I don't know anything about the brake part of the situation but am curious what your problem is with the license cost of the larger truck. I know we've discussed this on here in the past, and there are differences between the states as to the specifics of the deal, but typically you have to be tagged with a weight sufficient to cover the weight of the vehicle and load combined. In that case you should be able to find an 4700 IH, F650 Ford, C6500 Chevy, GMC Kodiak, or similar 'medium' duty truck to do what your wanting done. For a short, straight truck with possibly a small flat bed and a hitch your not taking that much more weight than a typical dually. In other words the cost of the tag shouldn't be that much more in that respect.
When you get into this class of truck, one thing to look for is to make sure that the vehicle you choose doesn't have Gurling brand hydraulic brakes. Dad's first service truck had them and they were EXPENSIVE to service. If you can find one with air brakes you'll be alot better off, and it's not that hard to tie an electric brake box into the braking system with a pressure switch set to activate at say 2 psi.
Ok, I know some some think that air brakes means a CDL but for them all I can say is show it to me in the books. Air brakes are covered for vehicles over 26,001 GVW but nothing is said about any kind of special endorsements, etc, etc if they are on a vehicle with a GVW of less than 26,001 lbs. Personally I've been driving my sevice truck for nearly 10 years now and been stopped and checked at random roadside checks as well as being pulled in the weight stations for being overweight on the real axel and no one has ever said anything about my plain old class C drivers license. Dad's been in his C6500 Chevrolotte for going on 16 years and is the same boat. He's even been through stations and had the Feds in their little white Tyvec suits crawl all over his and nothing has ever been said about the trucks having air brakes....because it's not in the books for one under 26,001 GVW......
That said with the medium duty truck you'll get a heavier frame, larger brakes, and in most cases alot better engine. As far as the suspension you can shop around and find one set up relatively lite without alot of problems. As for the engine, personally, I'd steer away from the 3116 (mechanical) and 3126 (electronic) CAT's. I know they are popular engines but they are also EXPENSIVE when something goes wrong. For instance, last I heard, it takes nearly $3000 worth of tooling to run the top end on one as Dad had to have his gone over several years back. Even though we work on equipment for a living it wasn't worth the expense to buy all the required tooling to do it ourselves due to the cost. Based on what I've been told over the years by the guys that drive them the DT465 IH engines are good, the Cummins engines are good, and if you can find one, the Series 50 Detroit, (which is what's in my service truck) is all but bullet proof.
Beyond that all you need to do is figure out exactly what you need and shop until you find a truck that fits the bill. It took me over a year to find everything I wanted in a truck before buying my FL 106 Freightliner, and even then I had to have the frame shortened. In the end I got a 275 Hp Detroit, an MD3060P Allison automatic with a double overdrive (gets me on average 5 MPG, and that's loaded all the time....and it was better than that before the ULSD hit the market), a double frame, heavy axels, air brakes, etc, etc. and it has served me well so far, and will continue to do so for a long time to come.
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