Anyone who why older trucks are costing soo much?

is there any regulation stopping us from buying an older truck for like 10K and transplanting a new engine/transmission/rear-end? Kind of like creating your own glider. Sure the interior will be older, but overall cost to reliability for the initial 2-300k miles be worth it?

 

Only limitation is your wallet. I have seen some real nice builds where they basically rebuilt the entire truck from scratch. Probably best to start with something that spent much of its life in the dry southwest.

 

on some models there are even over stocked new cabs still available.

 

Kind of surprised that’s still for sale. Figured someone would have bit by now.

 

Wish I knew where to find a new old stock 378 cab on new rails with new rear housings.

 

$10k is close to scrap price for a running driving truck.

I’m a believer in either buy the best truck you can for scrap value and fixing it yourself ( what I did) ........

Or.....

Brand new off the lot.

That crap with 500k miles and $50k is nothing but trouble. Guy I’m leased to is trading his 2013, 400 to 500k mile trucks in for new. May god help anyone that buys one of these. They are junk, junk, junk.

In my opinion of course.

 

1999 and older are bringing a premium because of the exemption. I doubt the regulation will change with the exemption. What's the point? Thru normal attrition every month that passes there will be less and less of those trucks operating out here. If anything forces most all of them off the highway it will be insurance costs rising until it's just not worth it anymore. I'm waiting on the sidelines to see if that happens. I'm also looking forward to when the bottom falls out of this current freight market and we're all hungry again. Then the prices on those 1999' s will drop back down to where they ought to be in 95% of the cases with them, which is not much more than scrap value. That's when you can get a good one cheap. They're absolutely gold right now. My buddy sold a 1999 W900L with a 12.7L Detroit and a 10 speed and well over 2.5 million miles with an unknown motor history for $47,500 a few months ago.

 

It's all about supply and demand.
Everyone thought my hubby was nuts for doing a lease purchase on a older engine model glider. Body is 05 engine a 89. But that engine just was remand and had Zero miles on it. He knows how to fix them. Now we are going to be running on paper.

Some say these older models are unreliable and you can't get good fuel milage with them. But those drivers are just that drivers and can't fix much of anything. Many don't drive stick either. But for those of us that do more than drive and work on truck and tinker. We're doing better than those folks think.

 

You hit it on the head...

I drive a 1998 volvo, getting 7.3MPG on 40Klbs along I-81 and can do more than just pump diesel in the fuel tank.

I'm not complaining, and neither I'm I running every day....tsk! tsk! tsk!