Freightliner! Why rent when you can buy?

[b-rock]

DK has been a bit slow lately -- so what the hell:

Here's proof I'm a crazy bastard. I'm moving to the Okanagan from Victoria soon and I really dreaded packing a rented UHaul in a hellish day or two... I have to move machines and the contents of my shop and house stuff and the cat. As luck* would have it, a friend of mine just happened to be winding down his local trucking business last month -- and he was down to his favourite truck after selling three others. He really hates selling things -- and he was just going to take the last one to the Freightliner dealer and have them sell it... He wouldn't have got a hell of a lot of money in the end after the dealer skinned him -- and he didn't really care. He gave that deal to me instead -- and now I own a 2006 Freightliner M2-106 5-ton with 288,000kms -- a Mercedes 7.4L 6-cylinder diesel and 6-speed manual... a 24' box with a 3000lb hydraulic lift gate.... air over hydraulic brakes, a two-stage Jake brake and frickin lanyard-pull air horn on the roof. The cab and doors are aluminum! The plan is to sell it after the move. I could fall in love though.... more.

The engine takes 30L of oil. 30 f*cking litres. Every 250 hours. It's now time to change the rear axle oil... 15.3L.

It's now insured for pleasure use only. It took two hours for the agent to figure that out. I still have to stop at weigh stations and brake checks.



* We'll see.

[jiggy]

a bit crazy? I'd imagine renting would be much cheaper! But then again I assume you would be able to make your money back fairly easily if you decided to sell, making it possibly free or cheap overall.. Driven a couple of these as penske rentals before, nice trucks.. seem to have more power than the international 4300 I was used to driving... but then again I've only driven automatics..

[sunray]

Better keep 10-20 thousand in the bank just in case you have engine trouble. Bills for repairs can get beyond $20,000 really quickly with medium duty diesel.

[Mdnght Lvr]

I drive for a moving company and the maintenance in these are a bitch, even the lift gate will fail, catastrophically spraying hydrau fluid everywhere or having it stuck on the ground if you skimp on the maintenance.

Have some money set aside for these problems.

[b-rock]

What a bunch of f*cking killjoys. This thing is awesome. In under 1000kms, it will be sold... and missed.

[Blade7]

I think you can have your truck and drive it too my friend! Enjoy the big rig!

[projectae86]

Ive worked on with equipment like this my whole adult life. This thing will go for a while. But when she breaks so will your spirit. Just take care of it and it should go the long haul with few hiccups. Id say 80% of the problems mentioned above are true but I bet the trucks were all abused as they were not personal vehicles or owned by a small tight run shop. I know ive always been good to my equipment at work.... but if it was my personal unit, im sure I would be even better. lol

Enjoy the new toy!

[do-boy]

so much space for activities!

[Mdnght Lvr]

Ive worked on with equipment like this my whole adult life. This thing will go for a while. But when she breaks so will your spirit. Just take care of it and it should go the long haul with few hiccups. Id say 80% of the problems mentioned above are true but I bet the trucks were all abused as they were not personal vehicles or owned by a small tight run shop. I know ive always been good to my equipment at work.... but if it was my personal unit, im sure I would be even better. lol

Enjoy the new toy!

Yeah, the company was too stingy to maintain them, hence the problems.