Buying a used truck Read this !!!!!

Sounds like you got burned.

 

Oil sample , dyno, and Rig Dig report for salvage title/DOT inspection history.

 

I’ve always said it’s impossible to buy a road ready used truck. I’ve never seen one that didn’t need a few grand right off the bat before first load.

 

I did direct from an older guy for 17500, but that was 2013ish and while it only cost me about 1k a month for the first year to keep it roadworthy, 1 year to the week it needed an inframe.

I was lucky, i do actually agree with you, trusting to luck is an unwise buisness proposition.

 

Only $40,000 for working capital, and repairs?

Maybe that was sufficient 25 years ago, but not now.
$80,000 might do it today.
A 500,000 mile truck is basically a rolling garbage can, unless it has already been rebuilt end to end, and rebuilt properly.

If I was to buy a 500,000 mile truck, I would drive it to the yard, put it in my shop, and tell my mechanics to rebuild it, no expense spared.
My cost would be far less to do so than someone who has to take their truck to a shop, and I would be Smiling if it only cost me $100,000.
I have a truck being rebuilt right now, I'm hopeful it comes in under $120,000 butbwho knows.

 

Heres the thing, even doing all the above is not a guarantee. When i got my semi i did all the above, 30% down, checked everything, was super picky, and got a ton of things checked and repaired. plus had it independently checked by 3 diffrent unaffiliated shops before purchase and got a good deal..... It basically blew up within 50 miles of buying it. I had around 70k total in the bank and credit and still nearly went under.

Buying any truck is a gamble, some are safer then others sure but no matter what happens no mater how careful or sure you are....well things happen.

 

My current truck is like that. Bought it for inder 20K cash with APU, road ready. 60K miles latter, 5-6K total investments so far,
third of them unnecessary due to not enough skilled mechanics playing expensive guessing games with me.

 

I'd love to know where people find ready to work trucks that cheap. I can't seem to find anything under $60k that isn't completely thunderf###ed.

 

If it is a emission truck make sure the spec's are right for the emission system. After doing a lot of research I have found that the higher the RPM in the gears and how fast it was drove makes a huge difference with the Emissions. Anything over 1300-1400 RPM's with emissions is gonna cause an issue without any kind of fuel treatment. And of course that Idle time is a killer as well. Also get an ECM dump and get someone that knows what they are looking at to help determine if it is a turd!