I need help guys!!

sadly, they most likely have an equal amount of pro/con each..!

private sale, you gotta ask why the sale...retirement? bankruptcy? another truck?

dealer sale, (if used) they ain't gonna say too much as well, especially if they buy it from an auction house, from a bankruptcy, insurance claim, etc.

take a pair of dice, and roll them...each time, a different score, right...??

it's a gamble.

for me personally, i never buy used anything...(well except my house)

i want to know the history of any thing from day number one, and how it was treated.

you ain't never gonna get that FROM ANYONE buying a used ANYTHING

 

Stay away from international, KW is best, but I'm sure a Pete guy would disagree. Dealers lie, lie lie. Find a driver that's retiring and tells you every little thing wrong with the truck and take someone with you that knows what they're looking at. Oil analysis is best way to tell what's on with the motor. Good luck and try not to fall in love you'll pay too much.

 

I've always owned Freightliner. They have a vast dealer network and have always honoured their warranty no matter where I went.

 

A truck is a truck, there is no best or worst out there. These are tools, and you treat it as a tool.

Once you get past the emotional BS about it, then you can clearly get into the grove of being an owner.

What you need to do is do what is called Due Diligence on any truck, I am even now saying to do this on a new truck because of the rash of problems I have had in my latest 10.

This means for a used and NEW truck an ECM dump and a mechanic looking at it from front to back.

For used trucks, having a dyno and a blowby done, having oil and fluid analysis for the major components and the dealer run the vin to see what work was done on it and the original order.

This is how you do it if you look at it as a tool.

If you don't want to do that, then just kick one of the tires and hand over the money.

 

And watch the previous owner run, lol.

 

Before you dump a lot of money into a truck you might check to see how much insurance is going to cost you.

 

Being an O/O myself after many years as a company driver, part of me wants to say, go with the KW , Detroit powered, and I'm a Pete guy, but more importantly, the truck is the last thing right now. Insurance ( will kill ya'), hauling contract, can you turn a wrench, and above all, do you have a good Jewish accountant. When all those things are set, THEN look for the truck. There's a jillion out there, and when you get to that point, if you go with an older truck, get one from the owner, newer trucks, I suppose a dealer, KW has a good network, and remember, a truck with 4-500K with no work is going to cost you. Good luck.