That's pretty consistent with everything I heard when I got started. I do know my Dodge runs like a beast and will do anything I have asked of it, so I'm glad I made that choice early on.
Calling All Hot Shots
Discussion in 'Expediter and Hot Shot Trucking Forum' started by SMBdriver, Sep 6, 2011.
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Home to get it replaced tomorrow.
Has started being a pain in the maintenance fund the last 4 months. -
I'm not really that pleased with the Fords, but they are the dominate brand in this area. However, it would be wise to take your advice and make the switch.
I worked for UPS for 25 years, so transportation is in my blood. I started my current company like you, going out and talking to people and have a large list of regulars now do to our good service, so this sounds no different. The I 95 corridor would be the place to start. Baltimore, D.C. Philly and Richmond should be fertile ground.
I would like to hear more about your setup; truck, trailers etc...or see some pics if you have some. -
I ran trailer for a guy with some hotshots, and when work was slow i ran one for awhile. I LOVED it, easy driving and your sitting in a comfortable cab (one I ran had heated seats for goodness sake), automatic transmission, dodge 5500. What an easy day.
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A friend of mine recently got back into hotshots. So far he is doing very well. In fact, he is doing as well as most with class 8 trucks.
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It sounds like you're in a good area, there must be a lot of industry there to target as a customer base.
Well, the truck is the 5500 as stated before. It's a crew cab, c&c with the long wheel base, and I started out with a 40' flat float gooseneck trailer. (I would have just gone with the regular cab, but a truck dealer up at Tulsa had these on sale cheaper than our local Dodge house, so I jumped on it.)
I recently sold the 40' and downsized to a 20' float. My experience with the trailers was that the 40' was a junk magnet for some reason and the 20' is seen more as a hot shot trailer. I don't have people trying to push of cheap LTL freight on me now like I did with the 40'. I can't explain why, but that's my take on it.
The truck has an 11' bed, and I have two toolboxes mounted underneath. I also had a big aux fuel tank / toolbox combo as the stock tank is 52 gallons and I wanted extra fuel on (I run out here in a lot of desolate areas where fuel stops can be a long way off). I also recently took that off as it sprung a leak and replaced it with a smaller 38 gal tank. It was not just the leak that bothered me, as that is being fixed before I sell it off, but it was eating up too much valuable cargo space on the truck.
That wasn't something I thought about at first, I assumed most of my freight would have to be trailered. As it turns out, I get a lot of truck only work so I definitely needed the truck bed space.
The first pic is the original setup with the 40'
And this is the 20'
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Sorry about the huge pictures in my previous post... I did shrink them down, but they blew back up again when it posted.
And to the sharp eyed guys out there, yes, I was leased at the time but have since split ways with them, so whited out their logo on the rear door. I run my own authority now. -
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That's a real nice set up you have there. Love the Ram truck.
The 20 footer probably pulls much lighter than the 40 footer.
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