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New Truck: Advice on purchase... - Storx - 04-11-2019
Hello All,
Found this page after doing some research on trucks and their engines. Currently, I am in the market to possibly purchase a class 8 used truck to tow an RV. I am thinking about going this route because previously I towed my RV with a Diesel pickup truck I bought new and within the first 2 years of owning that truck it spent more time at the dealership being repaired under warranty then it did on the road, causing me to lose out on income with my job. After dealing with the headaches of the truck constantly breaking down with huge $$$ repairs that I didn't have to pay for, I decided to let that truck go and sold it before the warranty expired on it. Since then i seen and talked to a few people who towed their RVs with used class 8 trucks and nearly all of them I spoke to seemed to have the same stories, towed with modern pickup truck, dealt with lots of costly repairs and breakdowns, switched over to class 8 trucks and for the most part most stated they had zero issues and they all swore it was worlds better towing and got nearly the same MPG as the pickups towing.
So my questions are what are some things I should look out for on used trucks while shopping? I grew up with a few Cummins pickups, so naturally, I have been leaning towards a Cummins engine truck, thus how i found this site.
RE: New Truck: Advice on purchase... - Rawze - 04-11-2019
Take every component you ever purchased for your pickup truck,.. multiply the cost by x10 and you will have a ballpark figure to replace the same component(s) on a worn out class-8 truck to get it somewhat reliable after purchasing it.
You will also need a CDL- Class-A license to drive it across state lines from what I understand. Not been around the RV world, so I would not know for sure. I would suppose it would only pay off if you were constantly on the move with it.
RE: New Truck: Advice on purchase... - Magard - 04-11-2019
I sold a truck to a friend to do the exact same thing as your talking about. Thought he found a loop hole and got it registered as a rv. Saved him on some registration and dot numbers. But his length was to long too dodge the cdl. So he used to drive truck before so he got a cdl again. Things seemed to be good. The truck was nice I was running it interstate. 600 plus miles a day. New rubber on it. All ready to go. I think I sold it to him for like 8 grand. Hell of a deal. With in a year it needed a oil cooler. Stranded him in Albuquerque NM. I think it was something like 6000 dollars later and he was back on the road. After that the truck has been good according to him. I seen the truck the other day. Truck looks beat. Tires are shi#t. Electrical problems I believe. Probably gonna need a clutch soon.$ 4000 or so. Steering box is wore. $2500 or so. This is just what I know of. He seems like he’s ready to find another one. Problem is he won’t find a gem like i sold him for 8k that he can drive for 8 years neglecting because it costs to much to fix. Moral of the story is if a pickup is more than you can maintain then how is a truck gonna be better. I just spent 30k rebuilding a engine that was a Cummins reman in a truck that I spent 42k buying with 480000 miles on it. The engine only had 150000 {15% of its expected lifespan} on it and it dropped a valve. Now I got probably 85k in it with buying and running it for 3 years and the misfortune of eating a engine... the truck is super maintained now... and it’s worth 25k. Cheapest thing you can do is go buy another 65k pickup and call it a day. Also try and drive a big rig around when you go to town for groceries. Oh and it will be great arguing with the dot that “no officer this is a rv. I don’t need all that eld log book, ifta ,dot # ,drug consortium, irp registration. I’m on vacation here. Do like the hotshot guys do by a new pickup and roll it every couple years before it’s got to much wear and it’s new enough someone can still finance it pretty easy.
RE: New Truck: Advice on purchase... - Waterloo - 04-11-2019
Here is the truck I would look at to pull an RV, single axle, M11 Cummins, no emissions and it looks very clean. That M11 is pretty much bullet proof, and should get 8+ mpg all day long. I owned a little Volvo like this, tandem axle, 3:90 gears and a 9 speed. Miss that truck, it was a money maker...
https://www.truckpaper.com/listings/trucks/for-sale/30941271/1999-freightliner-century-112?CTRY=USA
RE: New Truck: Advice on purchase... - Storx - 04-11-2019
(04-11-2019 )Rawze Wrote: Take every component you ever purchased for your pickup truck,.. multiply the cost by x10 and you will have a ballpark figure to replace the same component(s) on a worn out class-8 truck to get it somewhat reliable after purchasing it.
You will also need a CDL- Class-A license to drive it across state lines from what I understand. Not been around the RV world, so I would not know for sure. I would suppose it would only pay off if you were constantly on the move with it.
These are the things I'm looking into previously I bought a 2015 Ford F250 and the diesel truck spent most of its life at the dealership being worked on while under warranty. In the short period, I owned it the Head gasket went out on it 2 times while out on assignment towing my RV on the road, also the EGR cooler ended up cracking on it and puked coolant all over the road once, then the fuel pump went out and littered the entire fuel system with metal, then lastly the DPF failed and took out the turbo. Just in the 2.5yrs the amounts in repairs amounted in over 26K in work to the truck that was covered under warranty. So just before the truck was going out of warranty i sold the truck out of frustration and probably lost lots of $$, but i was worried about it continuing to be a money pit.
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In regards to the cost of repairs on the Semi, the reason i am looking into a Class 8 Semi as a vehicle is because of the cost savings that most report yearly. I am looking into it from more than one 1 route.
Cheaper annual cost to own
Cheaper upfront cost to buy
Out of all the people i have spoken to that showed up towing with a Class 8 truck, they spent a fraction of the cost buying the truck vs what it cost to buy modern pickups these days. Example the 2015 Ford i had cost me roughly 68k after taxes and reason i spent that much on a pickup was due to the RV i had at the time being unable to be towed by anything other than a Diesel truck and dual rear wheels due to the RV size i bought at the time. I bought the RV before the truck purchase without fully understanding what i was getting into and learned that the very very heavy RVs typically don't hold their value and sometimes sit on lots and that was how i was able to get such a nice RV for so cheap, because when i was shopping for an RV i saw all these smaller travel trailers for 25k+, then i saw a few 5th wheel trailers for 40K+, but at the dealer i was at they informed me of this New 36ft 5th wheel they had that was heavily discounted down to 25k from 109k that had luxury everything, onboard 10k diesel gen, artic package for up north camping, self leveling, real solid wood interior with full size shower + full size washer/dryer hookup. Just was basically a luxury home on wheels and they reason it was so heavily discounted was mainly because of its dry weight limiting it to dually diesel trucks, so this RV sat unsold for over 2 years new on the lot and in my eyes when i was purchasing i was like man i can pay 25k for this tiny shitbox trailer or 25k for this amazing RV. Then came truck purchase time i quickly found out that i was forced into buying a diesel dually pickup to tow it based on the towing numbers.
Anyways, i have spoken to a few couples and it seems most go 1 of 2 routes on purchasing the semi, they either buy very low miles by shopping for trucks under 200-300k, or they buy used higher mile trucks and have them repaired. I spoke to a few couples who bought trucks with under 300k miles in the under 40k range, but i also have spoken to a few couples who bought higher mile trucks for dirt cheap, but found someone to do an inframe rebuild on them so they had the peace of mind that the truck was mechanically sound.
Most reported very minimal repairs in the years they owned them, because most stated that because your towing so little vs what the truck was designed to tow, they truck barely breaks a sweat while towing, so the wear on the vehicle is pretty much reduced to nothing.
Example of trucks ive come across and the cost they mentioned they paid for them:
2014 International Prostar+ Sleeper w/ 208k Auto, they paid 45k
2013 Mack Pinnacle Sleeper w/165k Auto, they paid 51k
2016 Peterbuilt 579 Sleeper w/78K Auto, they paid 59k
2012 International Prostar Sleeper w/330k Auto, they paid 20k, but did an inframe rebuild
2012 International Prostar Sleeper w/670k Auto, they paid 13k, but did an inframe rebuild
RE: New Truck: Advice on purchase... - Waterloo - 04-11-2019
You are looking at pretty EPA trucks... I hope you have deep pockets.
RE: New Truck: Advice on purchase... - Magard - 04-11-2019
Sounds like you already got it figured out. Where truckers not rv’ers. We have totally different issues. We’re trying to make money with trucks and the cost to keep running. I heard all those avenues of rv plates on a truck. Just remember there ain’t no free lunch in the truck world. Running emission trucks with no load on them is gonna create issues. I don’t think I would by a Cummins powered truck to do rv with. Try a Volvo with auto. There nice roomy trucks. The most automobile like of the trucks.
Also what kind of tune did you have on that ford to have all those problems. That doesn’t sound factory at all. Those are good engines in those trucks. Sounds like to much tune and to much weight with it.
RE: New Truck: Advice on purchase... - tree98 - 04-11-2019
Since your not making money with this truck, do yourself a favor and find as nice of a 2006 or older as you can find. The emission problems are going to eat you alive on the newer trucks.
RE: New Truck: Advice on purchase... - Storx - 04-11-2019
(04-11-2019 )Magard Wrote: Sounds like you already got it figured out. Where truckers not rv’ers. We have totally different issues. We’re trying to make money with trucks and the cost to keep running. I heard all those avenues of rv plates on a truck. Just remember there ain’t no free lunch in the truck world. Running emission trucks with no load on them is gonna create issues. I don’t think I would by a Cummins powered truck to do rv with. Try a Volvo with auto. There nice roomy trucks. The most automobile like of the trucks.
Also what kind of tune did you have on that ford to have all those problems. That doesn’t sound factory at all. Those are good engines in those trucks. Sounds like to much tune and to much weight with it.
It was a STOCK brand new truck, i misspoke earlier, it was an F350, realized this after i posted. It was rated to tow 24K, RV was 16,800, when i weighted myself on cat scale it was 19,100 with all my stuff in the RV and water and such....