What is the best newer semi truck to work on yourself?

Old trucks are worth scrap price. You can’t trust any previous work claimed to been done to them. Certainly wouldn’t pay extra because a bunch of work had just been done.

My opinion is only pay for the condition of the cab and frame and just plan on replacing everything else.

or

Buy a brand new truck.

IMO there is no in between!!!!!

I’ve been driving my $13k truck for 7 or 8 years now. And just bought its eventual replacement for $8k

I did 145k miles this year with 0 breakdowns. Well I did have a couple of flats but nothing mechanical to speak of. 1.5m miles

New to me truck is a 94 truck with less than 200k original miles on it.

Current truck
Future truck

 

what you know how to work on should determine what you look at if your plan is to diy repairs.
Theres no one size fits all.

 

That’s a trick question I like to say No but remember if that motor shoots craps and you have to OH it you could be down for a mouth and out 25 or 35k
There’s benefits to a new truck or a couple year old truck .. but I not one of the guys in that market

 

are you wanting to be able to rebuild the engine yourself or just everything else?
A cat is pretty easy to do. a cummins a little harder, Detroit I dunno. and this is with Information available to a shade tree mechanic. I rebuilt my cat with information from YouTube or the internet. I'm not having as much luck finding the same for my 2015 cummins.

if worried about emissions just find a good truck and put it on a healthy diet

 

Your truck and it’s journey is still one of my favorites. I go back every now and again and read the entire thread.