How Long Will a New Truck Last?

You need to find what exact day truck was assembled, if it's Monday or Friday it's a no go

 

Some trucks carry the attitude of the workers with them. Some don’t.

 

Moron operators and beancounter management can turn out a bad product with consistency every day of the week.

Buy the truck you want to work on. Oh you dont want to work on trucks? Okay, buy the $150k one and work it off $2/mile at a time.

Remember when people bought starter homes and starter equipment? When the first old backhoe earned you the money for another and if it couldnt you didnt go any further down that road?

If you dont wanna work on trucks i say find a different profession. Everything made anymore is a piece of junk waiting to show you its true colors. Luck is the biggest factor. My 2cents

 

New truck, old truck. Could be a gold mine, could be a lemon. Its luck of the draw either way. Although it might be a higher chance of a problem at first with the old one.
But one thing I've learned is either way every 3.5 years is gonna be a big expense. At least that's how it worked out with the 5 I've gone thru

 

I have bought 4 new tractors in my 43 year career. 1978 IH 4070b, 1984 I H9600, 1990 IH 9700, and the 2000 Argosy, now with 1.9 million miles on it.
Key to success: Crawl under the truck regularly, i.e. do your own minor maintenance. Identify a good shop and have as much major work done by them as needed. They know you and the truck.
By the time it is out of warranty the bugs should be gone. Newer emission trucks just have higher maintenance because they have more stuff bolted on.

 

New trucks just aren't built to last like the old ones. The largest customers of the big truck manufacturers are the McMegas and they trade-in their fleet trucks at 500,000 miles like clockwork. So there's really no incentive for modern manufacturers to build fleet trucks to last anymore.

Then you gotta consider all the complex electronics, sensors, and now DEF systems. When these doo-dads give up the ghost, it's not easy or cheap to repair.

I drive a 2019 Freightliner Cascadia daycab at my current gig. It's been in the shop 5 times already for warranty work....all electronic issues. If you're an O/O or lease-op, that's alot of downtime to endure right off the bat. Now that's it's gotten it's sea legs at around 63,000 miles on the clock, it's been smooth sailing steady as she goes. But our mechanics are constantly crying about working on these trucks. As far as I can see, nothing but cheap plastic, rattles, and I swear my old cracker box Jimmy from back in the day rode better.

 

My 16 cascadia has 420k on it. It hadnt needed anything outside of regular maintenance outside of a couple coolant leaks, and dpf cleaning. No major engine problems, but after it hit 400k im getting engine lights once every couple weeks , all related to emissions system . theres a reason why fleets start selling these trucks off after 400k . they start getting expensive. But like evrrybody else say its a gamble whether old or new

 

a truck with 10 components in the dash panel and mechanical pump is gonna have 10x less issues statistically than one with 100 components.

Age is unkind to all of it and troubles will arise, but id rather babysit 10 kids then a hundred. Can i fix relays and dimmer switches, yes. DPF systems and ABS computers, no, i cannot. I will hedge that bet by avoiding them.

People say you cant get parts for old trucks but ive never seen it stop a guatemalan. If you think you cant, youre right.

 

The newest truck I ever got was 10 Cascadia .

It had 11 miles on it.

I thought, "I'll bet I could make this truck last forever. "

I was a trainer .

First student- grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnd.

Jumping all over popping the clutch lmfao.

I'm sure it's been long since parted out and smelted down by now.

 

New trucks are horrible, 1,500 miles and there in the dealership. Mechanics can not figure them out. They say we have to call freight liner,pterbuilt, Mack Volvo. Engines being pulled at 30k even. All the front ends seem to wear out real fast and I grease the truck every 2 or 3 days. Brand new 379 cruiser show truck, the owner brought it back the same day. Because front end is shot. Compare that to a r model or superliner v8 they never broke. Take them off rd with 488,000 lb tanker wheel hopping in sand, engine turned up, with the tach needle past all the numbers.