Why I won't buy another Freightliner

Most wouldn’t understand but I own a beautiful old 379 with beautiful dash that has a million gauges and metal toggle switches and inside is solid as a rock. I’ve driven a few new edge trucks as a favor to fill in for owner operator friends. New Mack truck Dashes rattling and falling apart. New peterbilt junk switches in dash. Everything made now a days is about production on assembly line. This is personal opinion and don’t take offense

 

Of all the trucks I have driven. The k100E double bunk was the best cab over. Should have kept it, when I sold it to my cousin. It was 15 years old. He kept and ran it local for almost 10 years doing containers from mass to nj.

The best conventional was a 90's mack ch 427. It had a gold bulldog meaning all mack. Mack engine mack trans and rears etc.. unheard of back then it used to sip fuel. Back most guys got 4 or 5. That thing was getting 6! It had a kick panel on the drivers door (like the vent on sleepers) set the cruise, nothing slowed it down t would just cruise up hill down and the ride was smooth!!!!

 

He's right the old Mack's were great

 

Those kick vents were great. Even the ones in the sleepers were a good thing. Kept a fresh air flow thru the cab.
But they stopped installing those to save money. Just like removing the vent windows.

 

Mack had that roof vent, great for sucking out the farts,,

 

Trust me, you don't want a modern truck with a vent window.

Navistar IH LoneStar/ProStar/DuraStar have wing windows. But with modern tall and large glass + modern thin metal it removes so much stiffness from the structure that with door mounted mirrors and some wind you get very loud THUB THUB THUB wind buffeting or you have to roll the windows down.

While not legal I am seriously considering using hearing protection the next time I have to drive one as it is that loud and very common if you live in a windy place like Wyoming.

 

My old 97 int has wing windows and no extra noise. They are not as quiet as a paccar truck, but as quiet as anything else.
I have KW's with both wing and daylight doors, the doors are interchangable, so the windows would be the same if it was not for the daylight part, I prefer the wings quite a bit over the daylight doors.
If I were buying a new truck, I would have to look hard at every manufacturer that would even spec one the way I wanted it, new petes and Kw's ,have gone way down hill from what they used to be, in my opinion anyway. I think if I went new, I would plan on trading every 3 years or so, instead of keeping a truck forever, like I have always done.

 

Back in my chicken hauling daze, I carried my second driver in my shirt pocket wrapped in foil!
Consolidated Freightways originally built the Freightliner.