In my prior life I worked for a local beer distributor. In the 20+ years of driving we had mostly GM 5000, 6000, 7000 series trucks with 427's, 5 speed x 2 speed. These were plated at 24,000 to 32,000 lbs. Lots of heavy use and short trips in the county - pulled very well. The company then changed over to diesel and we had Caterpillar 3208's and 3116's, 6 speed but I can't remember if some had 2 speed rears. Then they changed to International's with IH 466 diesel with straight 6 speeds/single speed rear. A lot of variables here but they all were designed to pull a decent load. The OTR stuff that I drove of course was a horse of a different color - we max'd out at 80,000 lbs. each night pulling out of the Columbus brew house and headed north. A lot to think about when you are trying to build a truck for a specific job but I thought I would add my 2 cents.
