Buying a couple trucks but have questions

[Cousin Vinny]

Other than my intro post this is my first post.. your patience is appreciated.. 

So I have a 93 and a 94 RD 690 triaxle dump. each has around 25,000 hours and 420,000 miles. Been good trucks but lats year they gave me daily problems and guess who had to deal with the daily non sense.. And for the first time ever we lost a load of black top ($2000.00) to a break down.. So I decided i was time to up date / up grade.. Not to mention I'm no spring chicken anymore and my body doesn't work as good as it once did

I already own a 2006 CV 713 427, auto trans and my driver loves it so I set out to replace the two RD 690's with buying similar trucks as my CV 713.. However, this is easier said than done. Uncle Sam F'd up the used truck market forever with the pollution control stuff and        pre-emission trucks set up like I need it are pretty much impossible to find with less than 500,000 miles and 26,000 hours. So I went from I'll buy one, to I'll build one.. This too is quite the challenge but I did recently manage to find two trucks that I think will work out though these are not without issues and so I'd like to write out the problems I expect to find and see if you guys have solutions..

The first truck I think will be a relatively easy build out and I don't think the problem is insurmountable (I hope not anyway). Its a 2007 Mack CV 713 former wire puller truck for a utility company. It has 23,000 miles and 8000 hours on it.. Its a bit long so I'll shorten it (we love them short). I'll have the cable body removed and a dump body put on.. Brushed aluminum wheels, new rubber, lift axle..blah,balh,balh.. As long as I come's in around $65K for the purchase and build out I feel like i'm good with it. The problem is I'm told because it was a utility company truck, it was governed to 55 MPH. Is this easily correctable?? I don't want a race truck and lord knows slower is better for my clown drivers anyway, but a top end of 65 or 70 would be what I'd want.. Is this something any Mack dealer should be able to re-program?? 

The second truck is more challenging. Its currently a dump truck but its a bit of a mutant and I'm not sure if its having another problem..so let me explain. Its a bit short but I'm good with that.. 427 motor, 130K miles, 10,600 hours, 58k rears, looked like 22k front..a bit over heavy for my needs but I work with all that.. Problem 1) it has big 24 inch tube type rubber w/ buds and 18 inch brakes..so question is can I convert that to 24.5 rubber if I replace from the backing plates outward?? Problem 2) It started well considering it was single digits when we went to see it. I took it for a test spin and when we got back I looked at the draft tube. It seemed to have much more vapor than I expected.. I couldn't say if it was mostly because of the cold temp's but it just seemed to be a lot... It wasnt dripping but who knows after a mid summer days worth of work?? And that area of the engine (front right side) had a considerable amount of condensed oil vapor. So today I took my 2006 CV 713 w/ 427 engine, 277K miles and 17,500 hours out  for a ride this morning (25 Degrees) and looked at the draft tube.. It was mildly vaping and there was no condensed oil vape on the side of the motor. So the question is why would an engine with such low hours vap way worse that an engine with close to double the hours?? And should I even consider to continue thinking about buying this truck?? 

 

 

[JoeH]

What were the daily problems and the major breakdown with your 93 and 94? As long as the double frames are solid and not splitting apart from rust you could rebuild the engines in the frame. Go through the driveshaft and replace all the u joints if they're suspect. We just did insulators in our Camelback rears, they take a day to do, cost us about $700 in parts.  Brakes are easy to do at the same time. Synflex air tubing is relatively cheap and easy to replace while you're at it.

Our fleet consists of a 1979 R686ST, a 1995 RD688S, and a recently acquired 1988 RD690S to replace a 1980 DM686SX. Old is just fine, though your driver's will grumble. We test drove a 2004? Granite when we were looking to replace our 1980, and man it was nice. I'd never driven a Mack newer than our 95 RD, but the granite fit like a glove. Was used to the truck before I even pulled out of the dealer lot on the test drive. But the double frame was cracked right behind the cab and it was air ride(terrible off-road) and had roughly 1,250,000 miles.

If I had your money I'd be after a couple early model year granites, but my dad and I are the only ones that drive our trucks so we stick with Reliable instead of New(ish). Our 1979 never misses a day of work, with the exception of routine maintenance and planned repairs, like last year's engine brake delete.

[hatcity]

for the 65k you are talking about on unit #1, you could get your present truck       engine rebuilt, prolly both

 

[JoeH]

That's what I was thinking. 65k dumped into both of those trucks would give you a couple really nice (older) trucks. But I know the drivers are pushing for granites, they do ride really nice.

[Maxidyne]

The 2007 sounds like a good deal, but most 2007's had the pre-DEF emissions system that is even worse than the 2010 and later systems. The 2nd truck sounds pretty heavy, probably built for the old weight limits that allowed 73,280# on just 3 axles.

[JoeH]

Could have been a quarry or site truck too. You can load as much weight as you can stuff into the dump body so long as you don't touch the road.