New vs pre def truck

If you ever plan on delivering to the great homeless state of California you will need something newer then an 07'

 

In all honesty, that is a question you will need to figure out with some spreadsheets, aspirin, and band aids.

Current truck is paid for, but figure an inframe/crate motor swap soon. Everything else that is mechanical/electrical will need to be swapped if it hasn't been yet within the next few years.

New trucks have warranties that cover DEF, but come with a truck payment and slightly higher insurance.
You will get better mpg out of newer trucks, possibly offsetting a truck payment in fuel savings.

If I were to go the new truck route, I would make the sales guy bend over backwards. Yes you are just buying one truck, but the market sucks for truck sales right now. Make them give you a guaranteed buy back option after 3-4 years or similar bennies to sweeten the deal.

 

I would definitely stick with the 07, you can always "fix" the issues with that and not have that much more into it. A new truck is worth half what you have in it in 3-5 years, depending how hard you're running.

 

How much stuff do you do yourself? It’s 13 years old so you’ll be to the point soon of new air and fuel lines, new electrical, etc. Nothing major but will add up if you’re paying someone $100/hr to do it. You could have a couple years of higher than average maintenance costs but then your truck will have good years left in it again.

If you’re like me and want to walk away from the truck when you park then I’d suggest going new.

 

Then I’d say you’re the perfect case for rebuilding what you have. On my FLD, once I had most of the mechanical and wiring stuff taken care of is when I painted it and did some stuff to the inside. I want to say I had 2 years where my “maintenance” was upwards of 30 cpm but when it was done I had a solid truck.

 

Op
I have a solid Old truck that I have owned since 1997..
My problem is that I have to get very creative at the end of every year to keep my $$$