First Time Owner/Op Needs Purchase Advice!!

Did you have a Dyno done on the truck? Or have the Valve cover removed and inspect? What company had it before? You keep saying the company maintained it but just about everyone knows "fleet maintained" is laughable...

 

They say if you don’t have enough money in the bank to get inframe done (20-30k) you shouldn’t be looking into o/o

 

Have you thought about looking at an older truck that someone really kept up with?

Sometimes I see older trucks that have reman engines with low miles and the rears have been gone over, etc etc.

Your monthly rate may increase because it's an older truck, but the total amount for the loan would be less. So maybe you could pay it off sooner and cut down the interest and save even more.

New and newer trucks really stink. I would imagine they put a lot of guys under or close to it. There is enough expense in trucking already without all of that stupid nonsense.

 

Honestly the only solid advice I can think of is learn to use wrenches and stuff or your throwing money away that you need. And buy diagnostic tools like a toughbook just for diesel engines $1000 approx. Than you need Cummins insite to read the even than communicate to you laptop. And learn the emissions system as those are what break most often, and lead to early engine failure. I'm no tech or mechanic just a driver who reads as much as possible in my spare time.
Are you ready for the fun to begin?

 

I wonder about this in the first post ---->>> Lifetime 7.1 mpg on the truck.

It seems you are treating this like buying a car, get rid of all the crap you think you know about the truck.

Here is how to buy it -

Get the VIN and go to the nearest dealer and have them pull up any repair records that were done, the original order for the truck and any recalls that were issued.

Get a copy of the maintenance records and go through them. Look for things like long times between PM and so on.

Get a dyno with blowby, this tests two things -

1 - the condition of the rings by the amount of pressure built up inside the engine - the blowby part.

2 - the percentage of the rated horse power that is produced, this is key to understand if there are other issues with it like a fuel system issue.

Get the ECM dump, this is a lot of pages, DO NOT GET A SUMMARY.

Compare the clock (odometer) and the ecm mileage, you will also see the settings of the ecm and the hours idled and so on.

Get an Oil Analysis on the engine (oil and coolant), trans and axles (I also do hubs). Have that done by a reputable company - I recommend Blackstone. Look for problems with

Find a good mechanic who will tell you the truth, tell him to find things wrong. When he comes up with a list, then get a figure on repairing these by the dealer - not the same mechanic.

WHEN you have the list of things to be FIXED and the costs, subtract that from the asking price and summarize it to discuss with the owner to negotiate a price.

I also recommend you read this post and the link within that post.

First truck purchase?? Advice