Just wondering how hard it is to find air brake parts for the L8000's. I'm looking into picking up what i believe is a 1975. It has been sitting for atleast 6 years or more. It has the fuller roadranger 18speed, and the cat 3208.

I would like to build a totorhome out of it, and use it to pull the 2 pulling trucks after i pick up a larger trailer. On that note how hard would it be to mount a 5th wheel hitch (big truck style) onto the frame if i remove the dump?


And has anyone had any experiance converting a toterhome?

 

You need to determine the air brake type. Wedge or S cam. Wedge brakes had about a 20 year moment in the sun and did fall out of favor. Parts for wedge brakes are somewhat hard to find, or can be hard to find, depending upon the part(s) needed.

The S cam which came before wedge styles and are now back in force as the industry "standard" are much more readily available.

The advantage of wedge style brakes was that they were self adjusting in most cases.

As to the CAT 3208, they are defiantly a medium duty engine, not a heavy duty engine and do suffer when pushed hard. They are also not a lingered engine, so that limits rebuilding in frame somewhat. Is it a turbo or non? FTI, turbo blocks for 3208's are different than NS blocks, so it is not just something you can throw a turbo on. The NA engines will break.

Figure on about (in trucks, marine hp's are different) 160 - 215 hp NA, 225 - 250 hp turbo (probably closer to 225, truck 250's are rare, mostly motorhomes) so you will be rowing thru the gears and slowing down for any hills. Turning up the pump is really not a option, the exhaust temp should not exceed 1200 degrees, and can reach and exceed that pushed hard in stock form on hills. More fuel would only worsen this. Make sure that the truck has a pyro, stock or modified.

That L8000 and load is a lot of truck for a 3208, not to scare you, but those engines did not have a long life in that application for many operators. Those that had lighter loads and good drivers could get better life out of those engines.

And did I mention that CAT is real proud of there parts prices....

David

 

I think i will give it a real close look over tomorrow when i pick up the old 74 f250 up from them. I will probably try to start it. I'll have to decide.

I will have to check the brakes, i don't want something that doesn't have a jake and is hard to find brakes for. Although i will probably only use it less than 20x a year it will be all up and down mountains.

 

The 3208 is not in a hurry to get anywhere but they sure do have a unique sound to them.

60,000lbs is sure putzy to get moving with a 3208

 

It would a surprise if it had a jake brake, perhaps a exhaust brake, but even that was a rare option for most operators to spec.

David