Help Picking out a Truck!!!
 

After my 6 week training period (Werner) I get to pick out a Tractor. Here are my choices!

http://www.werner.com/content/fleets...sic_sky800.jpg

Kenworth W900 / Freighliner Classic XL / Peterbilt 379 Ext. Hood

http://www.werner.com/content/fleets...ury_sky800.jpg

Peterbilt 387 / Kenworth T600 / Freightliner Century

They just bought some new International ProStar: http://www.trucker.com/extimages//TO...4/81279178.jpg



And some new Peterbilt 386: http://www.peterbilt-knox.com/img/li...teal%20DE1.jpg

I'm leaning towards the Pete 387 or the ProStar?

If u gotta go with a slow Werner truck go with the W900. I drove quite a few different trucks and it will always be my favorite. Plenty of room and rides good. Stay away from the freightliners, every one I ever drove was garbage. :c:

gotta say the 379 or 900...gotta love the looks of those trucks. the pro stars aint bad trucks we run a few at work and the guys like them i guess.

i picked the 379, my second would be the w900. if i was gonna buy one myself i would look at the volvos. the ones we had at ranger would out pull and get better milage than the frieghtliners we had :U:

Supposedly there governed @ 65mph with 450-500 Cats/Cummins/Detroits???

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I like the classic trucks, but since I get a fuel bonus I'm kinda partial to the aerodynes!

Get a Cat if u can too. They r good reliable engines

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Comfort goes a long way. i told the last guy I worked for and Ill say it again. Id rather make a lil less money and have have a nice, reliable, comfortable truck then make more money and be worn out and beat up all the time. Eleven hours of drivin 7 days a week takes a toll on you. I'd ditch the fuel bonus for the more comfy ride

w900 with cat c15 would be a good set up they dont turn with sh@$ but its nice:pca1:

for a fuel bonus get the international with a detroit.
Go with the Pro star you won't regret it. I used to be real big on Pete's and W9's, but if you don't own it, who cares, drive whatever is going to make you the most money. Thats why your out there right. Good luck and be safe.

You forgot the Freightliner Cascadia, Columbia and Kenworth T660. Werner trucks are all governed at 65 MPH. Hopefully you arent expecting something as nice as the Fleet Sales the you posted pics of. Most of Werner's trucks now a days are pretty ratty unfortunetly. Most of the fleet has the Cat C-15 ACERT's. We still have a couple Classic's and Centurys floating around w/ detroits. The new Pete 387's, Kenworth T660's, and International Pro Stars run Cummins ISX's and they definetly blow the doors off the Cat's. The Cascadias have the newer detroits w/ the DPF's are are pretty much garbage along w/ the columbias w/ the Mercedes.

like diesel docter said werner only has a few or the few i saw while workin at the TA truck stop with detroits. they love them kitty pillars. if it was me id either go the W900 or the international prostar more than likely have the isx cummins which i would take any day.:U: What about the international Lonestar any one seen any of them yet?

I hate to tell you this, but your stuck with a Freightliner. So Forget the KW and the Pete.
That is unless you have excellent credit, but lease purchase is Freightliner only. I know all about it, I did the lease purchase with them.

DONT DO IT!!! Im warning you now, they made sure they didnt give me enough work to survive, Then eventualy they got my truck back.

If you do deside to do it, you can do anything you want to the truck, you do NOT have to be governed, mine was wide open, and would do 100......... :w2:

I like the new Lonestar! I'd drive one in a heartbeat!

http://www.zacherlmotors.com/TRUCK%2...ver%5B1%5D.jpg

I'm not going to be an owner operator with them, a company driver for now. There are better owner/operator programs out there.

take the binder prostar,I have run all brands myself and love the IH ,freight shacker doors fall off after the first year and the w900 you can't see nothing out of the and the pete is the box the kw came in:tttt: the only truck I would take other then aIH would be a volvo may not be the purtiest truck but the ride ,comforts and sound deadning is great my volvo has 2.6 million km(1.6 million miles) and is as quiet as the day she was new and pulls like crazy:U:

once your an owner/operater go landstar ranger great company.....:U:

x2 The volvo's are great trucks, to bad Werner dumped all of theirs. :madd:
Also stay away from the 387 pete's. The front ends are noisy, they ride like shit, it's hard to see the mirrors due to the dummy wing windows they have and the clutch pedals are hard due to the shady clutch cable set-up they have.
:c:

Thanks! What's the scoop on the Prostars? Everytime I see one, regardless of the company, they always seem to be struggling up hills. I know they were rated best fuel economical truck. I wonder if this has something to do with this?:humm:

Probably running a mercedes engine.

I ran a W9 when I started out with them, had a C15 single turbo Cat, I loved it. Lots of gauges, the CB is placed where I like it, has a built in external CB speaker right by your left ear.
I enjoyed my Shaker, but I hate condo's. Tooooo top heavy for me. Always swaying in the wind, and bouncy.
Never drove a Petershaker. Been in a few though, they seem like nice rigs. Lots of gauges, visibilty seemed ok.
The century class shakers I cant stand if they have a Detroit. I refuse to park next to one! No gauges, too plastic on the interior. And again, a Condo.

If your concerned about your fuel bonus, get a Detroit. Best fuel mileage. Werner doesnt run Cummins, old man Werner got into it with the Cummins Corp. and wont buy a truck with one in it now. (retard) But They seem to be switching to all Cat's.

If room is what you like, dont get a KW W900. If you like the styling, and creature comfort, get a W900. The Shaker classic, and century is going to offer the most room. Period.

And I know a little trick with 8th and 9th u might like to know..... if you feel the need to downshift MANUALY to 8th, set the cruise real quick, stab the throttle, it downshifts into 8th, turn cruise off. It will hold 8th till u turn cruise back on, not SET, but on.

Thats if they are still running that POS tranny set up. Its been awhile.

My vote is for the 379 honestly.

The 386 is what walmart is running, ask a couple wally world drivers what they think, they seem to hold their own, but I dont know what engine is in em.

the prostar will not have a mercedes engine in it. it is strictly a freightliner corp. engine. i believe since the introduction of the new detroit engines like the DD13,DD15,and the newest DD16 that the MBE4000 motor is going to be phased out. the DD engines are just a glorified mercedes engine with all the dumb ass designs that mercedes has. the prostar will either have a maxxforce engine in it or 9 out of 10 be a ISX cummins. i believe that international and Cummins have a contract that international only uses now the cummins engines in the class 8 trucks untill the new maxxforce came out and along with the lonestar. even in the agriculture side Case IH uses cummins engines. the drivers i talked to all seemed to like the creature comforts of the prostar.
"the only truck I would take other then aIH would be a volvo may not be the purtiest truck but the ride ,comforts and sound deadning is great my volvo has 2.6 million km(1.6 million miles) and is as quiet as the day she was new and pulls like crazy"

Read more: https://www.dieselbombers.com/big-ri...#ixzz0U0iOx6Q9

i also heard a lot of good things about the volvos nice ride and quiet engines and you can see out of them really good.

the possible reason for the prostars going slow would be companys like to de-tune the hell out of the engines for fuel mileage reasons and lets be honest there are a lot of people driving these trucks that shouldnt have a license to drive a damn moped. maybe you could make good friends with one of the mechanics and see if he could turn her back up for you:w2:

ok good luck on which ever you decide but i would go W900 or the IH prostar.

If you get a fuel bonus dont bother with the ex hood models they have cats and the cats suck on fuel, the detroit with the dpf is a joke so go with the prostar with the cummins and be comfy. You are ther to make money and if you dont own it go for the gold not the show!!!!

Just finished up with school, not werner school and accredited driving school, aced the driving part, got a couple points on the backing, trailer dog tracked pretty bad! I already got an assigned route from Werner. They gave there Sears freight run, running the southern states, Tx, Co, N.M., Az, Ok, & Ks. They say I'll be home every weekend. They also put me on the waiting list for a local, home every night run!

As much as I hate swallowing pride and being practical, I'd have to agree with you here. If I were to go purely for what I like, I'd be in a Pete 379 or a KW W900L....but when the bottom line is at stake, and coming out of a recession where oil peaked at $146/barrel....yeah, go for economy...the glory days of long hood trucks are over... or they will be very soon.

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sweet, that sounds like a good deal! Home nightly is awesome.

The only reason I like the aerodynes instead of the classics are strictly because of the fuel bonus.

I really would have looked harder a driving comany other than werner if you went to driving school i think you could find other place i have heard a lot of bad things about them from drivers i talked too just my two cents worth.. this is a post i found about a werner driver wrote about their training program.
I am Sooooo stupid! While in school I got to looking at all of those nice posters with pictures of new rigs promising "Newest eqipment" and showing people studying at computer terminals (computer based training) and thought to myself "This company has got it together" .

WHAT A JOKE!!!
DON'T FALL FOR IT!!!!!

Recriuters are ruthless liers. I have an excellent work history (until now) and NO accidents or tickets and 400,000 old safe driving commercial miles. 36 cents a mile is the only reason I picked
this P.O.S. company over the other 7 (thats right SEVEN) companys that pre-approved me. Now that I am in this satan based rip-off, the other companys want NOTHING to do with me. I am now apearently tainted with the filth and stench of Werner.

At orientatation the first thing the manager said is this: "I don't know what the recruiters told you men, but you will be making .26 cents a mile
you WONT get a new truck of your choice, you WONT get to chose your color and your name WONT be on the door like the recruiters told you."

How did HE know?

I looked around the room and took a quick inventory of the other drivers.
I'm very sorry, but I have never been in the same room with so many one-toothed, greasy haired ,unwashed, stinky, scrape the bottom of the barrell looser- looking men in my whole life. I take it back. The same bunch would fit right in at the homeless mission. I am sorry. it's the truth.

Turns out they ALL had serious issues. They WERE bottom of the barrell.

The 500 pounder with greasy hair who kept picking his nose and rolling bugers in his fingers was fired from Swift for running over a fire hydrant with his trailer. "I was lost. You should see how small those streets are" . He was starting out at .38 cpm apearantly because he had experience in wrecking things. This guy had an endless supply of bugers. I personally counted him roll and flick five of them before I asked to be seated somewhere else in the computer lab. No lie.

The skinny one with greased back hair, Elvis sideburns, pencil thin mustach and an ever present toothpick for his one tooth (you can't make this stuff up) was fired from the bowling alley and banned for life for stealing Earl Anthony's personal bowling ball. He also was glad Werner overlooked a semi-recent drunk driving which of course was a set-up because he was doing the police chief's daughter.

The psyco Iraq war vet (sans front teeth) who "saw alot of dead bodys and body parts" I avoided. After telling 3 lame lies in a row, all of which were stupid and obvious lies that didnt come close to lining up with reality, he paused and staired at you waiting for you to call him a lier so he could kill you. I decided he wasnt safe to converse with. He was a trainer at Swift and Im guessing he was fired for killing a student although I dont know for sure. He claimed to be hired at "over .50 cpm" presumably
for his skills in advanced interpersonal relationships.

A thin balding early 50ish man with glasses sat counting and recounting his pills. He had about seven or eight bottles of perscription meds in front of him and was quite concerned about his recent count. "If I get this wrong I could go into a coma and die, he explained" . OK Buddy. No problem! Here are the keys and here is your 80,000 pound truck. Be safe!

All of this on my first day! I should have followed my instincts and left
immediatly but I resolved to "stick it out" . What a waste of time and money.

All of my trainers have been unqualified nitwits. One was a big 2 million miler that CONSTANTLY tailgated and screamed at cars. He too was a sociopath and pathological lier to boot. This is proof of my old theory that you have you can be really lucky and not safe at all to get a safe driving award. Thats a whole seperate chapter that I could tell if I had to. The big 2 million miler had serious hygene issues that are so gross I wont even go into. I had to put vics vapor rub under my nose to keep from throwing up. He was so fat that it was too hard to walk to the showers so we just skipped that waste of time.

Ok. I will go in to it.

I could tell which position he was sleeping in from the blast of odor that emmenated from the bottom bunk. if his arms were up, you would be rocked with a blast of sour viniger/rotten sharp cheddar cheese from his arm pits. If he was on his back I was treated to the lovely smell of bacteria that festers in oral cavities that go unbrushed for god knows how long. I *NEVER * repeat N E V E R saw him brush his teeth. The best was, if god forbid, he put a knee up while sleeping on his stomach. Then you get the mother of all odors. Sweaty butt juice that I am convinced harbored not only bacteria and fungus but perhaps even disease straight from the pits of hell. He was so fat that I am guessing that his hands could not reach his butt to wash it. His ### was so nasty that I am ashamed to say that I caught somthing from his sweaty butt juice while sitting in the same seat. I am no doctor but I am guessing that it was some kind of fungus that attacked the crack of my butt and gave me raw skin like a diaper rash. I cured it by spraying my butt with lysoll against the instructions on the label. I also purchaced a folding seat to seperate my now healing butt from his nasty butt juice infested seat.

I tried everything to keep the stench from coming up from the bottom bunk. I tried to stuff socks and clothing in the crack between the bottom
and top bunk. I stuffed my jacket in the space between the wall and your head too but the smell did not need the wind from the ventalation to waft up to the top.

Every morning at around 4:00 am he would start farting. Not just little innocent farts either. Oh no! It would start out with just a little rasp. But after just a little while it was a full symphony of putrid rotting intestinal
matter culminating with him ######## his pants before 5:30.

So after I figured out that he was ######## himself I would go outside in the freezing snow or whatever was outside at 4:30am just to escape.

I can prove all of this and will name names if anyone accuses me of lieing.

Werner sucks and after I get my big 500.00 bonus for putting up with this "training" I am so outta here.

Had my final graduation today and found out I was #1 in the class! :rocking: Ended up a 95% overall G.P.A! That should look good on the ole resume!


A job is only what you make of it! There is good and bad everywhere! I've read positive about all of the larger companies and I've read bad! No one will take my past driving experience, everyone wants current driving experience! So I'll pay my dues for the net 6 months and get OTR experience and go from there!

w900 i used to love mine

I hear ya just bad experiences with werner, did 3000 damage to one of my trucks tried to chase the driver down he kept going called werner to report it they did nothing about it told me they had know idea which truck it was b/c i couldn't get the number off the truck, told me to get bent got a lawyer, went to court all of a sudden they were able to find what truck it was and settled out of court and the driver they put on the chopping block was charged with leaving the scene just a bad taste in my mouth....

AMEN to all that brother!!!! I have never heard another driver take the exact wording out of my mouth right down to the "trainers"!!!!!! I would like to buy you a beer! What was your trainers name? That sounds like the guy I got stuck with, the kind of guy that gets on the radio saying "I aint got no panties on"

Buckshot heed this mans warning, you soon will find out if you go with them. My ONLY good experience was with my dispatcher on my General Mills account. Thats it. I cant complain about my W9, but it wasent new by far. I did once get a brand new Classic with them when I teamed up and flipped out in Omaha, and demanded a brand new truck (they had 25 of them that just got in) when mine was falling apart at the seams.

Thanks guys! Like I said, I'm not planning on a making Werner a career, just a stepping stone.

cowboy customs, i found that post on another site some other guy wrote I have been a O/O since I started driving, no school no trainer and learned everything through experience, was up to 5 trucks at one time, drank started drinking at 10 am most days, never going back to that again, now i just haul livestock all over the place burnin up the road... lol:c:

Is there any $$$ haul'n mow cows?

If your not afraid to run your but off and get hooked up with the right guys its prolly one of the higher paying jobs around, empty half of the time, but onse u get loaded you don't stop wether its 30 miles or a 1250 mile you drive strat through....

for a fella to get fired from swift he had to do more than jus run over a fire hydrant. everyone knows what swift stands for rite? See What I F***ed up Today

You've heard my piece on Werner so I'll just say based on the list of trucks, if you want fuel economy, get whatever has the non-DPF Detroit in it.

How much is your fuel bonus actually going to be? $5,000 a year? More? Less?

I'm guessing much less by the time all is said & done....better off losing a few bucks out of a paycheck to be comfortable. Back doctors are way more expensive than any fuel bonus will ever offset.

O ok. But good for you though man, I have always wanted to real super trucker like u bull haulers! I tryed to hang with one ONCE in nebraska, my poor 60 series wasent happy w me. I like that kind of stuff anyhow, I was born n raised farm boy.
Heh, I know how the drink goes.... Got any pictures of ur setup?

ok back on topic....

1989 379exhd
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It doesn't take much in nebraska to get right with it I go to grand island a lot and can make pretty good time... You hit about 80 and most guys are asking for their doors back cause their limited out at 65-70 and really makes it look like your movin when you go by them, Going to NC tommorow so I'll have to slow down my ways a little..

I used to love to run with ya'll crazy bullhaulers. Me and this guy in a blue Pete with a bullrack made record time comin across I-70 in Ohio one day. I dont think we came under 90 mph all the way across unless four wheelers got in our way. Best trip i ever had across that damn slow state

don't you mean SWIFT Sure Wish I Finished Training or Single White Inisit Female Trucker:ok1:

go peterbilt all the way!!

Navistar. :c:

got done with orientation tuesday night, got picked up by my trainer late wednesday night. I've got 1200 miles in 2 days. I'm on the dollar general run. trainer says I'm going 2 do all the driving and he'll do the unloading, that's fine with me! I'm driving a new freighliner century with the new DD15 and a super 9. with the way the truck is geared and governed, there's not enough poop to get the 9 into overdrive which is fine cause she'll hold 65 on mild grades. the overdrive is suppose to be automatic.

My trainer took the weekend off so he put me in a motel. Werner is paying for 1 night and he's paying for the other!

So....from what I've been told/heard about Werner seems to be a bunch of B.S. or maybe I'm just lucky??? So far so good. All of the drivers I've talked to have been with the company for quite a few years and seem 2 be happy!