I was at Freightliner of Knoxville yesterday (07-06-05), spoke with Jon over there. Nice guy, seemed very willing to help...
however, I want to let you all know what he told me...
that by the time a truck hits the Freightliner of Knoxville Website... he said it's probably already been sold.
He said if your coming there to see a truck on the website, it's best to call 1st to see if it's been sold or not.
He also said when he gets a truck in with a sleeper of 96" plus in, he said he's lucky if he can keep it on the lot for 3 days.
Most of the stuff on the lot moves within 3 weeks or less.
I looked at a nice expediter with a walk-thru, it was an M2, a truck model I don't really care for. The rig was used by a smoker and me being a non-smoker that wouldn't work as I know that smoke smell never comes completely out of a rig. That was the nicest rig though to me, as it had a nice sleeper, 112K on the odo. There was no rust or body damage. Everything looked very clean. I didn't get price, was only window shopping for myself and others... I was mainly there to scope out the FLD's for a friend of mine - of which they had plenty. There was an older FL70 on the lot, with sleeper that looked to a double bunk at one time and it'd been modified for a single bunk and storage - a truely rough homemade job at that. They had some crawl-thru's and some walk-thru's. There were about 8 or 9 expediters he had on the lot. I think about 4 were the M2's. There were 3 tractors that had been made into expediters. 2 Shakers and one Sterling. 2 of the straight trucks there had roll-up doors I did notice that. None of the straight trucks had a tag/pusher axle on them.
All of the trucks looked at, including tractors, straight trucks, and tractors converted to straight trucks, were very Very clean inside and out - perhaps one of the cleaner truck lots I have to say I've been to. All the interiors were very clean though, that I found to be most impressive. Somebody took the time to really detail the trucks going up for sale on the dealer lot.
They're already marketing the 2006 M2, starting at 101K, and going up to 167K. They deal in Pro-Heat only. Jon made mention that the new Pro-Heats are now completely self-sustained, using only fuel from the truck tank. They have their own heating/cooling system not piped into the truck system - that info I thought interesting to know. Bentz sleepers, there was atleast 3 of them... and I'd never seen a Bentz sleeper close up before. There was one Alumi-Bunk sleeper, and all I'm going to say is I could spot the difference in quality before I even touched the truck. I've spent time in an Alumi-Bunk Sleeper too. They had a wide mixture of trucks, from mid-roofs to condo's of various shapes and sizes, even a superb Volvo for 79K. I didn't see any sleepers over the 84" mark though.
The facility at Freightliner of Knoxville, in case some are not familiar with it, is very nice- with 3 big truckstops at their exit, a J, Petro, and T/A. There's plenty of room to manuever around their lot and no worry at all about truck parking in the area. I've spent time at that J in the past and it's a nice J, the T/A and Petro I don't know about. Though I have gotten fuel at the T/A there before.
I'm planning a trip to Freightliner of Middle GA soon, and will include it's results in this post. These forum are about sharing information, and thats all I'm doing. By the way, whats happening with the Dallas Show, for those that won't be able to make it to the MI show. Knoxville said they'd be at MI, but not Dallas. I'm sure we'll see a post closer to the TX show about who's gonna be there and who's not. On a lighter note, Jon there at Knoxville was all ready to sell me a rig with a liftgate, and/or a reefer box and reefer unit. Just wanted to share my experience with you all. Smile!
Hope all is well, BBB
however, I want to let you all know what he told me...
that by the time a truck hits the Freightliner of Knoxville Website... he said it's probably already been sold.
He said if your coming there to see a truck on the website, it's best to call 1st to see if it's been sold or not.
He also said when he gets a truck in with a sleeper of 96" plus in, he said he's lucky if he can keep it on the lot for 3 days.
Most of the stuff on the lot moves within 3 weeks or less.
I looked at a nice expediter with a walk-thru, it was an M2, a truck model I don't really care for. The rig was used by a smoker and me being a non-smoker that wouldn't work as I know that smoke smell never comes completely out of a rig. That was the nicest rig though to me, as it had a nice sleeper, 112K on the odo. There was no rust or body damage. Everything looked very clean. I didn't get price, was only window shopping for myself and others... I was mainly there to scope out the FLD's for a friend of mine - of which they had plenty. There was an older FL70 on the lot, with sleeper that looked to a double bunk at one time and it'd been modified for a single bunk and storage - a truely rough homemade job at that. They had some crawl-thru's and some walk-thru's. There were about 8 or 9 expediters he had on the lot. I think about 4 were the M2's. There were 3 tractors that had been made into expediters. 2 Shakers and one Sterling. 2 of the straight trucks there had roll-up doors I did notice that. None of the straight trucks had a tag/pusher axle on them.
All of the trucks looked at, including tractors, straight trucks, and tractors converted to straight trucks, were very Very clean inside and out - perhaps one of the cleaner truck lots I have to say I've been to. All the interiors were very clean though, that I found to be most impressive. Somebody took the time to really detail the trucks going up for sale on the dealer lot.
They're already marketing the 2006 M2, starting at 101K, and going up to 167K. They deal in Pro-Heat only. Jon made mention that the new Pro-Heats are now completely self-sustained, using only fuel from the truck tank. They have their own heating/cooling system not piped into the truck system - that info I thought interesting to know. Bentz sleepers, there was atleast 3 of them... and I'd never seen a Bentz sleeper close up before. There was one Alumi-Bunk sleeper, and all I'm going to say is I could spot the difference in quality before I even touched the truck. I've spent time in an Alumi-Bunk Sleeper too. They had a wide mixture of trucks, from mid-roofs to condo's of various shapes and sizes, even a superb Volvo for 79K. I didn't see any sleepers over the 84" mark though.
The facility at Freightliner of Knoxville, in case some are not familiar with it, is very nice- with 3 big truckstops at their exit, a J, Petro, and T/A. There's plenty of room to manuever around their lot and no worry at all about truck parking in the area. I've spent time at that J in the past and it's a nice J, the T/A and Petro I don't know about. Though I have gotten fuel at the T/A there before.
I'm planning a trip to Freightliner of Middle GA soon, and will include it's results in this post. These forum are about sharing information, and thats all I'm doing. By the way, whats happening with the Dallas Show, for those that won't be able to make it to the MI show. Knoxville said they'd be at MI, but not Dallas. I'm sure we'll see a post closer to the TX show about who's gonna be there and who's not. On a lighter note, Jon there at Knoxville was all ready to sell me a rig with a liftgate, and/or a reefer box and reefer unit. Just wanted to share my experience with you all. Smile!
Hope all is well, BBB
