on the fence about buying new truck or overhauling old one

i don't think it will be worth anything anyway, except to you. nothing personal. with all the used trucks on the market , who knows what prices will do. if it's making money for you, who cares about the age. my transcraft trailer is 10 years old,my conestoga tarp is 8 , just put a new cover on, and my truck is a 99.my other truck is a 94 and so is my lufkin flat. refurbed the trailer this winter, still going. free advice and worth every penny. johnny

 

I know personally a couple people who had the same thought. it made sense at the time. one man had a 91' freightliner & said he could put $10,000 into it, but he would still have a $5,000 truck. he bought a 99' freightliner with a cummins in it. drove it for 1 month & I saw him at the same shop I go to & he had to have the engine overhauled. using 1 gal of oil every 200 miles. I am not worried about resale. I will just keep driving it. the last thing I want to do is spend lot's of money for a truck I dont know much about & think everytime I go out, wonder what may happen. after buying, wether paying cash or having payments, will you have enough for a major breakdown, hundred's of miles from home? for me peace of mind is priceless, & having my truck inframed, I will have lot less stress having no payments & knowing what I have. besides. I have 2 full side pocket's of spare parts for my truck. & how many times have you heard of a driver who got a newer truck & when it does not work out, he alway's say's... you know I dont know why I got rid of my ole truck, was not much wrong with it, I just thought I needed a newer one. not long after he loses the newer one & wishes he had the ole paid for one. though with me it may be different, in the last year 10 new virgin tires, 2 years min life on them, plus so much other stuff new air comp, e.t.c. with my inframe it wouldbe all I need. with downtime & cost approx $9,000 after that if the truck last for 6 months without anything major going out I will havemy money back if not long before that, just being very conservative on the estimate.

 

Good post heavyhaulerss... I hope to keep my '00 for a long time. I see guys with new trucks and i shake my head at all the crap they have on them...

 

I would say stay with what you have, unless you find the exact truck you want from someone you know and trust, your existing truck isn't going to lose much more relative value and you are familliar with it. maybe in a couple of years things will look better and a new truck may be in order , but as mentioned before a newer used truck is quite a gamble.

 

Well, so everyone know's that I practice what I preach... I just checked my oil yesterday & found coolant in my oil. looked like green oil. not far from 1.4 mil miles on engine. never had any work done before. this was my 12th year. dropped off at shop to be inframed... no newer truck or truck payment for me.

 

Good luck with your overhaul, heavyhaulerss. If i have read before, i have forgotten, what kind of motor do you have? Seems like sometimes the overhauls go very well, and sometimes they dont.....

 

I have a ser 60 detroit. it is in a 95' intl

 

when It comes to a high mile N14 I would consider a remen instead of a rebuild
because
the main caps tend to fret into the block and then when new bearings are installed they are to tight and then the block needs to come out for a line bore or find another block
by the time this is found your already into the job
with a reman
it is line bored already
its roughly a day getting the old engine out
a day switching all the stuff over ....... fittings, sensors, jakes
and then a day back in plus you can throw a clutch at it at the same time

this is from a Mechanics point of view not an owner operator .......... but I have experianced this on more then one ocasion
im not sure how much a reman goes for but thats my two cents

 

^^^ X2 im a mechanic as well and its never a bad idea to replace the ol clutch while its at the shop

 

Got the lowdown on my truck. went to look at it yesterday(tuesday) although I am getting the inframe done reguardless, I think I got some good news. the cause of the water in the oil was the valve guides were so worn that the valves were hitting the top of the piston sleeve & sleeve seal. the shop mgr showed me all my part's. he asked how I maintained my truck, cause with over 1.3 mil miles, he has not seen 1 in a long time as good as condition as mine. the liners were like new, no pitting at all, the cam looked great, all the gear train components were in great shape, said detroit is known for having bull gear wear or break with high mileage. he said high mileage & the ulsd fuel contributed to the worn valve guides. if it were not for that, he said ,I could probably another 700,000 to a mil more, with just more oil usage with rings getting worn more. but over all, he implied after that many miles, he usually see's a lot more wear on a lot more internal parts. he told me fuel treat to add lubrication back into the fuel sys, that the new fuel does not have will help a lot. I changed my oil every 10,000 & add 1-2 gallons of lucas oil stabilizer, & I have not idled truck any more than absolutely neccessary is how I maintained my truck. the liners if not for the valve guides doing damage to them, they would be in no need of replacement. there were 2 that were damaged by the bad valve guides. but like I said, since it's opened up, it's getting the entire inframe. putting on new oil cooler while it's down too, cost on oil cooler $150.00.