Hello -
Happy to find this site. Is there a pay option for an ad free experience? Seeking advice on new to me truck purchase. Son fancies himself a diesel MT for no real reason other than to consider himself a bad *** I suppose. He is working on his heavy equipment operators certification so he will be driving on site and have to service equipment in a heavy snow area of the country. Any advice on buying and older diesel MT is appreciated.

Regards,

Bill

 

I am not a diesel guy so I may be the only one, but what do you mean by MT? You abbreviated it each time you used so I googled it and nothing in particular came up.

 

- Manual transmission
- mud terrain tires
- monster truck
-

 

Well his son would not be any of those but could be a Maintenance Tech.....

 

manual transmission - sorry fir the shorthand

 

correct- manual transmission

 

Going to be harder to find, and probably going to be MUCH higher mileage, meaning more likelihood of issues arising that don't relate to the transmission.

Frankly, the automatics that have been paired to Powerstrokes since '99 have not been the weak points in the driveline. If anything, the manual transmissions have been - the engines are de-tuned to produce less HP and torque when paired to a manual transmission. I would suggest that if he wants to have a 'bad-***' truck, he should open himself up to the automatics.

I prefer rowing through gears myself to letting the vehicle do it on its own, but the reality is that manufacturers have sunk a LOT of money into automatics to make them better, while not really doing anything for the manual transmissions that just don't sell on lots - when the 'take rate' gets down to less than 10%, it's goodbye to a feature that they don't make money on.

 

I can tell you from practical experience that if he wants to get into servicing construction equipment he needs a commercial license as service trucks for construction equipment are primarily long wheel based tractors with the equipment mounted on the back and they have to have commercial insurance on construction sites. Every construction or commercial site I have ever worked at has designated parking for private vehicles as they are not allowed on the actual construction site.

I work construction on power plants, refineries, chemical plants, and other such facilities. We are required to carry a $5,000,000.00 (yes FIVE MILLION DOLLAR) bond on our vehicles. That is why we are required to either use company vehicles or rentals as part of our contract. Now this is something the legal department has set up for us so there is no worries.

For a short period of time I did use my own truck and trailer on sites but with an almost $1,200.00 a month insurance premium this got expensive quick plus what they wanted for the bond and I had to have proof of both for my entry permits. Add to this that on job sites you have to leave your keys in the vehicle at all times so you walk up and some clowns are sitting in your truck blasting the AC or heat, jamming to tunes and stealing from your personal belongings it's not a pretty site.

 

EDC8008
Your information is very accurate... I spent many years in the Heavy Industrial construction arena.

There are some niche areas where a "One Man Show" field service man can make a good living... Just a few examples (for a guy who wants to hustle)... Logging equipment (wide open spaces, no security gate to go through). The down side is there is no porta potty, water, cell phone service, etc... Another place is at the actual yard / office of the contractor where his equipment lot is located. When they bring back a piece of equipment, often it is in need of a good servicing. On many of the big jobs there is an "Off Site" area specifically for maintenance or repairs they do not want to assume any liability for...

Never hurts to go by the closest Operating Engineer's and chat with an agent or dispatcher.... Ask questions but listen to every word said. Sometimes they have a language of their own.. God gave man two ears and one mouth for a reason.. That is a "Supply and Demand" world. A lot has to do with timing. If the hall is empty and the dispatcher has been sitting on a HDRW (Heavy Duty Repairman / Welder) for 3 days, he has motivation to fill it.

I have the greatest respect for the true "Field Service Mechanic"..... Be it a guy working for CAT, John Deere or the other manufacturer's... On the other hand, a smaller contractor with an aging fleet can't afford to have a Dealer mechanic work on his stuff... One more twist is if a Field Service Mechanic is a certified welder, that opens up another different (but related) field.... Having a versatile truck setup is also a plus. Having an air compressor, welder and boom opens up that much more for him.....

A true Field Service Mechanic is now being put on the Endangered Species List..... God Bless 'em.

Hobo

 

I wanted a gas MT truck this summer. Was also looking for low-ish miles, 4x4 and a back seat. Ended up finding a lightly used 04 5.4L supercab with 110K miles. Nice shape, but base model. My dream would be to find a 2005-2010 V10 CC SB 4x4 with the stick, XLT trim. I saw one for sale recently with 422K miles. Yikes. If it were cheap I would have considered it and just been ready to rebuild the major components. At some point, the stick shift trucks will be all ridden into the ground. Until then, I will keep shifting.

 

Here you go:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/2000-Ford-F...%7C1000%7C2500
$20K not chump change for an old truck, although that particular one had only 77,000 on it and there's documented trucks with 10x that mileage (no joke).

Buddy of mine owns a company in Western MA and does exactly what your son is about to do (fix and repair heavy equipment; at one time he did mobile repairs to broken down semis on the road too but I think he gave that part of the biz up). All his Service Trucks are bone stock SuperDutys with a service bed aka utility bed and AUTOMATIC transmissions, when you're out in the field all day working on stuff you'll be much happier driving home in an automatic. He got so tired of all the field work he built a huge shop at his house to have broken equipment hauled to. Your son will probably be able to make a lot of money quickly, my buddy built a pretty big business in 10 years because he was the only game around.

If he really wants a Diesel with the ZF 5speed he should only buy a 7.3 PowerStroke. There's 6.0s out there for cheap money, but there's a reason for that (FICM, Headgaskets, EGR, HPOP, etc; just read up on the 6.0 PSD issues) there's just no need to deal with all that B.S. that goes along with a 6.0 when you don't have to (there are "Bullet Proof" options but you're talking a lot of work to do headstuds and swap parts; like the cab is supposed to come off to lift the heads), the 6.4 is a trash engine as well even worse than the 6.0 but that might be a moot point as I don't think you could get a manual with those; 6.7 now 10 years old has proven itself as a decent engine but there's no manuals with those trucks. I've logged 10s of thousands of miles driving 7.3s and those trucks were flawless (also they were pretty new at the time), in 80,000 miles that truck needed front pads and the rotors turned and 8 oil changes! Really the smart money for a young guy starting off is to find a Gasoline powered truck because the demand is lower and with a utility body he can lock up his tools out of sight (demand for retired utility bed trucks doesn't seem to be all that great either). All the young guys today want the Diesels, demand is extremely high where the "slow" trucks like the early 2 Valve 5.4s and V-10s are a fraction of the price (avoid 3 Valve 5.4 at all costs). Locally the older manual Diesel trucks seem to all have been lifted, tuned and beat to hell going out to oil fields and I would run away from any tuned or lifted truck.