Lessons learned, and clearing the air. New&perspective O/O's should read.

2008 is the worst year for trucks period, doesn’t matter what make.........

don’t ask how I know this.....

 

Especially those yellow ones from that year.

 

You sound like a real winner. Thanks for the invaluable contribution now get back under your rock.
Sheesh.

 

I'm a O/O as well and can tell you I sympathize with your story . My second year insurance renewal was coming up and my clutch went out and needed new tires along with PM service due all at the same time . All I could think was wtf am I doing here ? Why am I doing this to myself? Seems long ago .
Now with this same truck being paid off a year early and more money in my bank account while being close to debt free It was worth it . With any luck I will get another year or two out of this truck . Good luck .

 

Seems like the reinstatement of the authority was faulty. I put my authority on hold and was told all I needed to reinstate it was a few dollars, insurance filing and in 3 days it would be active. I did it myself with the FMCSA with some help from OOIDA. Sorry you had a bad time.

 

Well if new guys ask for contribution from experienced 0/0 they wont find themselves in the position this guy found himself.
Its easy to blame luck and other people rather than admit the poor decision making.
Truck is a lemon,cut your losses and move on.
Sorry i dont applaude stupidity,i’ll go back under my rock now.

 

Perhaps it time for the OP to change his avatar?

 

Morale of the story for those less mechanically inclined (I belong there too) and with poor mechanical expertise , and most important of all without having a friendly repair shop place where these repairs will cost one third of what dealerships charge is that buying a used truck is too much of a gamble. Yet buying a brand new is too mentally overwhelming, especially for 1st time buyers.
When buying used the first thing that would need to be done would be taking the truck to a friendly mechanic and let him find vulnerabilities and then proceed with the truck to an engine manufacturer shop (or truck brand dealership) to perform a dyno test. That's the due diligence @Ridgeline always talks about. But it may not always be an option given by a truck seller.
I also spent about 20K in my first year(at a friendly shop - not a dealership shop!) but gradually and with ability to make revenue in between repairs, which kept me in business. Since then I spend on average 15 K per year on various maintenance items ( other than repairs, here come tires, new seats, truck washes, PMs etc. ) and there is always something to be fixed or improved. There will never be the end of it. My next truck, if ever, will be a brand new with a manufacturer's warranty extension.

Post Scriptum:
I think that many of us who were company drivers for years before purchasing the first truck were listeners to KR show on XM radio and somehow influenced by his advocating of buying the least expensive trucks there are and put them to work ASAP to generate revenue. The fallacy of that idea that those trucks are rarely road worthy any more and they sale cheap for a reason.

 

His story should be motivation for potential owner operators to focus on building their tool inventory. A few thousand dollars in tools from an estate sale in the hands of a motivated and intelligent person can save them 10's of thousands of dollars. Depending on the op's mechanical ability it could have kept him in business with that truck.