So I currently have a 02 Silverado 2500HD that I only use for truck stuff. Gravel, mulch, scrap runs, lumber, etc. Its getting pretty rough and will need replaced soon. Pickup truck prices have gone stupid, and it's hard to imagine finding a replacement for under $10k. But I'm seeing medium duty trucks $3-4000 range. My thinking is if I'm gonna buy a truck just for truck stuff, why not buy a serious truck? Like an international from the 90s. Maybe a dump truck. Am i dumb?
You'll need to check a few things first. Is the GVW over 26,000lbs? You might need a CDL license.
Do you have room to park it?
Are you in a neighborhood with an HOA that won't allow commercial vehicles?
Call your insurance company and see what they have to say.
I agree it sounds like an interesting idea.
Buy a 1/2 ton pickup and a dump trailer. Drive the pickup and when needed, hook up the dump trailer and grab your "stuff". A BIG dump truck would be nice, but I wouldn't want the expense, upkeep for a vehicle I would only use once or twice every couple weeks.
In reply to Gearheadotaku (Forum Supporter) :
I live on 3 acres in a very rural area, so parking and nosy neighbors are no problem.
A (somewhat) bigger problem is it wouldn't fit in my shop for service. It would fit in my dads building only two miles away, there would just be the aggravation of hauling tools over to work on it. Not a huge deal, but something to consider.
I was going to email my insurance guy tomorrow to get a rough idea on that cost.
I have always wanted one of those Izuzu NPRs with the quad cab and various bed configurations depending on my mood when I am thinking about it. . (Ramp truck, Normal Truck bed, Tipper, RV box etc).
Let us know what insurance says.
In reply to nocones :
We had a few customers that had NPR's. As a mechanic I loved them. With the cab tipped up working on the engine was almost like having it on an engine stand. And it was a chevy 350, so it was super simple and dependable.
I bought a MD truck about 8 years ago to tow our 5th wheel. Maintenance is very expensive. Insurance is very expensive. Tags are very expensive. My lug nut wrench is a 4 to one multiplier. (Lug nut torque speck is 400 ft lbs. )
Great truck, love driving it, but look at overall costs.
I even researched insurance first. Those prices all went away after I bought it...
A lot of MD truck these days have juice brakes (hyd. discs instead of air) and can be rated under 26.5K, so not hard to deal with there. If you can prove it’s not for commercial use, (such as an RV) Air brakes nor weight matter, but the burden of proof is on you for the law, and insurance still might not agree.
Six tires instead of four.
I'm out right there.
Seems you can't find what you want in a pickup. For me, I'm reinvesting in my F-250. I'd like to update but I'm gonna stick with the devil I know (and it's been a great truck.)
The real price craziness seems to be around 4 doors and 4x4. That's what everyone wants and everyone is willing to pay for. There still seem to be bargains to be had in single cabs and especially single cabs with just rwd. Can you get away with just that? If youre looking at medium duty, like an international, they are probably single cab and rwd only.
Here's a 2008 Ram it's just a 6 cyl and then a short box and manual trans. That's a generally undesirable combination. He's priced high at $6k but anything under $4.9k might be reasonable. Probably a reliable combination of your okay with the light capabilities.
My insurance guy, who I've known since high school and has always been a pretty straight shooter, says that I would be looking at an increase of a couple hundred dollars a year over a regular pickup truck.
Most contractors I know who buy dump trucks are hard-working folks who don't have the luxury of buying a new truck every 2-3 years. They work their rigs HARD and only retire them when they absolutely have to. A dually-dump on the used markek around here would be rusted, busted, and have 400,000 miles on it.
The best used work vehicles I see are from Fire departments. Lots of sitting around and waiting, idle time may be high but mileage is often low. Another good source is fleets from the cable companies and utilities. Lot's of short trips, but they are usually well-maintained and replaced before they get too beat up.
I want one of these and will have one, someday lol
ddavidv said:Six tires instead of four.
I'm out right there.
Not only that but the tires cost about 2x each and will age out well before they wear out. I suffer some cognitive dissonance in having to throw away a tire that looks perfectly good except for its date code.
I totally understand the want, though. I went to a Rallycross divisional event down in TVR's region a few years back and one of the guys had an International 4300 crewcab with a pickup bed on it. A friend of my dad's has this minty-new Ford F450 or 550 or something that's the same basic deal - crewcab with a pickup bed - but his is all plushy inside with plenty of leather and woodgrain and stuff like that. After driving my dad's NPR truck a few years back, I often dreamed of turning one into a pickup or a ramp truck. It takes a little get used to sitting in front of the steering, but it was a neat little truck with surprisingly good "around town" manners.
In reply to John Welsh :
I could definitely live with a regular cab and two wheel drive. The problem is around here trucks like that are hard to find, unless they are fleet trucks that have been rode hard and put away wet. The bulk of those are half tons, and I would prefer to go heavier.
One big down side I see with a medium duty is let's say I want to go 100 miles to buy an engine or trans. That would suck to do in a biggun.
My dad had a 93 chevy C3500, 6.5 turbo diesel with a five speed and single rear wheel. Something like that would be ideal really.
Prices seem to have leveled up lately. I am looking for a *clean* example of what you have now to replace my F250 and people are asking 5k for dumpsters, 10k for rough trucks and 15+ for OK ones and 20k for what I'd think to buy for 10k 
I have a "rode hard" fleet truck now, never skips a beat so maybe don't discount that one so much. Just need more seats so we don't have to take two cars every time I take the trailer somewhere.
I'm all for crazy big trucks, but I think it's important to match the truck to your needs. If what you have now is good for you, why not put some of that "new truck" money back into it?
I've often said that it would take at least a $10k or $15k truck to make me choose to give up on my old '85 C30 Dooley, and for that reason, I'll probably keep it forever.
In that vein, my neighbor has a pretty solid '95 F250 that he bought new, drove a number of years, sold, then bought back. He's going to basically replace every suspension part, restore it, and have it painted.
The devil you know is better than the devil you don't know. Fix and pretty up what you have.
This summer, I might need to take some POR15 to my wheel wells. It won't stop it but it will slow it. Probably add some plastic fender flares too.
More POR15 to the bottoms of the inner doors would be wise too.
My AC in this truck has never worked. Oddly, the compressor had been pulled and replaced with a dummy pulley. The lines from drier to condenser have been broken off. Therefore, it really needs it all. I figure that could mean $1k. Would be nice to have but so far I've survived without it.
In reply to John Welsh :
That's a nice looking truck.
This one has caught my attention. My brain is starting to say this is probably a bad idea overall, my heart wants real life tonka trucks.
I used to deliver parts in an International like the one above. The seating was awkward; the pedals kinda felt like they were right under the seat. But I loved how it didn't wobble around with whatever weight in it. We had one with an Allison automatic, and I hated it with the fury of a million suns; they're not fast to start with, and that thing never managed to be doing more than 40mph by the time I ran out of onramp.
I rented an NPR when I put the garage stuff in storage, and it was *terrifying* the way it porpoised. Just crazy. And this one only had a few thousand miles on it. You'd go over some wavy pavement and by the third oscillation you were clearing the seat. Bummer, 'cause I think they're awfully cool. I wonder if Ohlins makes anything...
The Mercedes Yupididid posted is rad. I love those things. Or at least the look of them. I want a Unimog, but I don't see myself doing much off roading, so why limit myself to 55mph and need a crane to load anything? I mean, I want to do a little dirt stuff for giggles, but...
I imprinted badly on Ford C-series at some point. I wonder how mechanically modernized they were between '63 and '90?
And then of course while not as cheap as an old industrial medium-duty, the amount of truck for the money on the surplus LMTVs sure makes a recent crew cab 4x4 look silly...
RWD Dually, single cab asking $3.5k from down in southern KY (less rust.)
I've owned a few bigguns. Not dump trucks, but commercial vehicles. I've had two step vans and two 26' box trucks. One was a Ford F800 with a Cummins 5.9 and the other was an International with a DT444. Both were manuals, one with an Eaton Road Ranger (sweet) and one was a Spicer (not sweet).
I wouldn't call them comfy cruisers, but you mentioned not wanting to take them 100 miles to pick up an engine... I took my Ford 2500 miles from L.A. to PA in 4 days, then 1600 miles to Austin TX the next weekend. Not cushy, but not much different from an F350 work truck.
My big problem with dumps, boxes, and other medium duty stuff is that the bed is ridiculously high. It makes daily use for things like lumber, engines, and things just nearly impossible. There was no way I could use an engine hoist to load an engine in either of the box trucks, nor would I want to. With a 4' high deck, I would need the point of the hoist to be at least 7' off the ground. Liftgate or dock, otherwise it's kinda useless.
That is honestly why I had the step vans. Easy loading with decks that were even lower than an F150 or S10. One of them had the slide-out ramp that made things super simple. Monster cargo capacity, low deck, and designed for abuse. Big drawback.... noise. Aluminum boxes are squeaky, rattly, and very loud.
I agree with Ransom on the NPR and other small Japanese COEs... or CIFOEs (cab in front of engine). It's like you're sitting on the end of a diving board with someone behind you jumping up and down. Fine for what they are, but driving them is a genuine chore.
Oh, yeah, that's a really good point: They are not very comfy to ride in. I used my dad's F-uh... 600? 800? Don't recall, but it was a 25,999lb box truck with a liftgate to move from Lexington, KY to Canton, OH and then from Canton back to Northern KY. It kept up with traffic, but it wasn't really fast. It was oppressively loud. And by the time I arrived, it felt like my organs had been prepared to James Bond's specifications: shaken, not stirred. Lots of fun to drive around town but it will wear on you pretty quickly. Maybe there's something available that's less of a day cab, or maybe fitting in some sound deadening and a pneumatic seat would make it better.
Oh, and stop and go traffic is kind of a nightmare due to the really heavy clutch.
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