snivilous
Well-known member
Time for a new build thread--- this is "Tiny", my recently acquired 2005 Volvo VNL!
I know literally nothing about semis, and next to nothing about diesels, and have never owned a diesel and only been in a semi once before buying this hahahaha.
But this bad boy was $9k, which ended up at $10k including some super singles, so we'll see what happens! Cheap is good and bad, but it mechanically seems good and while not perfect, seems adequate enough to be a good deal.
I tried to write a short paragraph justifying this instead of a one ton, but I end up just rambling. So to keep this short-ish, what will I do with this:
-Haul the buggy, can am, or whatever vehicle on the back. No trailer, it'll do 80mph and get better mileage than I'm used to, and I feel like will just be a fun and relatively simple package. Pull up, strap down, take off. Plus sleeping quarters integrated and tons of storage.
-Gooseneck and normal receiver. I can tow a trailer plus something on the back of the semi itself. I could put a camper on the back plus a trailer. I could do whatever trailer I want. Plus sleeping quarters and tons of storage while driving.
-250gal of fuel, I can fuel up once at the cheapest place and never again on a trip to help offset the fuel mileage.
-it got 8.5mpg going through the mountains in bobtail form at 80mph, my Tundra gets that or worse if you put any load behind it. So from that perspective it's actually good mileage.
-It cost <20% of the one tons I was looking at and that my friend's own. There's 40k of savings or fuel or whatever compared to even a used 5 year old one ton.
Maybe this will backfire, but I'm hoping it'll be reliable with some good maintenance and the relatively low miles and essentially no load it'll see. For how cheap it was, it's worth the experiment. I have a Tundra for normal truck bed duties. Tundra will take a break from working hard towing stuff, and this wont even know there's a load regardless how much shit I put behind it.
Anyways, I picked it up from Boise a couple weeks ago. Found it on KSL, flew up a few days later with my neighbor who's a diesel mechanic, and drove it down that night.
Also, the fact I live in Utah makes this purchase make a lot more sense. Utah is completely setup for large vehicles with trailers and power sports. The exit to the interstate near me has multiple trucks stops right there. Sand Hollow has a huge parking lot the semi can get into. If I lived where my parents do in Colorado that alone would make this a non-purchase.
My neighbor drove us out of Boise, then I got a quick parking lot lesson, and then I drove most of the way home to Southern Utah. I've gotten a lot better just in the handful of drives since then.
It's a D12 Volvo 12.1L diesel with an Eaton 10 speed manual. The chassis has 1.8mil on it, the engine apparently has 400k on it and the trans apparently feels tight (according to my neighbor) and there's a tag from some rebuild place so I suspect the trans was swapped when the engine was rebuilt. It runs like an absolute champ and shifts great! Couple rust spots, but even after crawling around it today it's mostly surface rust. Frame next to the turbo and exhaust has the most rust but it's mostly just the paint peeled off. For being 19 years old, 1.8mil, and being from Idaho I think it's in pretty good shape.
I pulled it into the shop today for the first time.
It's already registered. Utah you just tell them it's a motorhome and that's the end of that. No special license, no paperwork, nothing really. Since it's a triple axle I think it needs a safety inspection annually, if I deleted an axle it wouldn't fall into that classification and then wouldn't need any inspection I believe.... Regardless, it needed the cab bags and the hazard switch replaced and then passed the inspection.
I'm going to replace all... 5 or 6 filters, do the oil and probably the diffs. I fixed an air leak under the hood. Just do some normal maintenance before using it. There's no BIG oil leaks, though crawling under it I did find some minor ones, like the oil filler tube needs a new gasket.
My plan is to pull the 5th wheel plate. I don't really think I'll get a huge 5th wheel or semi trailer, and my friend told me you can get 5th wheel adapters for a gooseneck ball so the gooseneck ball would be dual purpose if I did want a 5th wheel plate. And I won't throw the plate away so if I do decide I need it I can throw it back on. With the plate pulled I'm going to make a flat bed that will bolt on and have tie downs. While the buggy could clear the plate fine, I want to be able to haul lower vehicles potentially as well as place the cab over on the back, so having a fully flat area will be easiest.
And then I'll have a cover or something so I can attach a gooseneck. And have a normal receiver in the back for small trailers. At this point though, the main thing is get the flat bed set up and then the hitch receiver.
And lastly, today we removed the previous stickers, added the plates, wife has been going ham cleaning the inside, and I've been getting as many of the 5th wheel plate bolts loose as my tiny 1/2" impact can do but I think I'll be buying a 1" impact.
That was a lot longer post than I wanted. As said, I know nothing about this, so just going to do basic maintenance and start tweaking it to do what I want. Should be a fun tow/haul rig and a cool experiment, we'll see how well a $10k Volvo does! Hopefully it'll live a nice easy life and be reliable! If not, well it was cheap and this is purely a toy to haul other toys.
I know literally nothing about semis, and next to nothing about diesels, and have never owned a diesel and only been in a semi once before buying this hahahaha.
But this bad boy was $9k, which ended up at $10k including some super singles, so we'll see what happens! Cheap is good and bad, but it mechanically seems good and while not perfect, seems adequate enough to be a good deal.
I tried to write a short paragraph justifying this instead of a one ton, but I end up just rambling. So to keep this short-ish, what will I do with this:
-Haul the buggy, can am, or whatever vehicle on the back. No trailer, it'll do 80mph and get better mileage than I'm used to, and I feel like will just be a fun and relatively simple package. Pull up, strap down, take off. Plus sleeping quarters integrated and tons of storage.
-Gooseneck and normal receiver. I can tow a trailer plus something on the back of the semi itself. I could put a camper on the back plus a trailer. I could do whatever trailer I want. Plus sleeping quarters and tons of storage while driving.
-250gal of fuel, I can fuel up once at the cheapest place and never again on a trip to help offset the fuel mileage.
-it got 8.5mpg going through the mountains in bobtail form at 80mph, my Tundra gets that or worse if you put any load behind it. So from that perspective it's actually good mileage.
-It cost <20% of the one tons I was looking at and that my friend's own. There's 40k of savings or fuel or whatever compared to even a used 5 year old one ton.
Maybe this will backfire, but I'm hoping it'll be reliable with some good maintenance and the relatively low miles and essentially no load it'll see. For how cheap it was, it's worth the experiment. I have a Tundra for normal truck bed duties. Tundra will take a break from working hard towing stuff, and this wont even know there's a load regardless how much shit I put behind it.
Anyways, I picked it up from Boise a couple weeks ago. Found it on KSL, flew up a few days later with my neighbor who's a diesel mechanic, and drove it down that night.
Also, the fact I live in Utah makes this purchase make a lot more sense. Utah is completely setup for large vehicles with trailers and power sports. The exit to the interstate near me has multiple trucks stops right there. Sand Hollow has a huge parking lot the semi can get into. If I lived where my parents do in Colorado that alone would make this a non-purchase.
My neighbor drove us out of Boise, then I got a quick parking lot lesson, and then I drove most of the way home to Southern Utah. I've gotten a lot better just in the handful of drives since then.
It's a D12 Volvo 12.1L diesel with an Eaton 10 speed manual. The chassis has 1.8mil on it, the engine apparently has 400k on it and the trans apparently feels tight (according to my neighbor) and there's a tag from some rebuild place so I suspect the trans was swapped when the engine was rebuilt. It runs like an absolute champ and shifts great! Couple rust spots, but even after crawling around it today it's mostly surface rust. Frame next to the turbo and exhaust has the most rust but it's mostly just the paint peeled off. For being 19 years old, 1.8mil, and being from Idaho I think it's in pretty good shape.
I pulled it into the shop today for the first time.
It's already registered. Utah you just tell them it's a motorhome and that's the end of that. No special license, no paperwork, nothing really. Since it's a triple axle I think it needs a safety inspection annually, if I deleted an axle it wouldn't fall into that classification and then wouldn't need any inspection I believe.... Regardless, it needed the cab bags and the hazard switch replaced and then passed the inspection.
I'm going to replace all... 5 or 6 filters, do the oil and probably the diffs. I fixed an air leak under the hood. Just do some normal maintenance before using it. There's no BIG oil leaks, though crawling under it I did find some minor ones, like the oil filler tube needs a new gasket.
My plan is to pull the 5th wheel plate. I don't really think I'll get a huge 5th wheel or semi trailer, and my friend told me you can get 5th wheel adapters for a gooseneck ball so the gooseneck ball would be dual purpose if I did want a 5th wheel plate. And I won't throw the plate away so if I do decide I need it I can throw it back on. With the plate pulled I'm going to make a flat bed that will bolt on and have tie downs. While the buggy could clear the plate fine, I want to be able to haul lower vehicles potentially as well as place the cab over on the back, so having a fully flat area will be easiest.
And then I'll have a cover or something so I can attach a gooseneck. And have a normal receiver in the back for small trailers. At this point though, the main thing is get the flat bed set up and then the hitch receiver.
And lastly, today we removed the previous stickers, added the plates, wife has been going ham cleaning the inside, and I've been getting as many of the 5th wheel plate bolts loose as my tiny 1/2" impact can do but I think I'll be buying a 1" impact.
That was a lot longer post than I wanted. As said, I know nothing about this, so just going to do basic maintenance and start tweaking it to do what I want. Should be a fun tow/haul rig and a cool experiment, we'll see how well a $10k Volvo does! Hopefully it'll live a nice easy life and be reliable! If not, well it was cheap and this is purely a toy to haul other toys.
Last edited:
