[Bill Schwab]

A-Z:

It's a pretty basic truck in terms of yuppisms that trucks don't need. It's got the 7.8 in line six. The manual transmission. I chose that option because in all honesty, automatic transmissions in large trucks only pencil out if you have alot of start/stop situations like garbage haulers, short run deliveries, etc. Even though the Allison is a very reliable tranny, when it scatters, it will cost you $6,000.00 for the repair, and, it is a $3,800.00 factory option. The terrain we have in San Diego county is not at all like you have in Iow, where it is flat for the most part. We are in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountain range, and it is very common to pull or drop down long 6° grades. A manual transmission works much better in that situation. If you are going to have multiple untrained drivers, then I think the auomatiic might pencil out better when you consider a clutch job will run over $1,500.00.
The truck is a 26,000 GVW that is the same truck as the 33,000 less air brakes. 80K frame. 208" wheelbase, with Alcoa wheels. They got funky on putting a verticle exhaust on it, so I'm doing that next weekend with a hollow flow muffler. It ain't a truck unless it barks ya know....The cab is standard 2 door, cloth seats, crank windows, air, cruise, engine brake.
There is a 3' wide tunnel box behind the cab that I would not ever go without again. The body is a 14' roll off reeving hoist. We have a cloaking device (Roll-A-Tarp), pintle style hitch with 2 3/8" ball and slide in 2" reciever under that.

Why I would buy another duplicate is following. First, it will easily haul 7 tons, and does everything we need it to do. It is a little underpowered, but that is just me. I like over powering things, that photo circulating with the Chevy v-8 in the walk bahind snow blower is my style. And in all honesty, when we got next to a Ford 650 that had a C-7 Cat and 6 speed stick, hauling almost the same weight I pulled away from him going up the grade, which surprized the heck out of me. My sales rep told me the Dmax had more power than the Cat and I did not believe him.
So, it was not as underpowered as I thought. It has a nice ride, and, it will turn tighter than the F-450 we had with a 12' box on the back. Keep in mind, this rig is 208" long, plus the overhang past the axles.

It came with a 75 gallon fuel capacity, 25 gallon on the passenger side, and 50 under the drivers side and the engine draws from both tanks without one of those electric switches that always seem to fail.

Tax freight and out the gate, this truck was high 53, almost $54,000 range. Add air brakes, and the price will run near 57K. But that is with the body, box, and all the bling. You get into a 35GVW Mack or Pete, plan on 69K for the Mack chassis and about the same for the Pete. Then there is whatever you want to spend on the body. Since I put this truck on a 7 year company plan, it should last that amount of time without undue inscheduled repairs. We took the GM trac-lease* which I would recommend to anyone who wants to keep the money they make, you put the first and last payment up front, make payments of $1200 or so per month, and after 5 years, pay a small price and it's your ride until you trade.. This truck looks like one that cost alot more money, and it works like any of them in that class. There are many Caterpillar powered 6500's running around here that are over 10 years old.

Anyhow, that's my story.