I'm going to buy a used Schneider Truck

Sorry about all the typos, my iphone keeps correcting my spellings and my screen is very small. I'm not going to bother with editing my posts for typos.

Anyway, more rants....on the finance trap!! So the finance companies made me pay a hefty $995 loan fee, then disclosed another $1500 more fees and that my truck will have a GPS installed so they can track me at any time. If I object to the extra $1,500 additional fees or the GPS, I would surrender my initial $995 fee. I wish they would disclose all of this because I may have used other options to make this deal happen. I do have $30k credit limit open on my credit cards.

I believe this is the standard practices of subprime lending these days. So many brokers and middle guys in all aspect and sectors in out economy.

In these postings, it is my intent to inform others of the real deal currently being done in 2017. You can compare my deals with your's and use mine as a benchmark to see if you got a better or worse deal. I believe my deal is typical for my credit rating of low 700's score. This is my 8th or 9th trucks and I have financed a few so I think this deal isn't bad at all from the finance perspective. I just met a guy at the shop who is paying $1,800 a month for 48 months on a similar truck. I'd bet he thinks my $920/month for 42 months is hella better than his.

 

Picking my truck up at Schneider, Carlisle, PA.

I was scheduled to pickup my truck on Sat at 10:00am. I got there early on Friday afternoon. Went to check on the truck and it hasn't been touched. So I went to the shop asking if they plan to work on the truck. Thank GOD, shop manager said they have authorization to change the batteries and reprogram the speed limiter and idling. Was told that they will work on it during the evening since they were busy. I asked the shop manager if he can print me the entire repair notes on my truck. He told me to call Greenbay for that info. I knew he was putting me off. I didn't bother calling Greenbay, Schneider's headquarter because they will tell me to talk to the shop guy.

Note: I went to check out my truck early because if the repairs wasn't acknowledge by the shop, I wanted to be able to call the sales lady at Schneider Trucks about her promise. Looks like she came through and kept her promise. The sales people don't work on Saturdays.

I had left the yard and returned before dark on friday just to make sure the night crew is going to work on my truck. I saw that they did moved the truck inside a bay with someone attending it so I left without bothering.

On Sat morning around 7am, I showed up early knowing that there wouldn't be many people around. It would be the best time to ask for favors. I talked to the same service manager the day before about many treveille things and finally broach the subject about helping me out with printing a few service records on my truck. Rather than asking for all the service records, i asked for what he can do starting with the latest ones on record. Since it wasn't too busy, and I asked him in a much more polite way, he printed the last 6 -8 months of truck repair history. Took him over an hour.

The problem with Schneider filing system is that each service request are saved in a seperate file so he has to click on individual files. Many of those files May not be repair orders. So its not going to happen if you walk in and asked for the entire service history of a truck.

So here is what I found out about Schneider's policy on fixing their trucks. Most of the repair ticket contains warranty work.

Being one of Freightliner's largest customer, Schneider can usually bill Freightliner for both parts and labor on warranty works. In other words, Schneider's shop is making money from Freightliner by fixing Schneider's own truck. There were many items such as switches, sensors and items that I know individual folks or smaller companies will never be able to get Freightliner to pay for warranty repairs. Yet Schneider is getting their way. No wonder my truck is like new on the interior. Most things were replaced. To get all these freebees, Schneider do have to have proof that they maintained their trucks according to Freightliner's minimium standards.

The last serviced ticket showed what they did to the truck for me to pick up. They have not only put new batteries in and took out the limiters, the even put in a new brake chamber, some new airlines, even replace the passenger side power winder switche and many other little things. The ticket was over $1,200 and I got all that for free. Wow nice.

So if you are wondering if a Used Schneider Truck is a good deal, I'd say hell yes it is. They keep their trucks better maintain than most fleets because they got their own shop making money on repairs to their own trucks and making Freightliner pay for it.

According to the service manager, as soon as the truck approach the end of it's warranty peroid either before 650k miles or 5 years, Schneider will sell the truck off. Hence, most of the repair records are warranty repair and general maintenence.

 

So what do i look for in a used truck ?

I'm not a mechanic nor do I want to be one so my mechanical skills are minimal. I made extra copies of the yearly inspection sheet and did a DOT inspection on the trucks I like. Only thing i could't do by myself is checking the brake chamber strokes if it is sticking out too far. There were a lot of people looking at trucks and I was the only one with a clip board with a list of things to check. I've done that before and paid dearly because there are so many little things that can cost thousands and it is hard to memorize everything on that DOT Inspection list.

An example of some potientially expensive items is if the low air light and buzzer don't come on. Or your truck wont lock brakes when air is emptied. Or your trailer brake lights don't work. Even the winshield wiper system can cost thousands. Wiring, or electrical related problems are a nightmare to resolve so stay away from those issues.

Items not on the DOT sheets are:
Remove cooliant cap and see if there are lots of bubbles. If so, potiential head gasket issue. Also remove oil fill cap and see if there are blow bys. Also check for excessive rust on under the frame. Could have lots of electrical issue with lots of rusts. Most importantly, check that frame doesn't have cracks or have been drilled with too many holes for accessories. Frames can be weakened.

I also craw below the truck and see if there are leeks under the engine and transmission. Also check for leaks for differentials, check if brakes are oilly, make sure leaf springs are not crack. Especially on older trucks, check if the steer tires are worn evenly or not. If steer tires are worned out unevenly, be prepair to spend a couple of thousands on KinPin and new steer tires.

So many thing to look for. I suggest you write everything not on the DOT checklist. Have multiple copies of inspection sheets so you can check out multiple trucks. Be prepare and you may avoid some pitfalls.

 

Insurance.....

This is the topic that most blog skip over as if it was the easiest thing in the world. Ha.. its very dam frustrating if you finance a truck. Almost a catch 22 senerio. I was very nervious about this because I could of lost my $995 loan fee.

So here is my insurance headache with this purchase. I have been approve to lease on with a carrier. The lender wants a certificate of insurance from my future Carrier before they will fund my truck. My Carrier wants me to go to Orientation and pass their standards for truck and driver inspections before issueing me permits and insurance. Hmmm. A catch 22. It is standard practice that you have to finish orientation before the carrier will issue you insurance but my lender wants it before i even have truck inspected by Carrier.

In the past, I was able to resolve this issue by getting a binder policy which is a short term bobtail and physical damage with non-trucking liability policy that is 15-30 days.
Www.classictruckinsurance.com is the only company i have found that can do this kind of policy. The problem is that My Lender will not accept a binder policy since it is not a perminent policy. Note very carefully that you can only buy this policy from ClassicTruckInsurance.com twice within the lifetime of your vehicle based on vin#. The insurance carrier is actually Great American Insurance. Since i haven't found any other short term insurance carrier in the last 10 years, you might want to reconsider buying it unless you really need it.

An example, 10 years ago, i got a short term policy with them, and due to maintence problems, i had to extend the policy on that truck twice before I was able to lease on to a carrier. Had I attemp to buy the short term policy on this same truck, I wouldn't have been able to now. The lady asked if it was one of my previously insured truck and told me which ones I wouldn't be able to buy a policy for.

After much pleading, my future small carrier agreed to have it's insurance issued a certificate to my lender. Although My Lender was satisfied with the insurance certificate, I still needed my own insurance for general liability of 1 million dollars to move my truck so I had to buy the binder policy. Cost me around $370 for a 30 day policy which includes $30,000 for physical damage. I guess i have double coverage on physical damage.

You see why I was hessitant to pay the $995 loan fees. This curve ball of not accepting short term binder policy initially could of derail all my plans and wasted my money. This was not disclosed until after I had paid and talked to the real lender.

 

Right after I picked up my truck, I drove it to Speedco and did a full PM, changed all the fuel filters, an air filter, and did oil analysis. I usually go to Speedco for all my oil change because I can watch them perform the oil changes and make sure they grease my truck properly. Also, SpeedCo will check my Rear Differential fluids as well as the transmission fluid. This is very important because I've had TA and other small shop PM my trucks before and found out later that Truck was low on fluids in the Transmission or Differientials because they were never checked. Shops that doesn't have a pit will most likely never check your fluid levels in your gear boxes because they don't want crawl under your truck and will just claim they did. Hell, even my trusted mechanic that I go to all the time fail to check. I caught him once lying about checking the fluid levels in my gear boxes and that was the end of that.

So oil samples came back very good. No traced of fuel and water in oil. Also no traces of metals in oil.

Now that I have a fresh PM, verify all my fluid levels, and new air filters installed, i felt comfortable driving 400 miles back home. 150 miles into my trip back home, my check engine light and the EPA lamp came on. Oh no...pulled over and check fluid levels. No leak and all fluids full.

Got 2 faults on the dash.
SPN 4364 01 and SPN 4364 18

Research on google and found that they means Nox sensors out of specs. These infamous error codes are very common. In many cases, they can cost many many thousands to narrow down on the culprit as I'm finding out now. I took a chance and drove truck another 250 miles home. Other than the check Engine Light, truck ran smooth.

 

The Dreaded SPN 4364 01 and SPN 4364 18.

After much research on these error codes, its my conclusion that it can most likely be a very frustrating fix and very very expensive. Called local shops in Raleigh and didn't felt comfortable dealing with any of them. I needed to go to someone I trusted so I decided to risk it and drive another 180 miles to Charlotte to have it fix. My error codes sounds like a money pit. I manage to downloaded procedures from Detroit on how to troubleshoot these error codes and cringe at the amount of time involve in troubleshooting. One thing that worries me is that my engine can be degraded to run 5mph if i kept driving. With these check engine light on, I wasn't able to regen. If I try to go to shop in Charlotte, my truck may need a tow if the engine derate itself. Decided to risk it and proceeded to Charlotte.

Day#1:
Made it to Charlotte and checked into shop. Waited a few hours and truck was squeezed in between jobs to be seen. Hook up to diagnostic computer and couldn't force regen because computer shows clutch is engauge. Bad clutch switch so went and got the part from Freightliner for around $80. Got clutch switch installed and yeah, my cruise and jakes works again. Performed a force regen and no more error codes. Yeah problem solved. Perhaps the clutch switch was preventing truck from regen and DPF filter got clogged. Drove 30 miles or so with no more check engine light. Yeahh.. problem solved....nope. On my way back home made it to salisbury (60 miles) and same two check engine lights and error codes pop up. ####...U-turn back to the shop again.

 

Day#2- more troubleshooting

Got my truck looked at again. Since the shop was very busy and i needed to speed things up and became my own errand boy to get parts. So we were going to troubleshoot by the book. We needed the DEF test strips to test for contimation in the DEF fluid. No one in town seems to sell them. Freightliner dont sell them, Fleetpride and many other big parts store don't sell them. I finally got some test strip from Clark Power, a Detroit dealer whom had to grab some from the shop guys. This is rediculious because it seems that no one actually test for contiminates in the DEF fluids. Couldn't even get the test strip for concentration mixture of Urea in DEF fluid. No one in town has that period so we had to proceed without the test strip for cencentration levels.

Back to the shop and open up the cap for the DEF tank. Got a sample of DEF fluid out and perform test. No contimination but there was no odor at all and the fluid looked, smelled, felt like water. The mechanic actually tasted the DEF fluid with his mouth ...Hmmm..its water.

Upto this point, I have not fill up or touch the DEF tank because it shows 3/4 full on my dash gauge. Schneider had filled up the DEF and fuel tank before they retired the trucks. WTF...

So mechanic proceeded to remove the DEF tank and got the pump off to see inside the tank. While dumping the water out, about 1/3 of the bottom of the DEF tank had more of an amonia smell. At the bottom of the tanks were crystalize gunk of sand like materials.

At this point, our conclusion is that since the truck had last been driven in July of 2016, sitting in the summer heat and then cold winter in Carlisle, PA for all these months, the water must of seperated from the rest of the DEF solution. Now lets hope that didnt damage more emission components. All day and this is what we accomplish. Going to hope for the best on day #3.