saving to be o/o

In retrospect, I should have kept the beater. It was a solid runner and never broke down on me anywhere, although a 9900i with a 6NZ Cat is never going to win any awards for fuel mileage. The nickel and dime issues were far more affordable than what came after. The 5 year old truck? The sales guy at the Pete dealer was my son's hockey coach, so I trusted him and bought the truck sight unseen and before getting it looked at by my mechanic. He stopped returning my calls about the truck within a month and the dealership was of little to no help. I found out over a year later that the original owner got rid of it because it had been struck by lightning and was never right again after that. The new truck? Well, I spent most of last winter running in the Canadian prairies, and Cummins finally told me that the DEF system for North America was never designed for that kind of cold.

The pitfalls to avoid next time around? Don't buy pretty. Buy reliable. Buy fuel mileage. Buy ease of maintenance. Don't trust the sales guy, the dealer, or their shop. And above all, don't be fooled by those first couple of big settlement checks and go nuts buying gifts, toys, or ok'ing a full reno on your house. Yes, I did EVERYTHING wrong and won't make those mistakes again. Hopefully I also won't make a whole new set of mistakes.

 

hey man, I've been really looking at used trucks and have taken quite a liking to the Classics. How many miles did you have on yours when you bought it and for how much?
Also, I hear the turning radius kinda sucks on them but small price to pay for reliability. Only thing is the company that I'm with wants 5 yr or younger trucks. Gonna be hauling reefer with a mostly o/o outfit.

 

sorry, still learning to post with quote...that was meant for you icsheeple.

 

That's some good info right there, that's what my plan is soon as save up around 20k should be another 7-8 months.

 

750k miles. $4k down and $15k financed. Turn radius was definitely worse than my old international 9400i. Felt like a rookie when I first started backing. It was terrible. Give yourself plenty of time to adjust. The longer wheelbase gave such a tremendous upgrade to the ride down the road. Back feels a lot better. Way I see it, I spend an extra 2 minutes backing and 8 hours more comfort down the highway. I think age restrictions are a joke.

Here's a thread I started about my lease to LS startup if you want to flip through it.

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...ere/257731-greenhorn-landstar-chronicles.html

 

The way I see it an old truck can only nickel and dime you so long before it's just as new as the rest of em. Your replacing old warn out parts for new ones. It just gets more and more reliable. My biggest problem is old worn out chaffing wiring. Constantly replacing cord covers and zip ties. Soon I should have them all replaced. I do a few feet every month.

 

Let me know how that works out for you.

(Rolls eyes)

Hurst:smt111

 

Mine was really good for the first 4 months. No problems at all.

Then it seemed like every week for the next 30 days it was something. Then good for 2 months. Then a couple weeks of BS things like coolant leaks, wire shorting on bracket etc. Then tires. Then good for 2 months. Just today my cruise shut off and jake quit working. I was afraid it was something serious. Naah,.. just safety switch under the clutch linkage. So little things do come up. When you consider the mileage and conditions these trucks are run under,.. I think they do ok for the most part.

But yeah,.. the whole reason I'm holding on to this one,.. good or bad is because all the nickle and dime things that I have dealt,.. other than the motor blowing up,.. there really isnt much more to replace (For now) and I'm see longer intervals between BS nickle and dime things happening. So I'm pretty sure I'm on track to getting this one 100% here real soon.

Hurst:smt111

 

And when the time comes, do an overhaul and you're good for another million.

 

Thats the plan.

I mean at least I know what I have and whats been done. So far the truck has paid for itself multiple times over. I honestly cant really complain.

I only hope my next truck is as good as this one and next year should be really good for me.

Hurst:smt111