The remanufactured Ford Super Duty F-350 IronDirect gave away at the 2017 ConExpo.IronDirect, the online seller primarily known as a sales platform for Chinese-made heavy equipment, has partnered with Tyler, Texas-based Vehicle Reman, which you can read more about here, to create IronDirect Reman Trucks. The service, announced at the 2017 ConExpo in Las Vegas, will offer a quick turnaround time (as fast as 48 hours) on pickups and work trucks with a cost estimated on average as being about half of a new truck with similar features.
Before and after of a remanufactured interior from IronDirect Reman Trucks.These vehicles, the company reports, will have a three-year, 75,000 mile drivetrain warranty.
“Up until now, remanufacturing of vehicles has kind of been like the Old West, untamed but full of potential,” says Greig Latham, managing director of Vehicle Reman. “With our process, we have a predictable method for fleets to harness the fullest value of their trucks and cars. It’s a carefully designed system that allows us to remanufacture a pickup in as little as 48 hours.”
Initially, the company plans to focus on Class 1 to 5 trucks, citing a “typical” reman candidate vehicle being six to seven years old and having more than 100,000 miles. However, IronDirect says vehicles with up to 20 years of service can be reman candidates.
“Truck remanufacturing is about to become a new, important option for fleet owners to reduce capital spending, improve uptime, and lower total ownership cost,” says IronDirect President Tim Frank. “It gives fleets new life at substantially lower cost than purchasing new trucks.”
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To mark the launch of the reman service, and to “demonstrate the effectiveness of remanufacturing,” the company gave away a remanufactured Ford Super Duty F-350 at a drawing during ConExpo. Jose Humberto Avila, co-owner of Grupo Industrial Tebvlar of Guadalajara, Mexico, won the vehicle. Oddly enough, his company repairs and remanufactures hydraulic components used in construction equipment.
“It looks really good,” Avila says. “If they didn’t tell me it was a 2009 model year, I would have thought it was a 2016.”
Jose Humberto Avila in the remanufactured truck he won from IronDirect at ConExpo.Frank says the company also plans to extend the reman process to construction equipment in the future.
“Very soon you will start to see earthmoving products, aerial lifts, compressors, pavers and more,” he states. “There’s no channel conflict here because dealers do not go out and buy a remanufactured unit and set it on their yard and say ‘somebody come and buy this.’ This has never been done before. We think this is going to be an enormous opportunity.”
“Costs are rising, the cost of new vehicles is going up, so this is what’s known as complete vehicle remanufacturing, as opposed to refurbishment. This isn’t putting lipstick on a pig. It’s not just putting paint on a truck. This is complete remanufacturing.”
