Contemplating a 2014 Cascadia with a DD15

First a big thank you to everybody who has taken the trouble to share your opinions and experience with me.

 

I can't disagree with you. It doesn't take very long of working your way through the various truck sales sites to figure out that Petes and KWs are going for more money. The reason is obvious. They are better built.
FL and Int provide trucks for big fleets and the little guy who must have a new truck. It is a business model.
"Tinfoil chrome" says it all. I wish you could see the chrome coming off my hood mirrors.
It is true what you say.
Thing is you have to weigh this all out. You have to balance investment to income and it is a seat of the pants judgement call. The way the market has gone I can't justify breaking the bank on a new LT let alone a Pete.
With a bigger bucket of money this would be going differently and this thread would not have appeared.
So I balance a cheap truck against expected earnings and career expectancy.
All a giant multi threaded juggling act.
So bang for yer buck says a Cascadia 14 with a DD15.

 

I will do this and muchos gracias for all the info. A great help. I have to go to Joplin tomorrow for a Monday peek a boo. All arranged. I will give Mr Hagg a call while I'm driving. Anxious to see what he says.

 

So grateful you took the trouble to reply. Your post is great news.

 

Again thank you and your post is encouraging. The idiosyncrasies I will sort out just as I did with the Century.
In fact here is some info on the old girl. It is an ex fleet truck. I bought it for cash from Crete when I was a company driver for them. It is officially an 07 so they bought it and pressed it into service in 06. It had more miles on it than this Cascadia. A tiny bit of warranty. Nightmare doing business with them. I was supposed to say that one is a pretty color here is $40,000 in cash thank you now run my life for me please. That isn't what happened. I LEFT PRONTO.
Crete are supposedly Freightliner certified service centers.
Complete BS of course.
Right from the beginning in Jan 2012 it was like peeling an onion. Right up to the present day it has continued. Bodged this, misaligned that, their diabolical maintenance has revealed itself in stages.
A beautiful example of this was in 2013 with the discovery that the bell housing was being held on by 2 bolts both of which were loose resulting in a destroyed clutch - in a VERY big way - I was in Idaho and was extremely lucky that my bill for the tow was only 3 miles.
A list of Crete do overs continued. Every time I addressed it with love and solved each problem forever.
I am wary of fleet trucks and with just a little more money in the treasure box I would have bought a brand new International. Can't stretch to it though.
Hence this thread.
I firmly believe in trying to avoid inheriting somebody elses headache.
In 2004 I bought a brand new Mazda MPV minivan. She is now 14 years old and as good as new, in fact people look at it and think it is maybe 2 years old. I wish to god that I had enough money to do that with my truck.
This Cascadia has 400,000 miles and about 9 months warranty left with an option to get an extended one for a further $6.5k. I can wait until the last day of factory warranty to buy the extended job. That gives me time. The fuel savings alone plus the additional productivity and being CA friendly will pay the note each month.
I just pray it isn't a lemon.

 

I don't know anything about this but I will take the trouble to educate myself. I appreciate the heads up.

 

Seems I should be able to muddle on for a couple of years and prepare for the bill. Thanks for the info.

 

You have described me. 55 to 65 is about it ! Occasionally I will run at 70, if I am up against it, but that is not normal. 55 is my goal. You would be surprised how many miles I do at that speed and I am never late.
I also am about 10k a month and I try to fuel in MS, TX, OK and SC as much as possible.