Buying a used glider

I would most definitely do the S60 with a fix. I run a 2010 with a DPF currently but live in California and that's not an option.

 

That just screams little to no maintenance done on that equipment. But then again it's always a crap shoot on used equipment.

 

My understanding is gliders are harder to get, maybe he just gave in and bought new.

 

I would think that the price difference between the tells the story. Why would a used glider bring more than a comparable truck with similar miles?
Hype may be part of it, but the market usually is the best benchmark of value.

 

Why would anyone sell a glider with 500k miles? Because it's a lemon. That would be probably the biggest reason.

We run all gliders here, and I know there's only been two of them ever sold. Both Freightliner Coronado's with 12.7 Detroit's. They were not Fitzgerald builds, they were built in house. The engines were reman from Detroit. We had endless turbo issues with one truck, and the other was ok, but had no power. Both were fuel hogs.

As it happened, the guy that bought them was looking for exactly what we had.

 

Same reason they are selling non gliders.

 

That doesn't even make sense. You can by a truck with anywhere from 0 miles to 2 mill. So your saying they are all for sale because they are all lemons?

 

They probably sell them because that's their business plan. Meaning they don't want the downtime and the money to fix older engine. I had S60 and stuff like air compressor start to go. Rear main seal can start to leak. The Dimond seal were the front cover bolts to engine start to leak. The Bull Gear should be watched. They can start to get lose. Mine was never changed at 1.5 million. The water pump will need changing soon at 500,000.

It probably needs a new clutch. I had 2 used truck is got about 460,000 both time the clutch went out at about 500,000 miles. They can buy a new truck/glider and put very little money into the truck besides changing oil. For 500,000 miles. Then dump the truck and get used value of the truck and the next guy gets all the repairs. They also get the advantage of the warranty if it's a rebuild engine from Detroit.

 

People I've seen with gliders stick a lot more money in them, they're pretty much show trucks by the time they get it on the road.

 

No. I guess I could've been a little more clear. I was half asleep when I wrote that.

I'm saying that if you find a used glider with 500k miles, there's probably a very good reason it's for sale. Could be part of the owners business model, or it could be a lemon. Oil samples and Dyno reports, ecm reports would tell a great deal.

Either way, at 500k miles, you're gonna have to dump some money out on repairs. Companies that turn trucks over at lower mileage typically don't spend money on things like changing oil in the transmission and rears, suspension pins and bushings, and a bunch of other stuff I can't even think of. And why would they? It's part of the plan to dump the truck, and they next owner is left to do it. Not saying it's wrong, but that's how some do it.

The other reason to dump a low mileage glider would be because it's a lemon. A problem child. From what I've witnessed around here, when someone buys a glider, they'll usually run it a long time, and once it's worn out, they'll buy another one. Resale value doesn't factor into the equation for these people. Because they aren't buying to re sell it. So the only logical reason to sell at that point would be that it's a problem child.

Gliders are a different animal when it comes to resale. And if you find one, you should probably really check it out very closely before writing the check.