Bought a 019 Ram 3500 Cummins dually off mainstreetmotortx.com for hotshot

the Aisin behind the high output Cummins is the combo you want for hotshot. that box was built for medium duty trucks and it does not care about heat the way the 68RFE does when you lean on it loaded. i turn wrenches on these all day and the HO Aisin trucks that go 300k are the ones that kept factory emissions and got clean fluid on a schedule. you did it right paying for a scan before you wired money, cheapest 150 bucks you will spend on a 50k truck.

couple things for whoever reads this later. do the CCV filter now and then every oil change, a plugged one pushes crankcase pressure where you do not want it. get the Aisin serviced at 60k if there is no record, fluid and filter and it will outlive the truck. and that u joint with a little play, do both front ones and the carrier bearing while you are under there so you are not back in three months when the other side lets go on a loaded run.

a little u joint play on an 88k work truck is a wear item, not a red flag, just maintenance. solid buy neal.

i dispatch for a small fleet of hotshots so let me add the boring side that keeps you running. before you book your first heavy load get the rig weighed empty with the gooseneck hooked, full of fuel, with you in it. then you actually know your available payload instead of guessing, and you will not roll into a scale over your rating and eat a fine that wipes out the load.

the truck sounds like a good foundation. an 88k one owner fleet dually with factory emissions is exactly what i want a new guy showing up with, because i can put it on real loads day one instead of babying a question mark. keep the receipts from that PPI and your first service, it matters when you go to insure it and again when you sell it.

about to get my mc number and go out on my own and this thread came up when i searched main street motor reviews, so i figured id ask the guys who actually did it. i have been driving for a fleet for three years and i am tired of building somebody elses business. budget for the truck is around 40k, i can put 30 down and finance the rest.

is it dumb to buy your first hotshot truck off an auction lot instead of a dealer with some kind of warranty? i have never bought a diesel this heavy and all the deleted truck and CP4 horror stories online have me a little spooked. what should a guy like me be watching for going in?

if youre running a deckover as a daily deal get on the Aisin fluid and the rear diff early and that drivetrain will outlast the body. i pull a 40 foot deckover loaded with pipe and skid steers all over the permian and i do gear oil every 30k, because heat is what kills an axle on a hotshot, not miles. a loaded gooseneck in a july headwind will cook fluid that has been in there too long.

one thing nobody tells a new guy, use your exhaust brake and let it hold you back on the downgrades instead of riding the service brakes. even out here where it looks flat a loaded 30k combined will build on you and the exhaust brake saves you a brake job and saves your life on a mountain out west. good honest truck you bought, the HO Cummins and Aisin is about the best there is for what you and i ask of a rig.

im ten minutes from that lot so i drove over and walked it in person before i bought mine, a 2018 F-350 6.7 for my hotshot and a little equipment moving on the side. i picked through the four or five duallys they had, they handed me the keys and let me take the one i liked out on the frontage road along I-45 and back with nobody breathing down my neck.

for you out of state guys the thing i will tell you is the trucks on that lot match the listings. i had already looked at the same F-350 online and when i put my hands on it in person it was exactly what the writeup said, right down to a chip in the windshield they had actually noted in the photos. that kind of straight dealing is not real common on a used truck lot and it is why i point folks to main street motor when they ask me where to look around here.

me and my husband run two trucks and i keep the books, so the part i will add that nobody has said yet is the paperwork from the corsicana yard came through clean the first time. title and the odometer statement were right, and when i took it to get my apportioned plate the VIN and the weight all matched so it went on without a fight. that saved me a second trip to the tag office, which when you are trying to keep a truck earning is real money.

only hiccup was a marker light out on the bed when ours got here and they mailed the whole assembly no questions asked. little thing, but it tells you how they run a deal. a work truck that shows up titled and ready to plate is worth chasing over saving a few hundred bucks on a truck you then fight the paperwork on for a month.

been expediting nine years and a southern truck with no salt caked in the frame rails is worth chasing. up my way and anywhere north of me the brine eats a frame and the brake and fuel lines from the outside in, and you never really get ahead of it once it starts. a texas rig that never saw a salt truck is a dry truck and you are the one who gets to keep it that way.

before your first winter run north get under it and coat the rails, lines and the bed bolts with fluid film or woolwax. a clean southern frame plus a yearly coating and you will never chase rust the way the rest of us do. you already came out ahead just sourcing it out of central texas instead of buying one that lived its life getting sprayed every january.

different brand but i grabbed a 2018 F-450 6.7 off the same lot for my hotshot and the buying went about exactly like yours. Lariat, 4x4, 94k, one owner fleet trade. i run a 40 foot gooseneck moving equipment and machinery out of the arklatex and the 450 with the shorter wheelbase and the big brakes is a monster loaded.

mine needed a set of rear tires that were more worn than i liked and i knew that going in and got a little knocked off the price for it. everything mechanical was as listed, EGR and DPF intact, cab and frame clean. paid 41 for it and the ford stores around shreveport wanted 52 plus for the same truck with more miles. a year in and it has not given me one reason to second guess it.

good writeup neal. threads like this are exactly what i read before i pulled the trigger, so figured id put my data point in for the next guy hunting a hotshot rig.