when i was at trans am there was 9 drivers that finished out there lease and now own the truck and that was in the year and a half i was there

Yep so which is he? CB Rambo, Truck Stop Commando, Super Trucker, or just just another old school dumb redneck trucker who things everything is bad and nothing is good or can ever be positive or work out because its not done the way it was done 20 years ago. Jeeez while alot of the lease programs are rip offs their are an equally larger number that are legitimate and if you WORK HARD not run truck stop to truck stop drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes then you can make an outstanding living.

I also know drivers who finished a SWIFT lease program and taking home $1200-$1700 wk before the truck was payed for. It is all work ethic and knowing how to play the game.

Well said...very well said

I know owning your own truck is just about every professional truckers dream, but that dream can turn into a nightmare real fast if you don't have a good chunk of cash or credit in the bank for a string of or a major repair bill; 1 bad week/month can wipe u out real fast!

from TRUCK BUDDYS blog, he lives in his truck 24/7, 365 days a yr. & has his own authority...

My APU's broke again. Saturday I was in Fairfield, Maine where it's cooler and a truck stop with showers is located. I needed to re-arrange the batteries in a utility box because a weld had broken. The weight of the batteries were stressing the box, and I needed to strap them away from the weak area. Soon I'll get to a weld shop and repair the broken weld. To do what I needed, I disconnected the batteries, however when I hooked everything back up the APU's computer wasn't booting up properly. I stressed over it all day Saturday, got dehydrated and made myself sick over it. If I'm going to live in a truck I want my APU! I checked all the connection's over and over, all the fuses. Everything was hooked up right and I didn't do anything to cause the problem.
Monday morning at 7am I was at the front stoop of Thermo King Portland, Maine. I'd parked in their back 40 the night before. I had called Saturday from Fairfield, Maine. They told me their TriPac tech wasn't in, but he'd be there Monday and he'd get my APU running. Sunday afternoon I went to Portland.
After an hour or so, they handed me a bill for $92. My APU was still not working, but they'd gladly overnight a wiring harness they seemed to think would fix it. Being a tech myself and having spent the weekend troubleshooting, I questioned that their diagnosis of a failed wiring harness as I was paying the bill and inquiring where I might find a Thermo King that had parts for the TriPac. The manager gave me a Thermo King book with the Boston, Massachusetts location and told me to get the hell off the property. Apparently he had the impression I felt they didn't know what they were doing. Thermo King of Portland expelled me with prejudice and would not allow me to park my trailer there a few days while I bobtailed. Luckily there's a Fleetguard yard 200 yards away. The Fleetguard people had no problem with me parking my trailer in their yard so I could bobtail to Thermo King in Boston.
The problem was not a failed wiring harness, but exactly the component I felt was, and shuttered to think about it. The TriPac's main computer board, costing $1,500 to troubleshoot and replace. My payments are $389 per month, with 17 payments remaining. This month, my TriPac cost me $1,981 to own.

Here's a list of some of the expense I've encountered since the beginning of July:
July 12, 2008 a bump in some construction in Colorado pulled the engine and transmission bell housings apart. The repair included a clutch, rear main engine seal, both bell housings, hardware, oil change, etc. $3,495
August 5, 2008 replaced U joint. $428
August 14, 2008 replaced steer tires. $1,058
August 18, 2008 missed diagnosis of TriPac's wiring harness. $92
August 19, 2008 TriPac's main computer board. $1,500
August 22, 2008 truck alternator and trailer tire. $681
Total: $7,245
Appended October 2:
On September 28, I had a trip to Atlanta, Georgia, (hotlanta) where the evaporator fan quit working. Everything else worked, so I put a carpet blower I keep on the upper bunk to circulate air in the cab, on the air intake of the evaporator. That worked to circulate air through the evaporator while the fan was off. I went to Thermo King, Atlanta and explained my failure. They told me what I knew, the motor was bad. However I showed them my receipt from last month and the parts guy told me I could restore the fan motor by rapping the brush residue from the motor. So, by using my air hose I use to blow out my cab and rapping the motor housing with a screw driver handle, I got a lot of gunk out of the motor, mainly the brush housing. I hooked it up and re-assembled it, and it works! Although the motor is dc, the HMI is 3 speed. I was under the false impression the motor was ac because I could start it by giving it a spin. I thought there must be a starting capacitor somewhere. The motor is dc and the speeds are acheived by duty cycle.
Thermo King shops have these blower assemblies on hand. New and used, from repairs experiencing the same problem as mine. I have an extra blower assembly and have found that by reversing the polarity, causing the motor to run backwards a few minutes helps some. Still, the motor won't turn on after a while, but by having another on hand I can swap assemblies when I cannot get one to run."

..it aint all gravy folks & if your truck aint movin' you're not making any money; remember when anything breaks, needs to be fixed or replaced, you pay for it along with that monthly truck payment! I wouldn't recommend leasing from a trucking company u drive for, there are too many pitfalls under that arrangement & your under their thumb! If u can't afford to buy a truck financing it thru an independent truck dealer then u probably can't afford to operate as an owner/operator.. please consider all the risks involved before you lease or buy your own truck.. that's just my opinion for whatever it's worth..

(if this post isn't appropriate under this discussion group the board moderators can or will move it to one that is..thanks!)