trimster

I think I'm going to try plastic window wells. Measurements are stock. They are going under the flatbed I'm going too build. Black bed liner coating should look good. Might need to fab the brackets...no big deal. I'll document the process.

Any suggestions on where to get rear fenders for our trucks? Thinking plastic, maybe. Bob

Mine has chrome covers. Don't see any access covers for screws. Guess those covers snap into place? Bob

How does one open the passengers side mirror? The last owner ran their own CB coax, disconnecting the factory run into the cab. Now the FM radio picks up almost nothing. Bob

Although maybe not needed. I am flying the 'not for hire' signage for the neighbors. We have a few that feel they are self appointed neighborhood enforcement... from the comfort of their living room with binoculars, making anonymous complaints. Fortunately the city council rep lives in the next block and he's in the loop. Bob

So, the shore power plug isn't in the hole. It's hanging under the cab. Not sure why. Did a continuity check on each 110v outlet, no shorts. That plug had been out for years. It was rusty in the mount hole. Had to grind out the rust to get the plug back in. Hooked it all up and the newly installed microwave heats tea just fine. Interestingly enough, all three 110v runs through the cab end up where the sleeper heater is located. they are not connected. All have plugs of some kind on them. I'm putting in a surface mount quad outlet box there so I have some options down the road, and for now all the circuits are working. So that potential problem was easily fixed. Whew. Bob

So, 'THE' story.... Found the truck thru TruckPaper. Caught my eye because it was a 670 with a dinette/workstation. Rare beast. But we were getting kinda serious about 2 other possibilities at the same time. Contacted the salesman. And this is where the vortex starts. Rush Trucks has a big corporate/regional office here in Salt Lake. They serviced our International 4700. Good vibes all around with these folks. So, dealing with Rush in Idaho seemed like a no brainier. Oh baby, was that off the mark. Here's the lay-of-the-land... the truck is in Idaho, Falls. The salesman is in Boise, Idaho... 4.5 hrs from the truck, and I'm in Salt Lake... also 4+ hrs drive away. Salesman has never laid eyes on the truck and only has what the Rush trucks information system has listed... and some of that is not right. Some way off. We start a dialog on the truck... it's at $39k at this point. I start asking for some details. me: "Does it have a fridge?" Him: "not sure, let me check." later that day..."No." Me: What's the overall length? (I have a length limit where I will park the truck on our properly. 224" wb is about as long as I can go. This truck is listed at 240". But it does not look that long and that seemed to me to be a weird length.) Him: I'll have someone measure it. Him: (next day) Right around 25'. That seems way wrong, even for a short WB truck. Then he levels with me that he has not seen the truck. It's located hours away and he's not allowed (corporate) to travel there. And they don't have a salesperson on site. Wait, you have a service shop and are selling trucks there without a salesperson? First red flag. We'll, second actually. Me: What can you tell me about the truck? Him: Came from a small fleet, SOS Transport. Seems to be well cared for. (remember he has never laid eyes on this truck). "it just had a DOT." Me: Any service records? Him: None that we have. (Found out the owner left a 1" thick stack of service records in the truck). Me: Okay, here's what I need to move this deal along... (I list my needs which included a computer dump of error codes) Him: Can't do the computer dump... no volvo dealer. It took me less than 15 seconds to google a Volvo dealership. Mountain West has their corporate office here in Salt Lake and a branch just on the next street from Rush in Idaho, Falls. Me: There's a dealer on the next street. Him: nobody to take it over. See, sales isn't getting much support at that store. We have to lean on the parts guy to help out. Me: Okay.... I want to get an oil sample test. Him: You'll have to make that happen. We don't have the resources. So the wife and I decide to drive up and give this truck a look. I'm packing a 7 page checklist, tools, stuff to do a good once-over, and an oil sample kit. The truck is, at first glance, okay looking. Dirty as hell on the outside. Welcome to the farm belt in Idaho. But you'd think someone would at least hose it off for us. I spend 3+ hrs going over the checklist. The truck was not really detailed. We could see all the potential warts on the engine, drive train, etc. Nothing major. Small oil leak at the valve cover gasket. Some oil on the trans case but that could be coming from the an area around the oil filters. All else looked decent accept for one tire that has been run underinflated and cupped. That parts guy who helps the sales out, took us for a test drive. He use to long haul. Young kid, relatively. He use to drive Volvo's. His input was helpful on the truck. He felt or found nothing wrong with the driveability. He put it through it's paces. Now we can start real negotiations. I send my list of wants to the salesman. And it was a longer list than before. Something I kinda felt he would say no too. Meanwhile I am doing some background on the previous owner. It was not SOS Transport, a one truck operation out of Illinois. It was an 8 truck company just up the road in Rigby, Idaho. I called the owner and he unloaded everything I needed to know about this truck. (I think I outlined this a few posts back). I measured the truck... 210" WB. Rear end listed as 2.67.... right on the door it says 3.08. Oh, it does have a fridge which they seemingly could not figure out how to turn off. 1 yr old batteries were now toast. The salesman came back with a super lowball offer..."As is, where is... we will do the oil and filter change, pull the hitch, and air lines." That's when I went to Rush Corporate. On their website was a 'Contact Us' form. So I did, fully expecting not to hear from them for a while. That while.... roughly 60 min. I about fell out of my chair. Big corporate responding? The regional manager (located in the Salt Lake Office) called. Apologized and said that several others will be contacting me to help me. 10 min. later, the Idaho Operations Manager calls. "We want to get this fixed for you." He explained what they were doing with the Idaho stores... reorganization, fixing problems, etc. I'm just in the middle of this revamp. The tone of the salesman changes. And now there's magically a salesman at the Idaho, Falls store. Wait, there had been one there all along. WTF. So, within hours of the phone calls, the store manager personally drives the truck to the Volvo dealer for a code pull. That report turned out to be very helpful when talking to the last owner. I drop the oil sample off back in Salt Lake. They're backlogged so it takes a few extra days. Talking with the lab tech, the oil is spot on for this truck, with no red-flags. Ran a RigDigs report. Really clean. 2 owner truck. Now we're in the saddle to buy this thing. I do some research on what it will cost for me to do some of the things I want done, and carve my wish list to him down to the essentials. Hitch, airlines, Oil & Filters, wash the damn truck, give it a once over. I wanted a DOT inspection, because it sure was not done before. It has exterior running lights out, no emergency triangles, fire extinguisher, and a few other minor things. I know, from talking with the previous owner, what Rush paid for the truck. In my last offer and services ask, I listed a bunch of things that I wanted them to buy and throw in the cab...I would install them. That's when I got the low-ball price. We drove up a second time, check in hand, took another test drive and signed on the line. Rented a room while they put it in the shop. So we started at high $30's and got it for under $24k. They did what I asked accept for the wash and DOT inspection. The store manager leaned on the service guys. They did an oil change and full chassis lube. I bought the air filter and they installed it. The replaced some of the missing lug nut covers, installed a new fire extinguisher, and triangles. No final delivery to customer wash or full DOT inspection. Am I going to follow up with corporate if they don't with me? Yup. They still fell short. Here's the interesting, and troubling used truck culture there I think. The owner left the service paperwork, the CB radio, fire extinguisher, triangles, in the truck. They were all missing. Hmmmm. So, we're now waiting for the new title from Idaho. I'm digging into cleaning the truck up. First power wash of the frame... must have been 20lbs of dirt raining out. Deep cleaning the interior, which is in pretty good shape as is. And of course adding stuff. Hopefully it will go into the frame shop to have it extended 10-12" for the hitch. Then I can start building the bed. And that's the rest of the story. Bob

Charley gave a rough quote of $1500 to extend 10" , mount hitch, etc. Their work looks good. Bob

I want to put fenders on mine. Not sure which ones yet. Bob

Drive home was uneventful. Blew by one weigh station and around another. Truck runs great . Pleasure to drive. Now prepping for Utah reclassification to motor home. Microwave installed. Porta potty tucked under the dinette table/workstation. Fridge functions nicely. New shore power plug and breaker box goes in the driver's side storage compartment tomorrow. Upholstery getting deep cleaning. Think we've settled on a name for the truck. It's blue and we're long time Dr. WHO fans...so Tartis.

Pictures?

And a good reason to do some upgrades....hmmmm. Bob

It's the 120v AC wiring. The shore power plug has been removed. Seems there's a short in the wiring somewhere. It might be easier to run new to the 120v plugs We now own it. It's in the shop getting new oil, filters, hitch removed. Driving it home tomorrow. Photos to come. Bob

Okay... got some really good information on the truck. I got a hold of the the last owner. Great guy. Knows his stuff. Has 8 rigs in his fleet. He did a TON of repairs and fixes over the first year he owned it. The last (fleet) owner did nothing to it, and sold it off when the warantee ran out. So, a lot has been done to the truck in the past 2 yrs.: - Both rear ends rebuilt - Trans rebuilt (both parts) - Complete new engine/under hood wiring kit. - Head rebuild - Injector cups - Turbo air-to-air replaced - New radiator - DEF system rebuilt (is about time for an exhaust filter he said) - Does have a problem with the inverter wiring. Trouble shot to a kink in the harness somewhere in the cab. The outlets don't work. That will be fun to fix. I rather dislike wiring problems). - Always ran Synthetic blend motor oil, and synthetic in the trans and rear ends. The last owner said once all this stuff was done.... the truck was solid on the road. Not a spec of issues. He explained all the fault codes I saw on the computer dump. This truck is now looking to be a rather good find. The salesman...ya, not so good find. Like a good soap opera script... more to come in the next episode. Stay tuned. Bob

Ya, we found a outstanding 2015 780, super well cared for. Lots of bling and options, 450k miles. Great price... but walked away because it had a D16 motor. When volvo stops making them and the Volvo dlr won't take them in trade... that's a good indicator what not to purchase. Bob

The price reduction is not due to truck conditions. It is a 640k miles truck. But no signs of driven hard, put up wet. Tests and reports are pretty good. There's a good reason for the reduction. Partly because sales suck for them at that Rush Trucks location. The big issue, not truck related, I will go into after the sale is done. Bob

Alan... ya, most of the sweetening has come in the form of price reduction. Truck started north of $30k. Now @ $23,900 inc. new batteries, oil & filter change, hitch removed, and a few other things. I think they are at what they have into there truck. I am going to push for a DOT inspection and fix of those issues. Like no fire extinguisher, safety triangles, clearance light out, one turn signal bulb is the wrong color. One of the first things the salesman said was "it's DOT inspection is good." It is if done by a visually impaired inspector. And I want the inspection in writing. Always fun pushing band and forth before you hand over your check. Bob

So, oil report is in and it's right in line with 634k miles on the D13 engine. RigDigs report is clean. ECM dump has some issues but nothing major. I have the Volvo build sheet in hand...so I know what the truck is made of (which is not what they listed in the posting for the truck. Nothing major for me, but a trucker would be pissed I think). Things like the WB. It's really 210 not the listed 240. The rear end is really 3.08 instead of 2.64. Says it has an air slide... don't remember seeing the required stuff on the hitch for the 'air' part. Don't really care because I am having them pull it off. Lists little info about the fuel tanks. They said it does not have a fridge...it does. So Monday we head back up to Idaho Falls from Salt Lake, to put eyes on the truck again and give it another road test. They have thrown out a price that is hard to walk away from, especially now that we know the truck is pretty solid. The discount off the asking price is way more than enough for me to do stuff like air and fuel filters, replace a bad tire, and a few sensor issues. We'll keep you posted and, if we do in fact get the truck, I will post the soap opera of a story that involves getting this rig. Here's the truck... https://www.rushtruckcenters.com/truck-sales/truck-inventory/423915-volvo-vnl64t Bob

SumoSprings seem to work really well for motorhomes. Same issues on the front axle. They have a really nice 2 part unit that can be adjusted according to loading (you can preload the spring, or leave it less 'loaded' depending on your application). Nice feature is there's no air bag/system to maintain or leak. https://www.supersprings.com/product-category/sumosprings-front/ I'm getting a Volvo 670 and plan on trying these if, like you, the ride is not as nice as we hoped. Their customer support is 2nd to none. Bob

Ya, get that. So the latter 2 referring to the trans in the report are the most concerning. I'm still researching. These are apparently cascading/or linked at times. Some TuckersReports threads point to drivers hill-holding using the trans. The second one seems to be caused by "Clutch slip more than 8.0 seconds with vehicle movement less than 0.8 m (32 in) (e.g. hill holding event)" This caused un-do wear on the clutch. Not a good thing. But no other symptoms of clutch problems present themselves, like slipping under acceleration and gear hunting. The first..."• The gear lever is moved from neutral or “FOLD” position without prior application of the service brake." No biggy. Most of the rest of the data link ones seem to be fixed by pulling and cleaning connectors on the back of the instrument cluster and at one of the brains located in the dash. The ABS brake codes ...I'm still researching. Bob

Ya, the high count ones I think are related to the bad batteries. The MID ones (data link) are a mystery to me. The clutch plate actuator is an out of alignment/adjustment sensor. That's what the tech said. Easy fix. Bob

Very helpful. Perfect. Thanks. Bob

I got the report. Fortunately the codes were not reset since March. The low voltage faults (54 of them) I think are caused by the batteries. The dlr left the fridge and inverter on so they batteries were constantly getting drained. New batteries are in this trucks immediate future. I think the low coolant levels sensor is somehow tied to the low battery problem. The coolant was full and looked good when I inspected the truck last Friday. The report is attached. Anything there I should be concerned about? Bob