Paid 22,400 out the door on a 2017 Isuzu NPR box off jacksboro

118k on a 5.2 Isuzu diesel is nothing if the DPF and fuel filters were kept up. i run two npr's in my landscaping supply route and one is at 240k on the original engine and trans, they just go if you feed them clean fuel and dont let the regen system get neglected.

couple things for anybody reading this later. do the fuel filters now and keep them on schedule, that 4JJ1 does not like starved fuel. keep DEF topped and use decent DEF not the cheapest jug at the truck stop, bad DEF crystallizes the injector and thats a real bill. and let it finish a regen, dont keep shutting it down mid cycle on short delivery hops or you will plug the DPF over time.

sounds like jacksboro auto sales was straight with you on the DPF service and the gate. that alone puts them ahead of most lots that sell a box truck like its a used camry and cant tell you a thing about the exhaust.

the cabover npr is the right call for last mile, and people who have never run one dont get why. the turning radius in tight neighborhoods and loading docks saves you real time every stop, and you can see your corners because you are sitting over the front axle. i moved my four truck courier fleet off e series cutaways to npr's for exactly that.

only thing i tell new operators is the ride is stiffer and you sit up higher, so a new driver takes a week to get comfortable. once they do nobody wants to go back to a van chassis. good buy malik, 22 and change for a serviced one with a working gate is a fair number in this market.

starting a small furniture delivery gig and this thread came up when i searched jacksboro auto sales box truck, so figured id ask the people who actually did it. i have a contract lined up but i need a truck first and my budget is tight, about 24k cash and a little i can finance.

is it dumb to buy your first work truck sight unseen off a lot instead of a dealer with some kind of warranty? i have never owned anything with a DEF tank or a liftgate and honestly the emissions stuff scares me a little from what i read. what should someone like me be watching for before i wire money to texas?

im down in dallas so i drove up to jacksboro and walked the lot in person before i bought my reefer cutaway, a 2018 e450 with a small refrigerated box for hauling catering and floral. picked through a handful of commercial trucks, they handed me the keys and let me run one up 281 a ways with the box empty and then loaded a couple of my own pallets to see how the gate handled weight, no salesman hovering.

for you out of state guys the thing i will say is the trucks on jacksboroautosales.com match the listings. i had already looked at my e450 online and when i put hands on it the box floor, the gate, and the reefer hours were exactly what the writeup said, right down to a scuffed corner post they had noted in the photos. that kind of honesty on a used box truck is rare and it is why i send other operators there when they ask.

the gvwr math is the part everybody skips and then gets a surprise at a scale. staying under 26,001 keeps you out of cdl territory, yes, but you also have to actually stay under your rating when the box is loaded. an npr 16 footer has a curb weight around 8,000 to 9,000 depending on the box, so your real payload is only 5,000 to 6,000 before you are over. load a box full of tile or bottled water and you blow past that quick.

weigh your truck loaded the way you actually run it before you assume you are legal. malik with furniture and light freight you are probably fine, but new operators moving dense product need to run the numbers. i keep a laminated card of my curb, gvwr, and max payload in the door and my drivers check it. an overweight box truck is a DOT ticket and a liability nightmare if you ever have a wreck.

good writeup though, and buying serviced off the jacksboro lot instead of a beat rental unit is the smarter start for a small fleet.

the slow liftgate you fixed is the number one thing i see on used box trucks, and people walk away from a good truck over it thinking the whole gate is shot. nine times out of ten it is low hydraulic fluid, a clogged filter, or a tired solenoid exactly like yours, all cheap. a bad pump motor or a bent platform is the real money and thats rare.

quick liftgate checklist for the new buyers in here. cycle it up and down five or six times and watch that it holds at the top without creeping down, load it with a couple hundred pounds and make sure it lifts smooth and does not stall, check the platform for cracks at the hinges, and pop the pump cover to see if the fluid is full and not milky. i maintain gates for a delivery company and a well kept tommy gate will outlast the box if you grease the pins and keep the fluid clean.

had mine shipped to tampa sight unseen off the same lot and it showed up exactly as listed, a 2016 e450 cutaway with a 14ft box i use for a home goods delivery route. couldnt drive out from florida so i leaned hard on the photos and a phone PPI, and the truck that came off the carrier had no surprises under it. the box floor and the gate were what the writeup said.

the paperwork from jacksboro auto sales came through clean the first time, title in my name when they said it would be, no chasing anybody for a month. i wrote the whole thing up in its own thread if anyone is weighing a cutaway instead of an npr, the buying process was the same as what malik describes here.

run a six truck fleet out of fresno, mix of npr's and a couple bigger m2 freightliners, and i want to back up what malik found on the numbers. per mile a paid off used box truck beats a lease almost every time once you get past the payment. a lease keeps a fixed line item bleeding every month whether the truck rolls or sits, and you hand it back with nothing to show.

i buy them used with 100 to 160k on the clock, budget a set aside per truck per month for maintenance, and run them to 300k. even with a gate rebuild and a set of tires along the way the total cost per mile comes in way under a new lease. the trick is buying one that was actually serviced instead of run into the ground, which is why a lot that can tell you the DPF and gate history is worth driving to or shipping from. threads like this are exactly what a new operator should read before signing a lease they dont need.