Buying a Dump Truck

Wow. Wasn't expecting that. I live on Long Island and things are tough here house wise/traffic wise, but we have family/two decent careers/ a 5 month old. My wife is a pharmacist and the market is over saturated big time around here due to all the college graduates coming out with hopes of landing a job making 130k a year. Even with 9 years in pharmacy she gets passed over for hospital gigs and anything that's better than CVS/Walgreens. I'd rather have her stay home and take care of our daughter and I'd run a truck or two and pull extra $.

I was a mechanic for 17 years, still wrench on the side but have networked and made several friends who are diesel mechanics or know someone who is. For 2 years I had a 96 Ram 2500 with a 12 valve, 5 speed trans with a South Bend twin disc clutch, compound turbos and a goose neck. Would haul cars in a 26' enclosed trailer up and down the northeast corridor.
I don't think learning a 13 or 18 speed would be hard for me, been driving stick all my life and the Ram trans did not like shifting for some reason, found it much easier to double clutch between gears going up or down and it would slide right in

 

long island new york? Either way, you are close. Big money around here. You just need to talk to more owner operators and find out which companies are close. I live in southeast pa and central to lots of quarries and blacktop plants.
Sounds like you know your stuff when it comes to fixing things. I have only been in bussiness in 2 years and i do my own work on the truck. Minor and major repairs. Youtube helps when in a rut. Its all easy stuff to work on.
I never drove 18 or 13 speed before. I went out and bought a pete with an 18 and learned how to drive it when i put it to work. very easy. 8ll trans is better for site wor but after driving 18 i will never go back. You will learn to never us the clutch aagain when you get into dump trucking. Its mostly local and lots of traffic lights. Over the road guys can get away with double clutching. But try double clutching for 8-9 hours in long line of traffic lights all day. Not gonna happen and leg will cramp up.

 

Makes good sense. I work out and am a big fan of leg day, but all day clutching does kinda suck. Guess the Allison 3000s we got make me forget how bad things can really get.

Still doing my research here, I've done a lot of networking and still more to do, and being smart money wise off the bat is my best shot at making this work. My CDL instructor was a fleet mechanic in our company for 25 years and he knows trucks like the back of his hand, and even though we run Freightliner M2 chassis and they are underpowered for the work we do, they are easy to fix. A used truck is my best route, not looking to spend $80000 off the bat and hope I make it.

I'd PM you to continue this conversation but I'm still short the amount of posts needed hahaha.

 

i bought used as well. Bought an old 02 peterbilt with cat engine. No emissions and no bullcrap. Just regular maintenaince. Buy old truck for under 50k and keep your profits. anything newee than 07, you are looking for problems. My buddy bought a newer mack with 100k miles on it and no warranty left on it. Truck almost ran him into ground first year with cooling problems and computer related emissions issues. Spent 20k worth of diagnosis and repairs and still wasnt fixed. Was able to sell it and get back in a 02 pete like myself. HAsnt had one issue with the truck.

 

Yes. No emissions is a big plus. I drive a BMW X5 diesel currently and the first thing I did was rip all the emissions crap out, DPF/SCR/EGR you name it. Got a tune for it and my fuel economy went way up, get around 31mpg with it.

I was going to even look back as far as late 80s/early 90s for a W900 or a Peterbilt. A friend of mine who has garbage trucks runs 2 old AutoCars, refurbed them and added AC, says they never let him down once.

 

i run with tons of owner operators. I see everyday, old autocars, lt9000's, w900's. Old ones!!! Some guys running old slow as #### cummins m11 triaxles. But dam they are always running and never breaking down. People have other things to say but the only tiraxles we see on the side broken down are the 07+ trucks. What a shame. IF something breaks to sideline an old truck its usually a ujoint or a tire. Never a motor bproblem

 

A lot of guys at my job used to love the Volvo cab-over Vactor trucks. Short wheel base and easy to manuever around the streets of the Bronx. Now we have these 2012-15 Freightliner M2s and just picked up a 114SD chassis one. Not only is it the longest straight truck in the companies fleet, but it guzzles gas like no tomorrow due to the direct drive PTO (the air ride is amazing tho).

If I could find an auto M2 dump, I'd take the chance with it. I think they are hard to find pre-emissions but they only do once a year PMs here and our last truck had 114k street miles on it, and it never had an issue except for the idiots driving it, they overheated it once til it went de-rate and pretty much shut off boiling coolant everywhere. And even then, it kept going for another 6 months (although the smell of coolant was always there and it would push some out of the bottle after being parked)

 

I think I just red a post from the guy that sold it to you

Hows it working? I have a 2000 rd688s..... having a few issues... low boost, high temps..

 

I'd hope that, at the worst, they would require some reasonable bolt on def system or somthing....

 

Whenever I buy a used truck I always pull an oil sample. It’s cheaper to spend $60.00 on an oil sample kit than to buy a truck and immediately have to do a in frame when money is already tight due to start up costs