Lone Mountain Truck....financing ????

OK! Update on my Lone Mountain Lease of what at one time was a Tyson Prostar. In the midddle of January when I leased the tractor it was about 10 below zero that day in Pacific Junction. It took them three hours to get the tractor started. I understood that. As time went on the tractor had a coolant consumption problem. Not horrible at near 600,000 miles but it still persisted. Until July rolled in and I got sick and tired of the problem , so off to my local International store I went. $5000 dollars later with a new EGR cooler, EGR valve, water pump and the extra's I picked up the tractor. It was low on coolant at the shop when I got in to it to drive it away. I had them top it off. I went back three times complaining about things that they claimed they did but did not do. The last time was the last time I would ever cross their threshold again.What a shame to say that about my home town Corn Picker shop. But, the coolant consumption was at least three times worse than when I initially went in to begin this fiasco. And it got alot worse mile by mile. Well, this week was the straw that broke the camels back. The incredibly wonderful folks at Joplin Peterbilt ( NEVER CHARGED ME A DIME FOR THE DIAGNOSIS)diagnosed the problem as a cracked liner. They would have to pull the injectors one by one to pressurize the system to determine which one it was. And then tear the engine down to replace the bad liner. At that point you say ****. Might as well do a major! $25,000. Now if Lone Mountain would have added that to what I owed them I would have accepted that. $54,000 for the 08 Prostar plus I have already paid well over $30k for the lease and repairs. Add it all together. $54k for the lease. 10K-20k in repairs and then a $25K major.
Lone Mountain stated that they do not do repair loans and asked if I wanted to return the tractor. DAHHHH?
I rented a car and loaded my personal possessions and I drove home. At the end of the of the story. This is what happened to me. You may not encounter this problem. I did. It now appears that you could spend a $100K on a tractor that will bring you $10-$15K when the lease is done. Plus pay your bills as you go along. GOOD RIDDENS in retrospect. Have a wonderful life drivers. Did I mention that I'm a SOCIALIST!

 

you have no direct experience with them yet you speak like you know them? go buy from them and good luck, I know first hand, as well as others I personally know that have similar problems I had, They where cat motors not ISX, detriot or volvo motors, I guess you think $36000.00 in just over a year is acceptable?, Every driver that I have ran into, with the exception of 1 all said they have had extensive repairs, So my original post stands, RUUUUNNNNN

 

I have to agree with the posters above. Try calling those "friendly" people you dealt with AFTER you purchase the unit....you will be routed straight to Cresco Capital's line. Myself and plenty other O/O i've met since my situation with them, has had the same or similar stories......Just look at the amount of repo's and boxes of "Personal Possessions" they keep in their facility. Those repo's & items are for drivers just like us that thought Lone Mountain was a dream come true until the reality set in......Move with caution or move completely away from them....

 

You're right, my bad. I forgot Lone Mountain built those trucks and ran them for all those miles. It's all their fault, it's definitely not your fault at all. It's always someone else's fault these days. Are you seriously blaming Lone Mountain for your breakdowns? All they did was sell you the stupid truck, a truck they most likely bought 50 of at one time.
A good friend is about to pay off a second 780 through LM and is buying a brand new one this time. Pay your payments on time and you'll never have a problem.

I'll give you a tip. Used modern emissions trucks will kill an O/O's bottom line, unless you absolutely know what your doing(ie trucking and maintenance knowledge), run for a good enough rate to sock away enough maintenance money, and have a great mechanic that can work on the more complex parts of your truck and engine. It's better to pay $150 an hour for an awesome troubleshooting mechanic, than $80/hr for a parts changing fool fresh out of mechanic "school". I typically spend between $8-18,000 in maintenance and repairs for my old pre EGR truck (Western Star parts are expensive, but engine parts are cheap). $36,000 is high, but for a modern abused fleet truck, I can easily see that happening in the first year.

 

give me an old pre egr/emissions engine (2003 or before). engine goes down get on the hook to the shop & it can be fixed; anything after 03 is nothing but a money spender

 

I ask LM a week ago if they have any pre 07 emission trucks and they said "very few".... I could not buy anything newer then a 2007 that is still pre DPF. Volvo and Cummins are prone to EGR system problems and turbo problems since the ISX and the Volvo motors started having them back in 04. GARBAGE!!! The ACCERT Cat motors, yet prone to certain problems and are not the easiest to work on because of the compound turbo setup are still much better then the Volvo and ISX EGR motors. Just my opinion from what I know about diesel engines. I drove a Cat for 300K and never had an issue that was major on the engine and it had almost 900K on it when I turned it in.

 

I got my 06 Volvo 780 from lone mountain 30 months ago with 512K

high $$ repairs I have done..... egr cooler & 2 egr valves, clutch, X-Y shifter, fuel pump
have I had other repairs yes do I thing it is lone mountains fault NO

the truck now has 851K and I have never been late with a payment

if you can't cover out of pocket a $5K repair and still make your truck payment ON TIME your doing something wrong

 

Forgive me if I sounded like I was throwing rocks at Lone Mountain . I had no intention of that. And as far as experience. I started with Prime Inc. in Urbana, Mo. in 76 and had 18 trucks before they moved and went through multiple BK's to get to where they are today. Cancer took me out financially along time ago . I survived but, it leaves you financially ruined when you"re an O/O. If there were free health care in this country as it is in the rest of the world maybe I could have been a Prime myself. Not really, I never wanted to be someone else's boss.
Nope Lone Mountain lived up to what we agreed on.
The point I was trying to make is there is a lemon in a basket of fruit and I may or may not end up with it. I lucked out with the truck that I drove for 14 months prior to going to Lone Mountain. A former Walmart 9300i with 1.4 million miles on it. 6 nights per week, a trip from Elk Grove Village Illinois to Memphis, Tn.southbound one night then northbound the next. I drove that tractor for a fine man. But, that tractor with that mileage never used a drop of oil and the oil did not change colors until it got about 8K miles on it. And it lost the rear differential. That was it. The ISX has so many negative posts. You could take them all together and create a whole set of novels. Don't think for a minute that had I had my own shop that I would not have majored it. That cracked liner was there when I signed the lease and those items will not be found in a Dyno when they are in their early stages. Oil analysis's came back fine for the first 3 changes but the tell tale vapor from the stack was still there. And when it's below zero outside on the initial inspection. You won't find a truck in the lot that doesn't have vapor coming from the stack.
Just trying to explain at any given time you can get a lemon or a peach.

 

bluecrest8 that is so true....

 

I bought a truck from Arrow, but I bought an extended warranty. I have an 06 model Cat. Truck runs great. Just had to replace the head and water pump, warranty covered $11,000. I payed $2,700 for the pump an new hoses. Im fixing routine equipment failures. Parts do not last forever, I knew I was buying a used truck and expected these things. Its why I bought the warranty and made sure I had money in the bank to cover repairs that are not warrantied. LM sells used fleet trucks driven by countless company drivers who dont care what happens to the truck. Plan for the worst, hope for the best.