First year in a 2019 Cascadia reefer off harbert's, real rundown

mentioned this rig over in hanks big W900L thread and a few of you asked for the long version, so here it is in its own thread. this is the 2019 Freightliner Cascadia reefer tractor i bought off harbertsautosales.com last spring and have now run a full year.

specs. DD15 with the 505 tune, DT12 automated, 3.42 rears, 72 inch midroof sleeper, 405k when i bought it. it was a bank repo off a produce hauler down here in the valley that folded, which is half the trucks in south texas right now if im honest. i run the rio grande valley up to chicago and back hauling produce, with frozen backhauls when the rate makes sense.

price was 47,900. the freightliner store in pharr quoted me 71 on a comparable unit with more miles on it. that 23 grand spread is what paid for my first set of drives and a year of insurance up front, so it mattered.

i bought mine in person since waco is only about six hours up I35 from mcallen. walked the lot on a saturday, picked through maybe five trucks, and the guy let me drive the one i liked out 84 and back to feel the brakes and the auto shift. no pressure, no rush. i had driven 1800 miles round trip telling myself i would walk away if anything felt off and it just did not.

the one knock, and i want to be honest because thats the whole point of these threads, was a slow leaking air bag on the right rear that i did not catch on the test drive. showed up as the truck squatting on that corner after sitting overnight at the first truck stop. 140 bucks at a shop in laredo and an hour of downtime. minor, but it was real, so im listing it.

nadia it has been a non issue through a full valley summer. coolant temp never climbed past 205 even sitting in the laredo bridge backups in 105 degree heat with the reefer running continuous. i did pull the charge air cooler and pressure wash the bug screen and the radiator fins once early on because produce country packs them with chaff, and that helped airflow a bunch.

if the one you are looking at on harbert's checks out i would not hesitate on the cooling. the DT12 likes to hold a higher gear than i would manually so i run it in manual mode on the long grades to keep the rpm up and the fan from kicking on constant. small habit, big difference on temps.

rookie, for me it was a 10 percent deposit to hold the truck while my lender finished underwriting, then the balance wired before they handed me the keys and signed the title over. they gave me a written sales agreement before i put any money down, which i would insist on anywhere. took my bank about four business days to fund and harbert's held it the whole time without any drama.

if you are financing through an outside lender just have your approval lined up before you drive up so you are not sitting on a deposit longer than you need to. their inventory moves but a deposit holds your specific truck.

UPDATE full year and 84k miles on the Cascadia now since i bought it off the waco lot. closing this out for anyone who lands here researching harbert's.

net for the year. besides the 140 dollar air bag, total maintenance has been three oil and filter services, one set of drives, a DEF head sensor at 60k for 90 bucks, and a cabin blower motor that quit in february for 120. averaging 7.4 loaded on the chicago lane. she has run every week i wanted to run, never left me stranded, never missed a pickup window because of a breakdown.

would i buy off harbertsautosales.com again? already planning to. when i add a second truck this fall the waco lot is the first place i am looking. honest listings, fair price, clean title, and they did not blink when i wanted to walk the whole lot and test drive before i committed. that is all i ask of anybody selling a working truck.