Need any info on which motor to buy.

[Tnhwyman]

I have never owned a Cummings motor, but after watching Rawze videos I feel it may be the motor to buy.

I am looking for a truck with pre emission preferably but thats not a have to.

which motor in the Cummings family should I look for and stay away from while looking at trucks to buy in the next couple months.

[Lonestar10]

A Cummins cm871 would be your best bet for longevity but you have to find one that's been rebuilt and rebuilt correctly or find one that's about to be needing rebuild Henry build it so basically within your first two years of owning a truck plan on spending a minimum of 30 to $40,000 on the engine and that goes for any motor brand as most of them get rebuilt by dealerships that basically don't know what they're doing

[Rawze]

enigne is important... but so is all the rest of the truck specs.

You spec the truck wrong, and it can pout you out of buisness, or cost you tens of thousands in wasted fuel every year.


Define clearly what type of trucking operations you are going to be doing.

What market you going to be in?- dry/reefer?, flat-bed?, heavy-haul?, bulk tank?, etc. etc.

there is a whole lot to getting what is going to be profitable, but its really easy to look at paint and chrome and get all gooey-eyed and dupped into a big P.O.S. that can't turn a decent profit.

[Tnhwyman]

(09-25-2019 )Rawze Wrote:  enigne is important... but so is all the rest of the truck specs.

You spec the truck wrong, and it can pout you out of buisness, or cost you tens of thousands in wasted fuel every year.


Define clearly what type of trucking operations you are going to be doing.

What market you going to be in?- dry/reefer?, flat-bed?, heavy-haul?, bulk tank?, etc. etc.

there is a whole lot to getting what is going to be profitable, but its really easy to look at paint and chrome and get all gooey-eyed and dupped into a big P.O.S. that can't turn a decent profit.

will be pulling 53' dry van, I have looked at a lot of international 9400's, Volvo
and Freightliner century trying to stay more on the aerodynamic side for fuel mileage.

I plan on running the midwest to south in, oh, il down to Texas and the Carolinas

[Rawze]

(09-25-2019 )Tnhwyman Wrote:  ...
will be pulling 53' dry van, I have looked at a lot of international 9400's, Volvo
and Freightliner century trying to stay more on the aerodynamic side for fuel mileage.

does not sound that way to me.

The 9400, a Volvo, BOTH would struggle to keep up with a prostar, T680 / T700, or cascadia big time in profitability.

The century may have a chance if it has a 12/7 and the gearing right (3.79's or 3.90's) + horsepower mid-tier,.. but even still, a cummins CM871 in a Prostar or Cascadia would beat its pants off if it when tuned and built right.

ANYONE who wants to pull a dry-van or reefer -- first and foremost, if they do not spec the entire truck, engine, tires, driveline, tranny, etc. setup to be able to break 8+ mpg is shooting themselves in the foot these days!. They have to compete with low-rent mega-fleets, guys who are still cheating their clocks and log-books all the time using fake drivers, and every trick out there. Then there is the hyper-milers like me. -- if you can't set yourself up to compete with guys like me, you will never be happy not one damn bit.

Next is the matter of having the proper discipline to drive it right, even if it is spec'd properly. - Driving by your boost and pyro gauges (+ adding them to the dash if they are missing), learning to drive it OOG, learning to slow the hell down, learning to drive without cruise on and shifting often to optimize conditions and load so that it does not suck your fuel mileage away, + use the right gearing and rpm ranges when loaded and when empty, and all the other things that can make the difference of several thousands of dollars every year in operating costs.

Then there is a matter of self-sustainability. - If you can't do all your own work to it to keep it in good condition then all your competitive profit margins are going to go down the drain every year trying to keep it running and moving freight. - A person MUST any more be able to do all the light to medium maintenance and repairs (bare minimum) on it + keep after the emissions systems themselves if they want to keep any of the money they earn. - This means working on the truck every time you take a few days off and chasing the demons away before they put you on the side of the road or worse, at the end of a tow-hook.

In the end, if a person wants to be competitive at all and make a paycheck in the dry-van/reefer market that they can be proud of, they are going to end up with every tool + engine repair software for that truck + become familiar enough with their engine to do things like replace alternator, adjust valves in the engine, replace sensors and do tune-up work, + eventually learn the rest or they will simply be miserable all the time and broke paying repair shops to do things that they could have learned to do themselves but were too lazy to.

there is a VERY GOOD REASONS why 85%+ people who buy a truck struggle and don't make squat out here in trucking any more -- They fail to realize the true modern competitiveness of trucking and low rates, and especially the dry/reefer markets. Most of it is because they are not informed and disciplined enough to take full control of all their operating expenses, they drive it like a they are in some kind of race, getting pissed off every time another vehicle may pass them, nor want to see past their own ego or noses enough to realize that People like myself are going to under-cut their rate and steal their customers every time they get lazy and don't do all the things to compete with people just like me.

[Tnhwyman]

(09-25-2019 )Rawze Wrote:  

(09-25-2019 )Tnhwyman Wrote:  ...
will be pulling 53' dry van, I have looked at a lot of international 9400's, Volvo
and Freightliner century trying to stay more on the aerodynamic side for fuel mileage.

does not sound that way to me.

The 9400, a Volvo, BOTH would struggle to keep up with a prostar, T680 / T700, or cascadia big time in profitability.

The century may have a chance if it has a 12/7 and the gearing right (3.79's or 3.90's) + horsepower mid-tier,.. but even still, a cummins CM871 in a Prostar or Cascadia would beat its pants off if it when tuned and built right.

ANYONE who wants to pull a dry-van or reefer -- first and foremost, if they do not spec the entire truck, engine, tires, driveline, tranny, etc. setup to be able to break 8+ mpg is shooting themselves in the foot these days!. They have to compete with low-rent mega-fleets, guys who are still cheating their clocks and log-books all the time using fake drivers, and every trick out there. Then there is the hyper-milers like me. -- if you can't set yourself up to compete with guys like me, you will never be happy not one damn bit.

a guy I worked for in East Tennessee has a couple kw t600 with Cummings, ten speed and 3.70 rears 1.2 million miles motor rebuilt at 900,000 miles. when I worked for them they were all about maintenance, is the only reason I was looking at the truck. I felt the gear setup was wrong, but maybe I am wrong.

[Tnhwyman]

the truck I'm looking at is a 2011 kw t600 with Cummings and a ten speed with 3.70 rears
1.2 million , 300k on rebuild with apu could get for 18,000$

[Rawze]

(09-25-2019 )Tnhwyman Wrote:  ...
a guy I worked for in East Tennessee has a couple kw t600 with Cummings, ten speed and 3.70 rears 1.2 million miles motor rebuilt at 900,000 miles. when I worked for them they were all about maintenance, is the only reason I was looking at the truck. I felt the gear setup was wrong, but maybe I am wrong.

3.70's are the perfect gearing for dry-van/reefer market. The T600 body style itself (all other things aside) is 0.3-0.4 mpg lower in fuel economy vs a prostar or cascadia. Still decent if you ask me. <- With a 10 speed or even better, a 13 speed tranny and that setup + low-roll tires all the way, and all other fuel mods like custom tuning, etc., I could break 8 mpg all day long with it and likely average ~7.8 mpg in a million miles with it. Compare to my real-world 8+ million mile average in a prostaer, and that is still looking pretty darn decent.

A truck spec'd with a set of 3.36's or taller rears and there is no way in hells creation that it would get anywhere close to this, especially hauling 80,000 and through the hills and all 48 states like we do.

-- Stop listening to the morons in the truck stops ... stop listening to the idiots at the used truck centers trying to unload the garbage spec'd mega-fleet rejects,.. start listening to hyper-milers like myself and the few others on here that can say with confidence and actual proof that they are successful (here is my own proof: http://rawze.com/forums/showthread.php?t...8#pid24378 ).

FOLLOW THOSE WHO ARE THE MOST SUCESSFUL IN THEIR MARKET--- Follow everything they would do .. to the letter ... as much as absolutely possible, and it is not until you are right there with them, neck and neck in profatibility and sustainabliity, do you apply your own dieas. -- Anything less and your wasitng your time.
(quoted from this video)...




--<-- that guy (great gentleman, BTW) I was giving this advice to in this video took it to heart ... here is how he is doing...
http://rawze.com/forums/showthread.php?t...1#pid37471

[SquareOne]

Tnhwyman, this site and all the information it contains is a recipe for success to any O/O....that is....given they are willing to absorb all the info provided and apply it properly.

- By all accounts, anyone who caught wind at my plan to get a truck and start hauling, said that I was nuts and I'd likely lose my a$$. Hell, read the internet and see just what the consensus is for a new O/O (much less one with ZERO experience with trucking and the likes of). You see, the problem is, so many people's failure stories begin with finger pointing and accusing everyone else of there unfortunate demise. They will give an earful of misery tales and whose to blame without ever once considering themselves as the culprit. I'm certainly not saying they're aren't unfortunate circumstances that we all face which may be out of our control, but how you prepare for it, prior to those circumstances actually manifesting, is a clear indication as to whether or not you will make to the other side on top....or become just another failed statistic.

Like mentioned earlier, I'm a fresh O/O with no experience (I have a heavy equipment mechanic background, but no truck/seat time experience). In fact, I was waiting to complete my CDL road testing and be licensed before going out to meet Rawze.

Point is, you're on the right path already just by being here. The information is readily available and the community here is stellar when it comes to assistance. You will have some criticism to endure, but in the end it's all about making YOU another success story with your business.


*** BTW, that debacle of an engine situation from the thread Rawze suggested is still doing quite well. I'll have to update the progress, but I just checked this quarter's IFTA calculation and so far within the last 22,429mi, it's managed to achieve 9.21mpg. That number has 100% (for me) only been achievable through the assistance and guidance of this site. I have applied tens of thousands of dollars to this truck updating all that it requires in order to stay competitive/profitable. The plus side --- the fuel savings alone (when compared to my original MPG estimate in my business plan) have off-set many of those improvement costs. ***