Buying a truck

Don't buy anything 2008-2013 period!
Buy a Volvo 2004-2007 with a Volvo or Cummins engine, and if you willing to spend more money than buy Pete or KW in that year range

 

not enough information to provide a sugestion.

What do you plan to do with it? Dry van, cold box, flat, tank?
Where do you plan to operate the most?

 

If your OK with a Columbia, AND you don't plan on going to California I would look at Schneider and see if they have any gliders left. Columbia's are cheap cheap cheap for parts and every junkyard has a ton of em, and the 12.7 Detroit will give you great fuel mileage and is also cheap to fix and a lot more shops know their way around it. If your going for a 2013 + don't do it on a shoe string budget. A friend had a KW, 2013 and it was good till the extended warranty was up and another month or so, then in about 5 weeks he had to spend 14k on it. And he maintains his trucks well. When you have issues the shops can't always find the issues and you keep paying till they do. At least with a 12.7 you take all the electronics and emissions crap out of the picture. I had a small malfunction and second guessed myself and had a dealer rape me for $2100 a couple weeks ago.. and I have a glider....

 

Even though I don’t know much about the Cat motor, I would go for the international between the two. 2005 is very early on into the choking down with emissions. Late 03’ and 04’ introduces the EGR valve.

...and as far as automatic transmissions... umm some people like it, but in my mind that just adds to the list of electrical / moving parts that will need fixing... i personally, avoid autos in OTR trucking as an owner

Good luck

 

Engine and mileage are always important considerations.

Research things thoroughly because nowadays it's out of control with the repairs on these nonsense trucks. Buy the wrong one and you will be going down the bankruptcy Road.

 

Engine and mileage is the really important considerations, then the rest of the drive train after that.

But buying a truck isn't like buying a car, there is some important steps you need to do to make sure it won't break down within 50 miles of your place.

The first is to have a dyno done and a blow by test at the same time.

The dyno will tell you the condition of the engine by looking at the power produced against the rated power. The blow by will tell you the conditions of the rings. The blow by is only done with a dyno and under a full load, not sitting idling.

Then the other test is an oil analysis, this isn't just done on the engine but actually the trans and rear axles.

This tells you more about the condition of the parts, it is something that will give you some more info on the conditions of the engine.

Then you have a full ecm dump, not a summary but a full dump. You look at the odometer mileage, the fuel comstumption and the idle hours to see if they jive with what you are told. It also tells you if the ecm has been replaced or messed with. There is also a list of options you can look into and see what you may want to change for your driving habits.

Then after all of that, have a mechanic check it, not a mechanic that the seller suggested but someone else,

Let them find things wrong, and then take the asking price and subtract those repairs from that asking price.

 

I would purchase a pre-emissions truck over a newer one. However, the older trucks are getting harder to find in decent shape and the prices have gone up. There are a lot of decent buys in the 2000 to 2007 year range. Looking at current auction prices and postings on the commercial truck papers you can find one of the followng trucks in the 500k to 800k mile range for $10k to $20k - Peterbilt 387, Volvo, FL Columbia. I would also look at International with a preference for the Cummins engine.