Buying a used truck. 97 w/12.7 Detroit or 13 with ISX15

You'll be driving for 1 year total, 1 year total it'll be in the shop, that's 2 years. Year 3 you'll be broke

 

Wouldn't suprise me to drop 60k$ in repairs each of the first two years.

 

There's just too much to get into there. Never get hung up on a truck, and always get experienced eyes to look over a truck.

They'll see all kinds of things others miss. Often things that 100% exclude a truck from your options.

Price and year are 10% of the things you look for in a used truck.

I had plenty of options for possible used trucks close to the house the last time I bought, and never even went to look at any just from the pics I was sent.

The only truck I looked at in person was 1100 miles away.

 

I’ve averaged 35-40k into my 97 every year since ive ran it full time

motor trans and rears are the easy parts, fuel lines, air/check valves etc, it’s not nickels and dimes, it’s $50 and $100s

the only nice thing about starting off with an old truck paid for like that is if it’s sitting all
You have to cover is plates and insurance if you don’t have work,

oh at almost 30 years old, I’m finally starting to hear a lot of “that parts obsolete” or “we don’t have that” more… but for 15-20k is the one I would go with

 

Which one?

The one that looks better after testing.

But then if I was going to go back to owning and driving, it would be the detroit this time around. The ISX can be a PIA.

 

If it were me I’d get the newest truck I could afford. Getting into a 2016+ means you’d be into EPA 2015 engines and those would be way better than the 2013. I don’t think I’d touch the 97 unless you have about $100k on top of the purchase price to dump into it.