The right truck for the right job

[Shadrach]

Or in our case the wrong truck for the job. We had all 3500 C&C trucks at work for our Field Service mechanics and they weren't heavy enough so we got new 5500 models. We wanted a flat deck for the parts department to haul stock back and forth between out warehouse and main building. Management in their infinite wisdom gave us a "just like new" 3500 C&C with a new flat deck on it. We told them it was the wrong truck as the warehouse is only a few clicks away and it would kill the truck treating it like that especially with many different people driving it. Our mechanics are too busy to work on our own company trucks so it goes to the local Dodge dealer for service. The " yellow light is on again", so off it went to Dodge again. It "needs" a new turbo, DPF, EGR valve and a CCV filter as well as a complete service. That will be $10,000 please.

How do you say "We told you it was the wrong truck for that kind of driving" politely to your boss? It will get fixed and sold. It is an 09 and only has about 36k km ( about 22k miles ) on it. What a waste of a truck and money. I saw the quote. CCV filter $198.00 and $60 for labour :--) In Western Canada Cummins sells that filter for about $80.

Glad I'm not the one paying the bill.
David

 

[Mingoglia]

Sounds like some policies need to be put in place and enforced to have people take better care of the equipment. Sounds like the problems you've seen have nothing to do with 3500, 4500, 5500, or even full on medium duty.... but the problems are related to the chuckleheads driving them.

 

[Tuesdak]

Why is this not warranty?

Does this come out of your check or bonus in any way?

For $10,000 in repairs you may need a gas engine that doesn't puke turbo's, EGR's often, and no DPF's. Expensive cats yes... But $10,000 is a lot of gasoline. In fact for short trips, the issue you identified, use the gas engine! $10,000 you can get a nice used gas engine parts runner truck.

 

[Bill Stockard]

Yep, another example of a misapplication. That truck should have been gasoline powered or better still with CNG.

Bill

 

[Shadrach]

The truck is an 09 and since I work for a large multi national corporation I'm not the one paying the bills. Corporate policy prevents us from doing a delete even tho we are in Alberta. We will be getting a gas pot, as we call them. Bean counters- gotta love them.
David

 

[DonFitzwater]

I know what you mean.......I drove an F550 with a sick-oh when I worked on the slope. It literally got an engine at every other oil change for some reason or another..........and the exhaust would plug up every winter. I would have much rather had a gas half ton with a v6 or v8.

 

[TRAMPLINEMAN]

Good luck with that underpowered gasser you're getting. You think you broke parts before? Just wait. I had a '14 3500 C&C with flat bed on it for about 3 months. Used it in the same conditions you'll be using it in. When loaded down you'll see what a piece of s**t it really is. 8 mpg running empty down the highway, ya, real gas savings there.

 

[Shadrach]

The job this particular truck does doesn't require anything real heavy duty, even a 3/4 ton would work. Other than the flat deck part, which we do need, almost any good used truck would work. We might haul 4 skids of part on it at one time and that is mostly bulky not heavy. If we need to haul an engine, like an ISX that weighs about 3000#, then we call a courier. We had this truck in our fleet so they said use it. I offered to buy it ( cheap of course ) but they said no. David

 

[JohnHaggerty]

Sounds like the second truck in my signature would do the job:-laf. Still maintaining 20 mpg on average

 

[mwilson]

I would not consider a Diesel for that application either. We do the same thing with 1/2 ton 2wd GMC pick ups powered by the V-6 gasser. We change the rear springs to 3/4 ton and put Load Range E tires on them.
My current 2008 runner has 185,000 miles on it and should go a couple more years. Runs all day long 5 days a week. Keep it serviced and run it. Brakes a couple of times and a pair of front wheel bearings, an air bag sensor and a few other minor repairs are all that come to mind right now.

You have to rotate the tires at every other oil change, if you don't it will scrub the front tires off. Finally figured out that it was a combination of the rack and pinion steering (tight turn radius) and many 90 degree turns while running parts. Frequent rotations solved the problem.

I would ruin a Diesel trying to do the same duty cycle.