Not really. OTR tractors that travel long distances usually come equipped with large fuel tanks as standard equipment and the one I own started life as a long distance tractor and like I stated previously, even though the outfit I retired from, none of us drove long distance over the road, the owner always bought and spec'd the tractors as long distance, over the road units simply because they are much easier to resell once they came out of the fleet and they were always in demand because of the way they were ordered plus the company owned the dealerships and all the units were carefully maintained by factory certified and trained mechanics.
I never had to be concerned with any issues. If I wrote up my unit on a PTI (Pre trip inspection), when I got back to the yard, it was immediately addressed and corrected and if it was an issue that needed immediate repairs on, I took a spare unit out while mine was being repaired. In my entire driving career with them, I was never subjected to a roadside vehicle inspection simply because the state and Federal DOT knew the units were always top notch. In fact, one of the safety and compliance officers the company employed was a retired DOT officer. Always good to have the right people on the payroll and the owner (who I know and associate with to this day), knew what it took to 'fly under the radar', which is pretty common in the trucking industry, especially in the specialized hauling industry we were employed in. To this day, I see our units all over the country being operated by other companies that bought them from us when they came out of the fleet and I also own one myself.
Buying anything used usually comes with a level of consternation, but not so with the trucks we drove because of the level of care they received.
I bought the tractor I drove for them when it came out of fleet service at 750K miles and prior to my buying it, I had Tom, who was the service manager and who I hunt with presently (and a close friend) turn it up for me. Mechanically injected Caterpillar's are fairly easy to turn up so long as you know what you are doing and Tom is and was always a master at doing that. When it came out of fleet, the owner knew I was going to buy it and I got a price that was fantastic and I paid cash for it as well. I've owned it for over 13 years now and other than normal maintenance, I've had zero issues with it and it's a classic long nose Star as well. I don't maintain it myself, I still have the dealership that they no longer own but the mechanics are still there, do the routine maintenance on it and I still get 'employee pricing' on that plus I buy quite a bit of stuff from their parts department like starting batteries and fuel additives, all at my employee discount, which is 10% over their cost.
Dealing with and being friends with the right people has it's rewards...
