Finally getting to chase my childhood dream

It was a quick question about what you’d call your cutoff as far as mileage for a used tractor…found a 2000 RD688 with 600k on the clock but from the pictures it looks as though it’s been well kept. Verified mileage etc. idk just wanted your wise input lol

 

WHEW,,I thought I pixxed you off, I have a habit of doing that, typically, a truck will go 3-400,000 on a major, so at 600K, it either has had some work, or it's way overdue, probably the latter, and why it's for sale, but not a deal breaker.. Mack drivetrains are bulletproof, as seen by me what some drivers did to them. I've driven new Detroits that had 800K with no work, but that was extreme. If the truck looks nice, it probably is, beaters end up at auction, and the best way to buy a used truck is from the owner, with records, a huge plus. I say you can't go wrong with a Mack, the 688 was the last of the "REAL" Macks, I feel, the last being in 2006, making it the 2nd longest made truck behind the KW W900. Even with their somewhat tarnished reputation, the "R" series is still the toughest truck made.

 

I went through Roehl back in 2012, it was a great time. From what I have heard, Millis is pretty good too and comparable if not better as far as quality of training, equipment, miles, etc. You can’t go wrong with either one.

 

No worries as I said before I always appreciate the wisdom and figured you’d say something along those lines

https://www.truckpaper.com/listings/trucks/for-sale/212486471/2000-mack-rd688s

Found a 2001 T800 with 400k about 2 hours from here too I dunno


https://www.truckpaper.com/listings...81489/2001-kenworth-t800?ST=michigan&CTRY=usa

 

Without question, the Mack. THe KWhopper is a good truck too, but the automatic kills it for me. If the Mack just pulled the lowboy around( which I doubt with that kind of mileage) it still looks like well taken care of. Lowboy outfits take good care of their equipment and it doesn't look like a lot of off road. The 350 may be a little weak, depending on what you want to do, but it has Mack rears and Camelback rear suspension, neither of which I've ever seen fail.

 

Sheesh, you make it sound so grim! I’m not quite sure how to respond because part of me thinks you are exaggerating and part of me thinks you are spot on.

For me, I married a woman who knew NOTHING about trucking. She pretended like she was interested and supportive, but when we met I was actually working as a yard dog, so I had regular daytime mon-fri hours. Then I got a new local job for more money. Still home every night but irregular hours. Then I started getting the dreaded “what time will you be home?” Texts every day. It started wearing me down real quick. Not just because I was always under pressure to be home early enough to help with kids, but also because I quickly learned she had zero respect for what I did for a living. She thought all I did was kick back in a big comfy seat all day and could never understand why I came home exhausted. Needless to say, we are divorced now and I am still trucking. Marrying a woman who didn’t know or care about my job was my mistake. But I am a trucker, can’t change that. I’m not about to give up on what I am.

Will it work for the OP? It’s possible. It sounds like he and his wife have other truckers in the family so she likely has a much better understanding of it than my wife did (just make #### sure she FULLY understands what you are getting into). I would say go for it. If the job causes his marriage to fail then the marriage was going to fail eventually anyway (hopefully that doesn’t happen).

 

HA! Sorry 'bout that, Chief, but I have seen life as a glass half empty from the get-go. Not sure about your last line, bound to fail anyway, I'm not sure that's entirely true. Many marriages have been saved by a complete turnaround in employment. I tried it, ditched trucking for a while, did dock work, non-trucking , all for the sake of the "relationship", but it got to the point, I wasn't happy, she CLEARLY wasn't happy with whatever I did, and trucking won out,,,for a while. With no responsibility of a family, trucking ultimately just wasn't worth it, but by then it was too late.

 

Having a job that has you home every night and weekends is no guarantee of a life long marriage. The divorce rate in the US is around 50%. The OP and his wife just need to communicate about the realities of OTR truck driving. He could do a year OTR and then pursue local opportunities which would probably give him a much better wage than he is currently making. And also give the family a better lifestyle and brighter future for their child.

 

Glad we’re on the same page and for the most part flowboy we and 50t aggregate loads out of the quarry.