Detroit or Cummins

Ryder and Penske off lease/rental trucks are garbage at that point. Hence the reason to sell... But in reality the OP does not have two nickels to rub together, But it is good to dream...

 

Like I said your fantasy posts are an entertaining read... You obviously are viewing your dream thru rose colored glasses.... Let me guess that you were not born in this country?

 

I stand corrected on your birth country....

 

As others have said right now is a bad time to become an O/O we have a bad combo of overpriced trucks, shortage of parts, coming out of a massive truck shortage so thats keeping new prices high and putting way above average mile trucks on the market for way above value. Low rates and looking like we are going into a trade war and full blown depression besides.

Id hold off for now. This kind of market is a recipe for going bankrupt especially with old clunkers like those and the emissions issues they are going to have.

That said there are pros and cons to both. The ISX is going to be easier and likely cheaper to unbork the emissions system and while they basically require a 500k rebuild, the rebuilds on ISX motors is fairly cheap. They dont as good of mileage but the trade off is they are pretty reliable and there are so bloody many that in a pinch junkyard parts are everywhere. Literally every shop works on them and they have such a stupidly massive secondary off brand parts market that they have replaced kittys as the universal engine.

Detroits on the other hand are zombie engines. Unkillable if maintained, good mileage and reliable as all get out.... but tend to drool everywhere afterall the only time a detriot doesnt drool is when its out of oil. They have a lot of places that work on them too and parts while not as plentiful as the ISX are avalible. However if the emissions bork your going to take a bath on them cost wise and they tend to cascade back and forth on what broke this time and can be a pain to pin down.

 

Is buying a truck with 3/4 of the engine life exhausted a good plan for success as a new o/o? The truck is for sale, for a reason. It has served its purpose and it is time to sell to someone who will pay some cash before it’s completely worthless.

 

understandable, but you gotta plan for the "what if" not the "i have this". For example at bones (absolutely awsome guys btw) im secure and its pretty unlikely anything is going to fold up. However, even then my truck was set up in a way i can do pneumatic, low boy, tank or flatbed. And i also always keep my ear to the ground for other companys that may lease me on if bones doesnt work out for whatever reason. While i dont see myself leaving them anytime soon. I also still plan like paul is going to call me tomorrow and tell me i need a new job that way if he DOES for whatever reason i can be working again in 48 hours.

You however from.your post are planning like the job will be there and reliable. Thats a bad way to look at things. Additionally i understand not wanting to wait but in this case things should stabilize in a year or two. keep in mind there is not "best" time to buy a rig. There are only less bad times. And right now everything is convergeing to make this among the worst times to buy a truck we have seen in a long time.

Best option is to wait. Within a year or two most of the fly by nighters will have gone under and we have more people leaving the market then coming in which should crash truck prices especially in the used secondary market.

However if you MUST have a truck now or soon buy some old iron with cash and pay to have the emgine, transmission and diffs overhauled. It will run ya around $75-100K to have it done correctly but you wont have any bills and even if the market takes a full dump you will have a good rig paid in cash and a lot more wiggle room then the dude that got a 500k used emissions truck for 100k on a loan.