Best truck and truck engine over the past 7 years?

It's been about a year and nothing's changed yet lol... except the guy I work for has basically become a douche and I'm making half the money I was last year, so 2 bads. With that being said, there may be some light at the end of the tunnel.. talked to one of the "big" guys at the company I'm subcontracted to and they may be willing to buy me a new truck; only problem is the payments will be between 4k-4.5k per month which is pretty pricey, however, I think there's still more income going that way than there would be if I continued on my current path, and also if I went to work for the company as an employee. What I'm considering, and if the company were to allow it, is a Kw T680 w/Isx and 3.73 gears super 18 spd tranny. Am hoping that the truck design will increase fuel economy by about 1mpg (2mpg if I'm really lucky and all their claims prove true) and with the gearing the way it is, it'll do well on the highway for me (I usually drive around 67-72mph in the 110 km/h zones; with this gear setup, it'll be around 1500 rpm at 71 mph or 1400@65mph roughly); company has all trucks governed to 65 mph but I can't stand driving a governed truck.. can't climb hills for ####, so I'll "quietly" get that fixed first thing. I'm leaning more towards a higher hp version because it'll cruise easier on the highway where the majority of it's time will be spent, but don't forget there are hills to be climbed as well. I'll also most likely be running all Western Canada since I'd be working for a specific person at the company and her #### goes to BC, AB, SK, and MB; tiny percentage into ON as well. Loads will be more varying now as well because I'll be hauling so many different things than what we first started hauling which is now basically gone the way of the dodo bird. Some loads are very light, and others, very heavy.. I'd rather be over-spec'd than under-spec'd so to speak. Her contracts also go on for literally years including a major oil company up here so I really don't think anything will go south either; just hoping they nail down the new contract she's been working on.. light stuff (fiberglass).. only downside to it is that it's very fragile compared to your average freight on a deck that you'd haul. Probably be mostly doing deck work, but it varies a lot.. just depends who needs what where and how soon...
I know a lot of you have been talking about older engines n whatnot, but up here, #### doesn't last long unless it's well taken care of. Pretty hard pressed to find a good used truck imho.. there are a few, but my problem is I don't have any cash and the company I'll be contracted to deals with Kenworth and Freightliner only so those would be my only choices in a new truck. I'd rather go with known quality than sub-par.. don't get me wrong, some freight shakers are #### good trucks, but they seem to be hit n miss with reliability. There's 4 out of the warehouse that I was dispatched from, and 2 are almost complete lemons.. other 2 are quite good and all are DD15's. Majority of the linehaul guys are running Kw Isx's and it seems that's what the company is going with as well.. they've tried Freightliner, Kw, and Volvo. I drove a Volvo last week for a day.. decent truck, but I also didn't like it. Gay automatic and the steering had little to no road feel to me... drove quite nice otherwise and turned well, but I wouldn't want to own one lol.
The guy I work for bought a new Lonestar with Maxx 13 in it.. have never driven it, but it looks nice. Unfortunately, the guy doesn't have a clue about calculating mileage or anything lol.. those trucks, from what I heard, are supposed to get 7-8mpg but from what he told me, it's doing no better than his Mack 13L which was getting a max of 6.2 mpg.. probably a lot of that are his driving habits though; I hated following him to Med Hat last year, drove me absolutely ####### bonkers.. never maintained a speed... one minute doing 60 mph, next he's doing 72mph and I know that's not good for fuel economy, not to mention he uses the brakes a lot more than necessary. I've been stuck driving his old crap but they get better mileage than his new crap LoL. 1999 Ford with Cummins N14 390 hp (weak) with a 10spd was decent to Med Hat.. used 480L return trip, almost empty, but I made it time and time again. His Mack was using over 600L same trip. Usually averaged between 6.5-7 mpg but it does eat fuel in the city. The other old truck is a 1998 Ih 9200i with a C12 and 15spd. He didn't even know it was a 15 spd lol... anyways, I managed 7.2mpg from Edm. to Ft. Mac return trip but it's geared way too low. At the time, it was governed at 103 km/h which is a snail's pace so it did well. On the highway, it generally is a little bit better than what the Cummins was unless the revs were up, which with the low gears, it usually was. At about 109 km/h (had the governor adjusted), it was barely any better than the Cummins, if at all. Rpms were around 1700rpm so the truck was #### near at max speed even if there was no governor. Around the city though, it does much better. Also, the Cummins was running at max rpm 1800 or so at about 113 km/h and getting that 7mpg so I don't think a guy could complain about that but really.. it's not a comfortable truck to drive and it has no balls whatsoever for climbing hills.. take a mad run at at it on the downhill, Mexican overdrive and pedal to the medal on the uphill, downshift once usually. Exception was the run to GP and Swan Hills... poor thing was down to 20 km/h and 1 gear away from low range; in fact, sometimes it was in low range, so like 5th gear, depending upon the load hauled.

 

Oh.. forgot to mention; if I ended up on linehaul, which I often did last winter, I could also be running rockies as well.