What Would You Do???

[Papa Rick]

Ok, here goes, even though it might be a bit long please read and give me your advice.

I have a 1985 Freightliner Day cab, (The one in my avatar) I haul logs for a living. This is a spring ride truck. It has the original motor in it (rebuilt several times) 350 Big Cam Cummins that uses and leaks between 1 and 2 gallons of oil per week. It gets 5 to 5.5 mpg. 370 rears with a 15 speed deep reduction overdrive eaton fuller trans

Since I bought it August 06, and started hauling October 06, I have had to replace or repair several items which is normal for a Truck this Old.

It has a bouncing up and down from 42 to 50 that is what they call Frame Whip and cannot be changed. It drove me nuts to start with, but now I have learned to live with it.

My Truck is not in bad shape body wise on the outside or inside.

Here is my question:

I am trying to make a decision to either upgrade to a newer 1998 to 2002 or would you just keep what I have now and re do it when it comes time to get it done?????

What would you do and why???

[marcel27208]

get u a freigthliner,,, detroit's are the best engines out there.......

[GMAN]

If the truck is in good shape, I would keep it and save my money until I could pay cash for something newer. Right now you have a truck which is paid for and don't need to worry about making payments. If you save your money for a year or two you could buy something newer and pay cash. :?

[Doghouse]

It's a nice looking truck,...bad karma to dump off a dependable friend,...I'd run it into the ground, or at least until I could no longer fix it.

[Shawnee]

That is hard to say really, it all depends on what you want, you have to figure out if it is worth it to put money into that truck and keep it, for the kind of work you do it would be ok, If you really like the truck then I would say keep it, but keep in mind that with a truck that age you will always have things that need to be fixed

I was in the same boat as you, I have a 97 w900, I thought about keeping it and doing the engine, but I decided to sell it while I could still get decent money for it and ordered a new one,

[Kranky]

With your current truck you know what you've got.

If you buy a different one you may just be trading one set of problems for another - with a payment book thrown in too!

There ain't anything on a truck that "can't be fixed".

[arky]

Those old mechanical Cummins engines are fairly cheap to rebuild. It would boil down to how much down time the truck was costing me. If it's not killing you with down time, the minor repairs are probably not costing that much and just because you get a new"er" truck doesn't mean the minor repairs stop.

One thing an old sawmiller told me once. He didn't have a lot of new equipment. What he said was, he might have to spend a little extra money on the older equipment in repairs, but most of the time, he could choose when he spent the money (unless of course it completely broke down in the middle of the job). If he bought new stuff, those payments come due on a scheduled basis with no regard as to whether your business has been slow or not.

Another thing is, your most likely running local where you probably have a local shop to work on the truck...or possibly do it yourself. If you were running OTR where you wouldn't have much choice but to get raped everytime the truck had a problem, then I would recommend getting a better truck.

[Papa Rick]

That is the way I was leaning toward, keeping it until it laid down on me, which I hope is for a couple of more years.

At that point, I may decide to just keep it and rebuilt it, just have to wait and see.

I would love to have a newer truck, but the payments and more cost of insurance keep me from thinking much about this right now.

I appreciate all the advice and wisdom from everyone.

[GMAN]

It is usually cheaper to rebuild an engine than buy a new truck. At least if you rebuild it you will know exactly what you have. When you buy another truck you don't necessarily know what you are getting. If you can start putting money aside now, you will have enough to make major repairs or replace the truck, as you desire.

[yoopr]

Run it til it Dies

[merrick4]

A question based on ignorance. If you rebuild an engine, do they essentially put in a new engine? That is these new truck engines are getting less mpg, so if you rebuild the engine is it to be expected that you will lose fuel efficiency?

[GMAN]

It won't be a new engine, but will essentially have all the components replaced. For all practical purposes, it is like a new engine, but should get better fuel mileage than a new one from the factory with all the extra pollution stuff.

[rank]

keep the truck. theone you buy will be worse.

[SoCal79]

I am in the same boat, love the old Pete but the "old" is starting to wear on me. I have a chance to buy a newer (by 16 years) Peterbilt from a guy in my yard at a fair price,I know him and the truck fairly well,but still am hesitant to jump into a payment when a couple grand into the old one will give me the "this truck aint so bad" feeling. I do think that the comfort level of a newer truck will help because I hesitate to book jobs that are further out. Freeway travel in a 27 year old truck with 4.44 rear ends is less than plesasent.

[Truckdobe]

I am in the same boat, love the old Pete but the "old" is starting to wear on me. I have a chance to buy a newer (by 16 years) Peterbilt from a guy in my yard at a fair price,I know him and the truck fairly well,but still am hesitant to jump into a payment when a couple grand into the old one will give me the "this truck aint so bad" feeling. I do think that the comfort level of a newer truck will help because I hesitate to book jobs that are further out. Freeway travel in a 27 year old truck with 4.44 rear ends is less than plesasent.

DON'T DO IT!!!! I did and sorely regretted it!!! Within 3 months I had the 359 in the shop for full restoration b/c we hated the new truck. We thought we'd drive the new one for the year that the 59r was in the shop... within another 3 mos we had the new one up for sale and bought a '92 to drive while the other is being done. Luckily we didn't lose a ton of $$ on the deal (enough though).

The ONLY thing that I liked better on the new truck was the bunk; when we bought new, we bought a bit bigger than our old truck was. When the new one sold so fast, we had to replace it fast and couldn't be too picky; so my bunk is 2.5 feet shorter and I don't have room for anything! Oh well, when the 359 gets done it'll seem like a mansion b/c its 5' longer than this one.

[silvan]

That is the way I was leaning toward, keeping it until it laid down on me, which I hope is for a couple of more years.

Your mileage may vary, but here's an inspiring tale for you.

I had a company truck, an '89 Pete cabover. It had some problems, and they always fixed the problems, hoping to get another two years out of the truck. It went another two years four more times before it was finally just shot all to hell. That was all on the original motor, with no rebuilds.

That truck just kept going and going and going.

That's why I will always love Cummins, no matter how much :dung: people here talk about them. Especially cat lovers.

From 1989 to 2006. 17 years of running on the original motor. Only needed a couple of head gaskets, a radiator, and incidental cheaper things.

Dayyyyyum.

[person]

That is the way I was leaning toward, keeping it until it laid down on me, which I hope is for a couple of more years.

Your mileage may vary, but here's an inspiring tale for you.

I had a company truck, an '89 Pete cabover. It had some problems, and they always fixed the problems, hoping to get another two years out of the truck. It went another two years four more times before it was finally just shot all to hell. That was all on the original motor, with no rebuilds.

That truck just kept going and going and going.

That's why I will always love Cummins, no matter how much :dung: people here talk about them. Especially cat lovers.

From 1989 to 2006. 17 years of running on the original motor. Only needed a couple of head gaskets, a radiator, and incidental cheaper things.

Dayyyyyum.

What Cummins was in there? What's your estimate of miles put on it? What was the oil change interval and any special maintenance?

[SoCal79]

Papa Rick not trying to hijack your thread but it seems to apply to your situation, Truckdobe can you elaborate? I am looking to go from a 79 to a 95 no bunk local dump truck work. I have never driven anything newer than an 86 (pete 359) so I am nervous that I will make a mistake and not like the 95. My reasoning other than driver comfort is here in the communist state of CA they are pushing to get older (1990 and down) trucks off the road,they offer these crazy programs to pay 80% of a new 2007 truck but there are mileage guidelines that I don't meet plus they want to put a tracking device that records speed/miles/emissions,no thanks. They do want every diesel truck registered in the L.A. basin to be retrofitted with emissions equipment so either way I can't escape it. Any way is it your opinion that an overhauled 359 beats a late model? I love & hate my truck so I am on the fence but I think cheaper is better.

[silvan]

What Cummins was in there? What's your estimate of miles put on it? What was the oil change interval and any special maintenance?

I'm not completely sure. It was mechanical, built in 1989, so what does that make it? It was a 315 HP engine.

I estimate at least 1,500,000 on it, and I think closer to 2,000,000 before it was all said and done, but it ate so many speedometers that we lost track. I'm not sure of the oil change interval, but it was conservative. This was a small company truck, and the one man dispatcher/fleet manager/mechanic took very good care of it.

[Shawnee]

Just keep in mind that if you decide to keep putting money into it, it will come to a point where you have sunk in more money than the truck is worth, and you will have no choice but to keep it because you won't be able to get anything for it if you try to sell it, especially for a truck that old. It will come to a point where it does make sense to get a newer truck.

That is why I decided to sell my 97 W900 while I could still get decent money for it. I paid 32,000 for it 3 years ago, I sold it for 28,000. I ordered a brand new one the way I wanted it. I know that in your work a new truck doesn't make sense, but in mine it does,

A guy I work with has an old truck, he had sunk in about 50,000 into it last year, he wants to sell it but can't even get 16,000 for it