Best tractor for durabilty

Before everything started shifting towards proprietary components the only difference between trucks were the cab and hood. You could get the same engines, transmissions, axles and even some suspensions in any brand.

Its all about the specs. You could park a highway spec W900 and a heavy spec W900 side by side. They look the same but the heavy spec will last longer.

 

I wouldn't go with a 50k volvo, unless it comes with 3 years full warranty..
best truck I had and still own today is a 2007 international 9400i with cat motor.
i got about 1.3 mil miles on it. just passed level 1 insp during dot week..
i bought it 3 years ago for 8k$ .. not gonna lie over the 3 years i had to put some money in it, nothing major like engine or tranny, but bunch of other crap.. still great deal, for amazing machine that kicks ### today still.. i got a driver in it, he loves it..highly recommend looking into it..

 

The only brand new truck I've ever owned was a 2012 Freightliner Coronado with ISX Cummins that dropped a liner at 60,000 miles. Cummins would not cover a crate engine but only the liner that failed. I insisted, they tore it down completely, and every liner had sunk out of spec. They tried to "negotiate a fair price" to fix it so I walked away from the lease. Last Cummins I'll ever own.

I had a 2001 International 9900 Eagle with a 6NZ Cat that would not die in spite of having well over a million miles on it. I had a 2008 Volvo 730 that I had a love hate relationship with. Loved the ride, loved the bunk, hated the D13 engine. 2 turbos and a complete DPF assembly in 6 months. Nope. I had a 2006 Pete 379 with Cummins ISX. That engine hummed along happily no matter what. No EGR problems or anything. Too bad the truck had been struck by lightning.

My current truck is a 2006 Western Star 4900 EX Lowmax with a Series 60 Detroit. It has been custom tuned and inframed, and I absolutely love the truck and engine.

If I had to buy a truck right now, I'd hunt for a pre-2003 KW W900L or 379 Pete with a 12.7 Detroit. Nothing on those trucks that you couldn't fix in your own driveway. Close second choice is the 6NZ or 7CZ Cat, but parts are becoming less and less common and they don't do as well on fuel. 3rd choice is the N14 Cummins.

 

If a truck is well maintained it should last a good long time.

Abuse it, and they all end up behind a tow truck.

I've seen every brand of truck on the road dead. So none are infallible. All you can do is preventive maintenance and hope for the best. I think a GOOD thorough pretrip can help catch things before they leave you on the side of the road, but who does that? In my year OTR I've seen exactly 2 drivers doing any kind of pretrip before departing a shipper or truck stop, besides myself who does one every morning.

 

To me, a truck's durability is contingent on the driver. Things will go bad at some point, because you run it everyday. I see some guys really dog out their equipment and I just can't understand how they could misuse their source of income.

 

Totally agree. It doesn't hurt to read the owner's manual. It's good to keep that motor cleaned up as well.

 

Really it depends on who you ask and what it is that you yourself are looking for.

I know guys that can't get enough of Peterbilt I know guys that can't get enough of Volvo, mack, and kenworth... I've driven all of them and none really did anything for me.

But when I used to run the West Coast they put me in an fld120 and that was the end of it. Perfect truck for me. Parts are not expensive, all the schematics and part numbers are all right online very easy for you to get to. I like the feel of it I like the ride of it I like the way the dash wraps around me I like the radio is right where I can reach it I like that I don't have to lean over to pulll the trailer brakes and tractor brakes. I like The Airliner suspension I like the way that hood looks when I look out it and I look down it. I like the gauges and the dash. I like that Freightliner smell whatever is in the inside the cab there. I like the way that front end holds the road, no other truck I've driven holds the road like that. I like the Tilt telescopic wheel.I've never seen any vehicle that has such an infinite range of adjustment as that tilt telescopic wheel in the fld120. And however they did it a big full sized giant fld120 like mine with a set-back front axle, that truck can back in the trailer more sharply than I ever dreamt was possible with a big truck like that. None of the other brand of trucks, and I drove pretty much all of them, could do that except for the fld120. I could go on and on and on.

So you can see it's a personal thing, you have to go try different trucks and drive them and see if you like them. Each truck has a different feel to it and has different quirks to it, but if you really like the truck the little quirks are no big deal. Just a labor of love.

There's nothing worse than buying a truck you really don't like being in. So go to a big dealer somewhere and try as many different trucks as you can.

Series 60 and n14 are probably about the best engines and most reliable and economical out there. I like the big cam, so the big cam is going in.

It really is mostly about what you like and what you feel comfortable and safe in.

If I ever find a woman that I connect with the way I connected with that Freightliner and the big cam,
I'd be in big trouble...

 

Given we are in another phase of bad road across much of the US, and have been for the last 5 years or so, this has to take a toll on trucks and shorten their life span. We've always had bad roads, here and there, but the extreme type of damage we're seeing today, I've never seen in my 35 years out here. Used to, bad roads were mainly just a nuisance to drive on but today, areas of extreme abuse are common in many areas.

Busted shocks (especially steer) and distressed steer axle springs are becoming common, this to me is an indicator of OTR equipment being subjected to abuses they weren't really designed to endure day after day

 

I agree on that engine range, have a '99 3406e cat with 1.5 mill miles in my 94 kw

For truck though, most of the older kws I see look reasonable for their age (95-00) Freightliner seems to be beat up by 10 years in, peterbilt, it seems to entirely rest with the driver how it gets taken care of, though that's true of anything really....

 

For several years I had an International 9400.
Got the truck with 3700 miles on it, got out of it with 570K.
During that time it had no major issues. Had a cummins ISX, 10 and 3:42. Regular maintenance,
The truck was solid during my use. The truck was sold to another driver on an L/P plan, was still going strong almost three years later. Probably should have kept that truck.