100) same pump as 12V cummins.

If you have a mack dealer 20 min from the house I'd go mack. Especially if you can get an old R model with camelback. The E-6 engine is pretty much indestructible with just regular oil changes and grease jobs.