RV Transport Equipment ??

I have been dong drive-away for the past 2 weeks now. I pull a little ford ranger to get back to Indiana with. I have not seem many Class A or C’s with a trailer yet. The hitch on many are not rated over 6000 lb so a larger trailer will not work.

Very few drive aways are over a dollar right now….. most are in the .80-90 cent per mile range. Your right about recruiters - we ALL know how they are. Its still a turn and burn occupation - just like OTR.

 

How's the drive away business doing?

 

I checked in with star fleet and they told me they were not hiring any new drive away drivers. I don't think I want to go out and buy a truck right now (trying not to go into debt).

Where are you working Lastone?
I may check out Horizon. Any other suggestions for companies that do drive aways?

 

Sorry for the slow reply. I don’t really care how the volume is for drive-away. I park my RV near Elkhart for the spring and summer and just do maybe 4-6 runs a month. Thats all I want to work. So far since mid Feb to now I have keep busy. The slow down in drive away starts around mid May. Perfect for me.

 

Yep that one.

 

I run a long bed.
It gives the clearance needed for the 5th wheel rv trailers.

You can do it with a short bed by either sticking to hitch pulls, or by having a sliding 5th wheel hitch that adjusts for clearence.

It's not a way to get rich.it can pay tge bills dependent on what debt you have.
You better like being on the road.
Fuel mileage is everything.

I run an 07 dodge ram 3500 with the 5.9
(Early 07)

 

I'll ad, there are plenty of non 5th wheel pulls, but I sure like having the option of picking loads by prefered destinations and by pay rate.
That said: you could get your feet wet by
Just doing bumper pulls.
There are very few back hauls with any rv transporter no matter what recruitment says lol so don't plan on them.I do have everything I need if they come up..many can be a big bonus when they do come up.

So far I could run all the time up to dot limits if I wished to,and often do.It does tend to slow late summer , but there is always something going somewhere.
I live in northern indiana so that allows any load any direction to be reasonable.
Most doing this are not full time ,so yeah that likely effects industry rates and turnover big time. =/
Yeah I'd probably make a lot more driving a semi. But I dont know.

Hotels could eat up margins big time.be creative.
The only reason it works for me is the truck is paid for.I still put a truck and maintence payment aside, to buy another in the future.it Will again be a used 3500 dually in decent shape but where someone else has paid off the biggest depreciation. It's a hammer ,a tool, it doesn't need to be new, just solid and fuctional.it does need to get good return mpg.

I see guys doing well at it, and others not making much if anything.
I think it's what you make of it and how much you treat it like a business.
I think.most underestimate the over all expenses and shear number of miles needed to drive.

 

I run hard and full-time for Horizon Transport. In a couple of years when i get settled down i plan to retire my diesel dually and purchase a gas motored 3/4 ton standard cab longbed to pull TT's exclusively from our Oregon yards where 90% of the units are TT's. Having no fifth wheel will allow me to fit it with a pop-up camper, saving me hundreds of dollars a month in motel and food expenses.

Why 3/4 ton, and why gas? Our TT''s are rarely over 6,000 lbs, well inside a modern 3/4 ton's limits while still being able to handle the weight of a camper. The gas motor reason comes down to expenses. The stories from other drivers have made me think twice. A friend of mine at Bennett had his 2011 Ford 6.4 motor crap out on him with less than 200k miles on it. It cost him $17,500 (and nearly his sanity) to have it replaced with a remanufactured one. He had to use up favors just to borrow enough money. Another friend, Walt at Horizon had his injectors go out on his 2011 GMC, again with less than 200k on the motor, a thousand miles from home. The dealer in Great Falls gouged him for $9,000. These kind of expenses can break you. A gas motor will never set you back that much. For less than what Walt laid out for his injectors, you could have a new crate gas motor swapped in.

Consider this. With the newer diesels you have DEF, EGR's, water separators, gelling issues, and expensive filters to deal with. I checked on Autotrader. You can buy a brand new RAM 2500 standard cab longbed 4x4 with the 5.7 V8 for less than $25,000. A similar diesel runs about $8k higher. It will get nearly the same fuel mileage as the diesel while pulling TT's. And a diesel dually only makes sense if you're going to be towing the big stuff frequently. The differential in pay between hauling a big Fuzion fiver and a 24ft TT is only 12-18 cents /mi on average for us, so the expense to income ratio nulls out the advantage of running the bigger units.

A gas motor is relatively easy to maintain (although it has more frequent service intervals) and should last 250-300k miles. When it's done, just throw a new one in and go another 250-300k. That's my plan anyway.

 

You have a great plan! I did full tow away for two years and then got smarter. Now just do drive away for 3 months and I’m out. I tow a little Ford Ranger, (yea - I’m that guy), behind the drive-away unit. This is the best situation for me. I have a camper shell on the Ranger and sleep in it 3-4 nights when I’m delivering. When I deliver the unit - i’m off the books - no more logging miles, unlike a tow away driver. I see drivers who drop in Oregon and don’t see them again until a day after I get back to Elkhart!

Drive Away is just about done for the year. The Elkhart school bus drivers are beginning to show up. They have a tendency to get the remaining drive away which is fine with me. I would rather go back home to Texas.

 

When's drive away pick back up usually?