hello all.
have been reading alot here and my main question is wether to
buy an older used truck and have alot of maintenance or go for
the brand new one when power and fuel economy are important.

really interested in W900L with a cat engine.


thanks for any help!!

When power and fuel economy are in order and you want CAT power stay with 2004 or older, the BXS serial # acert is good as you can still somewhat play with it. Its really your choice, up to 2007 they are somewhat good and you can still find a 07 new truck with warantys etc. The 08+ are total crap wheter its cat, cummins, or detroit.

If i were to look for a W900, id try to find a 2003 or older with engine OH papers by CAT or KW or certified dealer, trans, clutch etc. It should be reliable and get the power and millage you need over anything after 2004.

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There's also something else you need to consider between new and used. Depreciation. Look around. There's a lot of 2+ year old trucks on the market right now. An 06 W9 with 300k miles at 65k is still a lot less expensive than an new 08 W9 for a buck 35. Aside from the newer motors being crap, you'll pay twice as much for what will be essentially less truck. More Money + Less Truck = Bad Economics

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Seems to me you could buy a lot of preventative maintenance on a low mileage used rig prior to taking it on the road before you'd come close to what it would cost you to buy new and have a warranty.

Of course, with 550's advice, I'm sure some of that 'preventative maintenance' would get you more ponies under the hood, and probably better fuel mileage to boot!

Also with new trucks don't you have to pay the FET tax which is quite a but of money in itself?

[quote=mcrich;594827]hello all.
have been reading alot here and my main question is wether to
buy an older used truck and have alot of maintenance or go for
the brand new one when power and fuel economy are important.

really interested in W900L with a cat engine.


thanks for any help!![/quote

Right now now I would go with a Big Cam Cummns something that you can rebuild your self.it's either hit or miss with a new or use truck...

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May be just me but i wouldnt ever trust a freshly rebuilt big cam cummins to run reliably for me doing 5k miles a week.

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LOAD EM LIKE RAIL CARS, DRIVE EM LIKE RACE CARS!!!!

Well, you might feel just a tad better if it was built by Bruce Mallinson of Pittsburgh Power...

Nope, i dont like the engine, it was the most unreliable engine of its time. Especially the 444. Most of those PP big cams didnt last more than 150k miles....

Im not a fan of Mr. Malinsons pricing either, the man is a good guy as ive talked to him quite a bit but the pricing is way out there.

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LOAD EM LIKE RAIL CARS, DRIVE EM LIKE RACE CARS!!!!

Yea - it really sucks - we were an all Cummins fleet up to the year of the 444 - then we lost each one of them - somewhere in the order of 2- 3 rebuilds in under 200k. We had 2 trucks that didn't even make 60 miles out of town and blew up. At thta time we had 30 trucks - we told Cummins we knew they had a problem and understood but we knew the 400's we were running were doign well, so we asked them on the 444's that were on the 2nd or the 3rd rebuild to make them into 400's ( inj and turbo change basically- not much coin on their part) and we would stay with them - they told us NO. So we lost another one - we couldn't deliver our loads - our customers quti calling us - we traded in 18 Pete setback axles with 444 and 5&4's with less than 200k on them and got barely 40k, we bought all new KW's with 425 CAT's, 5&4's and never looked back. We got to our usual 200-250k overhaul period - pulled ther bearings - not a touch, did it again at 300k, 400k, 500k - nothing. We were like - damn we had been blind for along time. Been running Cat since!

We did Detoits S60 for awhile and did really well until Paccar pulled them.
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Thats a testimony from Dino himself who owns Western Distribution.

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LOAD EM LIKE RAIL CARS, DRIVE EM LIKE RACE CARS!!!!