BD69: The Owner Operator Chronicles

Lmao

 

Going back to my buddy who turned in his broke down Mack and is now filing for bankruptcy. Over 3 years ago I recommended to him to go ahead and get one of the new lease trucks the company offers to guys as lease ops where he works.

I think at the time the payment for a brand new Volvo 670 or KW T680 was right around $2,500 plus $0.06 a mile full maintenance coverage warrantied for 500k miles, plus a loaner truck in the event the truck had to go in the shop for awhile.

"NO EFFEN WAY I'M PAYING THAT KIND OF MONEY PER MONTH!" Was his response...

You see, he was convinced he was skinning a fat cat on that 2012 Mack with over 600k miles on it. I mean, his payment was only $1,400 a month for for 3 years and he would own it free & clear when he'd really be able to rake in that cash with no truck payment!

Instead, these last 3 plus years he paid out over $50,000 in repairs and countless thousands of dollars in lost wages, plus, untold stress & disappointment and is now laying on a heap of owner operator disillusionment.

There's a reason why the big guys buy/lease new and flip them in 5 years.

 

I've been scared of buying an ISX powered truck. I'm a long way away from my CDL, but I enjoy the research. I followed a few things down the rabbit hole and someone on this site suggested rawze.com. I don't know what the actual thought is on his maintenance advice etc. but I do have a lot of mechanical experience and have learned that sometimes the most jinxed vehicles just need the proper parts and care. In my mind when I buy a truck an ISX is more than acceptable. Simply put from what I read and seen: do overheads at 200K, replace and/or clean the sensors on the DPF, EGR et.al systems. Keep clean oil in it and change at 12k. Test the coolant as well. I mean basically just do the PM stuff that you should.

Would you vets agree with that? Or am I wrong or mislead?

 

Just curious, how many miles did he eventually get to use?

 

Not sure too be honest. I do know every time (according to him) he started "getting ahead", the truck would break down. If I had to guess, he got maybe 200k miles in 3 plus years out of it.

 

No they aren't but he has had nothing but trouble with it since the day he got it. And if I'm not mistaken i think there was an issue with the truck before he even got into it. Had to stay in a company truck for a week or two after agreeing to the lease purchase deal on the truck, i forget exactly what it was. In hindsight this looks to have been a big clue that the truck wasnt 'right'.

Yes but that chance you take is a lot less when trucks care of from day one and fixed right when thugs go wrong instead of bandaids being put on them.

what i really think is the carrier did quick fixes and bandaids on the truck cause it was near the mileage that they would offer it up as a lease purchase and the cost burden will be by carried by someone else.

I agree. For the ecm to be filled with oil it means that oil leak has been around quite a while and was ignored.

I am not trying to be rude just sharing the opinion that what you have been going through should never have happened. You've been having problems since before you even got into the truck. Those things didn't suddenly develop the moment they parked it, that's to big of a coincidence. It really appears that the truck wasnt 'right' on day one. There was plenty of signs along the way and i feel that those of us that have been doing this longer than you kinda dropped the ball by not picking up on those signs and trying to warn you.
Hopefully this is the last problem you have for a while and it runs trouble free for many months to pad that bank account.