Username:

Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;brsims, post: 8873419, member: 32079&quot;][USER=127796]@062[/USER] (sorry, though I quoted you)</p><p><br /></p><p>Sitting at a used truck dealer.</p><p><br /></p><p>Story I got was local owner sold it because his driver up and retired on him.</p><p><br /></p><p>The interior is in immaculate condition. No rips, tears, or cracks.&nbsp; Couple of holes in the dash that would be consistent with an ELD device is it.&nbsp; No rattles or drafts going down the road.&nbsp; No evidence of leaks anywhere.&nbsp; Obviously somebody took really good care of the interior of the truck.</p><p><br /></p><p>Test drive results are a strong, hard pulling engine that feels ready to rock and roll.&nbsp; No valve chatter, no burned oil smell, exhaust is clean, oil pressure is nice and steady.&nbsp; Truck tracks arrow straight, a bit squirrelly but that is to be expected running bobtail. Jake&#039;s are good and strong, will toss your happy butt out the windshield on stage three.&nbsp; The only light that popped up was the tractor ABS.</p><p><br /></p><p>My honest opinion of this truck is &quot;diamond in the rough&quot; kind of find.&nbsp; I&#039;m not truly anticipating any major immediate issues with the oil sample or blowby. </p><p><br /></p><p>In truth, I&#039;m not doing a dyno.&nbsp; Dyno won&#039;t give me real world performance.&nbsp; I am a very firm believer in getting it out on the road and doing a rigorous test drive. </p><p><br /></p><p>I learned &quot;seat of the pants&quot; level diagnostics from old drivers who knew more about their trucks than the engineers who designed them, and I have proven to myself and various breakdown departments to be a better diagnostician than half the so-called &quot;technicians&quot; currently available today.&nbsp; I learn my trucks quickly, and I generally know something is off before the technician will admit there might be a problem.</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;m looking into the future.&nbsp; Where can I invest money NOW to save money and downtime in the future.&nbsp; What can I do now to avoid the most common pitfalls of rookie O/O&#039;s.&nbsp; I don&#039;t want to be one of those &quot;buy a truck and run it and pray&quot; type operations.&nbsp; I&#039;m not on a fraying shoestring budget.&nbsp; My overall financing is in line, and my monthly payment on the financing is well within my earnings as a company driver without affecting my overall lifestyle.</p><p><br /></p><p>Frankly speaking (and apologies to [USER=181425]@Frank Speak[/USER]), I in the best financial position to make this jump, and try to do it correctly.&nbsp; I picked the general specs I was looking for regardless of truck make, carefully chose what year range I was most interested in based on my own experiences (been a driver since 1998, driven a lot of different motors), and very carefully compared different options as far as carrier to work with.</p><p><br /></p><p>Yes, I am leasing on instead of pulling my own authority.&nbsp; Yes, I will lose a percentage of the truck&#039;s profit doing so.&nbsp; On the other hand, I&#039;m getting a great deal on my insurances plus a lot of back office services that I am not yet comfortable doing on my own, plus access to a solid freight base that I am already very familiar with.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is why I&#039;m considering doing an in-frame at minimum.&nbsp; The rest of the driveline has passed every test I can throw at it and feel comfortable with the performance.&nbsp; The transmission is solid (showing its age a bit, but less than expected), the driveshaft and bearings are all solid and ready to roll, the differentials are in fantastic shape.&nbsp; Which is why I&#039;m down to the engine.</p><p><br /></p><p>As I said (and I realize my posts here are wildly long and somewhat meandering), I am starting with the OA and blowby.&nbsp; If she&#039;s good, off to work we go.&nbsp; If there&#039;s a question, now is the time to get it fixed.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your username or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?