Freightliner FL70 or FL80 as a daily?

realsquash

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So I met a dude who bought an FL70 ambulance with a crew cab and made it into a flatbed deal he can haul his wheeler on, tow stuff, etc. 8.3 Cummins, Allison 3060. It was air ride (he might have converted it) but I was surprised how well it got around in traffic and rode better than any dually pickup I've ever been in. That got my gears a grinding... I wonder how bad it would be as an all-purpose pickup truck replacement. The height of whatever bed it would end up with could be an issue, I can make it into any length I want. But I think I could generally park it everywhere (rural towns) without any more effort than the old crewcab longbed dually I once had. I bet the 8.3 would get better fuel economy than that old 454 did, too. Am I all wet here? Would it be terrible to put miles on something like this? There are some real low mileage ones out there for small money.
 
Its fine to daily a medium duty truck. Length can sometimes be a problem going to get lunch or something in town, but all had/have 18'+ flatbeds.

Daily drove a 94 c7000 topkick for a while.

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Now daily a chevy 5500.
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The Topkick rode much nicer but ran out of gear at 65. The only complaint on the 5500hd is driving empty is a rough ride.
 
Key thing I'd want to make sure of is insurance and registration costs. There can be some pretty huge differences between a pickup and a bigger truck. Even if you're not using it commercially, many places don't really differentiate. For instance, my 3500 dodge was built as a cab and chassis, so USAA (who all my cars and other pickups are with) woln't cover it and it has to go a separate commercial policy despite being used as a standard pickup. May be more likely to get harassed at truck scales and such too. Also some of the toll roads/bridges will treat anything that's not a pickup as a commercial vehicle and charge a higher rate.
 
Someone just listed a mid 90's FL80 crew cab that was a fire truck of some kind. 17k miles, but probably a billion hours, but he's asking $12k. Zero rust as far as I can tell. Were any of these MDT's aluminum? The insurance is a question mark, I will ask them.
 
sdmuleman said:
Key thing I'd want to make sure of is insurance and registration costs. There can be some pretty huge differences between a pickup and a bigger truck. Even if you're not using it commercially, many places don't really differentiate. For instance, my 3500 dodge was built as a cab and chassis, so USAA (who all my cars and other pickups are with) woln't cover it and it has to go a separate commercial policy despite being used as a standard pickup. May be more likely to get harassed at truck scales and such too. Also some of the toll roads/bridges will treat anything that's not a pickup as a commercial vehicle and charge a higher rate.
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You forgot to mention come service time get ready for some HD parts pricing. If unable to do it yourself it will cost a mint paying others to fix it.

Commercial vehicle belongs to commercial work, like DMF is using it for. For civilian use stick with the pick'em up truck.
 
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My old flatbed was insured as a commercial vehicle for private use through progressive. Liability only of course, was somewhere around $120 month in NY.
 
sdmuleman said:
my 3500 dodge was built as a cab and chassis, so USAA (who all my cars and other pickups are with) woln't cover it and it has to go a separate commercial policy despite being used as a standard pickup.
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I was OK with State Farm with my 3500 C&C with occasional annoyance over a decade of having to re-state that it was non-comm every couple years, but that didn't fly with my 5500 Ram, and State Farm wouldn't write it. That has a Progressive Commercial policy on it, and I don't know of a second option I have. Took 3-4 tries to find a carrier who would write it without be being a company. About twice the price of the 3500. Fitting since it gets 50% the mpg too
 
Gtrplyr78 said:
You forgot to mention come service time get ready for some HD parts pricing. If unable to do it yourself it will cost a mint paying others to fix it.

Commercial vehicle belongs to commercial work, like DFM is using it for. For civilian use stick with the pick'em up truck.
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My motorhome is already there, I know exactly what I'm in for. Brakes, tires, etc that last forever. Easy to service. Heavy yes, but I have the tools to work on that now. For $20k what kind of POS pickup will I get?
Elwenil said:
So, diesel is over $5 a gallon and you want to daily something that gets 8 MPG? :confused:
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There's an Iran deal just around the corner, trust me, fuel will be free shortly. I don't have to drive this thing to work any more, that ship sailed a long time ago. Fuel cost isn't a big problem. I get 8MPG in my motorhome that weighs 3 times as much, I should be able to get more than that if I do this right.
 
Mr. Mindless said:
I was OK with State Farm with my 3500 C&C with occasional annoyance over a decade of having to re-state that it was non-comm every couple years, but that didn't fly with my 5500 Ram, and State Farm wouldn't write it. That has a Progressive Commercial policy on it, and I don't know of a second option I have. Took 3-4 tries to find a carrier who would write it without be being a company. About twice the price of the 3500. Fitting since it gets 50% the mpg too
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I'll have to see what Progressive says. Maybe that will sink the whole thing. Or maybe I can squeak by calling it a motorhome if I play my cards right.
 
I daily drove my old uhaul ramp truck in NYC for about 5 years. Did the same for my current IH 4700 with a sleeper and ambo box. In NYC and north jersey for about 4 years till I parked it. Since I refreshed it I've been using it as much as I can. 255" wheelbase and 3 feet after the axle is easier to whip through traffic than my old ramp truck. Insurance is cheap if you shop around. About 150 per month.

You can't beat the brakes, tire life and it isn't bad if you know how to drive. Manuals are easier but a truck with a 3060 trans will be fine down the highway. They take a beating and last long compared to a 1 ton.
 
realsquash said:
Someone just listed a mid 90's FL80 crew cab that was a fire truck of some kind. 17k miles, but probably a billion hours, but he's asking $12k. Zero rust as far as I can tell. Were any of these MDT's aluminum?
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Not sure what year the change was made, but a lot of fire trucks are aluminum. Doors, cab, service body...
 
Ever thought of a Hino? Great mpg and great turning radius. Mine got 13 at times almost always 10, even when pedal to the floor.

Fl80 is in the between area where you can get it specd all kinds of ways, air brakes or juice, 5.9/8.3/cat, auto and manuals, etc etc.

As long as insurance isn’t crazy and you know mpg won’t be great go for it
 
realsquash said:
My motorhome is already there, I know exactly what I'm in for. Brakes, tires, etc that last forever. Easy to service. Heavy yes, but I have the tools to work on that now. For $20k what kind of POS pickup will I get?

There's an Iran deal just around the corner, trust me, fuel will be free shortly. I don't have to drive this thing to work any more, that ship sailed a long time ago. Fuel cost isn't a big problem. I get 8MPG in my motorhome that weighs 3 times as much, I should be able to get more than that if I do this right.
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One of the guys at work has a 4700 with a dt466, 4wd with a dump box. 8mpg is downhill with a load, but he sees about 4mpg for most of his use (plowing and dumping sand on his driveway, running to the gravel pit whenever it's empty for more sand).

It started running rough a few thousand miles after he bought it. Crank was broken in half, but the break was jagged enough it was still jammed together and just eating the thrust bearings. That was a $20k bill for a new long block. 60,000 miles :barf:

He daily drives a TJ on 33s with a long arm kit because he likes his internal organs. :flipoff2:

And still moves his skid steer and mini ex with his old 3rd Gen Dodge 3500 because the 5.9 is way, way faster. :laughing:
 
Once upon a time I had a really clean low mile international rollback, was going to go into the towing business. Life changed and it was just a personal/ side business truck, bit of a gray area. Insurance was reasonable thru progressive. Brakes were phenomenal. Didn't mind the size in town. Load carrying ability was pimp.
Then it needed 19.5 tires. That was pricy. Then it had an intermittent stumble, and there's very little support for mdt unless you take it to a $pecialty $hop, as mentioned.
It was a ****in turd. It got 10 mpg. It got ****in stuck everywhere. I got real good at using the hydraulics and **** to get it out. Is yours going to have hydraulics and a 12k winch? Then the annual tags came due. $150 for being an old truck, and $700 extra for "weight"

**** this ****. Bought a ccsb diesel 4wd and a tilt deck trailer, put a 9k winch on it. Better mileage. Faster. Cheaper everything. Don't get stuck. Don't look back.


Ymmv
 
Cost really depends on where you are and what you get I think. I have a 7.3L 2001 F450 with a 14' stake side bed and a full on sail of a liftgate that I use for truck stuff. Not quite a full-on MDT, but legally one. My insurance (Liability only) is $132 every 6 months through Progressive. Plates are $144 or $180 a year depending on what weight class I decide t o renew at. It would either be $30.35 or $144.00 on a similar year F350, depending on what class the DMV forces that specific truck into.

It's totally stock, 2wd, with 4.88's and 225/70R19.5's, weighs just over 11,000lbs empty and seems to get between 10 and 11 mpg no matter what I'm doing with it or how much weight is on the bed. It's slow to accelerate, and cruises on the interstate, pedal to the floor, at just over 80 mph. I do wish it had 4wd or at least a limited slip, because it could get stuck on wet grass, but I apparently don't care enough to actually do something about it.

I daily a Mini Countryman, but could easily drive the truck for weeks on end if needed. It's just a pain to park, and I have to travel to other facilities for work on a semi-regular basis, so fuel economy can be a concern. My commute to my normal plant is also 6 minutes, so I'd be really concerned about not getting the diesel up to operating temperature often enough.

I think it's all about what you want out of a vehicle. I've always been more of a work truck trim, single cab kind of person, but the heated seats in the Mini have spoiled me. A phone mount and bluetooth adapter for the factory AM/FM radio solve all of the other modern things I'm looking for (GPS and choice of music).

If I had to condense down to a single vehicle for all my purposes today, I'd be looking for a 4wd 6.7L F550, single cab, setup for a 9' or 11' bed. It'd either get a flatbed with a lift gate or a utility box with a crane. I'd really consider a lower mile 7.3L F550 for nostalgia and simplicity, but it would probably end up with a Hydra tuner. Either one might end up with an Amazon heated seat kit.
 
We have a single axle, single cab 70 with an 8.3 and 9 speed maybe 10 speed.
Lot/shag truck.

it is the roughest riding thing in the whole world. The dash moves 5 inches because almost every mount is broken. Most of the needles are broken off the gauges. Gave up trying to keep the heat or AC working. High maintenance.

Total dog, even unloaded.

Only good thing I can say is that is hasn't blown up yet. Which is shocking.

Would not recommend. We get a wild hair from time to time and want to fix it up, but then start finding that so many parts have been obsolete for years.

But then we bought it new in 1997 and run it hard ever since.

Just to me, it seems like there are so many better options out there.
 
[486] said:
let us all know

been thinking hard on a step van with RV plates and a lot of tool boxes inside
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Does looking like an RV matter for your use?


If it's more about having the VIN come back as a Winnebago for insurance purposes then a big utility body would fit nice on an E-series once you pull the body off, add a back wall and patch the roof.
 
arse_sidewards said:
Does looking like an RV matter for your use?


If it's more about having the VIN come back as a Winnebago for insurance purposes then a big utility body would fit nice on an E-series once you pull the body off, add a back wall and patch the roof.
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I like the thought of all the boxes being inside rather than having fifty external doors all letting saltwater and thieves in.
just seems more sensibler for the sorta **** I do
 
[486] said:
I like the thought of all the boxes being inside rather than having fifty external doors all letting saltwater and thieves in.
just seems more sensibler for the sorta **** I do
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One of our install contractors has a shuttle bus for this. The handicapped lift gate makes getting **** in and out real easy.
 
sdmuleman said:
Key thing I'd want to make sure of is insurance and registration costs. There can be some pretty huge differences between a pickup and a bigger truck. Even if you're not using it commercially, many places don't really differentiate. For instance, my 3500 dodge was built as a cab and chassis, so USAA (who all my cars and other pickups are with) woln't cover it and it has to go a separate commercial policy despite being used as a standard pickup. May be more likely to get harassed at truck scales and such too. Also some of the toll roads/bridges will treat anything that's not a pickup as a commercial vehicle and charge a higher rate.
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Odd. I had a C70 10 wheeler with 20ft dumping flatbed insured with USAA. And a C30 C&C with 12ft dump

Currently have Country Fianacial.
They insure my c&c 5500 and c&c F350 fine, bith have 12ft flatbeds but wouldn't cover my Unimog... which I could probably load ONTO the 5500... only has a 94" wheelbase... so like a Jeep CJ7

But yeah, an F550, 5500 will fly under the radar easier than a "semi truck looking" truck.

Though 5500 GMs are ASS ugly too.
 
WI regs to declare it a motorhome:
1780497761023.png


I could install a 5 gallon water tank and faucet/pump, damn that would be handy. A permanent ice box sounds like a cooler to me, done. An inverter for 110, ****ing handy. Permanent heat or ac, well, if the OEM install doesn't count I could install a Chinese diesel air heater. It would probably never get used, but they are cheap. There you go, now I have a motorhome.
 
realsquash said:
WI regs to declare it a motorhome:
1780497761023.png


I could install a 5 gallon water tank and faucet/pump, damn that would be handy. A permanent ice box sounds like a cooler to me, done. An inverter for 110, ****ing handy. Permanent heat or ac, well, if the OEM install doesn't count I could install a Chinese diesel air heater. It would probably never get used, but they are cheap. There you go, now I have a motorhome.
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Shop beer fridge. Shop sink. Mini-split and genset. Done.

They don't say the shop sink has to drain to somewhere other than the ground if it takes an external supply. :flipoff2:
 
realsquash said:
An inverter for 110, ****ing handy.
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my thoughts are a welder-genset to get you the 110v (and 220)
though by the letter of the law you only need a permanently mounted 110v outlet box with a extension cord for shore power
arse_sidewards said:
Shop beer fridge. Shop sink. Mini-split and genset. Done.

They don't say the shop sink has to drain to somewhere other than the ground if it takes an external supply. :flipoff2:
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not having any sort of holding tank can be a sticking point depending on interpretation
bucket for drain and tank up high for feed (or a shur-flo RV pump)

having a propane fridge wouldn't be bad; you can use the propane for your torch set too, only gotta carry oxygen
have also had thoughts on propane fired block heaters made outta tank-type water heater gas valves and egr cooler type heat exchangers
 
i'd put a small grey tank in if I did this. Not sure I need a welder or generator, I already have a real motorhome :) Just an inverter would be fine.
 
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