On the fence - New trucks, thinking about leaving job

He may well be hurting for drivers. But if you were to ask him, I'd suspect he'd tell you what he's not hurting for is whiners who give him ultimatums about what color the truck needs to be.

I've held several hire/fire management positions over the the years and I think I appreciate the value of having a good worker more than most. But if any of my employees ever came to me and said don't put me in a truck that's blue or white, I would tell them not to worry about it because I have no intention of putting them in a blue truck or any other color. If you're going to make whiny demands like that, I don't need you on my team no matter how good you are but that's me.

 

So what's he want for the old jewel??? And no, I don't mean you.

 

The ONLY thing in that rant that you typed that is fact is that yes the 386 does have about 16" more F/A setback and a glass hood, than a 379/389. But other than that everything else just depends on how it is speced and ordered.

Your truck now may have very well been ordered with a very nice int/insulation package, the 386's he has ordered may be a stripped version, BIG DIFFERENCE.

You can order ANY interior grade/sleeper/gauge pak/insulation pak/color on a 386 that you can get on a 389.

Same goes for the front bumper it can be ordered as a chrome unit and the side skirts can be deleted for the alum. step/batt/tool box and exposed tanks.

It just depends on the way it is ordered, I will promise you that you would be hard pressed to find a 379 with a nicer int. PKG in it than my 2010 384 has.

All leather,Platinum int. heated seats, keyless entry, In dash GPS/nav sat. Bluetooth,AM/FM WB/CB/CD/XM. Pl,PW,PM,Full pile carpet throughout, Woodgrain dash and trim on the door panels,Artic pak ins. all power windows/heated mirrors,heated tanks, full chrome gauge pak, chrome front bumper, polished tanks and boxes, etc.

Just depends on how much he wants to spend on you.

 

Rat if your pulling 100k gross loads,you know that a prostar isn,t built for that.On my birthday I moved into a prostar,a few codes then flashed,couldn,t clear the codes,shop plugged it in,then the truck started on fire,thank God. They had 16 new trucks that never left the yard,all kinds of problems,the trucks where towed back to the dealership. My #1 rule for myself is,don,t drive junk since 08,that,s all I drove. I missed looking forward to driving everyday,like when I drove Mack trucks staying out for 90 days and never taking a day off. I had elbow surgery from,driving junk and now I can,t drive for 4to 6 months. The problem you face Rat,is that all these co.s are buying these light duty trucks,trying to haul heavier loads,then the trucks are wore out in 130k miles,breaking pitman arms,etc. Where a Mack with 800k feels like a new truck yet,but they cost too much,just like a Pete.

 

Gotcha,,,,, Since emissions are not an issue, have them spec you a Star Car Glider, big hood any motor you want and WS have a #### nice sleeper. Probably do a real nice truck at 100,000

 

If you ask me none of the 2007 or newer and especially 2010 or newer trucks run worth a ######, no matter what hood ornament or powerplant they have.

I started driving in 2003 , and worked for a couple medium sized outfits (200-400 trucks) On average the would by them in bunches, maybe 40 to 70 at a time. On average about 60% would run fine, 20% would have troublesome glitches about every other week, and the other 20% had days where they could not get more than 20 miles down the road without the stop engine light coming on.

Maybe you're old enough to remember some of the 1st smogger cars of the 1970's. Masterpieces of ###### like the Ford Granada, Ford LTD 2, Chevy Monza and Vega, AMC Hornet/Gremlin, and about everything Chyrsler could dream up from 1972 to the mid 1980's. I think they cut costs in the quality department just so these jalopies could meet C.A.F.E. standards in case all that junk under the hood happened to function properly.

I throw the Prostar, 386, and t2000/T700 into the same category, because I am convinced that they were designed by folks who were at least partially retarded. I drove a 386 for a few months. Not sure who's bright idea it was to put a huge Regen exhaust pipe directly in front of the passenger side sleeper corner. I would think maybe someone would take notice of a 1000+ degree exhaust pipe next to fiberglass, that maybe it would rain once in a while and char the living ###### out of the paint as it dribbled off the exhaust...but hey that's just me...

Anywho the gooberment forced ridiculous emissions and fuel economy standards on the automotive industry 30-40 years ago. Now after destroying the automotive industry they are set getting their rocks off destroying the trucking industry. Pound for pound, although pre 2003 diesel engines were stinky, sooty and smoky, they produced far less harmful gasses than gas engines. Yet in a time where the price of fuel continues to soar, we have to have more complicated junk on these things that choke them to death so they cant breath and run the way they were meant to.

I'm totally with you, I really hate to see the demise of the hoods. I just wouldn't let that and only that on top of the color of paint be the deciding factor in leaving a job.

 

Just be happy they are not sticking you into a mid 70's cabover

 

I dunno about mid 70's but I've had my eye on this one for a while.