Thinking about buying a truck that was at KLLM

Discussion in 'KLLM' started by visoiuvlad, Jun 19, 2018.

  1. visoiuvlad

    visoiuvlad Light Load Member

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    Do kllm keep a good maintenance?
    Thinking about buying a Volvo 780 that was in the Kllm fleet.
     
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  3. x1Heavy

    x1Heavy Road Train Member

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    I only know KLLM back in their cabover days in places like Kroger Distribution on the east coast. I knew enough to avoid KLLM as a employer for that reason (Equiptment.) I was already in a nice conventional and it was a VAST improvement in my life being able to stand up and so on inside that nice truck. KLLM = Cabovers to me. Forgetaboutit.

    Now. Fast forward into about 2010 or after.

    KLLM bought FFE lock stock and barrel. Each of the board members/owners were paid millions and bought out outright. So they did very well, each of them with their 12 millions or so dollars each. Took that to the bank to buy a ranch or something else in Texas to enjoy forever. Im very happy for them. They have worked very hard to make FFE and it's group of companies what they were in my time until 2001. I think we were a family of 6 companies. One hauled swinging meat, one hauled computer chips millions of dollars worth, one hauled LTL national food and one hauled OTR food in reefers like we did and so on.

    A very good company.

    If KLLM took over FFE at Lancaster Texas lock stock and barrel, then it stands to reason that any equipment they run would be run their way whatever it is.

    With that said.

    You need to go over any company or off lease tractor being offered for sale with a fine tooth comb. When we were a team, we were issued a brand new Century at about 16 miles on the ODO and told that we probably will be given a new truck about that time in 12 months. One of our jobs was to run the hell out of this truck nice and new within a year put 220,000 miles on it.

    By the end of the 9th month we already had lost 10 days to increasingly serious problems in the freight liner dealer from breakdowns in wear and tear. FFE was fixing to go ahead and take that tractor send it to some poor solo schmuck out of orientation and let him run wild with it. It has begun to get loose, sloppy and squeaky in the cab area and front end among other things. There is a big difference when we get a virgin tractor and run the hell out of it 24/7 for almost a year. What results is a truck that has been worn down a little bit with constant problems like burning out a alternator every other month. That's a minor one. It liked to brick the automatic transmission simply because we never stopped. The factory manual says specifically you are to shut off that truck for about 6 hours every 7 days so that the transmission computer can spend time doing a sort of cleaning and purging garbage. If it does not, it will brick and you are calling for a heavy wrecker to come get you.

    That is why I will die with a manual transmission stick in my hands. They don't brick. They don't destroy appointment times with customers who then have to contemplate stopping a billion dollar factory when the parts or whatever did not arrive JIT because of a stupid transmission problem. This over computer crap has become excessive BS in my book....

    I follow that in my real life by deliberately buying older vehicles with hardly nothing in them that can be called a computer. It does have one for firing order, fuel injecting and mixing at startup. But it is a hard wired solid state processor easily replaced with about 200 dollars for a new one plus a few hours to flash it after it's replaced. That way, the #### thing will keep running.

    The other vehicle has a computer all over it. We have spent almost 2000 dollars so far in the last 11 years or so specifically because the computer sees something like say the throttle body out of spec and then ####### power on us for protection of the engine.

    And you wonder why I sound bitter towards computer crap in the overweight tractors today. That's another problem. They don't make tractors where you can put on a 53 foot great dane reefer and then load 48000 pounds into the freezer back there. No. You can only put on say 44500 at most. That is money not being made because these plastic overstuffed computer tractors is bloated BS and getting obese on our scales. That's crazy.

    /rant...
     
  4. Broke Down 69

    Broke Down 69 Road Train Member

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    Good Lord @x1Heavy

    Brevity man, brevity. These wall of text posts are the the internet version of Running Mouth Disease.

    Brevity.
     
  5. x1Heavy

    x1Heavy Road Train Member

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    Right. I'll do what I can. We don't need that. (Or maybe me.. lolz)
     
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  6. jodyj54

    jodyj54 Light Load Member

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    Paid $6,500 for this truck, ran it all over the south from Tx to NC, never let me down. Did 90% of refurbish myself (new tires, shocks clutch and lights, and my own paint job,) and its the type truck anyone can work on. Twenty-nine years old and still making money. Just a word and thought for anyone that is thinking on $2,000 a month truck payments.
     

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  7. visoiuvlad

    visoiuvlad Light Load Member

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    This truck is an Volvo with an Ishift, 2015, 450.000 miles.
    Do you think transmission might have some problems because it did around 150-200k miles/year?
     
    Last edited: Jun 19, 2018
  8. visoiuvlad

    visoiuvlad Light Load Member

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    I would also love to get an older truck, but the problem is that I don't think I can fix it myself, and another thing is when you buy it I think you really need to know a lot about engines.
     
  9. x1Heavy

    x1Heavy Road Train Member

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    Well..

    450,000 aint that bad.

    It's not so much transmission as people. We were a team that never shut our truck off (2001 Century with the rockwell auto back then.) until everyone realized with a few tows that we have to stop once a week for a few hours regardless. So orders came down to dispatch to halt us for 6 hours with the truck off once a week. That was also our time to catch up laundry etc.

    I guess it's ok. Im not current on the newer tractors. My last new tractor dated to 2009, and that one was a Idrive auto. A early version I suppose. Shortly before my surgery.

    Im sorry I cannot give you solid answers. What I can tell you is this.

    Anything built by man will eventually break. When it does I hope you have savings large enough to either replace it or fix it. whatever it is that broke.
     
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