2021 Peterbilt 389, X15 565, 18 speed: bank repo bought blind, then a Level 1 at San Jon nine days after delivery

long one. 2021 Peterbilt 389, 72 inch sleeper, X15 565, Eaton Fuller 18 speed, 3.36 rears, 421,600 miles on it when it showed up. i pull a 48 ft flatbed leased on to a small outfit here in Amarillo, mostly pipe and steel into New Mexico and the oilfield around Midland.

the inspection first, since that's what has my head spinning. yesterday i was westbound on 40 with drill pipe for Farmington. the port of entry at San Jon, just over the line in New Mexico, had the sign lit for all trucks in, and the officer waved me straight into the bay. Level 1. fifty five minutes.

two write ups. the right side brake on the rear drive axle had a pushrod stroke past the limit, and one of the amber cab markers on the roof was out. neither one put me out of service. he said one brake out of adjustment on a ten brake combination doesn't get you to the 20 percent line. then he said the part i keep chewing on: an automatic slack that's out of adjustment is telling you something is wrong with it, and the answer isn't to crank it back with a wrench and drive off.

that was nine days after the truck got dropped in my yard.

how i got it. it's a bank repo, sold through Conaway's Auto Sales, the outfit in pataskala that runs online auctions for lenders. they don't own the trucks, the lender does, and this one was sitting in a lender yard outside Oklahoma City. sealed bid, so other people's bids stay invisible to you the whole time. i put in 104,000, sat on it for a week, raised it to 106,750 the night before it closed at the end of october, and won. there's no buyer's premium, so 106,750 was the whole wire. 262 miles yard to driveway. first 1,000 are free, so transport cost me nothing.

somebody from their team goes out to each lot with a camera and a checklist before it's listed, and this one got 70 something pictures: frame rails, tires with the date codes readable, the fifth wheel, the sleeper, the dash at startup. every lot on conawaysautosales.com gets that treatment, go look at one. what a photo can't tell you is pushrod stroke, and i never thought to ask. that one's on me.

so here's what i want out of this thread. i'm going to write down a pre-trip for repo trucks, meaning the stuff to go over on a truck that sat in a lender's yard for months before you roll it past an inspector. help me build it.

fair question, and it's the part i'd warn people about. conaways doesn't finance. the bank that repo'd it keeps its lien on the title till every dollar lands, so you bring cash or you line up your own loan before you bid.

i don't have 106 grand in a coffee can. in september i sat down at the credit union here in Amarillo, which has had my house note for eleven years, and got preapproved for an equipment loan up to 115,000 on a truck 2019 or newer under 600,000 miles. it took three weeks and two sit downs with a loan officer, and the rate is 8.9, which is nothing to brag about.

it also cost me a truck. i had a bid in on a 2020 W900 in early october and it closed while i was still waiting on the approval letter. i'd have been short. lesson learned: get the letter first, then start bidding.

once i won the 389 it went quick. the credit union wired the money, the invoice from the conaway auction was the winning bid and nothing else, and the truck was in my yard on November 12. the lender's lien release came in the packet with the notarized title, and the credit union put their own lien on it in Texas.

x15, it's turning about 1,450 at 65 in 18th. ECM says 19 percent idle, which i was glad to see. no record of an overhead anywhere, so that's on the list.

fixed, and here's the bill.

pulled the right rear on the back drive axle saturday. the auto slack had a worn internal clutch and wouldn't take up anymore, just like you said. new slack was 88 dollars at the parts house. i put it in myself in the shop at the yard, set it with the install template, made a dozen hard applications at 100 psi and measured again: 1 3/4. shoes on that wheel were about half, drum in spec. the marker light was a 14 dollar LED. the socket was full of green crud, so it got cleaned and packed with dielectric grease. 102 dollars and a saturday for the whole inspection.

annual inspection done at an independent in Amarillo for 150, passed. hood hinges look fine, eighteen. the clutch brake works.

here's version 1 of the list. i checked the tire date codes off the conaway's listing before i ever bid, so some of this you can start on before the truck even shows up.

1. before you bid: read every tire date code in the photos. ask for any photo they don't have.
2. day one: pull the ECM report. idle percentage, last overhead, any active or stored codes.
3. stroke every brake at 90 to 100 psi, engine off, full application. look at chambers, boots, slack play.
4. air: build up time, governor cut out, leak down with the brakes applied. drain the tanks.
5. every light with a helper. clean and grease any socket with corrosion.
6. tires: date codes, sidewall cracks, tread depth.
7. fifth wheel jaws, release handle, frame and crossmembers.
8. steering lash.
9. 18 speed: range and splitter shifts cold, clutch brake, oil level.
10. hood hinges and cables if it's a long hood.
11. fresh annual inspection in the first week, copy in the truck file.
12. fire extinguisher and triangles.

UPDATE, about twelve weeks in.

23,900 miles since delivery. it averaged 6.1 mpg, december and january mostly at 78 to 80 thousand gross. x15, overhead is booked at the Cummins dealer here for the first week of march, at about 448k. i decided not to wait for 500 after your thread.

clean Level 1 on February 3 at the Lordsburg port on I-10, pipe again, different route. got the decal. the officer looked at my brakes for about a minute longer than i liked and then said they were the best ones he'd seen that morning, which i'm counting.

laredo, on your VNL: the contact info is on conawaysautosales.com, send them a list of photos you want before you bid, they got me mine the next day. then plan on brakes anyway, like the inspector said.

version 2, with the corrections in it:

1. before you bid: tire date codes from the photos, ask for any shot that's missing. get your loan letter in hand first, conaways doesn't finance.
2. day one: ECM report, idle percentage, last overhead, codes. drain and refill the DEF if it sat through a summer.
3. brakes: mark the pushrods released, build to 90 to 100 psi, engine off, full application, measure from the mark. chambers, boots, slack play.
4. air: build up, governor cut out, leak down applied, 4 psi a minute max on a combination. drain the tanks.
5. lights with a helper, clean and grease bad sockets.
6. tires: date codes, sidewall cracks, 4/32 steer, 2/32 the rest.
7. fifth wheel, frame, crossmembers, steering lash.
8. transmission: range and splitter cold, clutch brake, oil.
9. hood hinges and cables on a long hood.
10. annual inspection the first week, report in the truck file, copy to your carrier's safety person.
11. extinguisher and triangles.