Prefer choice to buy a used truck

Here is a Fitzgerald glider, bit pricey, but buy you a new reman Detroit Deisel 12.7 ( it has a Detroit 12.7 now but that’s a Fitzgerald…lol), with a 3 year warranty, dump out that 10 speed for a new 13 Eaton with new clutch, new warranty, spend a few bucks on odds and ends and have essentially a new truck without spending over 200k on a new emissions gamble. You have to avoid Cali, but that’s the price you pay to avoid the emissions and have an engine you can work on, get parts for and decent fuel mileage.

 

Really hard question.
I personally would go with a fleet or ryder etc. At least that way, thier is a chance you can get maint records. Or a truck that had things repaired/replaced when they broke.
Craigslist or another O/O. NO way UNLESS I knew the driver and the truck. But even then still might wind up with a #### ton needing done.

 

I've bought two used trucks in the last twenty years, both from O/Os. I bought them because I'd worked side by side with their owners and I knew how they maintained them and saw how they drove them.
Other than those two, everything we buy is new.
Buying a used truck that you're not familiar with, no matter where it came from and no matter what a maintenance sheet says, is always a gamble. If you set aside some bucks for parts and repairs, can do most of the work yourself, and can take the hit that downtime costs, you might be alright.
Or not.

 

Or just don’t feel the need to deal with the emissions bs

 

There's no escape

 

Ultimately you’re probably right and at that point I will be completely out of the business. As of now, there absolutely is an escape…l own 4 with no emissions actually 3 are fully mechanical and the 4th probably will be soon. I know I can’t go to commifornia and I have no desire to go there anyway.

 

Might look up ceramic bearings

Made on earth.

 

Me, I'm trying to be this guy. But even with one truck or takes a lot of dedication.

 

For the most part, he is right on the year of the truck. The engine manufacturers were correctly afraid of what the new emissions controls would do, so they ramped up production for MY 2002. There were still MY 2002 engines left to be put into MY 2004 trucks.

 

So 119 for a 5 year old glider then dump another 50 in it and still have the problems of a 25 year old truck….5 or 25 they have the same issues. Cheaper to buy the truck you want verses close and make it what you want.

All this 13 and 18 speed hype is crazy. Why turn that auxiliary box if you don’t need to. That 13 is not gonna get any better mileage or pull a bit better. I know you’re thinking you can split down to 12th and walk right up the hill. In reality you’re gonna shift on down to 11th which is 1:1 and doesn’t go through the auxiliary section. Same ratio as 9th in an OD 10. If it needed a trans it could almost be justified. But buying an RTLO 13 out right no core can be pricey