Want to learn about Freightliners!

Water leak can come from about anywhere. Had them all around windshield, upper sleeper windows, skylight, etc. Also overheating. Had them get up to 220' on long grades like Vail, Mammouth. Signature interior has to be huge improvement over standard. I hate those #### mesh doors. Also door handles. Snapped one off. No biggie. $20 for part. Half a day to replace. And a real pain in the rear. Have to be careful not to bend window cable track. Sure it's easier after a few hundred. For the money they are good or so many wouldn't be on the road. Have not been in the 06 and newer so I'm not sure about problems w/pollution stuff.

 

CR England ran century's with a 3.58 rear on a 13 speed. 1500 rpm was 65 mph. On the long flat Eisenhower Highways it was very easy to get 7.6 mpg out of the truck (even with a head wind).

I know alot of drivers out there love to call the shakeliners. But frankly if I can ever get a truck, Century will be it for me. 07 and before should be with out the epa exhaust cannisters. Something to keep in mind as they would need maintenance to replaced. I have ridden with cats and cummins, but the amount of crap under the hood seems to be less with the detroits.

You want to be real careful with the wabasco heaters. Have heard of drivers losing their rigs because they had floor rugs that were too close to the output and they ignited.

 

Every one will have their favorite, for their reasons. mine.. after over 11 years & over 1.3 mil miles & still not having a rebuilt or inframe & getting consistantly great m.p.g. I will vote ser 60 det. mine is a 11.1 & from what I am told by countless people is they last longer than the 12.7 mine is a 95. though at time I wish I had a 12.7. reliability has been great.

 

I owned two of them, one was a FLD 120 I bought new in the mid 90's and the other was a Classic XL I bought used in the late 90's.....Both had water leaks around the windows and the wind noise was bad, neither were worth much at trade in time because of all the big fleets dumping their wore out company trucks on the market..

The FLD had a Cat that was pretty much trouble free and got decent mileage, the Classic XL had a Detroit which was a oil leaking, no pulling, money pit, and the mileage that everybody raves about didn't impress me much either..but I did buy that XL used which prolly had a lot to do with my problems....

hope you have better luck !!

GP

 

I drive an 06 M2 business class on a tandem axle straight truck chassis. I know its not an OTR truck, but the cab is anything but desirable. Water leaks around the lower right side of the windshield, the mirrors mounted on the doors rattle at idle so bad you can't see in them, the dash rattles very loud at idle, i have had a few electrical issues (still have one were all of my lights will just flicker off going down the road at night) you would think that would be a huge safety issue with freightliner, but nope, my turn signal switch will short out and cause my wipers to turn on whenever they feel like it. In the end, we just bought an 07 pete 379 that will replace this truck when our lease is over and i can't wait to get out of the shaker. The only trouble free thing on the truck has been the C7 cat with 182k on it.

 

We have a 98 Century with DD 60series 500hp, 3:58 gears 13spd and 24.5 tires. Our sunroof leaked we replaced the rubber seal, that fixed that problem. There is lot's of wind noise coming from the drivers side, that's just normal for plastic doors. She is very noisy inside especially in the winter season, that's what you get when your interior is cheap plastic. However 670,000miles and no problems except for one which no one can fix, at 45 -50 mph the steering wheel shakes bad when empty. We average around 6.7 to 7.4 depending on the load and road conditions.

The other is 98 FLD 120 with DD 60 series 435hp, 390 gears, 13 speed and 24.5 tires. This truck had a complete overhaul in the amount of $45,000 in the past 3 years. Beginning of 2008 she would break down every trip, she was sucking the profits from all our trucks. 20 out of 30 days she would be down for repairs. It got to the point where I wanted to take her to the scrap yard and push the button my self. Having said that it's been about 7 months now and she is the best running truck in the fleet. There is noise from inside and window noise. Most of interior is wood not plastic. We average around 6.0 to 6.5 depending on the load and road conditions.

The other trucks are 2004 Volvo's 670 with 450 hp ISX, plastic interior however it's built right no noise from the interior and window it's like sitting in your living room.

 

2 X 1998 FLD 120's-1 X 1995 FLD 120- 1 X 2000 FLD 120. If you can live with the doors not shutting, lots of interior noise, and basically cab parts (door knobs,etc.) being cheap and falling off then they're OK.