T680 with Paccar owe 500k miles

Here is the thing. I do all the labor myself, which saves a TON of money. Why pay a shop $100/hr when you can pay yourself that money. But not everyone is capable of doing the work themselves, or even had the place to do it. Also, my truck, "knock on wood" has never been on a big hook. Pull started once, but that's it.

If you are going the older truck route, here is what I would do:

Find a decent Freightliner for $5000-$7000 or less if you can and do a
O/H $15,000-$20000
Tranny $3600
Clutch $1000
Rears $3000-$4500

That way initial investment is $30000 or around there. Electronics are a crap shoot.

I think this is a good way to start IMO

 

I would get a Freightliner Classic with a Cat motor. I like my Columbia interior but I hate the motor being stuffed up under the firewall. FLD's are the same way.

 

Paccar theory is a liner jumping around,motor has been pressure tested hot and cold. Held pressure for over 24hrs both ways. He doesn't want to inframe it and that not fix it.

 

Older Petes and KW's, especially long hoods, are going high dollar. That's why I say Freightliner or even western star. I personally am a N-14 fan but a solid Detroit 60 would do the trick. Cat's are ok, just a little more money to work on. I've had the least amount of trouble out of my N-14's than I ever did out of the cat's. I haven't owned any detroits but have driven them. Not trying to start an engine war here, just my personal experiences.

 

Must have been a lemon. A Shaker with a S60 should be a gold mine. Those motors are supposed to last forever. I'm really sorry to hear that you had to dump so much into it, but going newer isn't a good option either, since you'll be shelling out $3000-5000 every 1-3 years for DEF equipment, and early Paccar MX-13's are notorious for having DEF system issues (and needing a Paccar shop to find the problem).

If you want to go newer, then go brand new, because taking on a piece of used equipment post-emissions is a crap shoot. The best value you can find these days for trucks is a non-lemon Freightliner aero cab (Century/Columbia), a Pete 386 or other less "desirable" cabs with solid power-trains. Anything CAT, Cummins or Detroit from 2000-2004 is going to make money, but you really need to put in some solid research, get oil samples and shop around.

It's going to cost some money, but it will save you from having this happen again in the long run. Newer trucks are designed to make fleets happy, not independent owners.

 

That should be about 1600-1800 you got hammered

 

You still got hammered, clutch kit should be 1000 - 1200, flywheel reface under 100, 2 hours labor 300.