Medium Duty Trucks
 

Is anybody using a medium duty truck such as one of the crew cab Freightliners, KWs, Petes or Internationals as their tow vehicle? We are considering a bigger truck for the Apache and are feeling out the options. So far I would have to say that the Pete is the front runner. Anybody have any experience with any of these type of trucks? Here are a few pics of one of the Peterbilts.

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Pete interior.

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HD,

Did you finally get the Apache up to MD? Last time I was at Martin Offshore I don't think it was there.

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The Pete is my favorite of all of the medium duty trucks. They are a little salty but once you get in one you will wonder how you ever pulled without it.

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Nope. Not yet. Believe it or not, we just got the last of the drive parts in from Mercury on Wednesday. Unbelievable, huh? It only took 5 weeks. Anyhow, we finally have all of the parts, so the drive assembly is now under way.

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Hot Duck

Do you need a CDL to drive that pete ??????, I see it has air brake.

Mike

In Maryland, if it is a recreational vehicle you do not need a CDL. Because of the weight, however, and because it cannot be classified as a motorhome, Maryland does require at least a class B non-commercial license for this truck. If we were to go one step further up the ladder to a "full size" semi tractor, then we would need a class A license, but again it would not have to be a CDL if it is for recreational use. It all sounds really confusing, but it is explained pretty well in the MVA handbook. Here is a link if you want to read into it a little further.

Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration

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hey will, sounds great if your not leaving maryland, but when you leave maryland you will need a cdl. if i were you id check on that further. does not sound right. hope all is well, dave

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Wow. I am away from the board for a few days and my post drops 4 pages! You guys have been busy! :eek:

Stecz20: Hey buddy. I have done some research and it looks like we are OK. I checked on the CDL and class requirements before even considering a larger truck because I don't want to be the only one that can drive it. That would stick me driving all of the time, which would really stink. Anyhow, in Maryland, if it is not for hire and is only used for personal recreation, you only need the class of license that meets the parameters of that vehicle. Here in Maryland it would be a class B license for a truck like one of the Pete 330s or the Freightliner 70 series. This class B license would also address the air brake issues. So, a minimum of a class B license is required, but it does not have to be a CDL.

Now, as far as operating out of state, I was told by the Maryland DOT that other states will follow the regulations from the state where the driver's license and vehicle tags are issued/registered. So, according to them, if you are legal to drive a certain vehicle in Maryland, then you can operate it in other states as well. They related this to a motorcycle license when explaining it to me. Maryland, along with most other states, requires motorcycle operators to have a special class of license in order to operate their bike on the road. So, they said that if you are licensed to operate a motorcycle in Maryland, then you can operate it in other states as well.

After hanging up the phone with MD DOT, I thought that this was too easy. So, I called a MD State Trooper friend that does mobile DOT inspections and he told me the same thing. As long as you have the correct class of license for the vehicle, it does not have to be a CDL as long as you are using it for personal recreation use only.

Now, you know me. I had to go even further just to be sure and to make sure that I had all bases covered. For this reason I called numerous companies that manufacture this class of truck. They all said that a CDL is not required for this class of truck unless you are hauling for hire. They said that some states don't even require a license class above a regular car, but that the owner would have to adhere to the laws of the specific state in which the vehicle was registered.

So, to make a long story short, I think that we are OK if we can find a good deal on one of these trucks. It may be a long shot, but you never know what you'll find if you look hard enough. :D :D

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so does this mean your getting rid of the f-450?

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I am not sure. I am looking at some possibilities and doing some homework, but I have not made any commitments as of yet. I am a little worried about the 450 towing the weight of the Apache. I have no doubt that it will do it, but I am not sure if it will do it legally. I had always thought that the max trailer weight for the truck was 21K pounds (gooseneck/5th wheel), but I saw in the owner's manual 2 weeks ago that it is only 17,200 lbs. The Ford Fleet website says 21K, but the owner's manual in my truck says 17,200. So, I called the local dealership to see if the manual was a misprint or if the web site was incorrect. The dealership is "still looking into it." If they can't get an answer in the next day or two I'll try to go directly to Ford.

If it is actually 21K, we can manage that. If it is 17,200 we will need to find something. Again, I have no doubt that the truck will handle the load, but in the event that we are involved in an accident or happen to get checked, I certainly do not want to be over weight.

We are figuring the weight as follows. The boat is 12k pounds and the shipping weight on the trailer was 5900 pounds. Now add fuel to the boat (up to 400 gallons), all of the gear in the boat, the gear in the trailer boxes and water in the wash down tanks on the trailer. That puts us well over 17,200lbs. We also want to add a cover girl type cabin to the boat this coming winter, which will add just a little more weight down the road.

Granted, the boat won't always be full of fuel and the water tanks won't always be full, but the one time that it is loaded down, even if just from the gas station to the ramp, will be the time that the little old lady runs into it. To me, being overloaded is just not worth the risk.

Call me paranoid, but I know first hand that sh*t can happen. Here are a few pictures that remind me how things can go wrong. These pics are from 2002, when the old lady hit the Gladiator. We were making a right hand turn and she ran into the back of the trailer. The scary thing is that she told the Troppers that she "never saw it." Even though the accident was not my fault, the Troopers still went over my rig to be sure that everything was in order. They measured everything and even weighed it with the portable scales because they did not believe the registered trailer weight. I told them that the boat was carbon fiber/kevlar and built really light for racing, but they did not believe me so they weighed it. Luckily, all of my weights were legit and everything was legal, so I walked away from the accident without any problems from the police. If the rig wasn't legal though, I have no doubt that they would have fined me for everything possible even though the collision was not my fault.

Wow, what a long rambling answer to a simple question, huh? To answer your question directly, I don't know yet. :D

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"never saw it" thats a line made famous by people who drive through tobacco barns after drinking a little too much

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What does a truck like that Peterbilt cost?

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Hot Duck, check with www.truckpaper.com and the peterbilt site, along with www.payloadmagazine.com www.westernhauler.com hope these help and the pete store is on my way in to town drive by every day so will stop in and see what they have out here in horse country for ya, and will be in dallas this weekend as well by the pete store so will peek there as well.

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What they said about nocdl for rec. use is also true here in Michigan. I have a Gmc 450 with a versa hauler package.It does a great job but I am also thinking of moving up to a big rig or toterhome(?).Any way if anyone is looking let me know.Only about 4,000 miles on it.Im towing the Nor-Tech 50 cat. Good luck on your new rig.

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Take a look at the rig Aqua Toy store has, not sure of the price but it looks pretty sweet. Add says they will separate it from the boat (color us gone)

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I just bought a 2004 Chevrolet C75. Trust me you need to take a look at the new Chevy's. I drove them all - Int - Ford - Pete and the Chevy won in all categories. I'm using my truck for my trucking business but you can get the cab for any application. Options are Jake Brake - power everything. It's under CDL 25,950 and has air brakes. Here in Ga you have to get take the air brake test but CDL is not required - BH

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JnT: For a comfortably equipped crew cab I have found them as low as 55K, but they can become as expensive as your mind can imagine.

Hard On: Thank you. I appreciate the help.

dlbCheckmate: I have called them about that truck and they have it listed at 96k, but they did say they had a little room to play. That truck was evidently made by Cowboy Cadillac. So, I contacted them to price out a new one. For another 8-10K you can get a brand new truck instead of a 3 year old truck that you will have to paint to get rid of the old name and graphics. Of course, depending on what kind of deal they can put together and how much they can play with the numbers, this truck is still a fairly strong possibility. I actually talked to them about it again today. We are still feeling out all of the options.

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The term ''CDL'' is exactly that , "COMERCIAL" DRIVERS LISCENCE . COmercial meaning it is for hire as in ,used for a buisness. The NON comercial liscence is also a special liscence . It is not comercial but is basicaly the same thing. I have a full size kenworth I am building a motor home out of and I am not required to have a CDL for that either , and that is registered for 60,000 ! NON cdl just means ,you are NOT for hire .
Check out all the big Nascar rigs . Most of them were registered as RV's so they didn't have to stop at scales and such . But since they are actualy a corperate team ,they are technicaly comercial and are suposed to be registered that way . Also the RV insurance is nothing compared to comercial. My KW would cost about $8,000 -$10,000 per year comercial , but only about $600 as an RV !

PS. That "triple cab" pete is nice . They ride great and lots of room for friends ! Those trucks will range anywhere from about $60k to $120k depending on how it is set up . It kind of sucks when you could buy a full size for the same money ....... But the "toys" always cost more .........

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Also , MAke sure you get air ride !!! Not only on the back but see if they will do it on the front . Most will have it on the back only . And in stock form they will ride ruff even with the standard air . IF you want it to ride real nice you need "ping pong tanks" .That is an extra set of air tanks hooked to the air bags so the air can compress more and ride nicer . Thats what all the big busses and custom coaches use to float down the road . I just got the extra rear tank for my KW and I am going next week to check out the front air ride system . Makes a BIG difference ...

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At the World of Concrete show this year Freightliner had a very nice class 6 crew cab with a pick-up truck bed. They were using the Ford dually box. It was 4x4 had an Allison automatic with a dual range rear end and had the regular size tires (not a low-pro). The truck as it sat was selling for around $50,000 with a 300 hp Cummins. It was very tall but had a drop down section on the rear frame that would accept a receiver. They said they can handle up to 22,000lbs with a pennal hitch and would custom make any type hitch mounting you wanted (at an additional cost).

If I was going to buy a larger boat, that rig is what I would get to tow it. It was really sharp.

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Boot: Hey buddy! I agree that air ride is the way to go. All three trucks in consideration right now have the air ride chassis, cab and front seats. I don't know if the chassis setups also include the front or not. As always, thank you for the info.

h2owarrior : The Freightliner is a consideration. I am looking at two different Petes and a Freightliner right now. The interior of the Freightliner is extremely nice, but I think that I like the exterior looks of the Petes better. The two Petes also have the stretched cabs while the Freightliner is a regular crew cab. I do have a quote from Cowboy Cadillac on building a stretched Freightliner though. They stated that it would take 8-10 weeks to build a new truck. I thought that time frame was fairly impressive. We'll see. I am going to spend some time on the phone again today because I have lots of questions for all three of these dealers.

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Speaking of Cowboy Cadillac, check out their new F-650 Excursion. This one is the prototype, but they are supposedly building one to serve as a tow rig for an APBA team. Unfortunately, they would not tell me which team.

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have you check with www.indianacustomtrucktrucks.com www.doubleeagleind.com www.aatrucksleeper.com they also do some conversions cowboy caddilac has some nice photos there OKC pete didn't have one, be on the way to dallas this afternoon report back later.

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It's a done deal. The Pete at the beginning of this post is coming to live in Maryland. This thing should handle the Apache with ease! Like I said before, I have no doubts that the F-450 would do the job, but I do not want to take the chance or tempt fate by going down the highway more than a ton overweight. It's just not worth it. Something that did surprise me though is that the insurance for the Pete is less than half of what the insurance was for the F-450, even with twice the dollar amount in coverage. Try to figure that one out, but all of the quotes were very similar so I was not about to argue!

So, what all of this means is that the F-450 is for sale. I have a couple of leads on it, but no deposit yet. Here are a couple of pictures of it. Please PM or e-mail me for any more info on the 450 because, out of respect for the board Gods, I don't want to turn this post into a full blown classified ad.

[email protected]