And yeah, you’re gonna find you need all kinds of stuff – scads of stuff – that all cost money. I have a cooler in my truck – the fridge thing is a bit large for a day cab. I make up some sandwiches every Sunday night and take ‘em with me for the rest of the week. I tend to stay closer to the house than you two will.

You probably already have some emergency stuff you carry. I have hub oiler plug covers, gear oil for hubs, tire gauge, spare belts and the necessary wrenches to put them on, a couple pairs of Vice Grips (handy for stuff like pinching off air lines until you get to civilization), spare fuel filters and a filter wrench, plus some auto tranny fluid to fill the filter (so you don’t have to fish it out of your fuel tank), several gallons of antifreeze, extra glad hand seals, plastic wire ties, starter fluid, circuit tester and some other extra stuff for wide loads. If I had more room I’d have a bunch of extra brass air line fittings (and some chunks of different sized air lines) and more tools (combo wrenches up to 1 1/4″, 1/4″, 3/8″ and 1/2″drive socket sets), an extra leveler valve for the air ride suspension, maybe even an extra alternator, a quick fill hose and freon, extra breakers, fuses, wiring and black tape, an extra air compressor regulator, some Teflon tape or goo, a long air hose with a tire chuck on one end and a glad hand on the other (long enough to go from the emergency air end on the tractor to the furthest tire), and a mechanic tied up and stuffed under the bunk! That’s all pretty much what I carried (except I was the mechanic – hah!) when I hauled grain and had the room. If you can use and install some of these things, you can at least limp in to a shop rather than paying the big service call money. As you become accustomed to your truck, you’ll find out what the high wear items are that you can replace yourself – say for some reason a certain switch keeps breaking. Best to have one on hand.

You want your mechanic to look at linings – clutch and brakes. Belts and hoses? Probably mostly still original. What color is the antifreeze? See how tight the driveline is. How much front end play is there? There will be some – half a million miles tends to loosen that stuff up. Look over the steer tires – how are they wearing? Brand new steer tires might be hiding alignment problems. Caps on the drive tires? More than likely – but how many times have they been capped? If you really like a certain tractor but don’t care for the tires on it, make ‘em swap some better ones off another tractor in stock. All the gauges (and backlights) work? Lots of holes in the dash or pretty clear? Netting in the cubbyholes torn loose or in good shape? Lots of missing screws? Seat cushions worn out? Might have had someone large like me wearing that seat out. Look at the breaker box – if it’s still in the same spot on a Freightliner Classic it really sucks to get to it – the removable panel in front of the shifter under the dash – but once it’s out (dzus fasteners, a quarter works good) look it over for obvious electrical work (lots of new breakers or new anything that stands out) or sloppy add on wiring that might cause you problems later.

Fifth wheel – make sure the slider release actually releases and the tracks are smooth and clear. The only way to check the jaws is to actually hook up to a trailer and see how much play is there. If the surface of the plate is all worn down, the driver or drivers never bothered to lube it, so there would probably be other signs of neglect as well.

I’d expect to see some new air brake pods and slack adjusters – that is normal. The air lines probably won’t be too weather checked on a 2006. Open the drains on the air tanks – if you get water the air dryer is probably kaput. Hardly anyone ever changes the filters in those dryers anyway.

I know there are some specific things to look for on Detroits but I don’t remember what they are – I think it has to do with oil leaks hidden under some of the covers – or one of them or something. Yeah, big help there. IRRC the accessory drives are under cover and there are panels covering where heads might leak, but I might be full of it. Been a while since I’ve even seen a Detroit in captivity.

Like I said, I’m probably preaching to the choir. You two have probably put on more miles in the past two years than I do in three or four, so it’s not like y’all have been running around with your eyes closed.

So, it sure sounds like you’ve found some good starter material. You two are certainly approaching this with a great deal of common sense with a big eye towards the ol’ budget. Lots don’t think that far ahead. That’s “half the battle” right there!