What to look for when specking a truck for a general freight?

The simple answer is horsepower gets you to the hill and torque gets you up the hill.

The new engines are a different beast from engines of days past. The Volvo and Mack guys have been doing some unbelievable mpg numbers with engines in the low 400hp range but they have high torque. They can sit and cruise down the road at 1000 rpm all day and be right at peak torque.

If you’re looking at a new truck you really need to go into it with an open mind and look at all the options available to you. At the end of the day there’s no harm in buying what you want but if you want the most economical truck then you do need to have an open mind about automated transmissions and rear end ratios that won’t make sense in your head at first.

 

there are more than those for attributes to the engine, every engine breaks. Something, somewhere pops, fries, chafes, wears, loosens, tightens, etc. at that point, access to repair becomes critical. Some engines, like Volvo and Paccar have far fewer access points for repair than Cummins or Detroit.

 

It would take me some time getting used to the lower RPMS too. The power band stops where mine starts at, 1400. Your current truck is where were at about 6.5 year round. Close to 7 in the summer and 6 in the winter