Old truck, paid for, or new truck and payments

Lol
I seen that last one, the fire truck look'n one cruise'n through Nashville bout 4 weeks ago..






They ain't for me, but to each their own..

I've noticed that alot of school buses only run about 58mph on the super slab. Might need to re gear it if that's the way you decide to go.?

 

Yep, I am planning on doing a skollie here when I retire in July. Gonna have to re-gear whatever I purchase. Don’t wanna be a rolling roadblock out there.

 

The district will auction up the Buses or Fire Trucks ?

 

Dam - structure for water holding
#### - exclamation

 

I think you should wait until school is closed for summer...Then get a Job Driving Hot Shot to find out if you like it ...OTR is not for everyone...if you dont like it you can go back to Driving Bus or Dump Truck or whatever...No Money invested...I don't know how they sleep in a Hot Shot without a sleeper??

 

New vs old is going to depend on your own ability/willingness to work on it and whether you have the facilities available to do that (Shop, tools, etc). Older ones need more attention and you cant afford to run it off to the dealer or truck shop for every little thing. That being said, there is money to be saved on the purchase price and not having payments is a bonus.

I will take a contrarian stance and suggest starting with a little truck if you have no inside track or leg up on this business. (ie; your dad or best buddy doesn't already have an existing trucking company that can help navigate you through the start up crap.) You can buy a 1-ton DRW with no more than 14k GVWR and register and insure it as a personal vehicle without issue while getting everything set up, and these are easy to turn around and sell if you decide it ain't for you. Trying to start off with a bigger commercial vehicle is a bit of a chicken or the egg problem as many who have attempted to do so have found out. If you bought one you'd have to have it transported off the ground or moved by a driveaway company. Before you buy anything talk to the insurance company and start shopping policies because that's oftentimes the sticking point to getting started. It's easier to graduate to a bigger truck once you're up and running and already have a commercial insurance policy.

 

Older trucks without payments can't get repo'ed. On top of that, not having a truck payment is better for your cash flow.

 

Don’t pay much attention to the HP numbers on the pickups

The p pumped Cummins in the
FL Truck you mentioned , will last much longer .
My first several 18 wheelers had a 350 HP big cam Cummins , but it was the 14 liter engine .
The new pickups advertise more HP but oddly, they don’t use those engines in big trucks .
Wonder why ?

And yes , you’re on the right track.

a FL 60 is much better choice for light hauling , than a pickup.
It will last much longer , be safer , and won’t use any more fuel .

And the lack of electronics and miles of computer crap and dozens of sensors , will make it much more reliable .
Yes , the new rigs with all the computer crap use slightly less fuel , that’s true . But the frequent repairs and downtime while waiting on parts from China will eat up any fuel savings .

Even for towing a large travel trailer camper , a FL60 is a much better choice than a F350 .
cheaper , and safer because of the much larger brakes etc .


And as mentioned , finding insurance is usually a problem .
There’s a recent thread
On here from a guy that borrowed a ton of money to buy a new or late
Model F350 or something and a trailer to do hot shot and can’t get insurance for some reason .

a lot of guys get into hot shot because they have bad credit and no money and can get a loan on the truck since it’s not considered commercial vehicle when you buy it so any stealership will loan money to buy it from them . And they think since it’s just a pickup they don’t need a CDL or DOT / MC numbers or logbooks or follow all of the rules the that big trucks are required to follow ….

 

That’s pretty slick. Fire Trucks are notoriously well maintained, and low miles. Not to mention pretty cheap to buy. The question is always What would you do with it? Great idea.