Medium duty trucks

[Anonymous-0]

Hi everyone. I am a fairly active tractor guy with pulls and everything else I'm begining to think I need more TRUCK. I will admit I only have a gas 3/4 ton. But new or newer diesel are spendy. I am seriously considering buying a medium duty truck. I realy like the Freightliner fl60's and 70's. With a pickup you still in my opiniion you don't have adeqit brakes for the heavy loads. I just feel beter about having a heavier duty truck. I already have a class A with air brakes so no problem there. But I woul like to hear some opions on people who own similar trucks like this. What kind of milage do you guys get??? It seems the average horse power range available out there is 230 to 300 with either cat or cummins for these trucks. It seems to me that's what todays diesel pickups are but I don't have so I'm not sure. Also how well do they pull? We have some trucks I drive at work that are 350hp and we are always close to 80,000 and they seem to do a decent job. Will the smaller motors like the 250 hp range handle 2 to 4 tractors nicely??? I am curently looking at a 230 hp cummins and a 6 speed behind it. Will this do the job I want it to??? I would rather have closer to 300hp and a 9 speed. But those seem to be hard to find. Well I hope some of you have some good and maybe bad experiences to share with me. Thanks

 

[AndrewFromNS]

I've never driven anything larger than a pick-up, though I would like to, and I've never trailered a tractor, so this will be of little use to you. But...just for laughs, I hit up AutoTrader to see what was floating around, and for what price. Within my province (Nova Scotia) there's a 2000 Freightliner FLD-120 with a 475-horse CAT backed by a 13-speed, on 75% new tires, for under $20K. Thats a semi-tractor, though, and seems like it might be more than you need.

However...if I were going to be doing much more than just casual hauling (or if I knew guys in the area that needed stuff hauled), i'd seriously consider something like that. For the price, you're getting a LOT more than a pick-up truck for what I consider a pretty good price. Not a daily driver by any stretch, and fuel economy would be right off the chart, but we're not here to make a profit, are we?

AR

 

[john_Bud]

How much tractor are you pulling? You can buy a lot of fuel for the price of a medium duty truck!

 

[Anonymous-0]

Hi Josh,

I went from a 1 Ton to a 33k GVW dump I made from a 1988 IH 2375 single axle tractor. It's got a 280hp Cummins L10 and a 9 spd. The air brakes are great, power is great and the 9 speed has a much slower reverse than the 6 or 7 speeds. I get maybe 8-10 mpg. Better if I run the engine at 1800rpm/60mph on the highway. For what it cost to put together, I can buy a lot of fuel before I get near the cost of a newer diesel.

I'm thinking of doing another one from a 93 IH 8100 w/a Cat 275hp 3176 and a 9 speed, but this time set up with a lighter flatbed and gooseneck. I just need to run the insurance and reg numbers on a 28' trailer I want to pull.

Nils

 

[Anonymous-0]

Well in searching the market it looks like a person can get a lot of truck in the 20,000 dollar price range. As compared to 30,000,s plus for a good pickup. I'm scared of some of the earlier diesel pickups with all the tranny problems and other things. With the truck I currently have pulling anything over 12,000 it's not going to last long. So it will need to be replaced anyway. It seems more and more I'm over loading stuff. This just looks like a good option.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Hey now this is the kind of info I'm looking for. So how much weight do you figure you are hauling around when you get 8-10 mpg? Within reason the diesel motor should maintain milage with a load. Unlike the gas the milage will fall off a cliff when you put a good size load behind it. I believe the cummins L10 is a bigger motor than what it seems freightliner puts in the smaller fl series truck but I,m not sure. Yea air brakes would be very nice they sure work good.

 

[Anonymous-0]

My 1991 280HP L-10 with 9 speed only gets 5-6mpg. Truck weighs 23000 empty 60000 loaded. Each trip is loaded one direction empty the other.

 

[Floyd A tn]

I have a 2007 freightliner m2 106. It has the 300 hp cat and 9 speed. I get around 10-14 mpg on short hauls.. A little better when hauling on interstate.

I pull a 310sg backhoe most of the time. On occations I pull a 120 jd excavator.. The excavator weighs 36000 lbs..

When I bought this truck, the cost was on slightly more than an f550 ford with a 230 hp diesel, and an hd3500 gm truck.. By slightly i mean lees than 2500 dollars..

I love this truck.. Plenty of power and very usable..

 

[Haywood]

Floyd Has the Idea.

Freightliners With Cat or Cummins & 6 Speed Eaton will do the Job.

Sterling trucks offer MERCEDES BENZ, CAT & CUMMINS Engines.
They are a Subsidiary of the Freightliner LLC

 

[Anonymous-0]

The truck weighs 17k empty the trailer 3500 and the tractor is 10k so that gets me to 30-31k. When the trailer brakes failed once I had absolutely no problem stopping. Also, I forgot to mention, anything like a DT466 w/160-225 hp is going to be a slug getting up to speed. That's why I go for class 7/8 drivetrains.

 

[jwal10]

That little truck you are looking are what all the little haulers are using, they are called Hot Shot trucks, They will haul up to 33,000 lbs without a cdl if no air brakes, over that you will need cdl, or with air brakes. Not over powered but they give great milage. We run air and a 5-6 yard dump box loaded and do haul a trailer with a 580 k backhoe. We have Ford 7000's, Sterling, and Freightliners, some with automatics. Nice little rigs. That is a lot more motor than in a pickup...James

 

[Anonymous-0]

hey fellows
i travel about 50-60,000 ayear hauling lite freight and was using a 2005 f-350 48' goose neck total empty weight of 17000lb. 12mpg empty to 8mpg pulling 29000lb to many mootor problems not enough good mechanic. stepped up to a 2007 f-650 4 dr 300hp cat 860 torq 6sp fuller. same trailer total weight 20,000 empty 35.000 loaded. i get13 empty-- 12mpg empty with trailer/8mpg loaded 35000lb +. i LOVE the difference in the air brakes and the drivability. you get a 3yr 3600 hr motor warranty and the ride is good and i get a lot of looks. personaly the cummins does not have the torq that a cat has. if i was u i would get all the motor i could so u wont regret it later. "personaly". LH

 

[caterpillar guy]

The earlier FL 70 had the same engine as the dodge pickup had and at about 275-300,000 miles they were shot needed the overhaul thing. The FLD 120 would be more truck than needed but the one axle could be removed and the drive shaft changed to lighten it up milage will be around the 5-6 MPG though. It would opt for an early Pete 330 model they were designed for the 300-350 HP with the 5-10 spd trans in a single axle configuration for the local delivery or over the road application in straight or semi versions.

 

[ericlb]

new info, the company truck i drive is a 2005 peterbilt 330 tandem axle dump, it is operating in the mountains between 5500 feet and up, the highest road in the area is 12000 feet up, we gross 50 to 52 thousand lbs per load and get 8 to 9 mpg all the time, the engine is the cummins i believe 315 tranny is a 8LL it does good powerwise, cdl required to operate, now that being said, my personal kenworth will run rings around it but it has a 3406 cat, 13 speed, and gets 4.5 mpg, when you fuel up, all that power isnt near as nice that beast gets hungry, it will burn over a hundred gallons on a normal day, the pete will run 2.5 days on the same amount of diesel

 

[wilson2]

We have a 2001 Kenworth T300 with the 315 ISC Cummins, super 10 speed and air ride. I like the air brakes alot better than the hyd. we had on the old International. The Cummins engine never lacks for anything. Running loaded we get 9.2 mpg, unlaided 11.4 mpg. We run commercial loads with this unit and are loaded 90% of the time. Have ran 480k with only 1 fuel pump replacement. From what I have heard, the guys running the ISB or the cat 3126 complain about being under powered in the hills, plus they are always complaining about the smaller trans. If I was to get a truck for pulling 3 or more tractors, I would go bigger rather than smaller...

Good Luck!