new? used?
 

soon-ish my truck and trailers are paid off and i'm thinking about getting another truck. here is where i'm at with it. i run heavy though pa twice a week. on the light side i'm 77700 but normally 79-80k gross. i do it twice some times 3 times a week. can't say i'm going to stay with this work forever but never know. i can't complain at all about my cat. the truck is way underpowered and has been flawless for me. granted i'm anal about the maintenance with it. oil changed every 15k, air filter 3 times a year, run the overhead every 250k etc. anyway, this is what i'm thinking:

if new.. new meaning glider i'd love a 386 pete with a 6nz cat, but apparently peterbilt does not sell the glider configuration for cats.. only detroit. as much as i don't want a long hood i'd consider a 389 with a 6nz. would be speced the same 550 6nz, 3.58 rears, 13 speed and a lopro 24.5's

if used it would be from 04-07:

i want to stay away from freightliner so i'm pretty open. if i could find another MBN cat i'd have 0 hesitations. but you couldn't give me a ACERT cat. anyway, it'd prob be a ISX. 475+hp. i'd like to find gearing like mentioned above.

so... opinions? comments?

I was scared of a new truck for awhile with all the emission stuff on it. But i think the emission stuff have come a long way. I know my Mack runs great and so far not one issue at all. The truck is only 4 months old so still alittle to soon to tell. I was going to buy used but I wanted i truck for 10years. So starting off with a truck thats already 7-8 years old wouldn't of really worked for me. I wouldnt be afraid of a new emission truck.

I hear nothing but horror stories myself about the emissions trucks. and.. if they're better on fuel don't it all equal out after you put the DEF in?

The DEF is not cheap. When your truck is in the shop you are not making money. Big payments and too much time in the shop would discourage me from buying a new or newer truck that had the DEF. I will stick with my older, reliable trucks that are paid for and not worry about the new truck smell. Even if you do get better fuel mileage (and I have heard both sides of that story), with the cost of DEF and time in the shop, I think most will spend more to maintain one of the new that you would see in any fuel savings. The truck that I primarily drive gets almost 7 mpg on average.

Sometimes people buy a new truck for other reasons then the new truck smell. I had to buy something cuz this is my best year in business and uncle sam would kill me come tax time. Like i said Emissions is the future weather you like it or not. Its not going to go away. and pre emission trucks are already 8 years old. So sooner or later your gonna have to update to emission truck if you want to stay in business. Unless you want to run a fleet of trucks that are 20+ years old.

As far as fuel mileage i never broke 5. always 4-4.5. But im local and im always in it. I never drive for fuel mileage. So i think my foot has alot to do with it lol. My saying is... They sell fuel everyday at the pump lol

new? used?
 

Hey Firebird, checkout D&B Trucks Equipment they sell pete & KW gliders with pre emission cat power offering a 4yr/unlimited mileage warranty. (www.dandbequipment) and just so you know depending on who you go thru you can get a glider wired for a cat, cummins, or det power. ive been studying glidrs for awhile now and want one myself. hopefully the first of the year. good luck! p.s chk Kustom Trucks out in Washington state.

DEF isn't that expensive when you consider how far it goes on a 20 gallon tank. I've had my truck (2015 Freightliner Evolution) for 3 months and it's taken $374 worth of DEF. My overall fuel mileage is 7.21mpg. I've had tanks of fuel that got me over 10mpg, and others that were at 5.5. It just depends on the weight and where it's going. I've had no issues with the emissions in the truck, either, nor have I heard any horror stories on the DD15 engine/emissions. I've heard the exact opposite from drivers with 2015 Kenworths with the Paccar engine. In fact, during orientation, one of the other lease-operators in my class had to get a new truck because the emissions blew out on it during his road-test on a truck with less than 100 miles on it.

i've actually seen them and thought about calling. from what i was told is that the 386 only comes wired for a detroit and from what i've seen, its true. the only 386 gliders i've seen are fitzgerald. all detroits.

i'm hearing people with glider kits with detroits getting a average of 7. no headaches either. i'm avoiding emissions at all costs for now. like i said i run heavy.. a lot, and across pa. if i can keep my fuel milage (or gain) and also gain a bit of time that would be great. i'm currently getting anywhere from 5-5.5 mpg right now.

now on flat ground my truck will get 6.25-6.5 with ease.

i'm considering putting my truck on the road with a driver and buying something else for me. maybe not new but we'll see.

If I had the money, I'd love to go with a pre-emissions glider kit. Even though my truck is doing good now, I don't want to know the costs involved with the exhaust filter cleaning/replacement down the road. I *think* I'm going to stick with short-term leasing for the time being until I can build my capital enough to look at buying my own.

like i said, for now i might hold out till i can get my glider the way i want it. right now i run heavy though pa twice a week, and i do run hard though pa. 65-70 the best i can. so if i can keep my milage around what i am now and just get across even 30 min faster thats fine by me.

but for now what i think i'm going to do is buy another truck for myself and put a driver in my truck. i've had amazing luck with my cat, just need to decide now if i want to try my luck with a acert or try my luck with a ISX.

For the majority of my driving, I've had trucks with an ISX, from a 2000 through a 2011. The pre-emissions were always the best. The EGR & it's cooler were the main issues I had with that engine, but always after the truck had over 600,000 miles. Never had a problem with one on a newer engine. The ISX is a nice, strong engine and I always got decent mileage out of them even pulling heavy in the east. One of my main routes was across I-68 with 45,000lb loads consistently. They pull the hills good and averaged 5-5.5 in general. The best mileage I got out of one was a 2002 Volvo 770 with an autoshift (had the clutch pedal). It was a former USXpress truck and averaged over 6.5 in the same area/roads/loads.

ugh.. 68 lol last time I went though there it KILLED me. my trailer was from top to bottom rolls of carpet while I was doing a building move... my truck drank fuel like there was holes in the tanks.


the truck my dad's driver is in has a ISX. 435, 3.58's a very very tight close ratio 10 speed (almost imposible for me to drive) and low pro 22.5's. power wise I burry him. however, fuel mileage he can crush me on my best day (ex knight transport truck. 07 9400 eagle). I figure he's getting 6mpg pulling weight though ohio. have not had any major problems with that truck at all. when my dad bought it I took it up from ms. the oil cooler went and that's about it. the only reason why the EGR was replaced was because I'm conviced a dealer didn't know what they were doing with a sensor and they said it was the egr. never an issue. went in for a engine light came out with that and a stupid coolant hose that the dealer broke. the truck has been great to him. though it does use oil. about a gal and a half every 15k. oh.. and it smokes... a lot. think its coming up on 700k and like I said.. been a great motor to my dad so far.

ISX's seem to have an average life of 650-700k miles before they're ready for an in-frame. The company I used to drive for runs mainly Volvo 670's and they're all in the same mileage range and needing over an overhaul.

Well that almost made me want a acert cat lol

It's all in how they're driven and maintained. No reason an ISX won't last well over a million miles with proper practices. I chose to add a new truck but kept my old one because I loved it so much. 2006 T800 studio with an ISX. I had it professionally de-egr'd by PDI shortly after warrant expired and it's never had a problem. 940,000 miles, doesn't use a drop of oil, and the samples come back clean every time running synthetic to 25-30,000 miles. 600+ hp and about 2200 lb/ft of torque and would do 7+ running OH, PA, and WV with weight. And that's mated to a 10-sp autoshift with puny 3.36 gears. Unfortunately, I can't hardly justify letting it sit any longer, so I'll probably have to sell. I've got a couple of buddies that kept the EGR and their ISX's and have gone over a million. Take care of your equipment and it will take care of you.

DEF runs about a penny per mile.

That's my dream truck. Just not with the studio and with a 13speed and 3.58s. Big difference after pdi did the delete? What did they charge? Sadly when I'm ready I'll prob end up in a 379. Just a lot easier to find what I'm looking for.

It made a huge difference. The truck averaged 6.4 from new for the first few hundred thousand until I unplugged the egr valve. That bumped it up to 6.7 but it still didn't run great. It certainly didn't feel like the 500 hp and 1850 lb/ft that it supposedly had and you still had the potential issues with all of the emissions gear. Took it in, had everything removed; turbo, intake and exhaust manifolds, egr cooler, etc. ECM was reprogrammed and had their level 1 tune. Overall avg mpg jumped to 7.75, black smoke disappeared, oil samples were much cleaner, and power to spare. Never had a single engine problem in the four years following the work. It was 10 grand well spent!

We ran team, so the studio was great. Actually, it was a high-dollar, lightweight spec, so even with the studio, 300 gallons of fuel, and both of us with all our stuff, we still came in right about 20,000 lbs. I do agree with you on the gearing. When we started, we were running cross-country time-sensitive freight and so it was spec'd for a 66 mph cruise. However, our operation changed as we moved into higher margin lower mileage freight and we found ourselves cruising in the lower-60's and spending more time in 55 and 60 mph states. At those speeds, 3.36 is too high and I would switch to 3.55. The beauty is, with the torque that I have, the engine can power through both the high gearing and the 10-speed tranny. So while it's not ideal, there's really not too big of a drop off. With that said, I would do the swap today if I were heading back out with it.

Also, I doubt that PDI, or any other reputable shop is still doing egr deletes officially. Lots of shadow deals still available though, I'm sure.

Pittsburgh Power was fined pretty heavily,like high 6 digits I have heard, and so were the owners of the trucks they serviced.

Pa is a very tough state for inspections of trucks registered there, they have to go thru a state inspection twice yearly, trucks and trailer, ask any of the Pa guys, and they will tell you, EGR is one of the first things they look at, even in the rest areas

I never knew that. Guess I got to pick and choose the good vs bad when the time comes.