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Talking to Mack (parts dealer and service shop) he said to keep my 95' even though it's at the point of needing major service. He said the emission engines suck, the main thing they work on is emission related, my concern is the underside of my truck is rotting away, cab support beams, he looked them up and they're $2750 a piece, (2 of them) I almost fell over, probably needs another 7 to 8 grand on top of that, but he said I'm money ahead, I just know these old trucks can really start nickel and dime, blew a manifold gasket today,anyone have some opinions???

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Can be  a tough call at times,for sure. Was running a brand new mechanical RD in '90 and a friend was running a B-75. He told me I was nuts for going with a new truck when his his would do the same job. He eventually got tired of hearing "NLA-No Longer-Available" when it came to parts. He did buy another truck,but it had a red oval on the side. He called new vs. old,a double-edged sword. Al

 

IF YOU BOUGHT IT, A TRUCK BROUGHT IT..AND WHEN YOU'RE DONE WITH IT, A TRUCK WILL HAUL IT AWAY!!! Big John Trimble,WRVA

Yeah, I guess sometimes you can only go so long, hopefully most parts will still be available for the CH for a while but who knows. I farm and truck on the side so truck doesn't get a lot of miles, that makes it harder for me to justify a very big purchase on a truck, even if it does get better fuel economy. Radiator is leaking , dumped some stop leak in it , too busy to shut down now , gonna keep going for now, blown exhaust manifold sounds terrible.

All depends on what your hauling and how many miles your running .we've had very little emissions problems with our new ones . 

The problem with the older stuff we have is the replacement parts never last as long as they did when everything was new. An example is our v8 superliner this winter had constant problems with engine brake not working,the air throttle cylinder and linkage in the valley of the engine broke again. We just replaced it last year. It is a double edged sword . I like the new stuff but certainly there expensive but so is the old stuff if you keep them up to standard 

Look at some of the big fleets that can't kill their CH's. Yellow(ABF hand me downs),NEMF,UPS etc. As long as these CH's are around parts should be as well.:thumb: There are a lot of fleets turning in some CH's ABF,NEMF,Yellow, Duie Pyle that can be had for 5-8000 dollars. That's a lot of cheap parts.

Edited by james j neiweem

You should buy a new truck! keeps the economy healthy.  However, keep your your old truck so when the new truck is in the shop you have something to make money with !  Warranty  don't pay for down time And VOLVO don't care if  your  making money! 

  • Like 1
7 hours ago, dexter860 said:

Yeah, I guess sometimes you can only go so long, hopefully most parts will still be available for the CH for a while but who knows. I farm and truck on the side so truck doesn't get a lot of miles, that makes it harder for me to justify a very big purchase on a truck, even if it does get better fuel economy. Radiator is leaking , dumped some stop leak in it , too busy to shut down now , gonna keep going for now, blown exhaust manifold sounds terrible.

If you're only hauling some on the side I'd definitely save up some $$$ and fix/ rebuild your older truck. That way you could cash flow your rebuild and not have a monster payment on something. If you had all new running gear and took good care of it it would probably last you until you decide to quit trucking. 

Edited by HeavyGunner

The problems we face today exist because the people who work for a living are outnumbered by the people who vote for a living.

The government can only "give" someone what they first take from another.

I agree it's a double edge sword. I ran new and two old tractors pre emmision. I logged all repairs and compared. It was $210 more to run the older trucks and saw over time a increase in parts cost and down time. The last tractors I bought came with full 500k warranty and after treatment warranty including DPF and sevend injector. I run them close to 500k and trade them. That was for me the most cost effective way. 

Today I put on a new rubber pad on clutch pedal on the 1978 -D-M that's working 7-days a week 12-13 hrs a day either delivering or unloading salt ships. I bring it to local truck wash and drivers from all over ask what kind of Mack is that. Had one driver delivering salt to town garage said he had hard time climbing 3-mile 9-10 % grade to the top he told me I had new truck his a 2001 rd I told him that mine was older then him only thing new was the paint and the original owner was standing wright next to me went out business and went to the town to work.

Ed

We just did a total rebuild of our 1994 CH wrecker. Reman Mack 454 engine, injection pump and starter , water pump , clutch , new engine harness and on and on. We replaced everything from the trans forward even the radiator and after cooler .  Every thing straight from Mack .  Only thing we couldn't get was the ABS harness , however we ordered the ends from WABCO and built them ourselves. Cab parts however might be a different story. However we did replace the heater core and evaporator core as well. 1999 and up ETECH  and CX/CH style trucks  your mostly safe .

  • Like 1

I don't plan on stopping running my 2000 CX anytime soon. Did a little preventative on the frame this winter, was starting to get some rust jacking between a number of brackets on the frame. Took the brackets off, knocked the rust scale off, cleaned them up, sealed in between and put them back together. One of the rear sleeper mounts was replaced by the previous owner due to rot which is weird cause the other side is original and flawless. Other than mentioned, the truck doesn't have any rot issues. At some point, I would like to stretch the wheelbase on the truck a bit. At that time, I may opt to completely replace the frame rails. The truck could use a paint job which I will eventually get to but it still looks decent for now. Most don't really notice the paint flaws right away but I notice, primarily the clear coat is starting to fail. Most people assume my truck is much newer than it actually is. 

The only reason I might ever get rid of this truck is if I decide I need/want a large car, or quit trucking. but other than that I plan to just keep fixing this truck. if I have to put 20k into it, so be it. 

  • Like 2

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