Really it helps more then you might suspect. Especially as it echoes my thinking to a great degree. I realize and accept that it is near to impossible to evaluate anything from a couple pictures. But experience can guide a persons perceptions and since I have no experience in the area anyone who does it more likely to have more accurate perceptions. The Freightliner is old and it would be strictly a question of condition, I have driven class 8 diesels and have a strong mechanical background. And before I actually did a deal I'd invest in a diesel mechanics time to take a look and a listen. On the Nissan my reaction was pretty much the same; however since originally posting the url, I did some checking and apparently among MDT afficianados for trailer hauling they are not unknown, so more would need to be learned. Since these are both withing a days driving to and from, I will very likely check them out if for no ther reason then to see what I can see.

Hey- it NEVER hurts to look! Even if nothing comes of it, you ALWAYS learn something from it......
Have fun!
Gary

The only time it hurts me is when I look at a car or a truck or other piece of machinery that has fallen into disrepair not from having given a full measure of service but for lack of simple routine maintenance. That always hurts my feelings, I have no respect for people who can't even manage minimal preventative maintenance. I'll never forget what my old grandpa told me onetime when I was a little kid, pulling an American Flyer that had a squeaky wheel, "Hey kid, a little drop of oil can do amazing stuff" man how that phrase has echoed in my head many, many times in the intervening 50 years or so when I have seen really expensive pieces of equipment give up the ghost all for want of a drop of oil.

I know what ya mean, man, I know what ya mean.......

a very lonng time ago i carried a piece of farm equipt. that was broke to the john deere dealer in town, i think it came off of a manure spreader, the piece that is, and the owner who was old at that time looked at it and looked at me and said "tell ya what happened to that" i said "ok", he said, "grease worms done got in there an' ate all the grease out, that's what." like i said i've forgotten what it was, but not what was wrong with it. ---mase

Which reminds me of a time a few years ago when I was recovering from a traffic accident [is it an accident when some idiot does something too stupid to comprehend which causes a bad wreck?] anyway I was really stove up, not to mention it totalled by 77 Mark V which I owned from new and had less then 100k on it. So I needed to have the king pins replaced on my truck as I was hurting too bad to drive it the way I had been. New king pins made it like it had power stering in comparison. So after the king pic replacement I figured I'd get an LOF and took it to one of those lube places. Thinking that they might have less then full knowledge of the lubrication points on a truck older then anyone working in the place I scanned the page in the original owners manual [anyone remember when owner's manual gave you a complete lubrication spec sheet?] and gave it to the service writer. Hellz bellz he didn't have a clue, you should have seen them trying to look up the air filter replacement. When I explained to them the procedure for cleaning the oil bath air cleaner it was like I was talking Lithuanian to them. It would have been funny except I really needed a complete LOF done.