April 3 2013 getting truck from lone mountain. where to go to get truck checked out?

A buddy of mine was leasing a truck through the company. Typical lease deal where you pay weekly, depending on the truck, from $600-1000 all in (I didnt ask for specifics). I told him that if he was going to lease a truck, lease from one of those buy-here-pay-here places that advertise in the truck papers. Get your company out of your pockets and it will feel like you've doubled your income. He told me that he was going to wait 6 months for his $3000 completion bonus for finishing the year lease. I said, "Oh, the whopping $57.69 you get rewarded each week for leasing the truck. Dont let $57.69 stop you from getting your own truck, because with the money you save, you will be $3000 ahead in 6-7 weeks."

He listened. Unbelievable.

Anyways, he went to Lone Mountain, south of Council Bluffs. Got a 4 year old Century, 515 Detroit and a 13, $2500 down and $800 a month. 3 year run, and they hand him the title. Not my brand of truck but for a lease to own, its worlds better than any trucking company lease purchase deal that I know of.

$800 a month...you can come up with that kind of money by accident! My buddy saved so much money that he was taking 3 to 4 week trips to South America several times a year. Run 1 load and the rent is paid for the month. If the bills are paid, you can stay home longer. And no more of that 'taking a load through the house' crap. "Hometime" is where your dispatcher schedules you to be home. When you 'go to the house', thats when YOU schedule how long you're going to be home.

I'm a hood guy. I got my truck at I-65 Truck Sales, exit 16, north of Louisville. $4grand down, 1000 a month, O/O specs, big power, 1 owner, 3 year, baloon equal to 2 months payment, title sent to my house. Easy as can be. James Joyce was easy to work with and stood behind his truck.

Anyway, I would encourage any driver whose leasing a truck to get from underneath their company's thumb. The way your trucking company gets you is that weekly payment. Even if you have a great week, and have $10grand hit your bank account, if you went home for a week, the following week, you come out in the hole.

Speaking of holes, most lease operators sink themselves at this time of year. You went home for turkey, youre in the hole. This week wasnt great, and so you didnt draw a paycheck again. Youre going home for 2 weeks in Christmas, and the weekly payments suddenly snowball uncontrollably. Youre looking at March or April before you can get the bills caught up at the house. Thats a hard way to make a living in my book.

 

the freightliner dealer in council bluffs has the dyno. personally i would take the truck to a different shop for inspections and to them for dyno. their relationship with lone mtn is extensive so i always question their results.
lone mtn is as good as you make it. its your responsibility to look over the truck top to bottom and pick a solid truck. they will fix things before you leave but after that you are essentially on your own.

i have done business with them a few times but i am not beholden to them to the point that i am biased. if they sucked i would say it. in fact they have been very good to work with for me at least. there was a guy a while back who had a beef with them. if you look up the old posts you will see them. he then made multiple accounts and bad mouthed them trying to make it look like manybpeople. funny thing is you could tell by the writing and misspelling that it was the same guy. he did the same thing on the ripoff report. joe told me that same guy posted multiple different times on ripoff report. you cant please everyone, especially truck drivers. lol

 

This.

Martin

 

Welli flew in wed nite i picked up my 2010 Pete 387 yesterday from Lone Mountain in Pacific Junction,Ia and drove it home to Evansville,In with no problems.
First let me tell other driver what to expect ,If you fly in they send a taxi for you on them , I flew in late at night so i booked a room in Council Bluffs ,Ia They sent a taxi for me the next morning ,There is a cheap local motel and a cafe down the road from them about !/4 mile. There terms are there terms and they will not budge . So if you do not have money for motel,food,they will not front you any.
I booked a flight and 1st hotel through priceline $209 flight $ 58 motel and $25 for carry on.
$40 taxi ride was on them 1st day ask which truck i said i need to look them over first so she handed me 4 keys to petes and a prostar so climed in look around each one ,went back in hande her 3 keys back said i might wnat to look at this pete a little longer she handed me 3 more keys to other prostar and volvo and a columbia i looked them over adn gave her keys to the others back and went back to the pete got my flashlight out got my fat ### under the truck and looked at the brakes ,drums ,fuel lines,engins for leaks ,tranny ,driveline climbed out went to the top looked at every hose line radiator,ac/alternator and such .
I then got the vin numbers off the truck and went inside to run the vin on rigdig [ they allow you to use there desktop computers] i found it had been in a accident so i called prime the last owner the accident was on 12/22/11 in wyoming so i called prime safety dept explained the deal and he wanted the prime truck number said i do not have that so he looked up the date said we had two accident that date in wy ,i said mm 122.5 he said tyes i have that i said it says 2 trucks involved one was towed he said ours was not towed ,the other truck rearended the trailer, thank you ,
it was about #pm by now so i said i need a dyno done they said great i sadi after i get this done and am good i will pay the down payment so they put 30 gal of fuel in the truck and thats is all they are gonna put into the truck no more ever .so i drove to Select trucks in Council Bluffs Ia to have it dyno and dot insp done they said the dot insp was free this month and the dyno would be $213 with tax i said ok and if they give me a ride to the motel 6 across $48 . So next day have them pick me up the dyno was 87% 396 horse to the ground on a isx 455 cummins, after looking up the meaning of the numbers on the dyno is 80% is considered 100% ok .
Drove it back to LM and proceeded to give them my down payment $5800 called there insurance agent for a quote and it was 1/2 of what my agent back hoem quoted me with one payment Truenorth $265 filled out all the paper work .
The apu would not crank so i told them i will not sign until it worked no problem the fix it and it runs great. So Friday about noon i was ready to go had not gotten my 2290 yet forgot so greatwide was getting close to weekendd so i decided to drive it home ,they give you a intransit paper ,so i drove it 680 mile homes with no problems

 

I have truck through lone mountain all i can say that if you get in a jam the are not very flexible please do your homework on the truck you want to buy because they sell the truck as is if you gonna be late with a payment they will allow you to move your payment date one time but the truck i purchased burns fuel like no other and i can't afford to keep it so i gott start from scratch as a company driver again i got in a hole and can't get out so good luck with them just be careful there trucks are over priced

 

Thank You for sharing it helps gives me an idea what to expect.

 

My boss purchased my 07' 379 Pete from Lone Mountain in Tifton GA back in Late August So Far no Major Issues with the truck except usually wear which has been the belt tensioner and something else I can't remember right now. We spent all day checking out the truck about 1hr ourselves and another 3 driving to the local shop for a Dyno and DOT truck runs good and It was a very easy process from beginning to end. Fueling up @ the Pilot in Tifton for the drive back home to jersey!

 

i got my volvo from lone mountain in tifton 240k ago and it's still running great....

 

What kind of average mpg are you getting in your truck?

 

6.49mpg 90 day avg..