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Anything I should know about highway tractor emissions

6K views 27 replies 11 participants last post by  4x4ord 
#1 ·
Although I realize many would decide otherwise we are planning on purchasing a tri drive tractor and putting a 1000 bus grain box on it to use to haul grain from the combines to the bins. (Most of our land has grain storage within 1 mile of the combines) The truck will be used a little on short hauls to the terminal. (many of our grain bins are within 10 miles of the terminal we generally haul to) I am considering a 2008 Kenworth t800 with a 525 ISX Cummins and 18 speed with about 500k kms. I have heard the '08 Cat had emission issues. Are there years to avoid with the Cummins?
 
#3 ·
We've owned a '07 Pete with a Cat C15 for the past 5 years and other than a flat tire and an A/C recharge we have had no issues. What year were the trucks fitted with DPFs. I am thinking if I'm going to go as old as an 08 maybe I should go 1 year older to avoid the dpf or some other emission equipment that I am unaware of. Seems like in the pickups the newer urea equipped trucks have a better system. Is there a certain number of kms or hours were the emission equipment starts giving trouble?
 
#4 ·
A 2008 C15 will have some repairs that are emissions related and unfortunately they usually have to got to a dealer to diagnose them. Are you opposed to doing an emissions delete? They are great engines otherwise. My farm had a 2008 Pete with C15 and we found we don't put enough miles on the truck to have constant downtime just one maybe two trips to the dealer per year. I would buy an emissions Cat again but if it gave too much trouble I would delete emissions.
 
#5 ·
An isx with 500000 kms is nothing but what a the hours. You need to be careful. I've seen low miles trucks like that that are very high Houred
 
#19 ·
Buying a logging truck from the mountains is a good buy. Why? For the most part, this is the average routine of a logging truck, in the west and why it has clocked so many idling hours. Most logging trucks begin their day heading to the bush 12:01- 1:00 am in the morning. At that point you are not in the mood to "high ball it" because you spend the next two hours trying to wake up while driving down a bunny trail up the mountain trail calling your miles, looking for the next pull-out to let the loaded truck pass. You wait, idling, You make it to the landing and ...idling, an hour later, or more, after you get unstuck from the landing, it's down hill and stop to chain up. Sometimes two to three times on a road, idling. You crawl down the mountain trails, slow. Maybe a 50 to 100 km. highway relaxing drive to the mill. Unload, and back to the bush. @ maybe 2 trips a day, maybe 300 km. a day, 14 -16 hr day. That's why so many hours. And every logging truck is specked heavy with good power. I'm just saying cuz ive done it, and would rather farm or just holiday if I could afford it. Just saying.
 
#11 ·
A box and hoist will cost $35k and I have little idea what a pup would cost. In our case we will likely not use the truck to haul to the terminal much but it would be interesting to know what a tridem pup would cost as well as how many bushels could be hauled with a tridrive/tridem pup combo.
 
#13 · (Edited)
How are tri drives to turn? We've been thinking about a truck to haul manure/grain... I have no experience with trucks and a lot of people have told me to stay away from tri drives.
This would be our first truck that we buy for the farm, we have a lot more land that is farther away now and I think a truck would be a good idea. Our other option would be a end dump for behind the tractor
 
#15 ·
I personally like tri-drives, I don't even own one, have been looking but they usually want a pretty penny, back in my college days I drove beet truck, usually ran tractor trailer but when people drank too much I would run their shift also with a tri-drive, really liked the maneuverability of them and the fact that they would be really sweet for filling drill
 
#18 ·
We use tridrives for silage and manure. Manure is fine but for silage they are a bugger to turn around, having the chopper fill the front a bunch helps allot. Otherwise they are good, excellent traction but are a hard pull if you get them stuck... Tridrives are very rare for long haul because they are so inefficient, it takes allot of power to run three differentials down the highway.
 
#22 ·
I was told all highway tractors that have 46,000lbs rears or 69,000lbs rears on a tri will have a double frame by default something about Canadian regulations. If you buy from the states you might find one with heavy diffs and single frame. I certainly wouldn't be concerned about a double frame, I would take that as a good thing, certainly stronger than a single 3/8". Especially when every load coming off the field at harvest is going to be overloaded.

Looking at how much your planning on spending I could seriously consider an tridem end dump trailer and semi. You can get a brand new 37ft Load Line end dump for around $45,000 & some sort of truck for $50-60,000 and you got a pretty sweet rig and you can haul 1400bus in harvest and just over 1000bus legal. If you have your mind set on spending 150,000 on a Tridrive truck setup I won't argue but just something to consider.
 

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#25 ·
I use to have a boner for end dumps but after going with a grain bag system it no longer became practical for me. But what I was thinking I would do is go 32' and still get a pretty healthy load mainly because 5 ft of that trailer is a pile of weight but also on the flip side I don't know what kind of bridge laws if any you have up there. I don't think in them lengths it would matter here since it is under 40'. I really like load lines and frontier trailers, they seem to last forever, back in my college days I was pulling a 1975 frontier and would have never guessed it was over 5 years old
 
#24 ·
We got three tridrive logging trucks from BC, they all are single frame. Identical powertrains as our Sangel special with double frame but forty inches shorter and a thousand kg lighter each.
 
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