THE ADVENTURES CONTINUE - DFO gets a truck and hops on Schneider's IC Choice Program

Gonna deliver this load in VA then bobtail home. Drop truck off at Cummins some time this week and get my PM done. I might go poke around some little one-off used truck dealers and look at some 2003 or older trucks while I'm at home. Want to weigh all my options. If I can find a good deal on an older truck with a 3406 CAT or a N14 Cummins, mayyyybeee a 12.7 Detroit, in good shape I will seriously consider it. Should have no problem getting financing either through a buy here/pay here place or the bank on an old cheaper truck since I could put down a very large % down payment on one of those. Got a message from a Lone Mountain rep today but of course I was asleep when they called. Lots to think about. Really what I want is no emissions AND a low payment. Not gonna get that with a truck through Lone Mountain.

 

Well moosc see its not really the comfort aspect that I'm after here. I can make any truck comfortable for me. I can change the seat, put in a different mattress, redo the interior, blah blah. I think we are each looking at "quality" from a different end of the spectrum. To me "quality" is a truck that is reliable day in and day out, easy to work on, and is built to last. Not a truck that keeps my butt comfortable but only last until 500k miles before it blows up and might as well be scrapped.

According to SNIs website the oldest you can have is 10 years, they recently changed that, there used to not be an age limit. From what I'm hearing the make exceptions. They will make an exception for me or I will go pull trailers for someone else. I'm not buying a 2004 or newer truck unless it meets a near impossible set of criteria. The exception might be a C15 CAT. I've made up my mind on this pretty much 100%. Gonna start looking now that I'm at home.

I'm looking almost exclusively for older trucks that were owner/operator trucks and not fleet trucks. Its pretty easy to weed them out by looking for trucks with 13/18 speeds and more than 450 HP. I wouldn't pay 15k for an ex-pumpkin let alone 25k that is an absolute joke 25k for one of those Centuries.

I'm looking pretty much exclusively at KW W900s and T800s, I MIGHT consider a T600 but probably not. Also looking at Pete 379s. Something with a hood long enough that I can access pretty much the entire engine. Having worked on both styles of trucks I know exactly what I want.