Help what truck to choose

What do you plan to do with it? Any experience running a business or driving? How comfortable are you at repairing something yourself?

 

It's kinda overwhelming if you can't narrow your selection down by ruling out various types of trucks.

When I first started, I couldn't answer because I didn't even know these questions or the others that come along with them. Now, I have a better grasp on what to look for in a truck, because I know what I would be doing and where I would be going if I were to try and make a go of it.

So the reasoning goes kinda like this:

I'm going to be off road and in plants alot. I need a truck that can take a beating, and is going to have parts that are on the cheaper side and are readily available.
I'm going to have X amount of money for repairs to start off with. My mechanic is going to be Soandso in Lake Butler, FL. He charges this much per hour to fix my PTO, or water pump, or fuel pump.
My runs are not going to be very long. I'll mostly be in the flat state of FL. I don't need excellent fuel economy, or fancy gadgets (like power windows, heh).
I'll be loaded to 80,000 lbs most of the time. I'm gonna need a sliding 5th wheel/daycab for balancing loads going into GA.
I'll be going into places that require me to have a truck that's newer than 10 years old, I'll be signing on with a company that requires me to get my own plates, or own insurance, or own etc. etc.

And it goes on and on like that, until you have narrowed the truck you want down to a manageable number. Then you can get a Truck Paper and start looking until you find something that looks about right, or if you are lucky, you know an owner operator that is retiring and is selling his truck that he has kept up the maintenance on...

 

You will get virtually all different answers from everyone on the forum. We all have our favorites.
I guess it boils down to questions like these:

1. What do YOU like? - Who cares what others think..?!
2. What engine and transmission or axle gearing do you need for the type of hauling your doing and locations you traverse?
3. Are you a larger sized individual? - Some rigs are harder to get around inside if your sized larger.
4. What have you driven in the past? - Anything? If so, what did you like or dislike about the model you drove?

 

Detroit is the most common engine. Cat and cummings are preffered by some for the low end torque, yet each engine has their pros and cons. For you as you dont have any class 8 experience I suggest you get a Detroit.

You want at least 200 gallons of fuel tanks. These trucks will get at least (in bad conditions 6 mpg). Thus 1200 miles on the tanks.

If your hauling new cars, truckers look for a grass burner exhaust (the pipes come out underneath, so the exhaust wont smoke the cars). If your hauling crushed cars exhaust wont matter.

The flavor of truck Kenworth, Peterbuilt, International, Freightliner, Western Star, Sterling, Volvo, is completely up to you. Everyone here is going to tell you their prefference based soley on their prejudice. Truck is a truck. Get what you want and live with it. Peterbuilt is supposedly the high end of truck. Freightliner is on the low end as most of industry prefers this truck.

600,000 miles is a tad on the high end. Depending on how bad the truck was beat on you will probably be looking at an inframe engine rebuild by 750,000 miles if not sooner. The other item you wnat to check is the idle time. If you find the truck with say 600k miles and 1500 hours idle time. Your looking at doing an inframe pretty soon. Idle time is where the driver needed heat or AC to be able to be comfortable at night. A good idle time will be 23 hours.

If the truck comes with an webasto heater. if you use this bunk heater, make sure you dont have anything blocking the vents. Many a cab fire have resulted from operators having trash / clothing piled up or near the vents during operation.

 

Understand about Class 8 trucks that pretty much everything underneath the body is the same across all of them. Engines, transmission, axles, suspension, exhaust, diffs, and frames are all the same parts for almost every manufacturer. The main difference is the body and interiors put on top of it. So in essence, the only thing different drivers have a main like or dislike to is the look and feel of the body/interior. The mix of suspension parts and driveline will make some ride feeling difference as well.

So, unlike 4 wheelers where all the parts are different from most manufacturer to the next we have a much larger available parts network. A lot of the preference is just what you like. Go around to dealers and 'kick the tires' so to speak. Sit in various trucks, different models, and try to test drive them to see how the feel is from a drivers standpoint.

 

George,

Ditto on what Hanadarko said. Test drive a couple trucks and go look at a bunch to get an idea of what you like. Ask for vehicle maintenance records if you end up liking the truck. Also check out Ryder Vehicle sales. They have all the maintenance records.

KH

 

Freightliner has the largest market share, last time I looked, so parts should be cheaper. But maybe not.