If you could buy a truck for a Dump business what would you buy?

I guess it would be good to ask what are you going to be using it for. Blacktop, gravel etc etc etc

 

A pete wouldn't be any harder on fuel than a freightliner with the same motor. Were talking daycab work here, your in and out of towns/cities your on and off road alot, your fuel mileage is going to suffer compared to what some of these road tractors out running down the highway all day are going to get.

You want a heavy tractor, 46k rears, nice low gears, and full lockers your going to be off road I assume and doing alot of local work where your loaded to your gross most of the time.

 

Welll.....lots of things to take into account. First, will this be a truck that you will be driving or have a driver in and in which state do you operate?

Here in IL, most gravel haulers spec lightweight trucks...T800 KW's and 22-24' frameless trailers for a net weight of around 24 tons at 73,280.

All this double frame, 52k, double reduction, full locking 2 speed rear-ends is for the birds unless you're always in the goop with 150,000lbs.

But like I said, there's a buttload of difference between 'here' and 'there'.

 

Gonna throw this out there, then duck and run.....MACK!

The CH600 with a East 28' trailer (both air ride) is the absolute best riding truck I have driven. We have a bunch of Pete,KW daycabs, and the Mack beats them all in ride.
If your gonna be off pavement much, hard to beat a Mack. They have probably the strongest rear axle setup in the business.
Macks are expensive, the parts are really expensive. Macks are not as ergonomic as other models, but I'm a big guy and the Mack has lots more room for me than a Pete.

 

While I won't totally disagree with you, I will some... I had a CH Mack for a few years. The ride is nice, the layout of the pedals is better...allowing you to extend your legs some like in a car. It handles off-road like any other truck. I have a Pete now and it goes everywhere the Mack did, rides a bit worse, but has gobs more power. Mack motors aren't the most powerful (only 12 liters). The biggest problem with Macks are that if you need parts you need a Mack dealer.

I think a lot of the problem with off-road driving is there's a nut behind the wheel who doesn't belong off pavement in a semi.

 

It doesn't take hauling 150k to need locking rear-ends. I'm darn glad lately that I have that. We do haul 85.5k, and over this past week have been hauling rock to a site that is goop. Been stuck in the sand, and almost in the grassy area just pulling off the highway. The construction company that we're hauling the rock for, does not have enough brain cells to prepare the area where we dump.

I run the Pete (pic in my sig, 2008, 386). The only downside is the engine, a Cat ACERT C13. It can pull, but somewhat of a dog. Sorry don't know anything about the rear-end, gear ratio. I have a 13spd, and glad for that too. It really helps to be able to split gears when pulling some hills. Fuel mileage will vary anywhere from 4.3 mpg to 6.4 mpg. Yesterday I checked and actually had 6.4 mpg for my trip. To get that, I would shift like a 10spd when empty, and running around 68-69 mph. Now the truck's computer shows my average speed to be around 54mph, due to all the small towns I have to go through having speed limits of 45mph, some down to 20mph. So this lowers the trips average speed. When loaded, going through gears though will impact your fuel economy.

The trailer is a 40' spread-axle, the front axle is tag and can be lifted when empty. This allows us to load 40k on the axle, instead of 34k. We also run with the trailers stretched out instead of up close, again more weight on axles. I generally when loaded will run 24k to the front of the trailer and 26k in the rear. My tractor/trailer loaded with fuel has a tare of about 32,600.

 

Comparing an E7 to a C15 is apples to oranges. If you want big displacement, buy an E9 or an MP10 and the power will be comparable to (if not better than) your C15 kitty cat.

If you're spec'ing the lighter weight C13 in a petercar, the Mack E7 will keep up any day of the week. I run circles around the company petercars spec'd with C13's all day long...both on road and off.

If you aren't going to spec a Mack drive train....Mack engine, Mack transmission, Mack drive axles....you aren't really buying a Mack truck. Since "vendor" engines/transmissions/drive axles are available in ANY make/model truck on the road, if you're going to spec them, you may as well just buy a freightshaker. That way the WHOLE truck will be junk instead of just the drive train.

 

No contest...Tonka all the way!