[Bill Schwab]

We lost the last Ford truck I'll ever own (except if it is older than 1950) before Christmas. So, no on Ford, they are incapable of making trucks used for serious work. Freightliner makes a decent truck, but does not really have a following to gain the resale you should get come time to flip it. Cornpicker makes a good truck, but I have never been keen on the extremely reliable DT engine series. Plus, the future of that company is in the wind, as Ford is having thousands of problems with the new 6.0 PSD's and there is a strong rumor they are going to change engine builders for 2007. The DT-466 and others are pretty gutless in my opinion, especially if you are going to run heavy. BFI had an entire fleet of garbage trucks in Melrose Park Illinois and those things could not pull a booger out of a wet bucket of snot.

Peterbuilt, good truck with a following, be sitting down when you get a price, and, if ever you need to repair damage, OUCH!.

I had one and traded for the Mack Visions that we have now. For heavy hauling, Mack owns the market, will bring pleanty of resale, and if you look at the performace records comparitively to any class 7 truck, yeah you pay more, but you will make it up in performance. If you absolutley need that tripple axle rig (front axle and two drivers) no question, hands down, I would go Mack. Get the EZ-427 engine, 21,000 lb front and dual 38,000 lb rear axles. Get the 100,000 PSI frame and you are set. All you will ever do is oil, grease and shine it for 10 years. Or, of you want to wait until 2007, they are introducing a 985 cubic inch engine pulling 600 HP that will exhaust air cleaner than it takes in. Plan on $100K with a dump/roll off, etc body.

GM, we have some of them as well, mater of fact, those are the work horses of the fleet. The most recent was a class 6 series 6500, powered by a Duramax and an Allison manual trans.

This is our undisputed best work horse for what we do, it has a great ride, awesome turn radious, (out rurning an F-450 that was 5 feet shorter in wheel base. We're getting between 12 and 14MPG loaded or empty. It has electric over hydraulic brakes and with the combination of the engine brake, we can stop it loaded with a 20 ton trailer and machinery going down a 7° grade very well. The cool thing, since it uses hydraulic brakes, and, is in the class 6 weight class, it insures for the same price an F-450 did when it worked in the fleet. Now this is a dual axle truck ( front axle and single rear drive) and we can legally carry 7 tons, and a trailer.

As soon as you add that back drive axle, your insurance will double per truck. So, unless you already have, I would really weigh weather you need that axle or not, and project what it will bring you in terms of revenues to recover that extra cost. The other cost consideration is fuel.

Anyhow, goodluck with whatever you purchase.