Pacific
Gravel Rat
I feel your truck is spec'ed right Duane the only problem is the 5spd but a 4x4 medium duty dump would go anywhere. You probably wouldn't want a L-10 anyhow because of the weight over the front axle. Your tare weight must be fairly heavy with the extra driving axle and the heavy transfercase etc.
I know of a redimix company spent a fortune building a 4x4 5 ton crane truck out of parts just for going into tough places delivering precast. Its a nice old truck it sure tall if your height challenged you would have a hell of a time checking the engine oil
I really thought about building a 5 ton 4x4 dump but there really isn't enough work to make it pay for itself. With the price of diesel fuel getting higher and higher trucking is a money loosing game. A landscapers or mini excavator operators can still make money with trucks but they are F-450s with mason dumps.
The contractor I work for and the other excavation contractors just break even trucking with tandem axle dumps. By the time you pay for the fuel and drivers wages there isn't much left. A tandem axle dump gets 65 per hour subract 18 dollars per hour wages another 15-17 dollars per hour in fuel so the truck is only making 32 dollars per hour. Some drivers that have many years for a company make upto 23-24 per hour so the truck really doesn't make money.
I know of a redimix company spent a fortune building a 4x4 5 ton crane truck out of parts just for going into tough places delivering precast. Its a nice old truck it sure tall if your height challenged you would have a hell of a time checking the engine oil
I really thought about building a 5 ton 4x4 dump but there really isn't enough work to make it pay for itself. With the price of diesel fuel getting higher and higher trucking is a money loosing game. A landscapers or mini excavator operators can still make money with trucks but they are F-450s with mason dumps.
The contractor I work for and the other excavation contractors just break even trucking with tandem axle dumps. By the time you pay for the fuel and drivers wages there isn't much left. A tandem axle dump gets 65 per hour subract 18 dollars per hour wages another 15-17 dollars per hour in fuel so the truck is only making 32 dollars per hour. Some drivers that have many years for a company make upto 23-24 per hour so the truck really doesn't make money.
