Time to upgrade

I personally love the 387. Mine was a 2005 with a C-15 CAT at 475 hp. Had a 13 speed and was decked to the nine's. Of course I went to a dealer and bought it, no leases for me. But I'd say you would like that truck over the Freightliner. I never had any issues with it. I had it for 2 years before I sold it to the bank (I leases on with 2 bad companies and got too far behind). When I bought it it had 127,000 miles. I think it had somewhere in the neighborhood of 400,000 after I sold it, so I ran it hard.

As far as fuel economy, I guess that depends on what you haul and where you run. I ran a lot of heavy loads from Ohio to Phoenix or down to Texas or out to the east coast. I averaged in the 5.75-6.25 mpg range. I do think the Detroit gets better fuel millage. But if you get a newer truck you would not have the repairs you are having.

Right now you can find 2007 387's on truck paper in the 300,000 mile range in the $60,000 range. So before you do a lease add up what your payments are. If you do a 4 year lease and the payments are more than $400/week your getting raped.

 

A 387 had many little problems that are annoying like wind blowing throught the window and rattling dash that i hate. Same as with the t2000 when your heavy and the wind is blowing pretty good the truck is not stable and you have to grip the wheel to have controll of the truck with is a pain in the ##### because it's a "aerodynamic" truck. As far as it braking down i have not heard a lot about that so i don't think that should be a problem. But if you ask me i would tell you to get a 379 since your already looking at a pete because it's a stable truck. To me what matters is that the wind is not throwing the truck around, comfortable ride, comfortable seat and bed and powerful truck so what i don't struggle when i'm going up and loaded heavy. That's just imo but then againg you might not like classics

 

You will make more money trading up to a newer Columbia or Century that is not beat and has less miles. The payments should be lower than the Pete, fuel mileage with the Detroit will be better, and there are a lot more Freightliner dealers than Peterbilt dealers.

A freightliner decently taken care of will go well over one million miles. I have driven two '04s recently on 2000 mile trips each, and each had over 1.2 million on them. They squeaked and rattled, but no worse than ones I have driven with a few hundred thousand on them, and definitely no worse than the Pete 386's we have with less than half the miles.

Believe it or not, if the Freightliner doors are adjusted right, not the way they come from the factory, the wind noise is less that the Petes and IH's we have.