Question:
I've seen some nasty comments about Freightliners. Even heard them called fruitliners. Unreliable? What's the deal?
They say you are what you eat. I guess that makes me a country-fried steak!

Answer:
For years freightliner set themselves up to be THE fleet truck. They were/are produced fast and cheap. It is not a problem so much with reliablity but with over all fit and finish. They tend to be noisy, drafty, creaky with lots of rattles, etc.
On the whole freightliners are not a good O/O truck as they do not hold resale worth a darn because of the market being flooded with them, but as a fleet truck there is nothing seriously wrong with the trucks as a whole.
As with any piece of equipment how long it will last depends greatly on how well it is maintained.
I will always be a mutter trucker at heart.
Answer:
I'm currently driving around a '93 Freightliner COE, and to be honest, I love the damn truck. Never had a problem with it being overly loud, or drafty for that matter.
I'm actually going to be kind of sad to leave it. I've been in it for the past four years, and I'm getting switched and put into a Peterbilt 379. At least I'm getting a Peterbilt, the Cadillac of the truck world Okay, so they're not SUPERLY AWESOMELY GREAT, but I like Peterbilts. Hell of a lot better than the Mack I used to drive.

Answer:
Were put together better than the current ones. I too am in an old cabover (89 so I got ya beat there ). The problems with the drafts and rattles seemed to have started in the mid 90's or so when companies like Swift, JB Hunt, Coveneant, and all the rest of the Mega outfits were ordering them left, right, and in the middle.
I will always be a mutter trucker at heart.
Answer:
I'm still going to miss this rig.

Answer:
Thanks for the info. Just curious, how about Volvo?
They say you are what you eat. I guess that makes me a country-fried steak!

Answer:
Have a reputation for being a smooth, quiet riding truck, with good visability, and an excellent turn radius. That is the good news on them.
The bad news is that they are heavy on the steer axles due to the way they are made. Extra reinforcing in the cab area to improve crash survivablity. (Not a bad thing really, but can make it tough to axle out a heavy load). Also the overall weight of the truck is a bit heavy for the same reason. The other bit of bad news about the Volvos are that they have a history of frontend problems. It is not uncommon for a Volvo to need a complete front end rebuild every 200-300,000 miles.
Last I heard, however, Volvo have made improvements in their latest models.
I will always be a mutter trucker at heart.
Answer:
Having spent a good deal of my life in a COE, both with my father when I was young and having driven one for the past for years, I can say that I like COEs better than rigs with a long nose. Unless it's a Peterbilt, that is =)
Honestly though, I prefer the COE, they're much better for cornering and turning in cities because ya ain't got that damn nose swingin' around.

Answer:
Uturn is correct. It seems eversence the FLD 120 and more importantly the Century came out during the economy boom of the mid to late 90s it seems the quality on the trucks on average has gone down the toilet.
Now Im sure newer trucks in the last year or so, the quality has risen. I now of one guy, who wouldnt trade his Century in on anything. I guess what you get, is what you get.
Volvos are good trucks as well when it comes to ride and comfort. At one time in my career, I thought about buying one. But honestly with more and more fleets recently buying the new line of Volvos, you can probably bet their quality will go down as well. Im not saying it will, but you just can't be sure.

Answer:
Thanks for the info everyone.
They say you are what you eat. I guess that makes me a country-fried steak!

Answer:
I drive a '95 FLD120 with almost 600,000 on it. It runs good and doesn't whistle at me while I'm doing 75 on I-80. But my boss told me it's the third oldest truck in the fleet and will probably be retired in mid '04. Then I'll be given an '01 FLD with an autoshift. I told him I was in no great rush to give up my present ride.
Oh, well.
I've always been crazy, but it's kept me from going insane.
Waylon Jennings