For what it's worth, I vote no.

 

In my area if you want a 4wd super duty in the $4000 price range you will find nothing newer than a 2001 and the miles will be no less than 250k. It will probably have some rust also. I think you have a good deal if your budget is $4000.

 

I was in a position similar to yours awhile back, except the truck was a 2000 F550 with a V10, and passed on it even at scrap value. The only reason I even considered that truck is I know about half of its lifespan, and worked on it quite a bit. The thing about railroad trucks is that while many off a Class 1 RR (NS, UP, CSX, BNSF, etc.) will be well maintained and fairly well taken care of, most employees see it as a company truck, and treat it as such. From what I can tell that truck was either treated extremely well and wasn't beat on, or has had a fair share of body work done to it to help resell value (Quite possible that it originally had a utility body on it). That truck looks to have had factory rims put back on at least, saving one headache. Hi-rail trucks have rims that make the track-width narrower than stock so that the tires will sit on the track properly.

You won't be able to get the hi-rail gear put back on the truck even if you tried. Leaving the gear on poses a tremendous liability concern, and the gear itself is quite expensive at that (many models can be around $10K). With leaving the gear on, Jo-Blow or Billy-Bob could go out and start riding the tracks with nobody knowing he is there, leading to a major incident. As far as weight goes, the weight of the truck is distributed between the hi-rail gear and the wheels itself on most pickup models, as you need to have enough traction to move the vehicle yet at the same time you need enough to keep the gear from jumping the tracks.

While I understand that you need a truck to haul a trailer for work, without knowing the former company it belonged to, specific maintenance records, and having a warranty on it, I would pass on it. Again, it is a railroad truck and was more than likely treated as such.

 

I would offer $2750.

 

I can help clarify a few things here, you clearly know your stuff! The truck is from UP. It did not have body work done, it is surprisingly original. It was also not a utility body, as many other trucks that he got from UP had them left on. He said they had a few normal bed trucks (like this) and the rest were utility bodies. This has the best body of them all, the others look worn.

To other posters, as Charlie was saying, they are not sold with the railroad gear.

 

An 08 with 4x4 and a good body, even with a KNOWN bad engine, would be worth $4K to someone who wanted to fix it. This one doesn't have a known bad engine, just a lot of miles.