| Author |
Message |
skoolbus nut
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, December 12, 2004 - 11:51 pm: | |
I hope this will be okay to ask...
I am looking at an Isuzu NPR box tuck to purchase. Really don't know much about them.
The one I'm looking at is a 1999 with only 36k miles. It is a 175 hp diesel 14,500 gvw. This is the first year of a new model engine, which I believe is still being used on the '05 models.
I guy I know told me that there have been some issues with the top end (valve / guide failure) which can cause engine failure due to broken piston? Something about the valve stem wearing thru and dropping the valve onto the piston?
Please shed some light if you have any info on these rigs.
Is there a BBS for this type of subject?
Thanks!
Mark
skoolbusnut |
BrianMCI
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 13, 2004 - 12:43 pm: | |
Izuzu diesels have a pretty good reputation, never heard of the valve stem problem... I can't say that I know how long you can expect it to run, but we have had several that have lasted 150K with no troubles before they were rotated out of service...
I suppose it depends on what you are going to use it for and for how long...or I should say, how far you are going to use it for.
Brian |
Henry R. Bergman, Jr. (Henryofcj)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 13, 2004 - 3:44 pm: | |
Is there a factory option that uses the 350 chevy V8 gas mill and would it be applicable in your application?
We researched the Japanese UD line years ago for US Postal Service mail contract use. Then an excellent truck. May still be.
I also had a 1980 Isuzu 1800cc gas small pickup truck. Ran it hard and it went over 160K before the head gasket finally went.
Isuzu parts and service were as close as your local Chevy dealer. A good point with the larger Isuzu box van. Good luck. |
Johnny
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 13, 2004 - 5:31 pm: | |
What you can expect:
Monumentally underpowered when loaded. As in, struggling to run 55 on highway hills, & 65 is about it on the flats.
Buckboard ride.
Very noisy cab.
High part costs.
Personally, I'd look for an F-450, a Chevy C4500, or even a lo-pro F-650, International or Freightliner. Much more comfortable, less tiring to drive. |
Gary McFarland (Gearheadgary)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 13, 2004 - 5:36 pm: | |
Johnny--
Drop me a line offline, I just received something funny I wanted to send you.
Gary |
Henry R. Bergman, Jr. (Henryofcj)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - 4:03 pm: | |
Johny raises a very good point. Perhaps you need to make a point by point comparision between foreign and USA (?) made and compare points.
Sometimes the salesman will NOT tell you little zingers you really need to know...like, "Oh I forgot to tell you that at 50,000 miles, there...
...is a $1800.00 REQUIRED dealership only maintenance downtime required to keep your warrranty"! Ouch! You will need to talk to the service managers...
...and the local mechanics (if they will let you). We spent weeks looking for a 18,000 # gvw truck that would last at least 250,000 miles before trade in. Spent days.
Sometimes the heavy truck dealers are the better place to look, since they may speak your needed language such as total cost per mile over...
....vehicle lifetimes, how much required dealership maintenance will actually cost, downtime, specific warranty questions and other stuff.
We found it pays to really spend the time getting to know all there is to know about the particular vehicle your are going to buy, its strengths...
....weaknesses, good points and bad points. The Japanese trucks will tend to be somewhat slow in the hills. For our planned application, that...
...did not really matter. It may for you. Back 10 years ago, frankly, we thought the Japanese trucks were better. May not be soos today. Good luck. |
Johnny
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - 11:14 pm: | |
"We spent weeks looking for a 18,000 # gvw truck that would last at least 250,000 miles before trade in. Spent days."
Geez...I coulda shortened that by a bunch: Ford F-550, available with a GVWR of 17,500 or 19,000lbs. Gas V-10 (why?) or PowerStroke diesel, ZF 6-speed manual tranny with creeper gear & OD, 4.88 or 5.38 gears in a Dana 135 axle, 225/70R19.5 tires, leaf springs all around with a front beam (4x2) or live (4x4) axle. 201,000 & counting on the 2001 F-550 XL (2WD, 19K GVWR, PSD/6-speed,) rollback at work...other than damage caused by tagging a deer at 50MPH, the only problems have been a bad alternator (~165,000 miles) & a broken e-brake cable (~41,000, warrantied). In lots of city use & no-load 1600RPM running, we average a respectable 12-13MPG in this 6-ton (empty) truck. |
Phil Dumpster
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, December 15, 2004 - 1:27 am: | |
Drove an NPR (Chevrolet nameplate W4) for 6 years in wholesale alcohol, with a combination of city and highway (100+ miles) routes.
In the city, it was great. Turned on a dime, easy to drive, great fuel economy and enough power for downtown Seattle hills.
On the highway, it was underpowered, worked hard, took a long time to come up to interstate speeds and an upgrade of any significance or a mild headwind would slow it down.
They are delicate machines which are great for what they were designed for (city delivery). They will not tolerate much abuse for long before ending up at the repair shop. The automatic JATCO transmission was particularly fragile if the driver made a regular practice of flooring the throttle every time they pulled away from a stop sign (easy and tempting because of the low power), or revved the engine to hold the truck on a hill.
Over a four year period I put almost 100k on a 1996 model without any repair work aside from normal maintenance while others in the company (which were driven by drivers who didn't even have a CDL) were in the shop every 20k getting head gaskets replaced, transmissions rebuilt and turbochargers repaired.
If you must have one of these, and you don't have the patience or the discipline to treat its diesel running gear with the respect it deserves, get one with the Chevrolet 350 engine. It's about 5K cheaper but will handle abuse better and last longer than the diesel in that situation, but will eat twice as much fuel per mile. |
Henry R. Bergman, Jr. (Henryofcj)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, December 15, 2004 - 4:07 pm: | |
Johnny, what all of us would like is for the schoolbus nut not to make a big mistake just going down to the nearest lot and buying something costing thousands of bucks without knowing EXACTLY what he is getting into.
Ford certainly makes a great product. No argument there. However, it is possible that with a little research and gum shoeing, he can find a better truck more suited to his needs that will work better and possibly last longer.
At the time we rearched this stuff (about 10 years ago) about the best candidate we found was the Japanese UD line of cab forward trucks. Had the best warranty and parts at that time were fairly cheap.
Other factors that entered into the application made the UD very attractive. His application may differ. The greater/kinder point I was trying to make was that the more you know, the better decision one can make. No disrespect intended. |
Erich
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, December 15, 2004 - 9:05 pm: | |
About 10 years ago a friend bought a brand new UD truck as the basis of his motor home.
230hp diesel 6 speed manual. very nice.
He built a flat bed on the truck.
Then he built a LARGE cabover camper. He used the same construction techniques that a truck refer box uses, including the rigid foam insulation.
The whole thing lifts up on screw jacks so he can drive the truck w/o the house.
10 years of twice a month use and it is still going strong. |
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