Thoughts on buying a glider from Fitzgeralds

Back in Oct. of 2010 I bought a used 2008 Pete 389 that had 183k miles on it. Long story short the truck was nothing but a nightmare starting 2 weeks after I bought it. In 2 1/2 years it was on the hook 3 times and in the shop at least 6 times related to emissions/dpf problems. Luckily the person who bought it purchased the best CAT warranty you could buy. I would love to know how much the CAT paid out in warranty work on that truck, my guess 20k.

As I approached 500k and the end of the warranty I started shopping round for a new truck. After much research I ruled out any new truck with newer emission bs. So then it came down to which glider company I would use to build my truck. I chose Fitzgerald's out of Tenn. because of price, the number of trucks they put out and the availability of stock. Since Fitzgerald's didn't take trades when I was looking to buy that added some problems in trying to sell my truck and get the deposit for them to start the build.

I sent the required $5,000 for the deposit on 3/12 before I was positive my truck was sold, I was told possibly 2 weeks and more likely 3 weeks for the build to happen. After my truck sold the next weekend I worked out a deal to rent a company truck for a month so I could keep some revenue coming in while the glider was built. Good thing I did.

Communication is not Fitzgerald's strong suit. If you don't call them don't expect to be kept up to date on what's going on. I never once got an un-solicited phone call from them. I talked in person to the salesman at the truck show in Louisville about 10 days after I sent my deposit and was told that my truck was scheduled to be built the next week. 5 weeks later my truck finally was built. It was then sent to Rush Peterbilt to have some stripes painted on it. They dropped it off on a Friday and if I hadn't called them on Tuesday they might not have ever known it was there since Fitz never told them they dropped it off.....

In the end picked it up on 5/17 a little over 2 months after I put my deposit down. Which I guess isn't terrible all things considered, but I will say this I would have loved to have this time frame communicated to me from the beginning. If I wouldn't have had the opportunity to use the company truck while waiting I would be in serious trouble. Not to mention I now have a truck payment due in 12 days....doh.

The truck itself looks great and so far I am happy with my choice, just need some help with communication and customer service.

2014 Pete 389
500 Detroit series 60
18 spd
3.55 rears

 

70K update.

Truck has been fine with no major issue except for a small warranty issue that was quickly taken care of through my local mechanic. Even he said how easy it was to get the warranty work done. Basically he faxed them an invoice for the work to be done and they sent him a Comcheck number and then he did the work.

Truck uses about a gallon of oil between oil changes and is getting high 6's mpg pulling a tanker usually between Michigan, Chicago and Nebraska.