Anybody consider a semi for a tow vehicle?

Its not only not working hard ,its not working at all.

3 years one oil change and thats maintenance no other cost what so ever , nada

It took 3 years to = 1 month worth of commercial miles.One single month,you know that garage queen you had ? you know in the one shop every year for a major repair ?
I could use it for 12 years before it broke down on me

You have to shake the commercial duty mind set

I don't think that duty cycle has as much to do with it as you would like to believe. Just because the big truck is not working hard does not mean that you are going to see a decline in costs that is equal to its light duty cycle. It would be nice but its not directly proportional.

Comparing the 6.0 to the capability of current diesel pickups is not what I had in mind. Shall we say 2011 and newer 3500-5500 (350-550) are substantial more capable than previous pickup trucks both in power and towing capability.

These trucks last and run like they do because they typically run at constant rpm for hours at a time. Putting a class 8 on an RV will be much like using a 5500 as a passenger car. Your used 8 may like that or it may not, much depending on how much emission equipment it has.

I just don't think that buyers of these trucks should be lead to believe that you put an 8 on your RV and it magically moves your RV with no issues. Especially since these will all be used trucks, there will be costs and they can be crazy expensive depending on your luck and your driving ability.

bstark wrote:
His reasoning was that before retiring and still owning a home he was doing a lot of Provincial/State Park camping during vacations with shorter stays and weather be damned stuff. He felt without the inter-locks and power-divider option of all four in the back driving, he might not get his front axle out of some softer spots.

It has proven to ride significantly better than a single axle with duals for side to side pitching and rougher roads as well.

He's very happy with it going on 12 years of snowbirding now.

Makes perfect sense.

ksss wrote:

wintersun wrote:
These are Class 8 trucks with a GVWR of 33,000 lbs. or more. I can no more see using one of these to tow a 13,000 lb. 5th wheel travel trailer load than using a 1-ton DRW truck to tow a 300 lb. kayak trailer.

More than 80% of the people I see pulling 5th-wheel trailers are doing so with a SRW truck. A 3/4 ton pickup is all that is needed even for the 13,500 lb. gross vehicle weight trailer, and very few 5th wheel travel trailers exceed even 11,000 lb.s gross vehicle weight.

My 2500HD pickup ton truck is rated for towing a 5th wheel trailer load of up to 17,300 lbs., so why would I go buy a Freightliner M2? I don't know about what you can get for $10,000 but a used M2 106 in good condition sells for a great deal more. Current ones listed on www.truckpaper.com are priced at $80K for a 2007.

Every aspect of operating and maintaining the truck is going to be three times as expensive as a pickup and forget about parking it anywhere except on the street (where laws allow). I could not see one of these trucks pulling a 5th wheel getting into 99% of the state and national campgrounds. OK is you like to stay at highway rest areas and at truck stops.

You should ask yourself if these trucks are such a good solution why is that nobody is using them for this purpose? Look again when you see one of these trucks towing a 5th wheel and you will notice that it is pulling a large horse trailer or commercial trailer or multi vehicle trailer and not a travel trailer.

This my thought as well. I own and run class 8's. I personally would not put an 8 on an RV but to each his own. The biggest issue for a person with an average bank account is simply the costs involved. It is all good until you have to have them worked on (before anyone buys one they really need to investigate engine, tranny rebuilds), while I totally get they are made to run, they do break down. Buy a newer one and you get to deal with DPF issues, no small issue with someone who pulls an RV where the engine is barely able to stay warm pulling such a light load. Tires are expensive and there are a lot of them. When your making money with them, the costs of running them is simply a part of business (but it still hurts when you have major component failure), running one simply for recreation would be unacceptable to me. Lastly it is not necessary, with the capability of these new pickup based tow rigs, but if you want to play "big rig trucker" on the weekends these can fill that need. You just need to make sure you have a "big rig checking account" when the truck goes to the shop.

While this might be true as a comparison of the two truck types being used at the optimal or upward limits of their respective duty cycles but certainly not true for two trucks with the lighter duty one being used closer to it's upper end and the heavy duty one never again even being required to breath hard.

Secondly; as we've all witnessed with the lighter duty species, when (not if)they have a design problem that comes back to bite their owners it can sometimes wipe out that cost advantage tenfold. There are probably more than a few Ford 6 lire diesel owners who went through the head bolt stretch, followed by the intercooler plug-up followed by the......... and so on and so on debacle with carrying the full costs of those with their own wallet to the tune of possibly $10K in associated expenses and doing without their truck for months at a time.

Costs can be significant when one is unfortunate enough to have a light duty diesel purchased from a dealer with a less than stellar mechanic pool for those diesels whereas commercial guys cannot tolerate significant income loss through downtime garnered from a mechanic typical of the "let's throw this part at it and see what that does" genre.

My own experience with a Chevy Duramax of the early variety and an International 530DTE showed overall maintenance costs being cheaper for the International considering same time span of ownership, following all the recommended mileage based scheduled required maintenance. Just the stupid fuel filter alone was an eye opener with costing me over $80 clams for the dinky little spin on Duramax specific thing and a paltry $6.00 for the trash can sized International cartridge. Brakes for a pick-up being tasked with performing a significant portion of the downhill retarding of an RV trailer are almost a bi-annual thing while the shoes for the International were still good to go after four times the towing mileage with a far heavier trailer and truck combo.

It's all relative to the duty cycle they're being asked to perform.

rjstractor wrote:

bstark wrote:

Actually; a friend ordered a new Mack Vision 630 in 04 with full condo sleeper and auto-shift and immediately removed his inner wheels on both of his tandems. He consulted with Mack and got all the engineering authorization to maintain warranty due to his never using it for commercial and never hooking the thing to anything heavier than his Mountain Aire.

That's interesting but I find it a little odd that your friend ordered a truck with tandems just to pull an RV. I wonder why he didn't get a single axle. For RV duty you could probably run SRW on a single axle tractor and still have plenty of tire capacity.

His reasoning was that before retiring and still owning a home he was doing a lot of Provincial/State Park camping during vacations with shorter stays and weather be damned stuff. He felt without the inter-locks and power-divider option of all four in the back driving, he might not get his front axle out of some softer spots.

It has proven to ride significantly better than a single axle with duals for side to side pitching and rougher roads as well.

He's very happy with it going on 12 years of snowbirding now.

One thing owners and operators of the class 8 must remember we put way way less miles on them then you do in commercial service -your monthly service interval is my yearly.your minor overhaul every 4 years is my 12 year service .
the tires and brakes are essentially 'lifetime',oil change is every 3-4 years (30,000 miles)
you have to drop about 10 gears in your thinking ,this truck will save the purchase of at least one pick up ,thats 50K in my pocket at the end of my RV life.

wintersun wrote:
These are Class 8 trucks with a GVWR of 33,000 lbs. or more. I can no more see using one of these to tow a 13,000 lb. 5th wheel travel trailer load than using a 1-ton DRW truck to tow a 300 lb. kayak trailer.

More than 80% of the people I see pulling 5th-wheel trailers are doing so with a SRW truck. A 3/4 ton pickup is all that is needed even for the 13,500 lb. gross vehicle weight trailer, and very few 5th wheel travel trailers exceed even 11,000 lb.s gross vehicle weight.

My 2500HD pickup ton truck is rated for towing a 5th wheel trailer load of up to 17,300 lbs., so why would I go buy a Freightliner M2? I don't know about what you can get for $10,000 but a used M2 106 in good condition sells for a great deal more. Current ones listed on www.truckpaper.com are priced at $80K for a 2007.

Every aspect of operating and maintaining the truck is going to be three times as expensive as a pickup and forget about parking it anywhere except on the street (where laws allow). I could not see one of these trucks pulling a 5th wheel getting into 99% of the state and national campgrounds. OK is you like to stay at highway rest areas and at truck stops.

You should ask yourself if these trucks are such a good solution why is that nobody is using them for this purpose? Look again when you see one of these trucks towing a 5th wheel and you will notice that it is pulling a large horse trailer or commercial trailer or multi vehicle trailer and not a travel trailer.

This my thought as well. I own and run class 8's. I personally would not put an 8 on an RV but to each his own. The biggest issue for a person with an average bank account is simply the costs involved. It is all good until you have to have them worked on (before anyone buys one they really need to investigate engine, tranny rebuilds), while I totally get they are made to run, they do break down. Buy a newer one and you get to deal with DPF issues, no small issue with someone who pulls an RV where the engine is barely able to stay warm pulling such a light load. Tires are expensive and there are a lot of them. When your making money with them, the costs of running them is simply a part of business (but it still hurts when you have major component failure), running one simply for recreation would be unacceptable to me. Lastly it is not necessary, with the capability of these new pickup based tow rigs, but if you want to play "big rig trucker" on the weekends these can fill that need. You just need to make sure you have a "big rig checking account" when the truck goes to the shop.

Yes...I bought a 2001 Freightliner Columbia 120 Automatic with 600k miles on it to do hay transport..3 runs a year from ks/midwest to tx...and haul horses whenever needed in an RV/Horse trailer combo.

The truck had 2 bunks, huge space and could fly down the road hauling anything I ever connected to it. I never hauled anything more than 20k lbs...usually 5-7k

For many, the Air Ride Seats Alone makes a Semi the best tow vehicle option. Also..having 200gal tanks made my runs incredibly cheap. I was able to get good fuel economy and I shopped for fuel prices easier.



I got it for 10k at shelby elliots in missouri.
it needed

• Center tires front axle
  APU
  AC

I put a gooseneck ball behind the normal slider, a bumper hitch, electric brakes and 2 center tires on it for 1800 dollars.

I had to put a wiper motor ($14.00) and cab leveler (22.00) on it about 5mos later. NOTE. EVERYthing is easier to access on a Semi. Shop rates are often the same as light duty shops...sometimes cheaper.

2yrs later, I sold it for 15k and I did not fix the AC or put an APU on it.

I would do it again, no doubt about it...(IF I did NOT need a 4x4).

For hauling an RV...if I were to keep it and fulltime...
I would

• remove the center axle
• reset the rear to the front
• shorten the frame rails
• build a rear unit to keep a road bike and storage
• good hitch
• legally convert the truck into an RV (potty, water, etc)
  

If I were not going to keep it..I would leave the axles, put a rear bed on it, add a hitch and brake system and NOT convert it to an RV.
Drive it for 3-4 years and make all the money back on it..because NO Semi gets less 30k miles on it a year, like the more aggressive RV'ers might possibly do.

Pay 18-25k for a used average to just a little over average mileage Semi, Spent 2-3k in RV specific changes...then sell it and keep the RV Bed and reuse it later.

Again, I would do it again. Absolutely. I need a 4x4 tow and personal vehicle...otherwise it would be my option.

NOTE...I got an Automatic. For many gear grinders, they hate the smooth riding, better fuel economy automatics when hauling at or near the weight limits, that are sometimes forced upon them by the fleets.

The auto WAS a little slower when taking off and during the first 5 gears, but was a godsend when in traffic or when fueling up. My 5.0ft wife could push the clutch in just fine.

If you have a semi truck for a tow vehicle...you will sometimes have traction problems as well as turning radius issues. Better Ride, braking, fuel economy, fuel quantity, torque, power, safety, driving height and ease of repairs (lots of places have 24hr repairs for semis across the country) I think the tradeoff is worth it.

Good luck.

It may be a better weight balance on the front axle by running tandem axle singles instead of a single axle with duals. Is the deck only used for pin weight or is there a platform forward of the pin for a vehicle?

bstark wrote:

transamz9 wrote:

06Fargo wrote:
Class 8 trucks are duallys usually, except for the ones that are single rear wheel.

As long as you get a dually one you will be fine.

We are looking at class 8's - saw one with door sticker GCWR 140,000lbs.

The missus couldn't possibly pack...

Yeah, don't get a SRW class 8, you'll never here the end of it.:D

Actually; a friend ordered a new Mack Vision 630 in 04 with full condo sleeper and auto-shift and immediately removed his inner wheels on both of his tandems. He consulted with Mack and got all the engineering authorization to maintain warranty due to his never using it for commercial and never hooking the thing to anything heavier than his Mountain Aire. It rode way better with just the four outer aluminums and without the added unsprung weight of those other four steel inner wheels. His huge air/disk brakes were also cooled better because they were not hidden inside a wheel. Service guys loved the set up as everything was much easier to view and work on.

Super singles didn't quite catch on over here as compared to the European and U.K.. Cost and availability were prohibitive.

Out here on the vast prairies, one of the prime reasons, super singles didn't catch on, was because of concerns about having a flat. With dually's, you can always limp into to the nearest large town or city, with tire repair facilities.

With super singles...you can be in a more difficult predicament due to the fact that cities and large towns in the prairies, are quite a distance.