My knowledge runs more to medium duty trucks than class 8 trucks, but I have these observations:
On the first truck. We used those wheels on our Chevy 6500 fleet trucks back in the 80's. The are basically just a rim (no center section) that slides over an oversized hub, then you slide on a stamped steel spacer ring, then the outer wheel, then they are both held on by wedges and lug nuts. The is no center hub to align the wheel. You tighten it down, then set a wood block on the ground by the tire and spin the tire to see how much it wobbles. The tighten or loosen various lug nuts until you get it spinning true enough by eye not to vibrate too much. Sounds like fun, huh? You usually only see those on around-town and off-highway trucks like dump trucks and such. I personally would not want to rely on my eyeball to get the wheel on true enough to not vibrate out at freeway speeds. As I mentioned, my experience with these goes back a ways, so there may be a better way to true them up now. Any knowledge out there?
The low mileage for the year, and really steep gearing would also indicate a truck that was never meant to be out on the highway. I punched the numbers into a gear ratio calculator and came up with 3200 rpm's at 70 mph, assuming no overdrive. I am not a diesel guy, so does that sound reasonable? It's about right for one of my gas motors, so I am going to guess a bit high for a diesel.
The truck was taken out of service, bought by a wholesaler, and prettied up for quick sale. The basically blast the chassis, spray on some chassis black, do a quickie paint job and shove them out the door. If you look close at the wheels, they and the hubs were blasted and painted without even removing from the truck. Based on that I suspect you could find a similar truck in the same mechanical condition without the pretty up and marked up price for a lot less money. My feelings anyway.
Second truck: Nice truck. Well maintained, etc.. And I know I am at risk of sounding like Blizz here, but for $50k plus maybe another $20k to convert it right, you can go on racing junk and buy a really nice toter or garage home already built. I know you already know that 'cuz you look on rj every day like I do. Definitely what I would do if I had $50k in my pocket.
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