Freightliner's Refurb Daycab
Converted from a 'condo' SleeperCab, this tractor's as nice as new at about half the price.
Tom Berg
Equipment Editor
Buying a used truck can make immense sense because the second owner takes advantage of depreciation and still gets a truck with many miles of service remaining. That's assuming he can find a good truck set up for the kind of work he must do.
If he needs a daycab tractor, sometimes known in the trade as a "work truck," the pickings are slim, according to Freightliner Trucks. The comparatively few used daycabs available tend to be well worn because they've accumulated a lot of stop-and-go miles.
An alternative is to buy one of the many used sleeper-equipped tractors with relatively easy highway miles on their odometers. Since the buyer doesn't need the sleeper, some makes have separate sleeper boxes that can easily be removed and the cab's rear closed up with a special kit.
But the integrated sleepers on Freightliner's SleeperCab tractors can't just be lopped off.
So the company's used-truck refurbishing plant at Tooele, Utah, has a special operation that removes the sleeper portion of a former road tractor and closes up the cab with purpose-built panels. The result is a Freightliner Refurbished Daycab, which looks, smells and drives almost like new.
Those were my impressions as I drove the tractor you see here. It started life as a 1999 Century 120 with a 70-inch SleeperCab built for U.S. Xpress Enterprises, which traded it in last year with about 460,000 miles on the clock. On its trip through the Utah plant it shed its bulky "condo" and emerged with a slightly extended non-sleeper cab and an unusual tall roof. It also underwent an extensive mechanical and cosmetic renewal process that makes it a better bet than the typical used tractor.
At Freightliner's Portland, Ore., headquarters, Lamar Jenkins, who manages the used truck remanufacturing operation, had arranged for the tractor to be coupled to a test van, a 48-footer ballasted with concrete blocks so our gross combination weight was about 72,000 pounds. He rode shotgun as I drove us out of town on Marine Drive, past the airport and eastward on Interstate 84 into the Columbia River Gorge.
This tractor had an Eaton AutoShift 10-speed transmission, which did the gear changing, so there was little to do but steer the rig, enjoy the scenery and listen to Jenkins' description of exactly what this truck went through.
Workers at the Tooele plant have mastered the major surgery that is needed to remove the condo sleeper and install the special panels, he said. They also tighten up the wheelbase, in this case from 224 inches to 179.5 inches, enhancing maneuverability and eliminating what would be a six-foot gap between cab and trailer.
"We do it right," Jenkins said, "by cutting off the rear of the frame and moving the tandem forward. There are no splices in the frame and no weakness."
Suspension, axles and gearboxes are inspected and relubed, and any damage is fixed or a unit is replaced with a remanufactured product. If the buyer wants a single rear axle, a brand-new one is installed because no national-brand reman'd single axles are available.
As with all used Freightliners going through the plant, a converted daycab gets new brakes and new or recapped tires, and a reman'd alternator and starter motor. Its exterior trim is polished, paint is buffed or sprayed anew (this one's white but other colors are available), and chrome exhaust stacks can be added, even to aero-styled tractors.
Workers also go into the cab to detail many items and replace others. Trim panels are cleaned or replaced, and seats get new covers. Seats in this truck had sticky vinyl covers but cooler fabric can also be had. That's one of many options available to a refurb customer, said Jenkins and Martin Osborn, manager for marketing and sales administration, whom I talked with later.
For example, side fairings can be removed and so can the second fuel tank, and a tool box put in its place. The battery box can be moved from between the frame rails and hung alongside, which many customers prefer. A bright-metal front bumper can replace a plastic one.
Technicians check the engine on a wheel dynomometer and adjust or repair it so it performs at factory specs. They can electronically uprate the engine to whatever its mechanical parts and the driveline will take in torque. The Detroit Series 60 was set at 370/430 hp and 1,550 lbs.-ft. of torque for U.S. Xpress, but can be reflashed to other ratings.
The Detroit worked well with the smooth-operating AutoShift, even if the tranny was sometimes balky at startup. From Neutral, the transmission didn't always want to shift into gear. Pulling the selector into Low and playing with the up and down buttons got it into Drive. When it wouldn't go into Reverse, I discovered that pumping the brakes somehow got its attention. Its controls apparently needed tweaking or reprogramming, and the SelecTrucks people in Tacoma, Wash., where I left it, said they'd look into it.
I took the tractor to Tacoma after dropping Jenkins and the trailer back at Freightliner's Technical Center on Swan Island in Portland. Bobtailing was a surprisingly smooth experience because the tandem's Air Liner suspension was nicely adjusted and well behaved. I wouldn't have wanted to make the trip in an empty tractor with a steel-spring suspension.
Intermittent rain on the way up I-5 required occasional use of the windshield wipers, and I was reminded of the awkwardness of the Century's multi-function windshield wiper/washer switch. You slide its little square knob to run the wipers and push it to pump washer fluid. It works, but is not the most convenient design I've ever seen.
Aside from that, this Refurb Daycab was a slick truck, and an estimated selling price of $32,000 to $35,000, which includes a 12-month/100,000-mile limited warranty (others are optional), seems reasonable. Osborn said the number of options chosen by a customer will vary the price of any Refurb product, but in general it runs from 40% to 60% of a comparable new daycab tractor.
One customer that's attracted to the price and the concept, he said, is the U.S. Army. It has ordered six units like this, partly to see how they hold up in the hands of young GI drivers and partly to evaluate the Eaton AutoShift. This transmission would cost less to buy than the Allison HD automatic the Army specs for the new FLD 120SD daycab tractors it now buys from Freightliner.
The Army also signed up for a newly available Mile Minder contract maintenance program, Osborn said. This puts scheduled work on a regular budget and in the hands of the nearest Freightliner dealer. It's the same place you could go to order one of these - the other is a SelecTrucks outlet - and there's a good chance you'll be pleased with the product.
