Question about engines

Find a w9 with a caterpillar sdp engine. I bet they are dirt cheap and low miles also.

 

With only 10k saved, you need to be looking at 2000-2007 era Freightliner Columbia or Century’s with a Detroit. An ISX rebuild is north of $20k. A Detroit can easily be had for $10k. An ISX or Volvo turbo will run you $5k. A Detroit pre-egr will be $800 and with egr will be under $2k. You know aftermarket truck warranties typically have a deductible as well. I saw them as high as $300 for EACH ITEM/OCCURRENCE. That’s on top of the 3-5k for the one year warranty. I unexpectantly was truck shopping after my engine lost compression two months ago. I bought a Western Star glider with a 12.7 Detroit. No emmisions for me and very service manager you speak to will tell you you’re better off in a pre-emissions truck.

 

Regarding warranty, even if they cover everything with no deductible, you still have down time. If it takes them 3 days to get it in the shop, and another week to get it fixed, you have lost at least a third of your monthly revenue.

Just food for thought, and this can happen with or without warranty.

 

Downtime is the killer. Even if they offer a warranty that covered 100% of anything that could happen to the truck, you can still go broke due to downtime.
When the truck is sitting at the shop, you're not making money. Also, if you are under a load and constantly have breakdown delays, you loose your customers.

 

Why do you think a newer truck won’t break down?

 

Take justtrucking2 advise op, private chat him if needed he has helped me through a few engine issues and they have been spot on.

 

Run away from the maxxforce. I had a 2011 freigliner I got used. It broke the bank even with the 600,000 miles parts and labor warranty from Detroit. Detroit did pay for the repairs. It just took like 1.5 weeks for repairs Everytime.

I my first warranty claim was just air compressor leaking oil. So they thought, found head gasket was leek. Pulled head off and found rust in the engine block coolant ports. They found the pistons were set wrong in the block. It took Detroit 4 days to decide what they were going to do. That warranty claim took almost 2 weeks. That truck was in the shop for warranty so much it was crazy. I had air compressor replaced, rear main engine seal I can't even remember all the parts they replaced. I'm not joking Detroit Diesel must have has $30,000 in warranty claim on my engine. The first claim the took the engine down to the block and replaced a puston kit and reset all the liners.

My last warranty claim was truck in shop for oil leaking from air compressor. The shop called an said this has never happened before but the oil pump broke while in the shop. They put in new oil pump and new roller bearings. It was a disaster. After the warranty was gone the emissions box went bad. The DOC filters are built into the emission box on Detroit engine. That would have been $12,000 repair.

I'm not a fan of used 2011 trucks. Even Cummins had lots of trouble.

 

If you want learn about the ISX watch this guy. Even does a complete rebuild on YouTube and shows everything wrong with the older ISX