We are taking on a small fleet of trucks and I have a bunch of dumb questions

With older equipment there's no simple answer on when to ditch a piece of equipment. Huge corporations have rules/math/etc for it. They also replace some components earlier than needed, but they're trying to do a one-size-fits-all maintenance plan, and I'm sure they're right given the size they are. They're working at economies of scale you'll never see. Some of them are also dealerships and are making money on the trucks coming AND going. With a small fleet and older equipment the math is very different. One of the purposes of newer equipment is to attract drivers, if you already have some guys that you're inheriting with the gear, that might not be a problem. Also some trucks just aren't ever problems. They run every day, nothing expensive ever breaks, and you just keep going with it much longer than you expected and it's GREAT. It feels like free money. Some equipment is ALWAYS a pain, and you wonder if someone's playing a prank on you. When there's no warranty, you gotta make the calls yourself and it's tricky. Get a good mechanic you trust, make sure they understand your operation and what your goals are and let them guide you. Good mechanics hate working on money-pit trucks as they're afraid you're gonna come back and blame it on them. Different trucks have different uses. If you've got a weepy engine that will cost a fortune to make dry, but which runs fine and never changes, maybe run that around on short trips where it won't get DOT'd, and run the nicer newer cleaner gear through the weigh stations. That's all stuff where experience helps a lot. With 5 older trucks you should be able to make yourself somewhat important to a mechanic, and that guy will want to answer the phone when you call and give you advice because instead of giving all your money to the bank (loans on new equipment) or the dealership, you're giving it to him instead. IMHO, It's going to be all about your relationships with vendors.

 

No way that I know of other than to search "Truckpaper" with the specs you're looking for