3800 getting a new truck... 03 500hp freightshaker

[Turbocharged400sbc]

went looking for a truck for the old man now that he's becoming an owner operator for TMC, we went to snoops in indiana and i crawled through and under about 15 trucks before i fell in love with the mechanical condition of a silver 03 Freightliner Century Classic S/T with the 12.7L detroit 60 series set to 500hp (@2100rpm) as opposed to the 425hp 12.7L engine. it has 10 22.5inch Alcoa alloy rims and the double sleeper bunk...so when i get a CDL we can do team driving...

we were looking for a super 10 trans but got a standard dual gated 10spd but it did have the Dana Spicer 3.55 gear rear axles as opposed to the Meritor axles... two 100gal tanks we wanted two 150gal tanks...

since we were unloaded we only peaked at 18psi...the gauge reads to 50psi, and the truck my pops started in would hit 42psi with the 425hp 12.7, so we'll see what the 500hp version hits



460k miles so it's fairly well broken in the guy that had it before was my kind of guy...he took very good care of it...

so next monday we should be picking it up after the Willis APU is installed (3 cyl diesel genset, heater and airconditioner unit) for better fuel economy during the winter and summer, much cheaper on fuel than the detroit idling all night long plus in case of an alternator failure etc we can still drive it...



so yeah i now have another vehicle to maintain :lolsign:



so yeah anyone know of a cheap 8 car hauler? might be nice to have for IDD 08

i'll post up pics when we go pick it up... since we need to install the soundsystem/laptop and all the bluetooth shit before he can go pick up the flatbed

Click to read more...

 

[EmersonHart13]

NICE!

 

[PANDA]

Now WHY do you need a truck?

 

[bigsammoe]

easy go look whats in the garage... old ford FULL of parts and bringing a full loaded trailer cars will never be broke!

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

Now WHY do you need a truck? [/b]

as an owner operator you get more cents per mile driven (loaded), you arent restricted to no accessories like you are in a leased/company truck, you can pick and choose your loads for the best profitability/region of the country

plus my dad can train Donald to drive it and get his CDL. then they can team drive for two weeks a month and drive solo for another (one week off a month each) the more the truck is on the road the more $ you make...plus i wouldnt mind getting a CDL myself, with team driving you can easily pull in 750+ a week take home, even after money goes towards the maint/fuel/repair savings



not to mention we save more $ since we can do alot of the preventative maint work...maybe i can convince him we need to move to a nice 2+ acre farmette with a huge garage :lolsign:

easy go look whats in the garage... old ford FULL of parts and bringing a full loaded trailer cars will never be broke! [/b]

lol thanks, i wonder how much a nice multi car hauler trailer is...lol would be fairly cheap to ship cars to the track in bulk chitown pimpin' the carhauler heheh



for now we'll be using a TMC flatbed trailer till he saves enough to get his own...



i would probably suck as a driver...i'd be stopping too much to scour southern Jyards for parts

 

[Sinister Drag Designs]

ill throw in on that 8 car hauler, i get GTP #3 dropped off in the driveway 2maro

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

i bet you would bob....#3 huh? lol gonna fix and flip it?

 

[PANDA]

oh I failed to read it was for your dad...

 

[Toasty]

Now WHY do you need a truck?
[/b]

So it can be featured on CMT's Trick My Truck



:lolsign:

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

ha! he wishes!



that Willis APU by itself costs 14k$ plus installation (warranty void if i install it so guess what we'll chose lol)



but it would save close to 7-8K a year in fuel from not having to idle the diesel



since both me and my pops are the kind of guys that listen to innagaddadavita at inhumain volumes i have started stripping all my Alpine gear (HU, DSP/P EQ/soundfield controller, 4 channel 75w V12 amp) and MBQuarts/Alpine speakers from my 92 Chrysler imperial (i may strip and junk it, i'd hate to with the rebuilt 3.8, but i dont have the time to rebuild the 604 trans, with me and Al looking for 4t80e's for the 442) to throw all of it into the truck once we take delivery of the truck...

i want to at least throw a single 12 inch subwoofer at ~ 200watts in it at some point...gotta have the bass!



he also weaseled my 2000watt 110v inverter outta me for the better refrigerators (12v fridges suck)



my old man picked up a cool decal too...a silouette of a Dom with a whip and the words "Flatbed truckers do it with straps and chains" thats the williams mind in the sewer fer ya lol

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

the APU is installed and tomarrow he picks it up in Indiana to take to to demon Iowa :lolsign: to get the headache/backrack installed damn lightning bolt decals removed new TMC/DOT decals installed and pick up a company flatbed trailer which will take about 3-5 days so he'll be able to hardwire in the new CB and stereo i got him along with a 1750watt AC inverter i'm letting him borrow so he can finally get a decent fridge

i told him to get pics....i want before and after



i get to drive it sans trailer

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

the issue was with a timing sensor...he lost nearly two days but he's back on the road...i just got his digital airbag pressure/load gauge that we need to install, gotta love father-son quality time...

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

well i got the throwout fork changed out and since the throwout was wearing on a fork with one bad roller it is vibrating when depressed...i guess we shoulda just went ahead and pulled the trans all the way back and threw a new throwout bearing and clutch brake at it so much for hoping for a cheap fix lol

hopefully it will lessen as the miles accumulate...he's up to 590k on the truck and about to hit a 1/4 millin miles since he started with TMC



as it was it went pretty well threw 6, 6 inch long 7/16ths bolts in the bellhousing and supported the rear with a floorjack and a 2 inch nylon ratchet strap under the rear yoke as a safety (the eaton-fuller trans weighs over 1000lbs....and i was under it the whole time) and basically slid it back far enough to remove the fork to fork shaft bolts and weasel it out



with the new fork we had to adjust the linkage out 6 turns to get the proper freeplay!



one thing i couldnt believe is the bracket i thought was the rear trans mount was just a bolt in Xmember....the whole trans just hangs off the back of the detroit which has 4 corner mounts....was alot easier than the few other rigs i've had the joy of working on. though i wouldnt think that hanging the heavy ass trans of the back of even a heavy ass diesel like a detroit would be a good idea, but the engine never budged even when the weight of the trans was mostly off it.



we fixed and solidified the 19inch LCD monitor stand for the onboard PC and test fitted the new step i made for the passenger side to make it easier for carol to get in and ride along with him



didnt get as much done as we wanted to but the fork took longer than i anticipated with the additional plumbing that the bastards that installed the APU snaked all over the place



i gotta get up at 3am to go back and grease everything with my moly grease and help clean up the mess we made of the cab...



right now i gotta go take my second shower tonight to finish washin the bits of 500,000 mile old grease outta the back of my head....



god this bugger has Tq....

 

[bikrboy128]

that is one sweet lookin truck!

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

that is one sweet lookin truck! [/b]

i'd agree with ya but the amount of road grime that accumulates over the course of half a million miles of driving is insane!



i have him looking for two 4-6 inch dia stacks that i can put on my 68 F250