Is this a bad truck for 5000 ?? Rusty frame and please take a look.. advice needed

Well even for a FL I'd personally offer the seller $3700 max. Get the rust checked for the frames integrity and if it's still good Sand blast the rust but 800k miles on it I would think that you would have to spend another $20k in the next year or so especially if nothing else has been changed on it. I personally don't believe in higher mileage trucks from the amount breakdowns I had with fleet trucks in my 25 year driving career. I just saw this one auction for $10k same mileage but some new belts etc. And other new parts. Not saying it's better because you don't really know until you run the truck for a few trips.
AuctionTime.com | 2007 FREIGHTLINER COLUMBIA 112 Auction Results
2007 FREIGHTLINER COLUMBIA 112

 

As a spare truck or yard horse, be a good deal, just don't try and make a living with it. I drove a Columbia like that, Detroit motor for a friend, it had almost a million on it,( best riding truck I ever drove) and everyday, something would fail. I did more work on that truck than any other truck. Wipers quit, cruise quit, a/c condenser, steering wheel adjust broke, you name it, it failed. One reason for my lack of faith in Freightliners. They are good trucks new, but like everything else in this F'd up society, can't make it last forever. Be out of business in no time. Coming from the Badger, I've seen some rusty frames. As long as there's no holes. Looks like this old gal seen some miles, but you know that. IH I heard is even worse than Freightliner. Sad, never used to be that way, IH was king.

 

You can do frame rails for a couple grand, no worse then Doing an inframe, think my uncle has about $8500 into his LTL rerail, then a bit more for other misc stuff, not exactly a truck I would start a project with though

 

Who in the world replaces frame rails for a couple of grand? That's a LOT of work for a couple of grand and the rails themselves aren't cheap. I heard about some Amish in Michigan or maybe it was Wisconsin who will do it for about $9,000 which I thought was a steal. I've heard of guys paying more than double that for a re-rail.

 

I think he means a couple of thousand will get them blasted and repainted, probably all they'll need. The truck will never be worth enough to consider reframing it but a repaint is what id do.

 

Another thing about that Mercedes. At a previous job I had a dedicated run. Same trailer, same load so same weight always. Doing the run with a tractor with a Mercedes, and we had a few, I'd get about 5.5 mpg. With any other engine I'd get 7.5 to 8.0 mog. That's a huge difference in operating costs.

 

the rails themselves were only like $3500 from pg Adams, Then 40 hoursish to do, the new tag axle this that and the other small crap ended up being about 12 out the door iirc

I say couple grand in truck terms not actual dollar terms, like I said no worse than an inframe though

 

Frame rails are a big job, friend did it with his old Pete. EVERYTHING has to come off. My frame cracked on my WS, and an inner smaller rail was bolted and the crack welded. Held for a while.

 

If you think it's a lot of rust that you see with your own eyes, take the fifth wheel off and see if there's any frame left under there.