Texas Oil fields - Trucks and maintenance in dusty environment + rough roads

The trucks I see at the truck stops that work in the fields just look thuh rashed.

Is it conceivable to just get a cheap POS and drive it until it just dies, then get another?

 

That's exactly the business model of a few folks I know. Buy a cheap 10-15 y.o. truck and run it until there's more duct tape than plastic. One guy at another terminal is on his third truck in eight years. All were/are Freightliner Century Classics. The only good thing is his latest purchase two years ago has a Detroit Series 60.

You won't see a lot of O/O's running oil field with new or less than three year old trucks. But you will see some rather nice older FLD's, KW's, Pete's, and Western Stars.

I gotta get me a Worx portable power washer. I'm tired of spending money on a truck wash and at times go for weeks without a wash.

 

I hate to see the Centuries beat up on the oil field. I know they will do it for you once in a while when asked to (Off road, they are not that bad.)

In this situation Im leaning towards KW, Western Star, Pete and Mack in particular.

You cannot have rubber, plastic etc hanging where it counts (Steel bumper properly attached to frame with towhooks etc) You might want to ditch those pretty aluminum wheels and go with the steels Budds. It all depends on what you put on a truck offroad. For me it's been crossrib drive tires which has allowed me to do things off road that would probably broke a normal truck or gotten me killed with ordinary tires.

You will want to have a inclinometer inside that cab. It's a rotating ball tied to gravity straight down. However when you get on side of a hill somewhere leaning seriously hard, that ball will tell you if shes about to roll over on you. Most trucks can stick to a certain amount of lean in degrees before losing the footing and rolling over.

Despite my other thinkings towards several trucks, I would end up buying another Superliner 500 Mack with big reduction and under drive if I can find it. If I am going to go forth and do battle that would be one of the first trucks I choose to do it with. I think it has that V8 desiel in some situations lug down to 850 if you had to in certain seriously delicate shifting off road.

I think the driver has alot to do with the truck too. If I drove your truck, and has to go follow a path through the woods to a rig or some such crazy place and come up to a stream or hose crossing that gravel road, I would take the hammer off and ease across without much for splashing and bouncing. I think that truck will do better longer when being taken care of in difficult situations.

The one truck I know nothing about but have heard stories of is made by Caterpillar, Apparently they built logging rigs that appear to them to do well within reason. I know they made good engines and built my wheeled 936 loader that was very good but building a whole 18 wheeler or even a rocky double to log with?" Erm we'll see how it does first.

There is a old truck company I think called four wheel truck. FWT reaching back into post world war one and world war two where they have used 4x4 technology applied to however many driving axles to get up and down hill off road in any weather. If they are still in business I probably will end up ordering a custom tractor. I have certain thoughts about what a off road tractor should be and I don't see any hefty beef anywhere in today's plush fluffy OTR tractors.

 

I think an inclinometer would just scare me. Better to unbuckle, unlock the door, feather the throttle, and pray.

 

I usually relied on the suspension on the low side having some bounce in it. Not too much but when it's all loaded down with NO bounce and the high side gets really light or losing contact with the ground, Im not really inclined to (See what I did with that pun?) to get around to moving much without a good stiff drink or something.

 

Make sure your teeth are in good shape because those roads will shake em loose - Best of Luck !

 

Mouth guard is something to think about.

 

I wouldn't go fleet spec with a truck for that kind of work. Heavier steer axle/springs, heavier frame (like 3/8"), heavier rear axle housings, at least 1 axle lock (4 way prefered), 18 speed and decent air ride suspension. I'd avoid KW AG200 8 bag if possible.

 

I don’t do oil field but I’m off road daily and it’s so dusty I get nose bleeds...

I drive a 20 year old w900s. That truck is a bad ### truck. It also does a good job of keeping the dust out. I always keep my windows up with the ac on for that reason.

 

KW T800s is what I saw a lot of in the Bakken (can’t imagine it’s that much different). They take a beating and just keep going.

Also, Western Stars and Petes.

Pretty much all 3 were set up the same. Cummins, 13 or 18 speed, don’t remember rear gear. I think all the ones i drove were 24.5 tires. Full lockers. Ground clearance is your friend.


Definitely saw a fair amount of Volvo’s and Freightliners though so, it’s possible. What I described is just what I saw as most common.

Idk what they’re called. People I worked for from Alaska called em moose lights. They mounted to the bumper. Dear god do they bring daylight to dark. If it were me I’d put some on it.