Find me a tractor unit

[petery]

Hi All

I run a motorsport business, just bought a 13.6m trailer full converted for carrying our cars and kit but i need to find a tractor unit to pull it.
Want something with reasonable milage, not too old (2003/4 onwards) and not going to cost me a fortune to run, i have a budget of about £8k, needs rear air suspension and air kit and something in silver would be even better

Can you help or point me in the right direction

Cheers

[s p a c e m a n]

First question, what weight do you expect to be dragging? Have a look at the tax bands here to see the differences in pricing, I'm guessing you will want to be getting a 4 wheeler and plating it accordingly if you are just using it for your own vehicles.

Next up is that you're in Oxford, so I guess that you don't need it to be low emission zone compliant as you wont be going inside the M25?

[Nickyboy]

I would look at a Renault Magnum, they weren't popular trucks in this country so are a good price for the amount of truck you get

http://trucks.autotrader.co.uk/used-trucks/renault...

[petery]

Trailer is currently rated at 28t and that should easily cover what we'll have in it. I'd guess a 4x2 is what we need really

We won't be going in side the M25 so doesn't need to be LEZ compliant

[CubanPete]

pm sent

[b3kaw]

Hi I own a 44 ton tractor unit and would be able to hire myself and truck to you if you were interested in that route??

[s p a c e m a n]

Personally I would steer clear of the old Renaults, you would be better off with Scanias or Volvos for a bigger selection and easily obtained cheap parts. If it was me I would be looking at DAF XF super space cabs as they offer the most in budget are hard to kill and can be kept running on a shoestring if needed, old FH12 Volvos run forever too. If you just want something to drag it and aren't bothered by the spec or comforts just hunt out an ERF and spend a few quid painting it to look pretty

You're biggest problem with getting something is the Africans buying anything that moves and sending it off to Lagos though, if it wasn't for them you would have a good selection of stuff to choose from.

I quite like the look of this grey xf

Edited by s p a c e m a n on Saturday 6th April 16:21

[martin mrt]

As Spaceman said I'd also be looking at a Scania, Volvo or a DAF, my personal favourite being the Scania, however your budget limits your choice as both the Scania and Volvo are VERY desirable units and as such command a premium over the DAF, for 8k a Scania or a Volvo is going to be a shed, make no mistakes about it, so that leaves the DAF.

If I were you I'd look for a DAF CF Spacecab, not the last word in desirability amongst drivers but they are a decent truck, they are usually far far cheaper than the XF equivalent, and don't suffer from the cab mounting faults like an XF does, to repair that particular and common fault properly on an XF you need a new stabilisation bar at £1500 from memory. Leave it and it sounds like you have a tribe of pixies beneath the cab knocking to get in, over EVERY bump, very annoying.

CF is a hardy beast, and at the same time relatively simple, biggest faults with them are ABS and wiring issues, although all DAFs of this vintage suffered the same, Brake disc replacement usually involves a hub replacement too, due to how they are mounted, air driers can give problems and they do like water as they get older due to cracks in cylinder heads. That aside my old firm ran a fleet of CFs for years, all cheap 2nd hand units and they took ALOT of abuse, and most were sold off in working order with mots.

If you can get one, a 4x2 480 would be a cracking motor.

[truck71]

Try talking directly to the finance companies who will be disposing of large fleets at the end of a lease period. They will have large selections and you can enquire who the original operator was and contact the relevant fleet manager for info. For dragging a lightly loaded trailer no need for big spec/ HP although I guess a larger cab might be useful. Swedish brands tend to attract higher residuals although you can pick up an equally good truck at a more competitive price if you choose carefully from other manufacturers. If it were me I'd be looking at the German trucks but everyone has their preferences for different reasons.

[mercfunder]

I would not overlook the Renaults as they do offer cracking value for money,look at the number of fleets who run them. However I wouldn't go down the Magnum route;

http://www.walkermovements.co.uk/spec_sheet.asp?Un...

or less miles;

http://trucks.autotrader.co.uk/used-trucks/renault...

Edited by mercfunder on Sunday 7th April 14:55

[s p a c e m a n]

Have a look a page 4 of the View from your cab thread, it may be the reason that I am slightly biased about the reliability of Renaults

They are bad though, as are their dealers. Every one we have ever bought has been nothing but trouble and spent half of its life limping or off of the road

[rangie999]

Be careful some of the dealers are trying very hard to look after their customers....don't tar us all with the same brush thank you!

[Chipchap]

c£8k will get you a reasonable older tractor of c2005 "55" plate vintage. The better makes with big cabs at 5yrs old will still have a residual value of £12 to £14k at 5yrs old, so Lease Companies will not be an option.

You will need to be looking at 3rd life use for your budget. Reality says that 125,000km per year would be the bottom range to expect, so an 8yr old tractor will already have 1 million km + on it.

With this in mind look for the truck with the largest engine capacity as it will have been less stressed for any given GVW. So avoid the small cc Iveco's. Volvo FM10 etc. Look at the 12.6 litre DAF, The big 16 litre Scania etc.

[mercfunder]

s p a c e m a n said:

Have a look a page 4 of the View from your cab thread, it may be the reason that I am slightly biased about the reliability of Renaults

Volvo engine and gearbox, and how many Scanias do you see broken down?........loads

[AF1]

There's what looks to be a fairly clean 52 plate 480hp daf xf on truck trader for £5900. 4x2 with side skirts so should look the part, no mention of mileage in the ad though.

[s p a c e m a n]

mercfunder said:

Volvo engine and gearbox, and how many Scanias do you see broken down?........loads

All ours are electrical faults. We had one that had a waterfall coming out of the overhead lockers the first time that it rained, one that has constant injector and gearbox faults (sensors and loom). My one has had a new loom on it after it kept on throwing low oil pressure faults up, off the road for two weeks. The first day it came back it had injector faults, then gearbox. Now a month after those pictures on the side of the road, injector faults still on the dashboard. We have another that at a year old shat itself and munched an engine as Renault didn't take into account the fact that we run PTOs on them and made the service intervals too long, if it wasn't for the fact that we got that one six months before the rest they would have probably all suffered the same fate.

This post sounds overly harsh, I like the motors as they are well speced comfortable and pull like a train when they work. The thing with us is that we are killers, everything is double manned and run six days a week. Mine is turned on at 5am Monday morning and not turned off until 8am Saturday, always sitting at 44 tonne and slogging around the countryside. The Scanias and Volvos never flinched at the work, the new Renaults we have are constantly throwing their toys out of the pram and they are only just over a year old.

I would buy a new one as an owner driver, motorway driving and nights out are what they are made for. I wouldn't touch a second hand one unless it came with two spare units to take parts off of.

[T1pper]

TBA I think your budget of £8K is a bit on the low side to get something nice.

[dowahdiddyman]

8k is really the `for export` end of the market.