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I'm taking seasoned o/o with me when I go to look it over. Like I said I'm just looking!

It pays to take your time and look at a lot of trucks. It can give you a much better perspective to market values and what you can get for the money. I am glad you are taking an experienced owner operator with you. Hopefully, he is also a good mechanic.

I had an 8V92. I could barely get 4 mpg pulling a flat.
It was a great motor in every other way, but the fuel mileage was killing me in 1980 & it would only be worse today.

Actually, he's the one that told me about the truck being for sale. He said for what it is its pretty nice.. He's also a classic truck runner and works on his own equipment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GMAN

I would stay away from a classic truck.

Get a well specced, inspected aerodynamic truck. If you're pulling a van, get a high rise. If it's a deck, get a flat top or midroof.

Even more specific, get one with an electronic engine. Old enough that it doesn't have EGR(anything older then 2003).

I just have to say, don't buy a truck that has been sitting. That is the worst thing for a truck to do, is sit. Bad news. You can find something in the middle. Just take your time. You can find something really nice for about $29-$39 thousand. You can find 02 and up for that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tracer

Let's say you are thinking of starting a shop that makes some machine parts ... and you need this big machine to churn out your widgets. The machine in question is notorious for losing its value almost completely in 5 years. So, the first thing you decide to do is to LEASE and not to buy because 1) you don't want to invest your money into a depreciating asset; 2) the payments are smaller with leasing; 3) the entire monthly payment is 100% tax write-off; 4) you get full maintenance and can concentrate on improving your widgets and service and sales; 5) you can simply return the machine back to the dealer after the term is over. You also decide to lease NEW because the interest is lower and because you don't want the headaches of inevitable repairs associated with used equipment. When your friend who starts a similar business in another city says he can improve his bottomline buy BUYING A CHEAP USED machine you counter that you can make the same amount of money by finding more profitable markets/niches for your widgets. When you meet 6 months later, your friend has spent the same amount of money on his used machine (low monthly payments plus high repair costs) while you had everything taken care of by the dealer (full maintenance lease). Because your NEW machine worked non-stop and broke down only a couple of times, you were able to find a high-paying customer and you ended up making MORE money than your traditionally thinking friend.

Substitute the "machine" with a "truck" and you get my point :)

Your analogy doesn't apply whatsoever.

A 3-5 year old truck will always come out much much cheaper every time, as long as it is inspected before purchase and maintained after.

That all inclusive lease will never PROPERLY maintain your rig. That I can gaurantee. Are they going to grease every nipple? Are they going to change the purge valve and air dryer dessicant every year? Are they going to check air ride and adjust if necessary? Are they going to run overheads? Are they going to check the charge air cooler? Are they going to test coolant? You get my picture.

Besides, at least with buying an older piece you have a chance to own it debt free. That's the whole point of buying a truck anyways.

G man
those old 92's were not the least bit "tough" in a heavy duty truck application
They almost single handedly put Detroit out of busness.
They had a major problem with warped heads
The oil consumption was legendary
They leak oil all over the place
They may not even pass emissions test

If you buy old.......

MAKE SURE THERE IS A DEALER CLOSE BY!!!

you don't want to be driving 150 miles for parts every Saturday

I seem to recall some problems with the 92's, Sonny. I never owned a 92. Mine was a 238 (671T). They were good engines but leaked oil really badly. They stopped making them for commercial applications in the late 90's as I recall. They kept making them for military use. I don't know if they are still making them for the military.

I had a v692
if you had a 671
the phrase "once you get them going............"
if you remember they tried to assure their customers that they fixed the 92 problems with the new "silver 92" which was a major flop

4mpg @ 300 per gallon 75cpm for fuel
not a good way to start out