What's new
By:
Filters

HDT Maintenance Costs

Penetrode Offroad

Red Skull Member
Joined
May 20, 2020
Member Number
493
Messages
365
Y'all with HDT's:

Is your maintenance costs more expensive than a 1ton pickup? Couple of your guy's threads got me thinking.
 
More oil and coolant. Filters are pretty much the same price minus air filters which are pretty expensive compared to a pickup. Tires can sometimes be cheaper per unit depending how you buy them but obviously there’s more of them. Life expectancy for the wear items will be a lot longer, especially brakes. I find air brakes way better to work on fwiw. Every time I’ve sold a mdt or hdt truck I regret it but there’s been a lot of times I can’t justify keeping it around.
 
Last edited:
I am coming up on 3 years of owning my truck. I do not use it often a few times a year besides making a trip around town just to drive it. I had to do an initial go through and fix some small neglected items. I had to replace the batteries and that was a hit (4 of them). I have replaced the steer tires they ran me $800 local installed. I would say that tires are more just because you have more tires. Oil is expensive because how much they hold but I don’t change my oil very often with how much I use the truck.
 
The idea with the HDT's is if you get a decent one, they should go long periods of time between maintenance.

Although parts can be cringe worthy if they do go out. At work, our 08 KW T800 lost a turbo. MOTHER FUCKING SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS for a new one :barf::eek:

I couldn't get over that. I mentioned that we can rebuild them for a fraction of that, but the next day, I saw the bad one in a return box for the $1200 core.
 
Worked on fuel tankers a couple years. Most of the fleet at 10k got lokw 30 qts of oil, fuel filters, maybe a PCV filter, a couple bulbs here and there, and usually and air leak.

But when shit went bad, it was bad. Gotta save $$ for bad turbos, a trans now and then, and maybe a ring gear. Clutches aren’t fun everything is too heavy.

DPF and smog shit sucked.

If it makes money for you it’s not a big deal.
 
Forgot to mention this, for the most part things are right there in your arms reach due to it being an inline 6 but everything will be heavy and you’ll crush your fingers if you get pinched where they shouldn’t be.

I say stay away from any 2 stroke Detroit. They need constant adjustments to valve and injectors which is becoming a skill set less and less mechanics have. The noise of the motor also sounds cool when you hear one going down the road but gets annoying as hell when you’re sitting on it and hear it drone all day
 
Penetrode Offroad said:
Y'all with HDT's:

Is your maintenance costs more expensive than a 1ton pickup? Couple of your guy's threads got me thinking.
Click to expand...

Yes. Roughly triple the cost per mile over time and you have to have $10k in the bank that causes you zero pain or emotion when it leaves suddenly. Don’t forget that any tows start at $200/hr port to port in an HDT too.

You can DIY some stuff but like others have said, you need tools bigger than your 1/2” impact to work on them and you can remove a finger in a HURRY if you aren’t careful. I do some small stuff but I’ve found it’s just worth my time to have the shop do things for me since they are just faster and better at stuff like brakes and suspension.

Parts costs are an absolute killer as well. I’ve lost a couple turbos in my fleet and they are $5k-$7k for just the turbo and a $1200 core like YotaAtieToo said. Ordering parts online is also much harder as a DIY’er. Some stuff isn’t bad but other stuff you pretty much have to rely on your local dealer.

Here’s an invoice for a recent 20k mile PM on one of my Freightliner M2’s with 239k and no emissions work needed.

IMG_0794.jpeg
IMG_0795.jpeg
IMG_0796.jpeg
IMG_0797.jpeg
 
Snowy said:
Yes. Roughly triple the cost per mile over time and you have to have $10k in the bank that causes you zero pain or emotion when it leaves suddenly. Don’t forget that any tows start at $200/hr port to port in an HDT too.

You can DIY some stuff but like others have said, you need tools bigger than your 1/2” impact to work on them and you can remove a finger in a HURRY if you aren’t careful. I do some small stuff but I’ve found it’s just worth my time to have the shop do things for me since they are just faster and better at stuff like brakes and suspension.

Parts costs are an absolute killer as well. I’ve lost a couple turbos in my fleet and they are $5k-$7k for just the turbo and a $1200 core like YotaAtieToo said. Ordering parts online is also much harder as a DIY’er. Some stuff isn’t bad but other stuff you pretty much have to rely on your local dealer.

Here’s an invoice for a recent 20k mile PM on one of my Freightliner M2’s with 239k and no emissions work needed.
Click to expand...

I wonder how much cheaper and older'80s or early '90s truck would be to keep going for the 3 to 5,000 miles a year these guys are talking about?
 
YotaAtieToo said:
I wonder how much cheaper and older'80s or early '90s truck would be to keep going for the 3 to 5,000 miles a year these guys are talking about?
Click to expand...

That’s a fair question. Obviously you don’t have emissions to deal with but then you’re dealing with 25 year old commercial use truck problems like brakes and suspension still.

99 and down got really expensive up front when ELD laws went into effect that exempted them. Also pre-EGR is nice too. I looked for one recently and so many are either whooped farm trucks or million+ mile trucks still asking $60k if they weren’t rusty.
 
Snowy said:
That’s a fair question. Obviously you don’t have emissions to deal with but then you’re dealing with 25 year old commercial use truck problems like brakes and suspension still.

99 and down got really expensive up front when ELD laws went into effect that exempted them. Also pre-EGR is nice too. I looked for one recently and so many are either whooped farm trucks or million+ mile trucks still asking $60k if they weren’t rusty.
Click to expand...

Totally agree, would have to be pretty careful buying the right rig.

Just from my limited observations, late 90s and 00s seems to be a tough spot where they started adding complexity and emissions, but also getting old enough to be starting to wear out. On the other hand, I think my work is hard on stuff and not the best with maintenance.

If a guy could find an 80s rig that wasn't abused, I'd think it would be ideal for these guys wanting to pull crawlers a few times a year.


BigBurt said:
Batteries have been expensive for me due to sitting more than driving
Click to expand...

Even on a tender?

Maybe take it for ice cream once a month? :flipoff2:
 
YotaAtieToo said:
Totally agree, would have to be pretty careful buying the right rig.

Just from my limited observations, late 90s and 00s seems to be a tough spot where they started adding complexity and emissions, but also getting old enough to be starting to wear out. On the other hand, I think my work is hard on stuff and not the best with maintenance.

If a guy could find an 80s rig that wasn't abused, I'd think it would be ideal for these guys wanting to pull crawlers a few times a year.




Even on a tender?

Maybe take it for ice cream once a month? :flipoff2:
Click to expand...
Yes sir. I did! I actually drove it to work just to park next to the bosses Tesla lol
 
YotaAtieToo said:
I wonder how much cheaper and older'80s or early '90s truck would be to keep going for the 3 to 5,000 miles a year these guys are talking about?
Click to expand...
I mean, this is kinda what i was thinking about. Not so much a daily/fleet rig.

My company paid 40kish for an engine overhaul awhile back. On another rig they paid 60k for all new hydraulic hoses and other shit. Think self loader dump truck.

I'd love to go Skipped_Link route. Theres a similar era log truck a few miles from me that i wanna scoop but apparently the dude's dad had it and wont get rid of it from a sentimental aspect. It would need all new shit.
 
Penetrode Offroad said:
I mean, this is kinda what i was thinking about. Not so much a daily/fleet rig.

My company paid 40kish for an engine overhaul awhile back. On another rig they paid 60k for all new hydraulic hoses and other shit. Think self loader dump truck.

I'd love to go Skipped_Link route. Theres a similar era log truck a few miles from me that i wanna scoop but apparently the dude's dad had it and wont get rid of it from a sentimental aspect. It would need all new shit.
Click to expand...

The nice thing about the older stuff is not only no emissions, but stupid stuff like switches are still switches and not $1200 modules.

Even the 99 KW we had, used a 1 piece deal for warning lights and low air buzzer. The buzzer went out and it was $800 iirc.

The 08 KW's have had a lot of dumb things like that go as well. Blinker switch, Jake switch, ect. None were cheap. Maybe just a KW thing? :confused:
 
Penetrode Offroad said:
I mean, this is kinda what i was thinking about. Not so much a daily/fleet rig.

My company paid 40kish for an engine overhaul awhile back. On another rig they paid 60k for all new hydraulic hoses and other shit. Think self loader dump truck.

I'd love to go Skipped_Link route. Theres a similar era log truck a few miles from me that i wanna scoop but apparently the dude's dad had it and wont get rid of it from a sentimental aspect. It would need all new shit.
Click to expand...

Cost per mile is cost per mile. Less miles just gives you a smaller sample size but the law of averages will catch up to you sooner or later. Might spend almost nothing for quite a while, might spend $30k for an in-frame almost immediately when it drops a liner. Its a crapshoot on old trucks. If you have the tools, space, and time to do you own work, there's significant cost savings obviously. Parts are still a killer from time to time though.

I think the HDT used market is fairly rational in terms of pricing. Pre-1999 stuff has come down some now that the bubble has popped on rates and they've been sub $2/mi for a year. Still looks like it will cost about $40-$50k to get a 1.5 million mile truck with a 3406E/N14/60 series.
 
My big cam 400 Pete is dirt cheap to maintain. We did a lot up front but that will insure worry free operation for years. We swapped the motor for a low milage reman(40k miles) for $5k and a 2 day forklift rental. Put a super10 trans reman in for $3k, pilot hub axle take offs from the local pick and pull for $2k (40 year old brake parts r impossible to find). $1k for some suspension bits and we havent touched any of those systems in 10yrs and 100k miles. Now i just swap in cab bags and airlines as needed.

I budget about $1k a year for misc stuff....this year its door rebuilds (seals and mechanisms). 2 yrs ago it was dash gauges. Its never ending but its very easy to work on.
 
As stated above, I think it depends on what you are using it for. My 99 Freightliner has been fairly trouble free in the 10 years we have ran it. Pre emissions/ELD/electronic everything. I have replaced the turbo twice in 80k miles. Not good odds, but its also a $350 turbo. I could have bought the OE turbo for $1500, but even if I have to swap the turbo every couple years, its still cheaper.
Tires are more $$ than a pickup tire, but they last longer too. I replaced my original set a couple years ago because they were dry-rotting, not because they were worn out.
Batteries are $$ (mine takes 4 as well), but I installed a disconnect on it, and haven't had any issues since.
I'm only into mine about 18k total, and that includes purchase price. Probably not the "norm" though.
 
I'll add some data here from a small 7 truck fleet perspective:

I ran 75k total miles last quarter, with an average maintenance cost per mile of $0.51 and a fuel cost per mile of $.048 on 7.66 MPG.

My cheapest truck to maintain was an International 4400 with an N9 engine (churched up Maxxforce), didn't cost me a dime and ran a bunch of miles completely trouble free.

My worst truck to maintain was a Freightliner M2 that rang up just shy of $18k in trans and aftertreatment work after the Allison in it failed and then needed some aftertreatment components replaced.

The 6.7 F350 I have for pulling my gooseneck trailer is right at $.07 per mile in maintenance over the last 43k including a set of 6 tires.
 
Snowy said:
I'll add some data here from a small 7 truck fleet perspective:

I ran 75k total miles last quarter, with an average maintenance cost per mile of $0.51 and a fuel cost per mile of $.048 on 7.66 MPG.

My cheapest truck to maintain was an International 4400 with an N9 engine (churched up Maxxforce), didn't cost me a dime and ran a bunch of miles completely trouble free.

My worst truck to maintain was a Freightliner M2 that rang up just shy of $18k in trans and aftertreatment work after the Allison in it failed and then needed some aftertreatment components replaced.

The 6.7 F350 I have for pulling my gooseneck trailer is right at $.07 per mile in maintenance over the last 43k including a set of 6 tires.
Click to expand...

Is that 0-43000 miles? Im curious where the hypothetical sweet spot for dumping one would be. Most ive seen seem to go problem free for 125k at a minimum and then it could be any number of $10k repairs between 12k and 175k
 
2big bronco said:
Is that 0-43000 miles? Im curious where the hypothetical sweet spot for dumping one would be. Most ive seen seem to go problem free for 125k at a minimum and then it could be any number of $10k repairs between 12k and 175k
Click to expand...

That’s a good point I meant to include! Truck was a 2012 purchased with 60k in 2020. Just got home from a wheeling trip Monday with 103k. It’s gotten a couple batteries ($250), a set of tires ($1600), a DEF injector ($200), LF wheel bearing ($200), trans solenoids ($500), trans fluid/filter ($180), a coolant change ($150) and regular oil changes.

I could have saved a few bucks on the trans solenoids and just gotten the 5-6 to clear up a shaky downshift under load but the pan was off and I was there, so it got all of them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Back Refresh