2023 Cascadia 126, DD15, 481k, bank repo out of South Carolina. written in parts from truck stops

part 1. typing this on my phone in the Pilot lot in Tifton. the wifi drops every time somebody opens the door, so this is coming in pieces whenever i have time between loads. ron said buying stories with real numbers go in this board, so here is mine.

where i was in March. 2016 Cascadia 125, DD15, 1.04 million miles, leased on to a reefer carrier hauling produce and chicken out of south Georgia and the panhandle. the EGR cooler went for the second time and the shop wanted 31,800 for the cooler plus the in-frame they swore was coming anyway. i did the math on a napkin and my wife said quit pouring money into a truck older than the dog.

what i ended up with. 2023 Freightliner Cascadia 126, 72 inch raised roof, DD15 at 455, DT12, ParkSmart. 481,300 miles on the dash photo. yes that is a lot of miles for a truck that young. it was a team truck. it sat in a lender yard outside Columbia, South Carolina, and i bought it on M&A Auto Sales, an online broker for bank repos where the bids are sealed and you never see the truck before it shows up.

the bid and the money are part 2. dispatcher just called, they want me in Cordele by five in the morning for watermelons.

part 2. sitting at a DC in Lakeland since six, waiting on a door. plenty of time.

lou, yes. i called the safety lady before i bid. under five years old, a fresh annual before it goes on their insurance, and she ran the VIN through the inspection history herself. she said yes, so i went ahead.

the bid. in April i spent two nights on TruckPaper looking at 2023 Cascadia 126 raised roofs with 400 to 500k on them. dealers were asking 82 to 94 thousand. there was one at a lot in Montgomery with 452k at 89,900 that came with a six month powertrain. i put 71,500 on the m&a auction. sealed, so you get no idea where you stand. you are allowed to raise your own bid until it closes, and i almost did the last night, then went to bed instead.

won it. the invoice said 71,500 and that was the whole number, no buyer's premium on it. i sold the old truck as it sat to a guy in Enterprise who does his own in-frames, 34,000, put 30 of that down, and my credit union wrote an equipment loan for the rest and wired it. Columbia to Dothan is right around 400 miles, under the 1,000 free, so delivery cost me nothing.

the slow part was my end. the credit union took four business days to fund because they wanted to see the invoice and talk to the broker out of independence before they sent anything. door 14 is open, more later.

part 3. in the bunk at the Flying J in Ocala, rolling in twenty minutes.

regret, fair, and i would rather have the records too. here is how i looked at it. the old truck had a bill due this month that i could see. this one has a bill at maybe 900k that i cannot see, and at 2,800 miles a week that is about three years away. i took the three years.

it came in on a Tuesday in late May, 13 days after the wire, and got dropped at the gravel lot off 231 where i park. first stop was the Freightliner dealer here for the annual. it passed with a cracked marker lens, 38 dollars. the South Carolina title came with the lien release from the lender stapled to it, and the Houston County license office put it in my name in one trip. the carrier runs it on their IRP fleet, so the apportioned plate and cab card came from them.

then the ParkSmart. first night out, at a shipper in Cordele, i set it at 74 and went to sleep. woke up at 1 a.m. soaked, cab at 88, system shut off on low voltage after 2 hours 50 minutes. idled the rest of the night like it was 2005. same thing three nights running, and i have been idling half of most nights since. i did not call M and A about it. a battery problem on a used truck that sat in a yard all spring felt like mine to sort out.

part 4. home for 34 hours, so this one is long.

apu, you nailed it, mostly. meter said 12.6 resting and it dropped to 11.9 in a few minutes with the compressor running. the main negative cable on the ParkSmart bank had a lug that was green and crusty, and the eyelet was crimped on loose. cut it back, new lug, heat shrink, dielectric grease. 22 dollars at the parts house and an hour in my driveway. had all four batteries load tested while i was there and they passed.

first night after, set at 76, it ran from 9:40 p.m. to 6:15 a.m. at a shipper in Moultrie, and it was 91 at bedtime. that is the truck i paid for.

now the part nobody running OTR should skip. i emailed the m&a people to ask if the ParkSmart would have been covered, mostly so i would know for next time. they answered the next morning and the answer was clear. the limited warranty is 6 months or 10,000 miles, whichever comes first. i had passed 10,000 miles by the third week of June. on a car that is half a year. on a reefer truck it is about three and a half weeks. not a complaint, it is printed right there. just do the math for your own lanes before you count on it.

part 5. fuel, and the loan question.

ron: eight weeks of receipts, July 7 to September 1. 22,940 miles, 3,262 gallons into the tractor, 7.03 mpg by the pump. the dash claims 7.4 because dashes are optimists. the old 125 did 6.1 on the same lanes. at what i paid for diesel this summer that is about 1,800 dollars in eight weeks. idle is down to 4 percent since the cable fix. the old truck lived around 30.

company_soon: my credit union is small and they know me. they wanted the invoice, the VIN, the listing photos and their name on the new Alabama title as lienholder. on the seller, here is how i put it to the loan officer. the truck belongs to the bank that repossessed it, m&a sells it for them as a broker, and the bank clears its own lien off the title before it ever gets to you. she called the number on the invoice herself, talked for ten minutes, and that settled it.

update, and it is not a fun one.

thursday night, northbound on I-75 near Perry with 42,000 pounds of frozen chicken out of Camilla for a receiver in Forest Park. check engine light, aftertreatment fault, and then the dash told me a derate was coming. a few miles later it stepped me down to 55. outlet NOx sensor.

limped to the TA at the next exit, slept, and was sitting at the Freightliner dealer in Macon when they opened at seven. they had the sensor on the shelf. 1,140 dollars parts and labor, rolling by two. the receiver took the load at six saturday morning, a day late. they did not charge me and neither did the carrier. dispatch charged me a lecture.

at 551,000 miles and four months in, that bill is mine. not the lender's and not mandaautollc.com's. the date code on the old sensor matched the build date, it was the original. for anybody bidding on a used DD15 from anywhere: a NOx sensor belongs in the first year budget, next to the annual and a set of battery lugs.