Looking at high mileage 3500

[Newsa]

Blown Head Casket??? Doesn't that usually mean it was over heated at some point, and then neglected and still driven, until it had water in the oil. ?????????? Yikes.

Or a tuner? Probably only if deleted. If it's $15k-20k. Might be good for an additional 100k?

I doubt they would have replaced the head gasket if it was toast!

 

[cris dahlgren]

The duty cycle doesn't bother me if it was taken care off and the price is crazy low...I'll put up with a lot for cheap money...

But the fact that they parked it in December concerns me a little...did they get a new one and put it on the road before end of year?? That would make sense for taxes...

I believe the owner is an older lady. She says she has other business interest and this was her fathers business that stopped/closed in December. So thats why its been parked since then. She has two trucks left to get rid of, had 11. The other is a '15 Super duty. The price on that isn't so inviting for the miles it has (250,000) but it is probably correct for the market. Ordinarily, a real high mileage truck would not garner a second look. In this case putting on an average of 7500 miles a month for 4 years does get my interest just as stated above that when they go with this truck they keep going. Straight lines, no idling, no stop and go traffic. At least thats what I am picturing.

 

[cris dahlgren]

Or a tuner? Probably only if deleted. If it's $15k-20k. Might be good for an additional 100k?

I doubt they would have replaced the head gasket if it was toast!

Owner says its completely stock and I am thinking the same. I have only put about 60k miles on my 02 ford in about 7 years. I'll be retired soon (2 years) and 100k miles will get me a long way down the road.

 

[cris dahlgren]

My apologies, I meant to go back and tone my response down. I just don't know anyone who purchased a HIGH mileage hotshot truck who didn't have regrets. A friend's two sons did it and got wore out trucks they had to constantly fix. My BIL has a fleet truck that is driven hard and idles a lot. It must be an awesome deal to travel 1200 miles to get it. I checked on what I suspect had been a hotshot 1st gen on Oregon, but when i asked seller if it was up to the drive back to TX, he said he wouldn't.

So, again I apologize for my tone. Better to just give my opinion and leave out the rest.

Good luck deciding and keep us posted on your decision.

Cheers, Ron

Ron, as with facebook posts reading comments often does not convey the true intention of the speaker. I completely understand your position. I guess you could say I have "always" been fixing my 02 ford. in 7 years doing all the u joints in the truck, all the wheel bearing, injectors, glow plugs blower motor window switch etc but to me thats just maintenance.

Pretty much worth it instead of up front paying more and still possibly fixing it all the time.

I have seen on youtube some trucks that were 400000 and still going strong as hotshot trucks.

Keep the opinions coming.

 

[cris dahlgren]

Mechanical shape aside, someone has pretty much LIVED in your truck since it was new. Showers may have come every few days (or less) and probably a lot of food and drink spills. It may be in great shape but just "food" for thought. I have been around a few work trucks that had people in them for long periods (not as long as your potential truck has been lived in) and let me tell you, thats a smell that doesnt come out. You may clean it good and make it bearable, but its there forever.

Best point so far. A 400k truck on youtube showed the stains on the passenger seat from spills. I didn't ask if the drivers smoked either. But I would imagine in some cases the drivers don't shower very often opting to keep driving.

 

[SnoKing]

Mechanical shape aside, someone has pretty much LIVED in your truck since it was new. Showers may have come every few days (or less) and probably a lot of food and drink spills. It may be in great shape but just "food" for thought. I have been around a few work trucks that had people in them for long periods (not as long as your potential truck has been lived in) and let me tell you, thats a smell that doesnt come out. You may clean it good and make it bearable, but its there forever.

And that odor does not travel 1200 miles or come thru in pictures!

 

[mwilson]

We get some pretty smelly Big Rigs, some drivers are very good at keeping a lived in truck clean. Others not so much!!!

There are smell bombs available from the Detailing companies such as Castle and Malco that will clear out stench...

 

[Timd32]

Buy it, replace the bad stuff, run it, report back......

If its 2 of 11 left should have room to go down in the price.

For a old truck some of these owners usually don't care about the service records it's as is, how it is. Stank and all....

But yeah if they ran a GPS on it they might hve trip logs, or a driver log for the mileage you can look over.

I have all the logs for my fleet, it would be a pain to pull them out, but if I was looking at $5k +/-, and have a serious buyer in the lot I will take the 8min to print them out. It's not hours of work for me to get the trip reports from my GPS trackers.

 

[bigblock_doc]

Well mine got 316,000 then put a rod threw the block. Perfect maintenance. Just had a turbo replaced
three thousand miles earlier. I changed the oil twice in that three thousand because it was like black tar.
Truck is deleted, so no egr soot. Rod cut loose in the middle of Arkansas.

 

[cris dahlgren]

Buy it, replace the bad stuff, run it, report back......

If its 2 of 11 left should have room to go down in the price.

For a old truck some of these owners usually don't care about the service records it's as is, how it is. Stank and all....

But yeah if they ran a GPS on it they might hve trip logs, or a driver log for the mileage you can look over.

I have all the logs for my fleet, it would be a pain to pull them out, but if I was looking at $5k +/-, and have a serious buyer in the lot I will take the 8min to print them out. It's not hours of work for me to get the trip reports from my GPS trackers.

I agree. The lady selling it doesn't seem to motivated to dig out records. Heck, she didn't really take good pictures. At least they aren't all blurry. Good point on the 2 of 11 . I just figure they are the two worst. I just hope its just because they are in a place that is hard to get to. She said a lot of service was done on the road so records are sketchy. okay. I think it does have the GPS but doubt she will look into it. She admitted theres stank. A driver that smokes.

I do figure that I can buy it and replace whats bad. Maybe $3000 in parts for tires, ball joints, all U-joints, CSB, all 4 wheel bearings.

I will see how far she will come. Its 1200 miles. The flight to get there is torturous with 2 connections.

Thanks for the response.

Spud

 

[Timd32]

I agree. The lady selling it doesn't seem to motivated to dig out records. Heck, she didn't really take good pictures. At least they aren't all blurry. Good point on the 2 of 11 . I just figure they are the two worst. I just hope its just because they are in a place that is hard to get to. She said a lot of service was done on the road so records are sketchy. okay. I think it does have the GPS but doubt she will look into it. She admitted theres stank. A driver that smokes.

I do figure that I can buy it and replace whats bad. Maybe $3000 in parts for tires, ball joints, all U-joints, CSB, all 4 wheel bearings.

I will see how far she will come. Its 1200 miles. The flight to get there is torturous with 2 connections.

Thanks for the response.

Spud

You can register the VIN with the "mycarfax" part of carfax and if they did service at some of the places where their point of sale system records the info it will show up. You don't need to buy the carfax just enter it as your vehicle in the mycarfax area. I stumbled apon that recently, I got rid of my 10' tahoe, had 180k on it and I jumped around for the maintenance as I was all over when due. I did not want to buy my own carfax as its a one owner.

"MyCarfax" said I should have gotten $7,300 due to the maintenace and condition, I actually got $8k for it as a trade in. Not sure how accurate this would be.

Might try that if you have the VIN.

 

[cris dahlgren]

You can register the VIN with the "mycarfax" part of carfax and if they did service at some of the places where their point of sale system records the info it will show up. You don't need to buy the carfax just enter it as your vehicle in the mycarfax area. I stumbled apon that recently, I got rid of my 10' tahoe, had 180k on it and I jumped around for the maintenance as I was all over when due. I did not want to buy my own carfax as its a one owner.

"MyCarfax" said I should have gotten $7,300 due to the maintenace and condition, I actually got $8k for it as a trade in. Not sure how accurate this would be.

Might try that if you have the VIN.

Awesome call! I found it!!
Water Pump replaced June 2018
9 different service events but by no means a record. Had several electrical checks done.
I might put my own truck in there to see what happened to it before I owned it.

 

[Timd32]

More puzzle pieces for sure.

Yeah not all of my records were found either, its up to the service center to have the direct connect thing to carfax, but I thought it was good enough, you can also manually add items and upload records. So if a service center does not participate just add the item and record.

But the estimate for trade seemed fair and accurate in my case.

I was going to see how I could add my business to carfax, I have a ASE tech on staff, thought I could register my company and do fleet maintenance and enter the items for my work fleet, it does not really work that way it appears tied to the POS (point of sale) kisok things, like the things they use at all resturants. So I just keep the reciepts for all service and have a excel sheet for maintenance based on the owners manual.

 

[RVTRKN]

CTD is a 500K+ mile motor, and even more if taken care of. Head gasket for the 6.7 is weaker than the 5.9, due to higher boost pressures with the variable vane turbo. It was common on the early 6.7, to get misdiagnosed due to an EGR cooler leaking. At 1200 miles away and high mileage, to me, would be price. Have the interior completely detailed and cleaned, if it were me, I'd pull all the seats and go through them as well. I have the oppisite effect, I have a low mileage 07 C&C 6.7 that has minor problems from not being driven enough. If a CTD has high highway miles, then you could consider a 15 to 20% less mileage then the odometer shows, as far as the wear factor. As mentioned prior, an engine run at designed temps is beneficial to the engine, espeacially the CTD. Good luck with your negotiations.

 

[AH64ID]

Did you ever find out how many hours are on it?

 

[cris dahlgren]

CTD is a 500K+ mile motor, and even more if taken care of. Head gasket for the 6.7 is weaker than the 5.9, due to higher boost pressures with the variable vane turbo. It was common on the early 6.7, to get misdiagnosed due to an EGR cooler leaking. At 1200 miles away and high mileage, to me, would be price. Have the interior completely detailed and cleaned, if it were me, I'd pull all the seats and go through them as well. I have the oppisite effect, I have a low mileage 07 C&C 6.7 that has minor problems from not being driven enough. If a CTD has high highway miles, then you could consider a 15 to 20% less mileage then the odometer shows, as far as the wear factor. As mentioned prior, an engine run at designed temps is beneficial to the engine, espeacially the CTD. Good luck with your negotiations.

Thank you for the response.

Why take the seat apart? For cleaning out some stank?
Do you really think the mileage is only a 20% reduction for highway miles? I really would think it to be a lot more compared to stop and go traveling. I drive my '02 powerstroke 6 miles to work each day. about 1/2 rural and 1/2 city. I think this beats the crap out of the thing. Start it and run that short distance then shut it off. I'd think a 45 mile trip would be the same wear. Highway miles have very little brake wear, no turning of the steering wheel etc.

I will see when I pick it up. Hopefully it will be all good surprises. The only real bad surprise so far is the rub on the rear fender molding (and dent) that was "accidentally" left out of the posting photo. She did show me before I committed to buy though. By that time I was pretty well sold on it.

 

[cris dahlgren]

Did you ever find out how many hours are on it?

I will know next week when I pick it up.

 

[AH64ID]

Do you really think the mileage is only a 20% reduction for highway miles?

That's why you need to know the hours before you buy.

It's a easily seen option on the EVIC, you need to ask for it before you go down. There could be a 1500 hour, or more, difference between something that never shut off or something that only ran while moving.

 

[RVTRKN]

I would take the seats out for a thorough cleaning of the carpet and upholstery. I was figuring conservatively on stop and go vrs highway miles, without the true history. I guess that amount of miles in such a short time should be mostly highway miles.

FWIW, not that you should worry about it, a buddy of mine traded his 68 Mustang for a used 1980 Toyota pickup in 86, and we cleaned it out from it sitting awhile. We pulled out a massive amount of cat hair behind and under the seats, didn't know why there was cat hair, but it was easier to get to it all with the seats out. He ended up with a ringworm unfortunatly, probably from the old cat hair.


Seems like you have a good find there, I just priced a new Laramie, and choked on the $80K SRP.

 

[cris dahlgren]

So, I bought the truck. Seller put front tires on for me. Drove home 1200 miles. Check engine light did come on but came back as a bad sensor. Used exhaust sensors are available for $75 ON EBAY. I cleared the code and its stayed off. Planning on leaving stock. Has a very minor clunk in the steering. Can do my own work whether tie rod, ball joint etc. I plan to do a walk around for YouTube of what you might get as a used hot shot Ram truck.