Who has the worst tale of HDT RV repairs?

[Dollytrolley]

Vegas has a dog-fetish and recently he says his HDT costs have been so high that his bride likely won't let him even in the dog house...... Gulp.

A chap with the handle of gjhunter01 seems to have been "gifted" with life-changing-experiances with HD'$ and has a mission to warn folks of the evils of trucks and the bigger the truck, the bigger the warning.....he knows the bigger the truck the bigger the hole is in the truck owners pocket$...

Now after a life being abused by cheep-2-0perate-rig$ such as 1,000,000 pound cranes (x 2) , boats up to 6,000 HP, Excavators, motor scooters, skid steer'$, single-engine-2engine-3engine-4engine-5engine-9engine aircraft, electric wheelchair, chainsaw, pole saw, generators, fan$, rock drills, D-2-4-6-7-8-9 dozers, too-many-HP-sno-blower$, streeechLemoooo'$, leaf-blower, helicopters and one mini-$ub ....etc....I have almost no concept of costs of operating equipment......

The heliwopper$ were a nice training tool where you take off perfect parts off and then saw them into pieces and lock them in the "quernteen" (parts-hell) and then write checks that you have to write tiny in order to get the SEVEN figure amount on the check for the "new-life-limited-part" that you will destroy when it is working perfect but arrives at it'$ life-limit......

So.......who has the Wor$t and Be$t tale of Whoooow regarding HD-whole-in-the-pockets-expen$e$$$$.....

Come on folks who holds the record of .....Out-of-pocket$.......don't hold back who i$ THE daddy-war-Buck$ of HDT'$

 

Drive on.....(every time I get a $ in my pocket.....I get in more trouble)

 

 

 

 

[Jack Mayer]

Well, there has been at least one engine rebuild on the forum that I know was paid out of pocket.....that will probably be it...

In 15 years owning an HDT using it fulltime in recreation hauling: first 10 years I averaged $1,089/year with a Volvo 610 with ISM. That includes all repairs, tires, oil changes, etc. NOT improvements like cameras, etc.  On the Grey 2009 780 with D16 and pollution stuff I averaged $2036.00/year.  Same stuff. Four years. It got popped up by a pretty good hit on one repair. In the year I have owned my present truck I've spent $1100 on a maintenance round and preemptive repairs.

HDTs are not free to own if you keep on top of things. And it you buy the wrong one they can be a money pit. Just like a car.

[rickeieio]

Like Jack said, with used vehicles, it's a crap shoot.  We've had some pretty significant bills, due to our truck coming from the rust belt, and an incompetent repair shop (different events, but same trip).  In short, we got to spend an unscheduled 4 days in Tok, AK to patch a broken cab support, and another week in Anchorage trying to fix a rough running issue, then they botched the job and we had to go back to fix a broken rocker shaft.

I think back on the repairs and costs, and then think of the time we were rolling through Texas in hilly terrain when our brake controller failed.  The medical bills that were avoided because we had a big truck, with big brakes, make the truck repairs seem trivial.

[GlennWest]

My sisuation differ from most here. Full time but still work. I not had any major work, kingpin bushings/four wheel alignment, is largest expense. I am saving $100ish weekly on fuel cost driving my Smart for work commute. Before towing with dually it was a daily commute and an expensive one. Even with an expensive repair, we be ahead.

[runaway parents]

New reman I shift trans mission.$10,000.oo.Truck was grinding gears every time  I came to a stop. mechanic pulled it 3 times could not find out what was wrong with it. He said it was ok to drive that way. With my luck it probably would of quit on me out in the remote sticks some place. So enough was enough. the truck had to be dependable .So it was figured into the purchase price. I am sure I can find something to fix on it. There seems to be something  that needs to be done all the time. But all in all its been  minor stuff nock on wood. there was mentioned get your wife more involved in the truck. My dw wanted to learn how to weld so about a hour of class I have her running some pretty decent welds. She wanted to help on the truck bed I am building

[GlennWest]

Not yet been able to get DW under wheel of truck yet. Keep telling her she needs to. One day I will not be able too and she will have too. I need to stop spending period for a while. Disc brake upgrade with Bludot, mini split system installed, custom boxes on truck just completed. Mentioned a jackknife couch for HDT and got a dirty look. 

[dennisvr]

Glenn, you sound like a pretty decent guy, but when you start telling us you are trying to get your wife "UNDER" the wheel of you truck I have to start worrying.  I cant even get my wife BEHIND the wheel of our truck, but if you seen her driving you would know why I don't try to get her to drive it.

[GlennWest]

Lol. I asked for that. Actually believe she would do great. She very cautious. 

[Dollytrolley]

Well it appears that I may have slanted this post somewhat in that I suppose I should have perhaps compared the HDT costs to the "savings" folks may attain by keeping or returning to LGT'$......

So to be fair perhaps the "economy" of operating "lessor-than-HDT-towier-rigs " could be compared......I suppose Henry might be inclined to post a few ...... "historical-images-from-the-$tone-ages-of-RV-towing.....whew....

OK...... enlighten us darksidder$.....

 

Drive on.......(how much have you.....$aved)

[GlennWest]

There was a HDT owner on here a few years ago. His Freedomline tranny really hurt his pockets. Bunch of bad dealers got him big time. If memory serves me in 10k range. Someone here memory better than will hopefully elaborate

[Alie&Jim's Carrilite]

Tires were our biggest cost...

Lost a steer on the drives side on I-40 around Nashville...

Service cost and new tire was $800, 400 of it was us, 400 was Coachnet.

Replacing the rest of the tires at one time a chunk of change.  

We bought the truck for $19k, have put just shy of $9k into it including the tires.  So for 4 years that's 2.2k a year as a daily driver.  If I take out the tires it drops to less than 6k for 4 years of operation.

[Rick & Alana]

Ok here's mine. ( probably that one Jack was hinting about )

2000 Volvo VNL ISX Cummins 600 HP , 725,000 miles 

spun a main bearing, after a few days of nail biting, decided to install a Cummins ReMan complete engine. Along with new clutch, all auxiliary parts, new fan hub, clutch slave cylinder and all lines. basically replaced any items that was in or around the engine. No need having extra labor when something failed shortly after this incident. 

Roughly $30,000 out the door. 

As we full time it was and is our home. If I would of bought a different truck, and rebuilt what I had I figured I'd be looking at $80,000. So wrote the check and went down the road. 

And Jack probably said it best during a conversation. It was a lightning strike! As in truck was in good shape and had a good maintenance record. In my words falls under $/-&  happens. 

[Shifted]

My experience:

2002 Volvo 770 with Gen 2 Eaton Autoshift 10 speed and ISX 450/1650.  Purchased in early 2013 for $15k.  All service and maintenance, all in, has cost me about $3k a year on average.  I expect the average to drop significantly over the next few years since I've already handled a lot of the more expensive and more likely issues.

That includes a new fuel pump, XY shifter, fan clutch, two sets of tires, a bunch of front end work, valve adjustment, some oil changes, coolant flush/fill, differential service, new brakes, and other minor preventative maintenance items.  The tires were the only thing that annoyed me.  I bought a set of 8 "new" recaps for the rear, and they did fine for about 7k miles, and then two blew within 1k miles of each other.  Rather than take any more risks, I bought a whole set of 8 virgin mid-grade tires.  That wasn't necessary, since the remaining tires "should" have been fine, but I wanted the comfort level of virgins.  So, it was my choice (and mistake) to make through buying two sets of tires and increase my operating cost unnecessarily.

The truck came with an ET hitch already installed and barely used.  So, minus the unnecessary upgrades, I'm at no more than a total of $30k for the purchase price plus all maintenance and repairs in 4.5 years.  And the truck rides and drives GREAT.  Much better now than when I bought it.  At this point, I would consider the truck in as good of shape as possible.

So, there are no big horror stories from my end, and no outrageous repair bills.  Maintenance costs are very reasonable.  If I wasn't so particular about things being just right, I could probably have cut my operating costs in half and averaged closer to $1,500.  But even at $3k a year on average, it's still light years ahead of anything smaller that I could buy.

The main difference between investing in repairs in an HDT versus a smaller truck is that most of the things that you fix on an HDT will never need to be replaced again for the rest of the time that you own the truck if you are using it for RV hauling.  I definitely can't say the same about a pick-up truck.

Whatever breaks on my truck, even if the motor needs to be replaced, I will always be time and money ahead compared to a smaller truck.  To say nothing of the increased safety and, often, decreased fuel costs.

Things can happen to any vehicle.  There are no guarantees.  You make your decision based on the risk level and type that you are most comfortable with vis-a-vis your comfort level with expenditures.  Then you deal with the repercussions, good or bad.  I would absolutely make the exact same decisions again if I were doing it over from scratch.  I can't say the same about most of my other vehicles.

 

[oletimer]

I will not tell the "long" story of the cost of our truck, because I had to redo some of the conversion, but....

06/15/2010

2006 Volvo VNL630     Purchase.  $33,750.

Towing in 1st week.                         $  1,063.

Conversion.                                       $33,659.

Repair & Maintenance.                    $24,050.

Total as of 9-30-17                           $92,522.

I guess I'm not too bright, but still beats the Freightliner FL-70.  We run about 10K miles per year, in about 8 months.  The figures do not include fuel.