Anybody else tired of this??

They're a lot easier to fix on your own than the new garbage, with a whole lot less to go wrong to begin with. Not to mention that what you should still be able to get out of a 2019 you could buy a pretty decent older truck for.

 

Not just the newer trucks. Try and find an overhaul kit for a Cat that doesn’t have any aftermarket parts in it. Or Cat injectors that aren’t remans. There’s a lot of stuff getting hard to come by it seems like.

 

With a dedicated run like that I’d get a truck from the late 80s early 90s with no computers at all. a mechanical injection 3406B or BigCam400

maybe even a cabover , there’s still a few nice ones around and they sell cheap since no one wants them.

and if you own the tractor , you MUST learn how to do the small repairs yourself.
If it doesn’t require a forklift, like an engine or trans removal , then you need to learn how to do it yourself if you want to stay profitable .

a wiring harness replacement and a radiator replacement is not rocket science, .

 

Why would you want an overhaul kit WITH Cat parts today? So you can pay extra AND do it all again next year? Only parts worth getting from Cat today is their filters.

 

The real nice cabovers are not selling cheap today, not cheap for a cabover anyhow.

 

We can all tell a story about “someone” having problems. I was at Peterbilt in Lincoln in Sept and a guy from AL was there picking up his truck. It had been there 3 months waiting on liners for his Cat. The 2017 that I had was sold in January with 600k on it and in that time I lost 5 weeks total waiting for parts. One week was for a NOx sensor and I was home for that, and 4 weeks last Sept waiting for a def sensor. That was the only time it was down away from my home shop. My new truck has 102k on it now and it’s running as it should. I’ve found the people with horror stories haven’t even tried to maintain their truck, they drive it like an old pre emission truck and treat it as such and then complain when stuff needs replaced.

 

Freightliner has a bunch of stuff on back order. Even parts for my 2000 model. A quick internet search, and a few phone calls, and parts can usually be found. You can’t just accept what the Dealer or some other Shop says as the only option. Have to do some research and shopping around. Occasionally the Dealers the best choice for being able to diagnose and repair quickly. Especially if it’s some new design or specific problem that only they’ve seen before. Otherwise for any Truck out of warranty good mechanics and parts can be found elsewhere. A lot of the best mechanics used to work at Dealerships. A lot of aftermarket parts are just as good or sometimes even better than original. Sometimes they are the manufacturers of the original parts. Manufacturers buy parts from the lowest certified bidder. Doesn’t mean they’re any better or worse than the competition. Detroit, Cat, Cummins only, with a few exceptions is a joke as far as I’m concerned. Some of the companies making rebuild kits have been around longer than the Engine companies themselves. They make parts for a lot of different Industries, including the Government. Maybe it mattered in the past, but with everything being outsourced these days. it’s not always true anymore. All the Manufacturers do now is design the vehicle and assemble it with outsourced parts made by certified vendors.

 

I'm kinda with the OP.
Yeh the run may be good, but that is where they all should be or better. Being an OO doesn't mean I should have to do all my own maintenance, or drive an old truck because that is the only way to balance the books.

I'm in business and should be able to charge what it takes to own that business, not be the mechanic, tyre fitter, or auto sparky as well. I may be the manager and perhaps the driver, but that is where it should stop.

Without trucks a country stops, but truck owners seem to be treated like #### for making sure the bread and butter a country needs to function keeps coming. As globalisation or nationalisation keeps getting bigger and bigger its becoming near impossible to be in the game as an independent.

I was going to drop AU $500,000 on a new truck and trailer, but I'm glad I only did $160,000 in the end for a reasonably reliable 2013 second hand rig. My once profitable run is slowly getting squeezed by a national player who will only be happy when he has it all. There is no competition in his mind, or family business's just looking after themselves, only HIS FAMILY OWNED business. The customers love he can bring it in for less and less as things keep going up.

1 truck spending $6000 a month on diesel gets no discount, but 75+ trucks using $450,000+ a month get a decent discount. Then there is tyre discounts, discounted labour on mechanicals, deals at dealerships and so on. They do not touch their trucks other than drive them.

So for me I'd reading the writing on the wall, and working out whats next before going under for someone else greed. It may swing but imported labour, autonomous trucks, more regulations and crap from authorities bla bla bla, none of it is looking for the better in my favour.

 

The sort of money that run is a guy could go get a brand new truck.
We only suggest doing your own work because shops are all 2 weeks to a month out it seems, that'll cost you your good money run.

 

Very true
My neighbors brand new truck had a problem and the stealership diagnostics said it was a injector harness , “gonna be three or four weeks to get one “
Neighbor asks for the part number and starts calling around and finds a replacement harness 12 miles away at a different dealer .



The goal of the stealership mechanic is not to repair your truck and get it back on the road as soon as possible ,
Their goal is to separate you from as much money as possible and keep your rig sitting as long as you will allow it .
Or at least that’s the way it appears to me .

don’t trust the lazy mechanic when they say the part isn’t available .
What that means is that the part isn’t available in their storeroom and they are not about to spend the effort to make a few phone calls and see if they can find the part . If their computer says not available for four weeks than that’s the extent of the effort they will expend to find the part .