First Truck

Nevermind this reply. I'd suggest you do the same with that guy's ########.

 

Once you get serious about truck shopping you should probably have a few thousand saved up so you can inspect the truck(s) you’re interested in. Really about all you can do is research. The problem with buying a used fleet emission truck is that many of the service intervals go undone because they know they will be dumping the truck. So you will need to run the VIN at a dealer to see what has been done there for warranty work, then you need to have all the info pulled from the ECM, then if those things don’t have any problems jumping out at you you will take the truck to an independent shop for a full inspection.

If I were in your shoes and looking at a truck in that mileage range, if it passed the other inspections to your satisfaction and you purchased the truck, the first thing I would do would be to take it for a Diesel Force cleaning of the emission system. Get all the sensors cleaned and maybe even throw in a new particulate filter just so you know what you have.

 

I'm big on the pre-emission trucks.
I drive a 99 fld120. An owner can save a lot of money if you do most of the repairs yourself.
I like paper logs. I have no experience with elogs. I recently started looking at 2018 and newer trucks. From my understanding these young trucks seem to have the emissions figured out.

Good luck on your choice.

 

I'm the same, first in family. But if I had to start over from scratch again, one thing I would do differently is trust myself more and other drivers less. The tough part is knowing when to trust them and when to not. I bought an emissions truck, via lease purchase, leased onto a carrier, and run the northeast. That's four recipes for disaster, according to other drivers, and yet I'm doing fine.

 

You can still survive a lemon. Live like a pauper for your first year or two and save every penny. Better yet, live like a pauper until you pay it off, and never stop saving a healthy chunk.

My first truck was a lemon, and so was my first APU. Major headaches. But I knew going in that it could happen. I just told myself that if it happens, to think of it as a cheap education rather than an expensive mistake. And oh boy did I get an education.

 

I would just add, if it doesn't have an APU, get one immediately. Idling is the biggest killer of emissions systems. That's one thing I should have trusted other truckers on, but didn't. Lol.

 

Stay away from the integrated electronic dashes though. That's the next big thing keeping tow trucks in business, from what I hear.

 

I would take a hard look at the electric apu systems out now. They keep getting better. Honestly though, it's pretty easy to build one yourself for half the cost.