Time to buy a new semitruck, but not sure what brand

That wasn’t my point. I’m trying to show that there have been lots of advancements in the new trucks that present good opportunities for those willing to do a little research rather than stay stuck in decades past. You can save a lot of money with the proper spec.
I’ve been asked to run fast like that before. I did it once for this broker I pull for 90% of the time, only because he needed it moved badly. I told him I’d do it this time but I’m not going to do it again. He’s tried to get me to run like that a couple times since then and I flat out tell him no. I can’t stand running like that. The money isn’t that important to me that I’m willing to sacrifice safety to maintain that kind of speed in an 80k pound vehicle on today’s roads. I know people will argue for days about that but trucks have no business going 70+ mph. It sounds like the shippers and receivers need to do a better job scheduling loads. I’m not a mule to be used to make up for their short comings.

 

Sure you can be "up to date," "efficient," or "in this century," and save all kinds of fuel. Tell me how much of that money you think you're saving on fuel goes in your pocket, I'm guessing most of that goes to truck payments doesn't it? If you have an issue with your new truck that is covered under warranty but shuts you down for 6 weeks, how much trouble are you in? My dad has an 84 pete he's driving now that gets about 5.5 mpg with big cam cummins in it that will run right along and rides better than his freightliner that he's had for the last, I don't know 10 years or more, and he's spent all of 15 grand on the thing, that's buying it, overhauling it, putting different tires and wheels on it, and fixing all the other little things it needs. You can not beat an older truck for a cheap reliable truck.

 

I don’t know if many warranty failures that would put you down for six weeks but for something catastrophic; those sort of things aren’t happening on these new trucks. There is a false assumption the new stuff breaks down a lot; they don’t.
If you’re running a lot of miles, a mechanical motor is a poor investment. They require frequent oil changes, valve adjustments, burn oil, will typically not last longer than 700k miles before some level of overhaul is needed, and consume much more fuel than a modern truck. I spend 2400.00 a month on a truck payment and in return I get excellent fuel mileage and a truck that requires very little maintenance other than changing oil every 50k miles. By the time you factor in the fuel and increased maintenance on the mechanical motor, you’re spending more per month than I am on a truck payment, when broken down on a monthly basis. That’s about 40% more fuel being used and much more frequent maintenance intervals.
Those that say a mechanical motor is cheaper to run are only focusing on the lack of a truck payment and not a true accounting of the more frequent maintenance they require and days to do it. For 15k to include all that he must have done the work himself. When I take time off I don’t want to be truck mechanic, I want to take time off. If that’s your idea of fun, to work your tail off, go home, and work yourself some more, I guess, knock yourself out. If you do all the work yourself, it would be cheaper to run but you’ll be married to it and never have your hands off of it whether you’re working or on “time off.”
As far as what goes in my pocket is irrelevant. I have a target cost per mile I want to hit to achieve my target level of profit. Running new equipment allows me to do that and not have to work as hard or be married to the truck.

 

well,I can only speak for myself misesian,

I don't spend anywhere near $2400 per month in maintenance, (2017 shows an average monthly maintenance of $800) and that includes all A and B services.Tires,etc.

As For working on them (Married to them) Well,Lets put it this way- My Family appreciated the Fact that I was able to put my kids through School,pay off our Home in a timely manner,And Live a better than average lifestyle....

That Said- No grief from Wife ,kids or any family members whatsoever- They Understand How it works.

I Chose this occupation over others nearly 30 years ago- And it became rewarding with hard work,Trucks that were reliable,easy to work on-and the drive to not fail.....

If Others approached this business the same way0- Their results would be similar.

 

And you're believing the tall tale that if you buy an older truck you're working on it whenever you're not driving it, he hasn't done much to it in the last couple weeks, it doesn't need much of anything else other than it could use a new paintjob. I drive a 97 w9 and I haven't spent more than a couple days every few months working on it. On your 50k mile oil changes, how many filters and how big of filters do you have? I'm guessing you change them once in between changes right? Your new truck will burn a little oil eventually too I'm sure, any motor getting up there in miles does.

 

I always liked helping dad work on his truck on the weekends, people act like taking your kids out to the shop and teaching them to get their hands dirty and do something is a horrible thing anymore, they'd rather sit in front of the tv and do nothing.

 

I’m talking about the recommended maintenance intervals on his particular motor. They’re much more frequent than an electronic motor. It has only one standard filter. Only change the filter at oil change time, not in between.I do oil samples and they’re fine. Change the oil when the sample says so. A little oil may burn eventually but nothing like a mechanical big cam, there’s no comparison between them. My motor uses zero between changes right now. And let’s not forget why it’s called Big Cam to begin with; Cummins eats cams, instead of fixing it they just put a bigger cam in it which takes longer to fail, thus the name, Big Cam.

 

Except I'm not decades in the past. My truck is a 2016. Until this truck my company ran all pre emissions Cats. Just kept rebuilding the old trucks until the manufacturers got emissions figured out. Now we are in the process of upgrading the fleet with all new trucks. Mostly 389s with 505-565HP Cummins X15. We don't have problems with major failures on the old trucks though. Maybe a couple hundred bucks a month at most. Usually just small stuff that has rusted from 15yrs in the north.

Yes there are plenty of guys running old iron though. I'm sure if it was a constant money put they would replace it. Old doesn't mean unreliable. If you take care of it it will last.

Now we are upgrading only because all of our cats are pushing 1.5Mil on the clocks and we've decided that the money is better spent replacing the trucks instead of rebuilding the old ones. The emissions systems are pretty well figured out now and we feel comfortable running them.

You can drive at whatever speed you find safe and comfortable. I'm not going to argue with you there as I do understand how that increases fuel economy. Just keep it to the right.

Has nothing to do with planning. Has to do with they finish work on the parts and want expedited delivery. Many times we are ready waiting in their shop so they can finish working on the part and drop it on my trailer. All that wait time is paid for. I've spent many days sitting on a job site getting paid because they didn't know when the part will be ready but wanted it moved the minute it was.

 

An oil change is 150 dollars on the thing. The reason they ate cams was because people would crank them up aways which created too much pressure on the lobes, the bigger cam fixed that, my dad worked at peterbilt in Sioux falls when those things were new, he's got a pretty good idea what he doing. Who cares if it eats cams, you can get a remain for around 1500 bucks, new is like 2500, you could put a rebuilt crank, new cam, rods, pistons, liners, injectors, and heads for less than you're going to pay for a new set of injectors on yours I'd bet 100 bucks. And my biggest amazment that after the wonders that were the 6.0 pickup motor and then maxforce, you somebody could actually sell you an international motor.

 

There is no comparison. A 6.0 is not a heavy duty truck motor, Maxxforce is completely different than the A26, all the former big wigs are gone from International over the Maxxforce, the leadership is fresh and the motor is new from the ground up.