vehicle recycling options

the npr series trucks work nice as a rollback, kinda slow compared to some commercial chassis vehicles; however there maneuverability is untouchable. Mine with a 18ft bed can be turned around in the with of a parking lane at the local shopping center, makes in town work super easy compared to a conventional chassis truck.


would not recommend a rollback and two car trailer together though, as the original configuration is a bit underpowered. and a gas burner with alot of power will not get any kind of gas mileage pushing the brick down the road. the diesels are better than the gas engines on fuel mileage and have acceptable power and speed if you learn to use it correctly, they are small displacement and you have to keep them on boost to get the good out of them. as stated gas burners have more power but terrible gas mileage.

for comparison sake my diesel npr unloaded gets 14mpg, loaded typically can pull 10-12 depending on how heavy/un aerodynamic the load is.
my friends gas burner gets 11mpg empty and can eek out 7-MAYBE 8mpg loaded if he's careful.

Originally Posted by matador

I'd think that you're spending way too much money with those plans.

How is this any better than a rollback on an F350? I'd get a regular rollback, personally. The maneuverability of the NPR comes at a steep price. An F-350 or similar would probably be plenty. I had an E-350 box van with the 5.4. You'll want more engine for going down the highway.

Ideally, I'd think that an F-Super Duty (Basically an F-450) or a Chevrolet 3500HD (Same thing) would be overkill.

For the type of money, I'd take this truck:

Out here, an NPR will cost you about $10,000- even with high miles. I passed on a 1999 GMC 3500HD Cab and Chassis for $1500. In hindsight, I wish that I didn't. But, point being- I think that the NPR project would be more costly than you'd want, and would involve a lot more effort than needed.

Just my $0.02

here i had the exact opposite problem, i hunted for almost a year for a f-superduty or 3500HD chassis to put my rollback bed on and couldn't find one that wasn't completely ragged out for less than $9K, then i found a ready to go npr cab and chassis w/ 110,000 miles for less than $4k so i went that route.

yes, alot of highway time is a bit to ask out of the truck, but most of what i pick up is either in town or tight off road areas around farms were the maneuverability outweighs the speed disadvantage, i can haul at 60MPH loaded all day, and really carrying a car or equipment on the back i don't see any need to be able to go faster than that.

also i think an npr chassis is way better than a rollback bed on a f-350, the npr gvwr is 14,600lb (3500HD is 15-16k) vs. 10-11,000 of a standard dually and the brakes and axles are a world apart from whats under a regular one ton truck, i had a chevy 3500 with a ramp body and loaded it always felt like the brakes were working overtime to safely stop, where the npr feels perfectly capable even with a 6300lb lincoln navigator on the back.



I'm am not trying to start issues with anyone, i just thought i would reply with my experiences with these trucks, i was a bit leery of these trucks before i bought mine, but now i wouldn't go back to a conventional cab truck for anything, i love the maneuverability and fuel mileage of this one too much, and if you need more capacity there is the NRR series by isuzu, as well as some of the larger Hino and Bering cab-overs that go all the way up to 25,000lb gvw and even use the more common cummins 5.9l diesel and an aisin transmission.