Truck Conversion & Toterhome Community - View Single Post

James · 06-12-2003, 02:20 PM

JT,
Sorry I missed this when you first postsed. Hope you're still looking for answers.
The first sentence in the description of the truck says "I'm trying to find a class 8 truck around 15.000 or less". This sentence reads "I want a brand new truck". This is because a class 8 truck is designed to turn in excess of 5,000 miles a week and, in a team operation, does just that. Singles can average close to 4,000. This means, single or team, sometime within the first 6 weeks of a trucks life, it's going to hit your magic 15,000 mile cut-off. A truck isn't evern starting to reach break-in until it reaches 25,000 miles or more.
The truck you want is out there if you drop the 15,000 mile requirement.
Select Trucks in both Orlano and Tampa have factory reconfigured 1999 Freightliner Century Class trucks. They have less than 500,000 miles each which means they have around 500,000 miles left before any major work should be necessary (eg. in-frame rebuild). They also are covered by Freightliners Select Warantee for 1 year or 100,000 miles, which ever comes first.
You can also go to your local Freightliner Select Trucks dealer and spec the truck you want to reconfigure.
Understand, when purchasing a used tractor for your conversion, you will never find the perfect truck to fulfill your needs "as is". Wou will need to either adapt the truck to fit your needs or adapt your needs to fit the truck. In your situation, the former is the prescribed course of action. Freightliners reconfiguration program is, by far, the easiest way to to get what you need from the existing used truck glut.
Of course, you could also go new. Cost is the disadvantage here. A new Freightliner configured for your needs(daycab, tandem axle rated for 40,000lbs. 300+ inch wheelbase etc.) would run in the neighborhood of $100K. Pete and KW would be even more.
Meanwhile, a used Freightliner, reconfigured to meet your needs, would cost less than half that.

06-12-2003, 02:20 PM	#3
James Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Oklahoma City, OK, US of A Posts: 27	JT, Sorry I missed this when you first postsed. Hope you're still looking for answers. The first sentence in the description of the truck says "I'm trying to find a class 8 truck around 15.000 or less". This sentence reads "I want a brand new truck". This is because a class 8 truck is designed to turn in excess of 5,000 miles a week and, in a team operation, does just that. Singles can average close to 4,000. This means, single or team, sometime within the first 6 weeks of a trucks life, it's going to hit your magic 15,000 mile cut-off. A truck isn't evern starting to reach break-in until it reaches 25,000 miles or more. The truck you want is out there if you drop the 15,000 mile requirement. Select Trucks in both Orlano and Tampa have factory reconfigured 1999 Freightliner Century Class trucks. They have less than 500,000 miles each which means they have around 500,000 miles left before any major work should be necessary (eg. in-frame rebuild). They also are covered by Freightliners Select Warantee for 1 year or 100,000 miles, which ever comes first. You can also go to your local Freightliner Select Trucks dealer and spec the truck you want to reconfigure. Understand, when purchasing a used tractor for your conversion, you will never find the perfect truck to fulfill your needs "as is". Wou will need to either adapt the truck to fit your needs or adapt your needs to fit the truck. In your situation, the former is the prescribed course of action. Freightliners reconfiguration program is, by far, the easiest way to to get what you need from the existing used truck glut. Of course, you could also go new. Cost is the disadvantage here. A new Freightliner configured for your needs(daycab, tandem axle rated for 40,000lbs. 300+ inch wheelbase etc.) would run in the neighborhood of $100K. Pete and KW would be even more. Meanwhile, a used Freightliner, reconfigured to meet your needs, would cost less than half that.