Need advice on a good box truck

[farmhand82]

Hey all,

Im going to be moving my family across the country and am weighing renting a truck vs buying one. Im currently comparing a cummins powered IH4900 and a cat powered freightliner fl70 for sale. The 26' IH 4900 has ?? miles but they are asking $7k and the 24' freightliner has 300k miles and they want $12k. both are manual.
Basically, what price would you pay for the 4900 (give me a mileage with your price) and at what mileage threshold do you consider this truck unreliable to drive cross country fully loaded, pulling a vehicle behind. And the same question applies to the freightliner. Ill update as I have more info.
OR do I just rent a penske truck...

Thank you.

 

[clintm]

just rent a truck if it breaks down someone else will fix it and no problems with tags,insurance ,fuel stickers and permitsin each state

 

[FSERVICE]

just rent a truck if it breaks down someone else will fix it and no problems with tags,insurance ,fuel stickers and permitsin each state

X2!! its a lot better idea to rent especially going that far!!!

 

[Dualie]

if you buy your own you're going to have to get a USDOT# to start crossing state lines or stop at each states port of entry and buy trip permits. i reccomend pensky. Late model trucks, great service. IF anything happens they fix it, tow it, or replace it. period.

 

[Old Doug]

Hit the easy button and rent a truck. It may sound good to buy something then resell it later and have a free trip but if it breaks down or needs a tire on the road it will cost big time or what if it has a majer problem and isnt worth fixing and you need to rent any way. Mileage and age have little to do with reliablity. The place i work for have replaced some trucks this year with newer lower mile ones and they all needed work after they were put in to service the newest nicest one was the worst one. All so keep in mind that there is a resone a old truck is for sell its needs replaced because of problems, its geting unreliable, it wasnt makeing money so they quit keeping it up and are selling it. Most people know that a truck they own is going to be sold long before it is and treat it like they dont care.

 

[JPV]

U haul's slogan on the side of their stuff is "Adventures in Moving". My experience is the less adventure the better when moving! Any truck new or old has potential for problems, it mostly depends on your means and ability to deal with them. If you have a spare tire on a wheel, fan belts, oil, water etc... and aren't afraid of trouble shooting on the side of the road plus what has been previously mentioned go for it, if that sounds like a nightmare then rent. Either way will get you there.

 

[Delmer]

If you're still considering this, I agree with JPV, it can be done, but it's not ideal. Penske gives you a truck that has had the problems addressed. You buy a cheap old truck, load it up, hit the interstate and find the problems in 2-12 hours, NOT GOOD. It's not about age or mileage, lots of us have old vehicles we wouldn't hesitate to drive cross country because we know what to keep an eye on, how to fix minor stuff, and how long we can let it go before it's going to leave us stranded. Then there's people that I wouldn't trust to drive anything, anywhere because they have no idea how a car works and will/have wrecked cars by doing stupid stuff and ignoring the symptoms until it's too late. What kind of person are you?

If the FL has a Cat motor, then the Cummins is much preferred to that Cat engine.

 

[pburress]

just rent a truck if it breaks down someone else will fix it and no problems with tags,insurance ,fuel stickers and permitsin each state

X's 3 if there's a problem, it's their problem and not yours. I would recommend Penske over someone like u haul, they have much better Equipement.