Bottom falling out on pre-emission trucks?

In some states like Georgia and Alabama if a vehicle is over 25 years old no title is needed. Only a bill of sale. At least for cars and pickup and bikes. I would assume a semi is the same.

 

Stumbled across this thread. Had a 1979 Peterbilt V8 pre cup cat cabover, big cab, cannot remember the number but it was the H cab that they used for KTs and V8s. The cab was a little taller was what Peterbilt guys told me. I didn't know squat, #######, been driving for a few years. Took over payments, it was 81 or 82.
Had air assist and a lot of extras at the time. Air windows, adjustable steer column, I was the 3rd owner.
Came off National Carriers, Second owner was at Graves, then Tiona, meet him there. Pre cup V8 got a sound like no other. Rattle, bang, and all go. Whirlpool both fuel tanks. Kool ### cabover only one I've owned.

 

Those 3408 have a very distinct sound all of their own
Your never late with a 3408..

 

They sound like a big Powerstroke and smoke like the original 7.3L turbo.

My late-80’s milk truck had a 3408. That thing hauled the milk, for sure. The ice cream guy was talking trash at my last stop, one day. We left out of there, got on the interstate, and I left him in a cloud of black smoke. We get back to the dairy and he couldn’t help but laugh at its awesomeness. Haha. I loved that old thing.

 

Well I made the choice (mistake) in bying a 88 international 9700 cabover. The intention and still is to drive through my LLC trucking company. This was almost 2 years ago already, I didn't have a garage/shelter big enough so most of my work was outside- weather dependent, sucked, direct sun, rain, wind, cold, one advantage is with a cabover it does provide some shelter but you cant leave the motor apart in the elements for very long. Of the 4 trucks I looked at, the one I ended up buying was not my favorite but it had a 13 speed and 3:42 gears for highway. It has the BC4, which I did not know a lot about until now, drove and ran really nice considering it was a beat up farmers truck. Once I got it home, I found just about every part was worn out/needed repair/replacement from the all wheel bearings/seals/axle seals, clutch, wiring, exhaust, tires, brakes, suspension parts that were not lubed and worn so bad I had find the spring frame hangers.
Like others said, the difficult part it trying for find replacement parts, these trucks are old and obsolete and whatever you think you will spend on replacement parts, double/triple it. If you are not mechanically able or have the tools and don't want to buy the tools you need then don't bother buying anything old/used unless you have a unlimited budget and pay someone else to do the work. In my case I did everything and semi truck stuff is HUGE and HEAVY, luck the BC motors have 3 heads so I can pick them up without needing a forklift/hoist. Good thing about these motors- injectors are cheap, dont need many special tools and simple to work on. My opinion, anything less than 25k is likely a basketcase, going to need a ton of time/work. Now if you just want a truck to drive around/farm, then cheaper is ok but over the road your going to need something that has been gone through. Btw, all the cabovers I drove the international 9700 drove the best, Mack was ok but the camelback empty was a little hard but the rear cab air suspension saved the day on that one- I added rear cab air on my 9700- huge difference, all the kickback is gone. The truck I was impressed was the Ford cl9000, the ride was amazing and the engine vibration isolation from the cab air suspension was way ahead of their time back then. The lean when turning really didn't bother me- if I had to do it all over again it would have been waiting for a cl9000 to come up for sale and swap a redtop N14 pre 2000 then you get the best of mechanical and efficiency of electronic...im all out of money now so what I have is going to be for awhile....