Light, well built truck to haul locally?

I think the T-800 is a good choice, I ran several back in the late 90s, I pulled a tanker with them and like you we needed maximum load capacity. Don't think you can wrong if you can find a good one.

 

It's not so much brand specific, but more with how its speced that makes it heavy.

 

I hear you on the doors. Just rebuilt mine again!! Old Western Stars, are tough. Heritage models. 1990-1996. Not as heavy as most think. Same weight as an Fld.I had a 92 before switching to Classics, Very solid Truck. Easy to work on. Some brand specific parts hard to find or expensive. Otherwise great Truck for the woods.

 

The t800 is a good truck, it will be heavier than a same spec t600, since the t800 was built as a vocational truck the motor mounts, spring hangers and other parts are cast iron instead of cast aluminum so they take abuse better.

 

Some of Kenworth’s reputation for being heavy is due to the air glide 8 bag suspensions They’ve got a fair amount of metal in them.

Of course we are talking hundreds of pounds not thousands.

 

Do you know WesterStars inside and out? What brand specific parts are on them?

Also do you know the models well ?

Looking for what model the big hood was and what years. Seems there is 3 or 4 different hood models.

 

I’ve had several T800’s, and the ones with the old style instrument panel -2005 and older- have a poor AC and defrost system. Hot in the summer, poor defrost in the winter and rainy days. Other than that, very few problems.

Believe it or not, I bought a 2005 International 9200 set back axle at auction for not much dinero, and it’s turned out to be the lightest, coldest in the summer, warmest in the winter, most manuverable truck in the bunch. C13 Acert at 430 hp with 13 speed gives it plenty of power. I figured it would be a tin can of a truck, but I’ve been surprised at how comfortable it is.

The advantage of the Kenworth is a better resale value and MHC dealers are open many more hours than other dealers, so you can go get parts at night and weekends. In fact, that’s why I won’t ever have another Mack.

 

It's only an advantage if you pay IH price for it when you buy it. If you pay more to begin with not so much of an advantage.