I've reached rock bottom... (long)

Lucar, keep your chin up. I'm sure you've heard the saying "If it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger". Obviously this truck won't kill you, so it must be making you stronger. Basically these tough times are preparing you to be more successful in the future.

 

Chapter 13 if you think you got a cold chance in hell if not then Chapter 7. Your credit score will not go down but up. Do it be happy and don't look back trucking has morphed into a rich man's game, I'm leaving and going into something else as soon as this other trucking company pays me for hitting me in my sleep. (Name of trucking company withheld for legal reasons and or embarrassment on this site )

 

How much money have you spent on the transmission? Do you run California? Your finance company is just a money dealer. You need to get your truck sold before you tell them you are thinking about it. The fastest way to get out of the truck is to see what the best you can get on truck paper, ebay, crags list, or wherever else you can list it. Then figure out how much of a personal loan you can do to put into the principal to lower it for easy quicker sale. Shortest, hardest route with you still paying money for a tuck you no longer own, but you will be out of it and on to a new job.

 

I dont know bout o/p but alot of Houston guys have that mentality. Load > drop head back empty no matter how far . Not for me.
I do wish him the best though, I think weve all struggled at one point or the other

 

With the DPF its a crapshoot with any engine manufacturer. With any thing EGR isn't much better, oil samples don't tell the emissions electronic nightmare. Any time a used truck is bought its a luck of the draw situation, most won't admit it but it is. The guys like me running dinosaurs its just a matter of time before the govt sends us to the house.
I hate to see anybody go under, We know it wasn't without a fight. At one time my truck looked like a junk yard rolling I had 250.00 dollars and no idea what way to turn. I didn't turn it around it just did is all I know. Only difference is I had and have indescribable faith in this old caterpiller. Hope it works out for you what ever you decide

 

I'm not saying I didn't do it at one time, I was that guy at the truck stop talking about what my load paid even know I wasn't sleeping at night and driving back hopping to pull a load the next day....but everyone lives and learns yes I made $7-$10,k a week but worked my rear off and drove lots of miles but at the end of the year my fuel bill was eating me and maintenance and repairs.

 

I'm surprised there aren't more trucks catching fire from some mysterious cause

 

That's it. I'm selling my truck and trailer and going back to waiting tables. I bought my truck because it has a C15. I was told it's a great engine by someone i trust. reading these stories made me feel sick to my stomach. I haven't even run my truck once and I already feel buried in maintenance bills just thinking about all the problems I might run into.





anyone need a 48' Fontaine spread axle flatbed with dump valve? alum/steel combo. no cracks. a dozen ratchet straps/chains/booms to sweeten the deal. spare wheel/tire. all virgin rubber with good tread. i'll even re-paint it for you. $10K

 

i like the way you think


maybe i's time for me to buy insurance....

 

OP: Now that the peanut gallery has chimed in to second guess your personal finances and dig up all your earlier, unrelated posts. Yeah maybe you made some bad decisions. But that's water under the bridge right now.

Take a day or two off and think it over. As I saw in the original story (quoted, hopefully complete) you do have a few options. The next step will probably be a big one, so choose carefully.

If you're not totally tapped out, explore a trade. Cut your losses on that one. I'm guessing you went for the '08 due to Cali emission requirements. Seriously consider taking that state off your cab card. The only good stories I've heard about compliant trucks are '12 and newer models equipped with SCR exhaust treatment. And those aren't exactly trouble free. They're just still under warranty. Which, as you know, does not cover loss of business while you're forwarding your mail to the dealership that is giving you the "free" repairs. If this '08 has cleaned out your bank accounts, I'm guessing that new truck option is out of budget. IMO any '08-'11 truck will be more of the same for you, just starting over from the beginning on a different one. If you insist on serving the fruits and nuts state then..

You could stay with the truck you have, given how deep you are into it so far. With the long list of new parts it now has, you've come along way. If you choose this route, my advice is: never ever visit another KW dealer for any engine service. Ever. Now the secret sauce becomes finding a competent and ethical shop to get it fixed right. Good luck with that.

Looks like you've visited many KW dealers, but I'm not seeing any mention of CAT dealers. When I considered and later bought my C-15 ACCERT equipped '07 T-600, the one bit of advice that kept coming up was: never get engine service at KW, always go to CAT dealers. Two months and 10k mi into mine (630k mi on it), an exhaust rocker arm broke. I had it towed into Blanchard CAT in Columbia, SC. My impression was that they had a totally different attitude than a truck dealership shop. What I saw was an operation focused on equipment repair versus one that is just an appendage of a business that focuses on selling trucks. Never once did I feel like they needed to "try" something or get the idea they were fishing. It was "this is what you need, this is why you need it, and would you like a printed copy of the bulletins with this detail on it." I was shown and given the broken parts that were replaced and the failure was explained from end-to-end and how the repairs will prevent it from happening again.

I ended up getting all six exhaust rockers (4 part revisions from my oem ones), IVA studs (also 4 revisions), and the intake rocker that got damaged next to the one that broke. About $2,500 and it's stayed fixed now for 80k miles. The only other trouble I had was the IVA oil pressure sensor. I diagnosed that myself using my scangauge. Picked up the sensor at a nearby KW dealer and installed it in a Whataburger parking lot the next day. That was 4-5 months ago. No more trouble with that. When I'm due for an overhead, I have a local guy that does great work and a CAT-trained tech he brags on. I will probably get a load out to SC and return to Blanchard for the overhead anyway.

So maybe stop using truck dealer shops and see if a CAT dealer can sort it out. That is, if you decide to keep this one.

Regarding getting out of it. There's only two easy ways out trade or voluntary repo. You already know the consequences of the latter. All I will say to that is that if you go that route, quit spending money on it immediately and conserve your cash for whatever you're doing next. Forget about being a good guy and being all honest and stuff. If you're gonna let it go, let it go as-is and put it behind you.

Another thought might be to let it sit and go do something else for a few months to rebuild your cash reserves. Keep the payments current and buy yourself more time to make an equipment decision. I don't know if that's an option for you, but something else to consider. Not an easy route, but could bridge the gap between filing bankruptcy right now and continuing the path to that eventually doing what you're doing now.

My gut feeling is that once you have time to really think this through, you'll find the circumstances not as dire as the may seem right now. Good luck and please follow up post with what you end up doing. Not enough people have the stones to post up things that don't go so well. I appreciate you putting this out there.