Older medium duty diesel trucks

[300zx_tt]

I’m a general contractor for my day job, sell slabs and firewood on the side. I have a 92 f350 flatbed. It’s lacking some capacity and I’m looking to upgrade to something a little larger. I’d also like a dump bed (not a mason dump) I’m looking at f450/f550’s and they’re pretty pricey. My father and business co-owner sent me a link to an 87 Chevy c60, gas motor and auto trans... I can’t think of a more gutless truck with weight in it. Although reliability is my main concern, not speed.

This will be a debris/material/log/firewood hauler.

I’m trying to spend $2,000-$8,000.

I’m looking for guys that have owned dt466/dt360, cat 3116, 3208, 7.3 and 6.0 power strokes. I want to know what was trouble free or what caused you headaches. I’d like to stay with a diesel unless I can find a Chevy 8.1 or a v10 ford with lower miles.

Anybody have any input?

 

[74inchshovel]

I’d stay away from 1st gen Duramax, that would be the LB7 motor, 2004 1/2 and before. I currently own one, this motor is well known for very short injector life. Truck is on its third set since new.
Also own an International S1900, with DT466. Wet sleeve motor, bullet proof, very reliable. Mechanicaly injected, no computers, always a plus for me. If you live in the People’s Republic of California, the truck is of course, illegal. Which raises a great point, a lot of Cali rigs are forced to leave the state, because they won’t make emissions. Keep your eyes open
I had a Dodge 12 valve Cummins, took it to 300,000 trouble free miles, the next owner ran it to 400,000. Mechanicaly injected again, wet sleeve, any truck with this motor should be looked at. They’re in Fords, Chevy’s as well
Good luck!

 

[Erwin]

I'll sell u this one for a price close to the bottom end of your budget, very big on reliability but NOT very powerful and fast. It's a 88 F600 with a 6L diesel in it and a , only around 60K miles on it. Has a 12 yard heavy chip box on it with PTO lift. Bought it years ago thinking to make it my daily truck. Realized it's too big and much harder to drive around than my new 2000 F550 with a 14' box. bad part about it is I don't have the title yet. Have a bill of sale from the seller. Need to get some time to pursue the original title or get a bonded one. Pretty easy here in MO.

 

[300zx_tt]

I'll sell u this one for a price close to the bottom end of your budget, very big on reliability but NOT very powerful and fast. It's a 88 F600 with a 6L diesel in it and a , only around 60K miles on it. Has a 12 yard heavy chip box on it with PTO lift. Bought it years ago thinking to make it my daily truck. Realized it's too big and much harder to drive around than my new 2000 F550 with a 14' box. bad part about it is I don't have the title yet. Have a bill of sale from the seller. Need to get some time to pursue the original title or get a bonded one. Pretty easy here in MO.

I need a flatbed/rack body/stake body truck, I haul a lot of materials, plywood, drywall pallets of concrete

 

[Ted Jenkins]

My 02 two things that seem relevant. You can not buy anything as what you are talking about for 2,000 to $8,000 at least around here. I can see maybe some thing reasonable for $12,000, but I live in the California Republic. I have a 1967 C60 that I still use. No I do not use diesel because they can not begin to compare to a good running gas motor. I mostly live and work at 6,000 so performance counts plus it is legal to drive. A number of years ago I put a rebuilt 409 in a Chevy C60 as it performed well. It did not get as good of mileage as my 390 powered C60 Ford, but it was a bigger motor. The Chevy could come up our hill
with 10 tons of AC on a 90 F day at maybe 35 to 45 MPH. Few diesels could do that. Here we laugh at automatics as they just do not work. Auto will maybe go 10,000 and need a replacement. Here the C series make sense because they can turn much sharper. For you what are you going to do with it. You need more weight capacity or more motor or what. My biggest load on my C60 was grossed out at 45,000 and pulled our hill with out any problems. Would an additional trailer be of value. Along the lines of the F 600 looks good or the Chevy C60 would need to get rid of the auto. You could put a heavy rear end in what you have with a trailer. I would certainly look on CL across a few states and see if any thing shows. Thanks

 

[blades]

Ford v10 other than the exhaust bolt manifold bolts breaking ( replace with stainless steel no issues after that. it was a trouble free rig for me. It was the slightly later version with better spark plugs than the first units. Trick is to not run the plugs for 100k change them at 60k or so. Carbon build up on the tips is what causes the problem - same in the 5.4l. F350 4.77 rear end- 8-10 mpg auto 1999 unit. I do not mess around with just changing out one plug coil any more I just replace as sets- solves a lot of headaches chasing down miss fires. Note that the overhead cam timing system is run by oil pressure changing oil at 3k intervals is your best bet to stay out of trouble there.
7.3 ( 2002) turbo stick ( not many around) - turbo went out around 100k - rebuilt it still ok- head gasket leak - dang injector wiring is run through the gaskets ($$$). hydro assist went out on the clutch pia. One of the computer modules under dash( can't remember the name went out , ford no longer makes it( special to the stick unit) took a couple weeks to find a used one. Never had some of the earlier sensor issues.
6.0 ( 2004) Good engine if you have a complete delete done ( egr delete is primary) and after market coolers instead of oems- I am at 220000+ miles lost the hpop pump last summer, just had to replace the Icp & Ipr pieces a week ago. Now you are talking about a lot of heavy hauling so that would mean having the head bolts replaced with studs and the heads re-machined for a double O" ring seals/ Gasket set up ( any mech that says different go somewhere else). for me, time for a water pump replacement and as long as I am at that tear down point possibly a lpop and seals. Both at life expectancy. There are better after market turbos for this than oem, mine is fine so far. I am not running any fancy computer reprograming units not into that. At present getting 18 mpg empty F250 auto. about a 3.73 rear end I believe.
6.9 ford -- ran that one until the body and frame died of the red death only ongoing problem i had was I kept burning up the glow plug relay- some were noted for that- no idea why.

 

[Sandhill Crane]

I have a 2000 gmc 5500. Payed $4,700. several years ago. 12' flatbed, hydraulic brakes, Cat 3126, 6 speed, I forget the gvw, 20,500 maybe, can haul 9,000 tare per specs but it is plated for more, as the truck plate must cover the trailer weight as well. I get annual DOT inspections at a local shop. They go over the truck each spring before I use it, oil/filter change, etc. DOT annual inspection is not required for this size truck and how it is used.
Its been an okay truck. However, I just use it for firewood deliveries, so expensive in that respect. Plates are $600. Insurance $750. Annual maintenance easily a thousand to two thousand, as I do not work on it myself. The engine is great at 340k. I replaced the trans/clutch, $5,500. An electric motor main brake backup, $1,000. Some other brake line replacement, and brake work. I would love to put a landscape dump body on it, and priced it out 10k. Mechanic says it is getting harder to find chassie parts.
Mine sits a lot, so not so good for it. I do like the short wheel base and payload for firewood. Running a bigger truck, I did get popped by DOT for $500. in fines. They were: not registered with DOT; no fire extinguisher; no triangles or flairs; no name/state/DOT numbers on truck. He did a road inspection as well. He mentioned a log book he did not write me for that. Because it is not required, nor is the DOT inspection sticker required for this size 'intra state' truck as used. But I had, and still have a current annual sticker.
In the end it is still a $5,000. truck even if it had a landscape dump on it, so I've never done it.

 

[catbuster]

My first dump truck was a late 1980s International S1700. DT466/5 speed (synchro trans, still blown away it was sunchronized.) Good, solid truck. The biggest issue I had with it was a hole in the floor. Fun truck, it lives on a farm now.

I belive SEPA means Southeast Pennsylvania. Watch your weights unless you have a Class A/B with a DOT physical. Keep it up to DOT spec, carry some reflective triangles and flares. If you don’t cross state lines and stay under 26,000 you might be able to get away, but man you’re pushing it up there. Logs are probably a good idea. PA is a lot more strict than KY on trucks. In KY you’re fine as long as you’re under 26,000 and stay in the state nobody cares as long as you have a class D. PA isn’t a strict as Michigan, but just be careful.

I guess what I’m trying to say is: You’re pushing where you can get heavy in this size truck and get in trouble in a hurry, and trucks that size get pulled over a lot more than a 1-ton dump.

Now that I’ve said that, the 3208 Cat I’ve driven in two fire trucks and they were pretty bad. Maybe it was that they were mated to automatics and were using 200 hp to drag around 50,000. They’re supposed to be a really good marine engine but are not well regarded over the road because it’s a sleeveless engine that tends to overheat and have some serious issues. The 3116 is disappointing as well. The 6 liter Ford put in their trucks gets a bad rap but if you don’t dog it they do okay. I like them better than the 7.3, which are dead nuts reliable but kinda sluggish until they get up above 1700 RPM.

 

[300zx_tt]

My first dump truck was a late 1980s International S1700. DT466/5 speed (synchro trans, still blown away it was sunchronized.) Good, solid truck. The biggest issue I had with it was a hole in the floor. Fun truck, it lives on a farm now.

I belive SEPA means Southeast Pennsylvania. Watch your weights unless you have a Class A/B with a DOT physical. Keep it up to DOT spec, carry some reflective triangles and flares. If you don’t cross state lines and stay under 26,000 you might be able to get away, but man you’re pushing it up there. Logs are probably a good idea. PA is a lot more strict than KY on trucks. In KY you’re fine as long as you’re under 26,000 and stay in the state nobody cares as long as you have a class D. PA isn’t a strict as Michigan, but just be careful.

I guess what I’m trying to say is: You’re pushing where you can get heavy in this size truck and get in trouble in a hurry, and trucks that size get pulled over a lot more than a 1-ton dump.

Now that I’ve said that, the 3208 Cat I’ve driven in two fire trucks and they were pretty bad. Maybe it was that they were mated to automatics and were using 200 hp to drag around 50,000. They’re supposed to be a really good marine engine but are not well regarded over the road because it’s a sleeveless engine that tends to overheat and have some serious issues. The 3116 is disappointing as well. The 6 liter Ford put in their trucks gets a bad rap but if you don’t dog it they do okay. I like them better than the 7.3, which are dead nuts reliable but kinda sluggish until they get up above 1700 RPM.

SEPA is indeed South East PA. If I’m under 26k I don’t need a cdl. What else is there? I’m looking at an f-550 now. Has a gvw of 19,500. I don’t use it out of state, I’ll never drive it loaded more that 25-30 miles. As long as I have a commercial auto policy (it is after all a work truck) and I’m not over gvw I’ll be fine right? It’s got a 6.0 but it’s studded and deleted. My 7.3idi is a dog compared to this thing, less powerful than our 6.7 powerstoke utility body though.

 

[Deleted member 117362]

How about something like this? 2004 GMC C6500 275hp Cat with 7 speed. $5500.00 Friend owns it, says it runs well and ready to go.

 

[300zx_tt]

How about something like this?View attachment 720474 View attachment 720475 View attachment 720476 View attachment 720477 2004 GMC C6500 275hp Cat with 7 speed. $5500.00 Friend owns it, says it runs well and ready to go.

Yup, if that’s a dump I’d be interested? Where’s the truck located? How many miles? Regular oil changes done?

 

[catbuster]

SEPA is indeed South East PA. If I’m under 26k I don’t need a cdl. What else is there? I’m looking at an f-550 now. Has a gvw of 19,500. I don’t use it out of state, I’ll never drive it loaded more that 25-30 miles. As long as I have a commercial auto policy (it is after all a work truck) and I’m not over gvw I’ll be fine right? It’s got a 6.0 but it’s studded and deleted. My 7.3idi is a dog compared to this thing, less powerful than our 6.7 powerstoke utility body though.

Like I said, you need to check the local laws. Some aren’t as straightforward as one would hope.

PENDOT has some information here about licensing, it looks like of you stay intrastate and under 26,000 you’re good to go: https://www.dmv.pa.gov/Pages/FAQ Pages/Self-Certification-Medical-Examiner’s-Certification-FAQ.aspx

Michigan and California are two major PITA states as far as licensing go. I.E, any trailer in excess of 10,000 lb regardless of GCVWR (read: even under 26,000) requires a class A and an exempt A in Cali only applies to enclosed trailers. New York is weird too.

As far as that F-550 goes, that sounds like it would be a pretty solid truck.