New or old asked again

Trans all cleaned up for reinstall tomarow. It's only about 4 months old so wasn't to bad to began with. The people I barrow the trans jack from lost a trans last week so I had to return it. I can pick it up in the morning.

 

It is alive!!!!! I was starting to wonder if it would ever run again? I can't post pics for some reason. But will whe available.

 

Just drove her home. Off to the dealer in the morning for programming.

 

Alright, in the last year since I bought it I have driven the truck 135k miles. I have put on:
14 new and used tires
4 air bags
3 wheel seals
2 transmitions
1 new clutch assembly
3 new batteries
Had the main driveshaft rebuilt and balanced twice
Complete new crate engine
3 brake chambers
4 drums and brake pads
1 slack adjuster
2 steering wheels
1 stereo and speakers
Cb and 2 antennas
Ac compressor, clutch and 2 new hoses
New seat
Air compressor (new motor came with a new one also)
Rebuilt my alternator
New starter
New mattress
New leveling valve
New brake valve
Pulled apart rear ends and re shimed and sealed
New window seals
A few other minor tidbits in the interior
New fuel sending unit
New radiator hoses
New belts
All new shocks
New cab bushings
3 new pulleys (new motor came with 3 more)
Steering box
Power steering reservoir
Powere steering pump
New 5th wheel plate and bushings
Dozen lights and wires
And all services at 15k miles intervals
(I'm sure I'm missing a few other things)

So far I'm just over $40k in parts, repairs and maintince for just the truck only. Complete engine assembly, clutch and transmition have 2 years parts and labor warranty. (For what ever that's worth?) I have a stated value insurance policy set at $38k

Now, only one of these items kept me from moving forward. Only one required a tow if you don't count my fender bender. 2 items were fixed on the road by a outside shop. All other work was performed by me. If I had to have a shop do these repairs you could DOUBLE the cost really easy I think.

I still have the cooling package to go through if it starts to fail. One front hub is suspect and rebuild the rear driveshaft. Other than that there are some cosmetic things I would like to address moving forward but it can wait till I get some more loads under my belt.

What dose it cost to run a $13000.00 truck for the first year???? See above!!!! My plan was to make this truck as reliable as possible as quick as possible.

Good luck in your adventures!!!!!

 

@Nostalgic very few of these repairs were terminal. I did them as I had the funds. Just the second trans and the u joint failure were must do repairs. Oh and one of the belt idlers. But I ran a battery charger off the generator to get me and the load home. The only thing I financed was part of the new motor cost. I worked on the truck a lot to keep the road repairs to a minimum. I even changed a few parts that in hind sight didn't need to be changed but didn't have enough expriance to know better at the time. I guarantee you I couldn't buy a used truck for $40k I would trust as much as I should trust this thing. I looked at a lot of used equipment up to about $50k over the last year. I didn't feel comfortable that any of them weren't going to need everything I did this year in the next two. Even the engine I could have limped along WITH the bad cam for another year maybe?

I may have played this chess game wrong but this was my move. The next 5 years will tell the rest of the story.

I can see the case for a new truck as well but, I was hoping to hedge with my ability to do my own wrenching and having a much simpler truck. I can also buy most parts at napa if I need to. No dealer is going to hold me hostage.

If I had a driver in the truck or more than one truck I would buy new. Period!

I think my truck will run cheaper over the next 5 years than my bosses 2013 KW with 350k miles on them. There curent value is probly $60 to $70k? He may have a bit more residual value by then but not much in my opinion.

But, He will trade his off before 500k miles and make large payments on the difference for a couple of years . His game of chess is diffent than mine. I will say he is a wealthy man so his choices must work!!!!