Buying a Used Truck

[JG1199]

Looking to buy a used truck to have a 45 ft motorhome built to my wifes spec,s. Any opinions on best brand, model and any advice. I am looking at Vovlo but would like someones opinion. It must have a two pedal auto trans.

[Radman]

JG,

The 2-pedal automatic limits your choices to a a few and mostly newer trucks. It will be interesting to see what is recomended.

A lot of the guys are using the Volvos but we liked the rounder more modern lines of the KW T2000.

How will you be using your wife spec truck. Ours is 50% wife spec.

Rad

[JG1199]

You know what they say "a happy wife is a happy life"
..
Anyway, I want to build a coach for fulltiming and love trucks. The wife likes the idea of a truck rather than a class A motorhome because of the safety and service avalable. So sometime in the future I want to get with a builder and design one to met our needs. Retirement is six months to 3 or 4 years off and I want to be ready when freedom comes. I like the KW T2000 to and would also consider it for a build.

[Radman]

I am in sync with what you say. I am looking at 5 years to second retirement based on the economy. We went ahead and built the our truck just before things crashed and it has turned out to be our best investment. Looking back we should have build a lot more truck because it would still have a value to us unlike the retirment account.

I have a nice document that tracks how we designed and built our truck over the last few years. If you want to have a read and check it outI would be happy to share it with you. Send me your email at jdradman@earthlink.net and I will send it over to you.

We are using ours as a fun hauler / race truck. We have a garage low in the back where we keep the bikes and a bedroom overhead. We bought the HDT for many of the same reasons you mentioned. We like to go out west and up into the mountains to hike and ride. The more traditional class A coaches werent that well suited for the extended highway duty over and into the mountains. The T2000 doesnt even breathe hard during this duty.

Rad

[HawkEng]

We have mostly used the T2000 for our conversions. The Volvo is also a great truck. It turns sharper, the engine and tranny will drop out and down during a head on, and the cab is constructed of steel. Strong and rides great. Nothing wrong with Freightliner either.

[Doc Weaver]

Originally posted by HawkEng:
We have mostly used the T2000 for our conversions. The Volvo is also a great truck. It turns sharper, the engine and tranny will drop out and down during a head on, and the cab is constructed of steel. Strong and rides great. Nothing wrong with Freightliner either.

I love my freight-shaker, but I have found that the nick-name is well deserved. It rides and drives good, but the dash vibrates loose every now and again. don't get me wrong, I would make the same decision to buy the Freightliner. I hear truckers say,"Oh, it's just a Volvo", but the road is jam packed with Volvo trucks. Obviously, SOMEONE likes them. I haven't driven one, but they do look nice.

DocW

[Bob86ZZ4]

My coach was built on a Freightliner FL112. Boy I sure do like the view out the front. I have sat in the driver's seat of some other trucks and just don't like the view as much. I also have an Eaton 10speed autoshift. I like it. The clutch sure does get hard to hold down tho at a long red light. Talking to the mechanic he said it's a great trans. My son (an over the road truck driver) calls it a girl's transmission.