Late model truck totalled

[Willie B]

Running Old Equipment? I was the King of Old, sleeper 1964 Truck Trailer, 1966 351 Pete, Everything updated
for the time at the time. But you don't drive it like a fool either, Sure it hauled the same GVW as any other but
you have to spend a lot of time and money watching over it. Scale masters would see it and hit the red light
if they hadn't seen it crossing their scale before, even with a current CVA sticker.

I was old school before this horse sh!t old skool of today.

View attachment 254224 View attachment 254225

Hard to imagine any DOT person won't see that as what it is, an impeccably maintained truck. Might want some polish before the show next weekend, nothing else.

 

[Hallback]

You related to Bob Rogers from Olympia?

Running Old Equipment? I was the King of Old, sleeper 1964 Truck Trailer, 1966 351 Pete, Everything updated
for the time at the time. But you don't drive it like a fool either, Sure it hauled the same GVW as any other but
you have to spend a lot of time and money watching over it. Scale masters would see it and hit the red light
if they hadn't seen it crossing their scale before, even with a current CVA sticker.

I was old school before this horse sh!t old skool of today.

View attachment 254224 View attachment 254225

 

[Truck Shop]

No-just leased at one time, all loads went to BC.

 

[Truck Shop]

Hard to imagine any DOT person won't see that as what it is, an impeccably maintained truck. Might want some polish before the show next weekend, nothing else.

Fender flopper-it would run that was the one fun thing about it, passing a shinny new truck.

 

[Truck Shop]

Still a few die hard left out there.

 

[Mike L]

Been thinking about the old vs new argument today while I put about $1200 worth of parts into my kenworth and spent my Saturday working on it. I haven’t been self employed very long and have been running used equipment because I convinced myself that’s all I could afford. The reality is when I look at my repairs and maintenance expenses and add it to my monthly payment on my 2008 truck, I think it would be less expensive to just pay for a new truck. On the other hand I’m emissions free and my truck is old enough that my registration costs have hit rock bottom…

 

[Birken Vogt]

On that side of things, I don't see how an O/O mechanic can justify payments. New stuff still breaks down and if it is covered under warranty it will sit for months at the dealer shop who doesn't fix it right anyway. Or waiting on an out of stock DEF sensor.

 

[Mike L]

That is one of my concerns. But- the emissions stuff is better than it was 10 years ago. my last truck from the stealershit was a 2018 peterbilt. I ran it 1.5 years before I quit and we had zero issues with it. I know it’s a crapshoot but emissions is not going away. Make payments on new or spend nights and weekends working on my truck so I can work for others all week?

 

[suladas]

On that side of things, I don't see how an O/O mechanic can justify payments. New stuff still breaks down and if it is covered under warranty it will sit for months at the dealer shop who doesn't fix it right anyway. Or waiting on an out of stock DEF sensor.

Yep or a sensor freaks out and shuts the truck down. The BS on the trucks has been good to towing companies!

 

[suladas]

That is one of my concerns. But- the emissions stuff is better than it was 10 years ago. my last truck from the stealershit was a 2018 peterbilt. I ran it 1.5 years before I quit and we had zero issues with it. I know it’s a crapshoot but emissions is not going away. Make payments on new or spend nights and weekends working on my truck so I can work for others all week?

If you still have payments and it's older it's kind of in the middle, but payments are still a lot smaller then a new truck, and so is depreciation. What about if you calculated cost/profit if you ran a new truck 50 hours a week, compared to what you have now say 45 hours a week and left 5 hours working on it or whatever you figure it would balance out so your time is equal and see which way is more profitable? Not just in the cost for this year, but in the next few years. New trucks ain't cheap and still break and cost money out of pocket.

 

[Mike L]

Well being an O/O mechanic means I have Cummins insite on my laptop in the cab. Engines have had sensors on them for a long time.

 

[suladas]

Well being an O/O mechanic means I have Cummins insite on my laptop in the cab. Engines have had sensors on them for a long time.

Yes of course, but only recently have they been capable of putting truck into limp mode making it undriveable, even if nothing is actually wrong and no way to bypass it.

 

[Mike L]

In theory it sounds good to just run my truck 45 hours a week and spend 5 doing maintenance but the reality is that I leave before daylight and get home after dark and no 2 days are the same. Some days I drive it 3 miles to the nearest mill and shut it off while I work on something in their shop and the next day I may put 300 miles on

 

[Birken Vogt]

I guess I just can't think of much that goes wrong on a T300 that would not be a lot worse to fix with something up to date vs 15 years old.

What goes wrong with it now, so regularly?

 

[Mike L]

Nothing serious has failed recently. Today was front brakes, drums, slacks, cans, and spring pins and bushings, and the heater mixing valve. I’d say the previous owner didn’t show it much love and the northern winters haven’t been good to it. Last week was all 6 tires and an abs modulator valve.

 

[suladas]

In theory it sounds good to just run my truck 45 hours a week and spend 5 doing maintenance but the reality is that I leave before daylight and get home after dark and no 2 days are the same. Some days I drive it 3 miles to the nearest mill and shut it off while I work on something in their shop and the next day I may put 300 miles on

For sure, I just meant if you can take on a bit less work and just fix your own truck instead, also means dealing with less customers, less invoices to chase after, etc. If the truck was breaking down to the point it started costing you jobs that's different.

Nothing serious has failed recently. Today was front brakes, drums, slacks, cans, and spring pins and bushings, and the heater mixing valve. I’d say the previous owner didn’t show it much love and the northern winters haven’t been good to it. Last week was all 6 tires and an abs modulator valve.

Sounds to me like mostly all routine stuff that even a new truck will need after a few years and knocking out a lot of stuff that will last a long time.

 

[Birken Vogt]

What he said. Also if I had to guess I would say that T300 has a Cummins engine and is pre-DPF? I put a lot of hours in several T300s similar spec driving and I really liked them. The one with the 8.3 pre-DPF was really a nice setup. Quiet, never broke down, not even any EGR, just a smooth engine with common rail. The one that came after that was a first gen DPF truck and was pretty problematic. I still share the same yard with that company and they have mostly newer T300s and similar Petes and I know they do not do so well as the old days. Emissions problems galore and usually take a really long time to fix.

 

[DMiller]

CANNOT explain to me Hard Enough Long Enough that Emissions Devices as these actually DECREASE Emissions especially during MULTIPLE Regens trying to coax another month or two out of a DPF or expending mass amounts of Natural Gas in ovens cooking these damned mechanisms to ash the exhaust soot that HAS TO EXHAUST SOMEWHERE. Or the sensors that are replaced ROUTINELY adding to trash going to a dump or scrapper, costing manhours, time of idle machine, cost of Viability of that machine. And all for what, some pittance of a Decrease in a particulate rate that was negligible to begin with.

 

[CM1995]

= Make payments on new or spend nights and weekends working on my truck so I can work for others all week?

Which labor hours makes you the most money? Working on a piece of iron or working on your service truck?

The conundrum is your truck is a requirement to earn a living like a track hoe is to earn mine. I know that I can make more money per hour running that machine then I could ever save wrenching on it myself. The hard part is figuring your business costs and making the right the decision - the cost to run older iron and work on it or buy new and have a payment or a larger payment.

Joys of small business ownership right?

 

[Hallback]

It's a no brainer that new trucks under warranty where you just squirt some grease in them & maybe put a tire or 2 on them once in a while is way more efficient than an old truck that you're spending every Saturday and sometimes a night or 2 during the week working on. My log truck payments are 4000 bucks a piece and and they get washed fueled greased and go. When they hit 5 years old I will trade them in. All of this crap about new trucks breaking down all the time is an old wivestale. If that is the case those guys were probably still washing their clothes on a buckboard.
I don't know about you guys but there's no way you can have an old truck that you're making a $1000 month payment on and have it come out cheaper to operate per month than a brand new one where the payment is $4000.