Brought the new Voltage 3818 home..........

Frankandbeans wrote:
You know at first, I saw set ups like your guys' and thought "Holy******these people must be millionaires".

That's a big misconception. HDTs can be had for far less than a new 1 ton. We paid $42K for our Volvo with about 470,xxx on the odometer (if I remember correctly). Quite a bit less than our current Ram.

I had a few things replaced right after I purchased it. Other than that, no mechanical issues during the 4 years we had it. Dave already mentioned the benefits of pulling with an HDT.

There are a lot of good, used, reasonably priced HDTs on Truck Paper. Wouldn't be difficult to acquire one.

Frankandbeans wrote:
How many miles on your rig? You know at first, I saw set ups like your guys' and thought "Holy******these people must be millionaires". So I did some googling. You can find some pretty nice mid 90's rigs anywhere from $10-$20k, with chassis around a million miles and usually the rebuilt engine have ~400k on it. In comparison to a new diesel truck ($50-60k) it's a bargain of a life time...you just need a place to keep the thing. Considering even the heaviest toy hauler is a joke to one of those rigs, it's gonna live the easiest life a tow rig of that size could.

What's your average towing mileage, and at what speed?

Howdy Frankandbeans,

I have over 60K invested in my one ton dually Dodge that I used to tow with, wish I could sell it for half of that. I paid 25K for the 2002 Freightliner, it had 727,632 miles on it when I bought it, it has a 12.7 Detroit diesel engine, 10 speed Eaton-Fuller three pedal Auto-Shift transmission and 3.55 gears in the rear axle. I have put close to 20,000 miles on it in the last year and a half and it will probably go for another 200,000 miles before it needs any major repairs, at my age ( 66 ) that truck will be running long after I will have stopped driving it.

The truck was setup ready to tow with the custom built rear deck, storage compartments and air ride 5th wheel hitch. I usually tow the trailer with the cruise control set at 63 mph the Freightliner gets from 7.8 to 9.3 hand calculated miles per gallon towing up and down mountains all day every day. My truck is NOT governed, it can and I have when needed passed other vehicles that were clogging up the road, the truck by itself will easily do 90+ mph, towing the trailer it will go well beyond speeds that any sane person would ever tow an RV trailer at. The 7.8 mpg was towing west into a head wind while climbing the mountains in Wyoming, the 9.3 was while driving across the great plains in Kansas, my over all average mileage is 8.3 day in day out up or down. I live out west I can't go anywhere with having to cross mountain ranges.

The Freightliner came set up with two nice bunk, a microwave, refrigerator, portapotty, TV and video player, it is set up with shore power, it also has a Honda 2000i generator in one of the storage compartments. I have used the truck as a stand alone RV by itself while carrying motorcycles on the rear deck. It is registered and titled as a "Motor home", no CDL license needed as it is NOT a truck it is a registered RV, not for hire. So no need to stop at scales etc. Using the truck as a stand alone RV it gets 10 to 12 miles per gallon. Its also way cheaper to insure and a heck of a lot more comfortable and quite to ride in all day long.

You can't put a price on SAFETY, I don't worry about going up or down mountain grades anymore, I don't worry about brakes being smoked half way down a grade I rarely use the regular brakes other then coming to a full stop. If myself and my wife ever have the misfortune to be in a wreck I'd much rather be in the Freightliner then the Dodge. Bottom line, wish I had done this years and many, many thousands of dollars ago.

Dave

How many miles on your rig? You know at first, I saw set ups like your guys' and thought "Holy******these people must be millionaires". So I did some googling. You can find some pretty nice mid 90's rigs anywhere from $10-$20k, with chassis around a million miles and usually the rebuilt engine have ~400k on it. In comparison to a new diesel truck ($50-60k) it's a bargain of a life time...you just need a place to keep the thing. Considering even the heaviest toy hauler is a joke to one of those rigs, it's gonna live the easiest life a tow rig of that size could.

What's your average towing mileage, and at what speed?

Mr. Cob wrote:
Howdy All,

All I can say is, in my opinion using an HDT as a tow vehicle is the cheapest, safest, best way to tow a large trailer of any kind.
Dave

As a previous HDT owner pulling a DRV 5th wheel, I can say I agree with you. Towing with our Volvo 770 was pure joy.

Enjoy your new 5'er.

Howdy All,

Thanks for the replies. A while back I started a thread about using a HDT ( Heavy Duty Truck ) as a tow vehicle it was an interesting thread that covered a lot of ground and I think was quite informative to those unfamiliar with the idea. All I can say is, in my opinion using an HDT as a tow vehicle is the cheapest, safest, best way to tow a large trailer of any kind. In the last year I have towed the old toy hauler over 12,000 miles, towing the new one home was a 500 mile trip up and down mountains, across the plains and high desert with ease and comfort.

Dave

Very sharp, have many great times in your new Voltage.

Sa-weet. At least you'll never have to worry about not having enough truck !! :)

Still looks small compared to your truck. Beautiful setup. Enjoy your new toy hauler. Happy camping