Truck Shop
Senior Member
This whole thread is why I quit outside work years back.
This whole thread is why I quit outside work years back.
Haven't been following for a bit so went back and read several pages. Here's my take on it. The shop with the truck is for sure very unprofessional among other things. If at one point he said he'd fix everything for $25K, hold him to that and unless you are supplying the parts he warrantees his labour and holds the parts supplier to warranty the parts. You could leave the truck with him and let him stew. If he tried to put a mechanics lean on it or sue you, he may not get paid a cent. You could abandon the truck. Without a signed work order he'd have a real problem and would basically have a chunk of scrap iron. Would he rather take a cut to get paid $25K or have a bucket of bolts? You could also countersue him. There's probably things like unfair/unethical work practices on your side. A good lawyer could tell you. The guy is totally taking advantage of you! It's not good he's in the same yard as you. The other question is would you rather forfit a truck worth less than $10K (as it sits)or pay $25K or more to have it fixed? There is still the option to look for a used engine too. If engine parts were purchased but not used may be returnable. All depends on the supplier, especially if the buyer/shop deals with them on a regular basis. It's not inconceivable that an engine was found to be not worth fixing after devling deeper into it or customer backed out after ordering parts. This is where a shop that deals with the supplier can give a good sob story on why they need to return the parts. Worst case the supplier says no. It doesn't cost anything to try. A good reputable shop would never have handled it this way. The 1st thing any good shop would be concerned about is how they are going to get paid on a big dollar job and be upfront with costs before proceeding too deep.
I think I got hosed on getting 2 bucket cylinders rebuilt but it was less than $2K not $20K+.
Unused parts still sealed in boxes normally can be returned-with a restocking charge.
Technically--there is no such thing as a mechanics lien. A shop can take someone a customer to court
over a dispute, but a shop cannot keep the owner/owners of vehicle/vehicles from their lively hood/
transportation/or use in a business.
Have sat in court to give testimony over such matters/been down that road before watching it play out.
15k canadian is only 11,000 us. You're not going to purchase any other running driving dump truck for that amount. With a blown head gasket and a cracked frame rail, your truck would have been difficult to sell.
So for $11,000 US you're going to have a fixed head gasket and the frame rail repaired. Doesn't sound out of line to me.
Old used up dump trucks that are running and driving start at $30,000 US by me. ANything decent is now 40-50,000.
Even if you don't keep the truck, it had to be fixed. So pay to get it fixed, and if you want something different or are bent around the axle because he won't warranty a 30 year old truck, sell the fixed truck and buy something else.
I don't see the complications or the reasons to be upset. Either you can't afford the repair, or can't understand that trucks are going to break and need repaired, or you just don't like the way the mechanic does business.
I don't think the repair cost is out of line, and if you just don't like the way your neighbor mechanic does business, you better drag your stuff to the freightliner buddy. And then you'll have written itemized work orders, and a bill that is twice as high.
Look at it this way. Customer comes to you with a 10,000 project. You say I'm not sure its worth that amount of money to sculp your ditch bank and pull those trees, they say go ahead. 1/2 way through the project, they now want engineered drawings, DNR permits, copies of your insurance certificates blah blah blah. And then they get pissed because its costing too much (which you told them it would from the start) and now want you to stop. And only want to pay you $2,000 for your mobilization. And your at $8,000 of fuel and labor that you could have been billing to someone else, if you weren't dealing with this bad customer. And they think you can just pound sand. and go to court, and hire lawyers if you want any more money than that. They weren't sure they wanted this ditch cleaned out anyways.
You're the bad customer here.
Sometimes, the stuff in the ‘inoperable’ lineup at a Ritchie sale brings stupid money because there is always somebody who thinks they can make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear especially nowadays. B model mechanical Cats have value. Maybe thats an option to sell it. Just sayin
I think your missing the point, it's not about the money, it's about dropping a truck off saying check it out and coming back and the head is off at the machine shop getting machined. Then the next day you come back and the rear end it off with the frame welded. What do you do in this situation? Trust is already lost with the mechanic so do you trust him further to repair the truck or do you try something else.
With the information provided I don't think we can blame the op for being hesitant. I'm really curious what you would have done in his stead when you show up and the head gone being machined.
What a $$$$$hit show. This thread is a perfect example on why I will not run Caterpillar truck engines.
Have been down a head gasket road several times, and know of numerous other guys with the same experience. Spacer plate?? WTF is that? Don't need to worry about no stinking spacer plate on an N14 or 60 Series. Head gasket out? Yank the head(s), clean it up, new gasket, out the door. We have an N14 with 1,096,000 miles on it that needed a head gasket at 990k. Mechanic, who was a hell of a good mechanic but a little too particular pulled all three heads, and then said he wouldn't put them back on because there was some putting on the deck. I told him in no uncertain terms to polish it up best he could, put it together, and we would live with the consequences.
Over 100,000 miles later and it's still running. Gets it's guts pulled out for 4 months of the year running 100-105k out of the field.
So, like I said, Spacer Plate? What's that? If that Cat were mine I'd have prob told the mechanic to slap a new gasket in and shove it out the door. But that's just me.
You wouldn't get much at auction. I've seen running dump trucks sell for under $3,000 at RB with good engines and current safety. Truck was older with less desirable air suspension but even had some service records. Was part of a complete sell out. Another dump truck went for a little over $4000.
It's so much easier to say there was a miscomunication than admit they screwed up. Even if the shop had to do some disassembly to provide an estimate/quote, they should have told you upfront what cost that would be and after taking apart discuss with you how you want to proceed. So much to put back together as is or so much to rebuild. They should never have just went ahead with everything. I still think you hold them to $25K if that was the number they threw out.
That spacer plate and gasket should not have ever come out of the box IMO. He could have easily cleaned up the surface, put a sled gauge on it and checked it as it sat. If it had sunk liners, it would have been picked up right then and there and that'd be your smoking gun as to the root cause.
I highly doubt you'd get 4K for a bare truck with a bad engine. I think 1.5K would be generous.It's really a crapshoot of what it would get, but I know privately I could get $6k easy for the box and hoist, I just spent $3k on a new hoist last year. And $4k for the rest of the truck wouldn't be hard i'd imagine.
I'm sure I could hold him to that price but he wouldn't do anything he didn't figure on and the quote is so vague. There is no mention of fluids or filters so I bet he'd finish and say here's your truck just put fluids and filters in it. And it missed stuff like checking gauges that aren't a 100% must, but are common sense to me on a truck of this age if doing a rebuild. Also outright missed at least a few little things for cvip, again I know he wouldn't eat them. So just from what I know, it would add at least 2-3k to that price without any other things popping up. Yesterday his comment was he isn't budging a penny to try and fix this problem.
sulades If your not worried about the money part of this i would take a loss get it out of his shop have it fixed or junk it or auction it ? Like i said before i dont know you and i dont know if anyone here does but its not a long trip to ether side of the fence to take a side. Life is to short for this kind of stuff.
Then you may as well go in tomorrow morning and tell him you're done, keep the truck.but to me any resolution that results in him getting 100% of the bill and not accepting he did anything wrong is not something I can live with.