Horsepower

The more horses you can get the better. 500 and over. 450 is not bad but it's going to fall short in some areas.

 

Not much advice for me to offer here. I haven't had much seat time in regular road trucks besides the cascadia. Mostly been in oilfield spec equipment.

All newer engines will have most of the same after treatment issues, dpf, scr and egr bs. My advice like others have said is wait a few more years. Not trying to be the party pooper but from the questions your asking you have a lot more to learn. 75%+ of 1st yr owners will fail in the 1st year.

Research research research. Learn the in's and outs of this industry on the companies dime instead of yours. 1st thing you can do is start learning the operations cost. Fuel-tires-tolls-preventative maintenance and so fourth.

 

Exactly what type of work are you talking about line haul van? 80k gross weight?
Any size engine or power rating can do that job.
Are you talking otr, or regional, or local?
Any truck will do that. But not many will do it well.
If you dont know what I'm talking about than you need to drive in the truck, that a company owns, and see how things work.
And any truck is worry free until the warranty is gone. Maybe study the repair side of things for good measure?

 

If we are talking post EPA10 engines,bigger is not allways better.

 

It's also not as hard on the motor if you aren't pushing it so hard all the time at 80k just to do 65.

 

So you have 11months total experience driving a CMV?

Have you looked at how much Insurance is going to cost you? And if you are going to lease on you might be limited on company choices