Our new 2018 Isuzu FTR Moving truck is here!
Our new 2018 Isuzu FTR moving truck is here. It’s been delivered by Supreme Body Co. to Ryder in Stoneham, MA. Now it’s out for signage and then ready for MOVING! The truck arrived in Stoneham this past Thursday and I finally had a chance to run over there this past Monday. So far, everything about the truck looks great. It should have a higher capacity in the box than our previous trucks, better fuel economy, better door configurations, improved liftgate, etc. Really there’s nothing that shouldn’t be improved. Well, I take that back. The CAT engine in our 2002 T6500 definitely makes a better noise than this thing will but you can’t have everything right?
But seriously, I’m very impressed with how this truck came out. I think it will be excellent to work in, especially in our locale where maneuverability matters and parking is tight. I didn’t get a chance to drive it, I was just there for some measurements and to take a few pictures, but my initial impressions are positive. The cab seems to be as I expected except it’s actually even easier to get in and out of than I thought it would be. The steps and hand-holds are very well designed and placed.
About the truck:
The Chassis:
The 2018 Isuzu FTR are the first generation of medium duty trucks to come with a 4 cylinder engine. The 4 cylinder helps with fuel economy as well as emissions. It should have enough power despite this. Basically it’s the future of city trucks. I’ll soon have a better sense of how the power shakes out in real life when we get it loaded and I can run it up and down the RT 2 hill. That access road that runs from Rt.60 (Pleasant St, Arlington) up to Park Ave is a great road to check a truck’s power when loaded. It’s long, steep and I drive it a couple times a day in all sorts of vehicles.
The Isuzu FTR doesn’t have a ton of options. We opted for the single 100 gallon fuel tank which allows us to fuel once a day when on the road which is convenient. A 50 gallon tank is awkward on long distance and introduces unnecessary stops into the trip. We chose the chrome grill because more chrome is always better and it will also match one of our 14′ trucks. We opted for the “cold weather package” which means it has a block heater (a necessity on some cold new england days, especially as a truck ages) and possibly some other items that aren’t publicized that make a truck more reliable in sub-zero temperatures. The truck also has a 212″ wheelbase which is correct for the size box we’ve chosen.
Check out the specs here at the Isuzu FTR website. Or check out this except from the flyer:
The Body:
The best part about buying a new moving truck: you get to decide exactly how want it. We’ve gone for a light-weight spec to allow maximum capacity for regional interstate moves. But we also wanted a lot of conveniences and features to make moving go quicker, safer, smoother and easier.
Doors:
The truck has a double curb-side door which will allow for side-ramping. We can also load the front half of the truck without walking the full length of the deck. It doesn’t sound like a big deal but those extra 12 feet start to matter if you’re doing them hundreds of times a day for a decade. We also set the double door to close with the front half of the door first. That way you can load up to the door, close half of it, load that extra 2 feet, then close the other half of the door and keep loading from the back. Not a big deal, but it adds up over time.
Rear barn-doors have a significant advantage over rollup doors for residential moving. They give out a hundred or so more cubic feet of capacity in a similarly sized truck over a rollup door. You can also close one door, pack right up against it, allowing you to use every last bit of the space at that door which comes in handy sometimes. A rollup is convenient when working at a dock (like when we do storage at our warehouse .
Tie-downs:
Inside the truck we have 4 rows of e-track and apitong slats. These extend all the way around the truck including the header. Many moving trucks have plywood walls and vertical logistic posts. We have logistic posts in our Kentucky trailer. Logposts are good for decking and for precise vertical strapping. However, logistic posts aren’t great for strapping most furniture to the wall. You end up with more deflected straps, and fewer options for most furniture. It’s harder to strap off a tier of goods as you have to terminate the tier at a logistic post. We also like the slats for tying off smaller items with 1″ straps. It’s handy for floorlamps, bed parts, shelf parts and “the weird stuff”. For what we’re using this truck for we think it’s the best solution. This scheme is also lighter than a log-post style truck. Reduced weight has many benefits.
Details:
The truck will have a built in ramp we can use at the back or at the side which stows under the body.The truck will have a built in ramp we can use at the back or at the side which stows under the body. Most moving trucks come with a finished floor, like a bowling alley. Though these look AWESOME, we don’t find it to be practical in the winter when boots are caked with snow and ice. We’ve found a bare raw wood floor to maintain much better grip and safety in the winter.
We spec’d the truck with barn doors but also a flat transition from the wood flooring to the diamond plate extrusion that the the liftgate interfaces with. That flat transition makes it easier to load the end of the truck and slide boxes onto the deck for the mover who is packing the truck.
We had selected Supreme Corp for the body for our Isuzu FTR moving truck as most of the other trucks we own have them and we’ve found them to be good quality, and I’m not dissappointed.
The Gate:
For suburban work a ramp is an absolute necessity, but for urban moving a liftgate is even more important. In the city you often don’t have the parking space to put a ramp out. You can’t side-ramp over the sidewalk blocking it and preventing strollers, wheelchairs or even just pedestrians from passing. Having a reliable liftgate that’s easy to maintain and is also large enough to be useful is key. We knew we wanted an aluminum deck, 50 inches or larger and we didn’t want power-down.
Why not a power down liftgate you ask? Most trucks are spec’d with power down gates these days as they allow the gate to auto level, which I’ll admit nice. A gravity down gate will take a slight slant as it descends so the lip of the gate touches first so you can roll on things on wheels. A power down will go down level, and then once it hits the ground, will tip the last little bit. This is great until you drop your gate onto a nice new asphalt driveway in the middle of the summer and the power-down pushes the gate into the soft driveway, leaving dents.
A gravity down puts much less pressure on the ground and won’t damage a new driveway. After all, first do no harm right? Also, you’d never notice it if you only use these gates every now and then, but the power-down stops when it hits the ground and then levels. This tacks on a second or two worth of time onto the operation of raising and lowering. Not a big deal? Try doing it 100 times a day, it starts to feel like you’re spending half your time waiting for the gate!
The only gate that fit the bill was the Waltco EM series, so for our new moving truck we bought the lightest weight, largest platform gate they available. We also had them install a remote control which comes in handy in a variety of circumstances. The remote allows one worker to manage some loads that would normally take two or more. It’s removable and can be put out of the way when we’re not using it.
Signage:
The truck is currently at the signage vendor that Ryder truck leasing uses. They seem pleasant and easy to work with so far. I’m looking forward to seeing it done up with our livery.
Ryder:
We’re leasing this truck on a long-term 7 year lease. This is the first time we’ve leased a truck. In the past we always bought them outright but we wanted to try leasing this time around. With the way truck technology is going we think it’s good to have a larger partner who can have some leverage with the manufacturer. Since it was the first year of the new FTR this partnership insulates us from any issues the new model may have. There are many advantages to leasing a truck, but that’s why we’ve chosen the present time to try it.
We got a number of quotes but ended up working the Brian Collier of Ryder in Stoneham Massachusetts. We selected them because of proximity to our location, and positive experiences we’ve had. But most of all, Brian listened to the specifics of our requests better than the sales staff at their competitors. Often when dealing with sales staff that you tell them what you’d like. Then they come back with what they’d like to sell you. Brian actually wrote down the details and got them right. It sounds simple but it’s actually hard to find. It’s a concept we also try to always be working on here with our own customer service. To listen, and then execute what the customer actually wants.
What’s next:
Once we’ve got it in our yard I’ll do a full video review. Info about these trucks are very hard to get at this point. I took a recent trip to North Carolina last week and up until that trip I’d only seen one in the back lot at Liberty Chevrolet, and NONE on the road. On that trip I saw a flat-bed that still had dealer plates on it on the highway, and then one that was fully lettered up as a box truck and was working in Maryland. That is to say, there’s not many out there. I’m also uniquely positioned to review it owning 3 other Isuzus including this truck’s predecessor. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes, how the truck runs and drives and plenty of pictures. Thanks for reading.