Thinking about buying

What kind of freight do you plan on?

You're going to get a lot of negative feedback from our forum, no matter what you say you're looking at.

I'm guessing this has a 70 something double bunk?

Are you getting it from a Freightliner dealer?

 

Also check idle hours , check for a apu . High idle hours are the same as severe duty according to a Detroit mechanic . You will pay more for a truck with a working Apu but I think its worth the investment with a used truck . I'm over 700 k on my DD15 and its been a good truck , I rarely Idle .

 

Think I might look for something with a Cummins in that case.

 

If it's a 16 with 430K miles, you know it's been a good truck, and not one that's been in the shop a lot.

I wouldn't buy a truck without an APU. The APU can / will be a pain in the ### at times, but idling is the kiss of death for these trucks.

Plan on doing a OneBox on it maybe as soon as 500K, maybe not until 700K. $12K

I know nothing about autos.

There should be some maintenance records from the prior owner.

Cummins have more grunt than Detroit. I have both. For a tanker, I'd want a Cummins.

 

I do tanker now and in this field there is no such thing as a light load, everything is at 79k or higher. The Pete 579 I drive has a Cummins ISX15. No clue what the power rating is, but I do know for sure that this sucker can pull. I was shocked the first time I hit the hills and was overtaking trucks left and right.

Maybe they were going slow to preserve the equipment, but I don't see many mega drivers caring about that and besides I have done those same grades in DD15 Cascadia at slightly less weight and not be able to pull them as easily.

The Eaton autoshift in this truck is garbage compared the the Freightliner DT12 so for that reason alone I would rather the Freightliner. The Volvo ishift is great too so maybe look into a Volvo or Mack as quite a few tanker fleets run those.

Also, you didn't say if the Western Star was a high roof condo, but from the short time I have done tanker a mid roof or lower would be preferable when trying to get under the top hatch gangplanks or loading I doors.

 

You can web search the vin of the truck. It will tell you what work history it has had for free.