Why not doing your own repairs will make you go bankrupt.

Simply break your payments down from monthly to daily .. then figure out what it costs every single day you have a payment
Now you can dress it up anyhow you wish
But the reality is every day that truck is sitting in the shop for repaires it is X amount of dollars it is costing you just in a payment .. even if every nickel of that work is covered by a warranty which is highly doubtful
Its basic Economics

 

For me it depends on the issue. There are some i can do easily which i just pay a shop to do for liability reasons and for a maintaince record for warranty work when it applies (oil changes on my APU and brakes for example). There are some I CAN do but which for various reasons i just pay a shop to do (ever had to pull apart a 579 dashboard all the way to the firewall just to find out the one specific thing you want to fix actully requires davie 4 when it says it doesnt in the manual? I have!) and there are some issues i cant do such as anything davie4. And some things which i just dont have the correct tools to deal with on the road.

And then there are many i do myself. I can change a tire on my own, i can swap anything attached to my engine that doesnt require davie 4 to calabrate, oil, filters, wipers, even entire windshelds, seats, seatbelts, airbags, bushings, U-joints, minor electrical, body pannels and so on.

If i relied 100% on the shop id be bankrupt but shops and more importantly maintaince records do have their place as well.

 

Anything is possible. I've helped O/Os do motor swaps in the sapp's parking lot.

 

I still enjoy working on my own…..but I’m slow as smoke off cow dung. I used to could do 4 sets of shoes and drums on budd wheels in just under an hour. Takes me bout an hr and half a wheel now. I have put a crank in a 3406b and cut counterbores cam bearings cylinder packs and done pump and advance had it back in the truck running in 3.5 days. Know probably a couple weeks. Age has took a lot of my strength, all my hearing and most of my eyesight but none of my heart. I make mistakes when I do I have to decide fire me or fix it….that’s better for me than getting my blood pressure up over things I can’t control or pay to have done things done twice

 

Had a heavy wrecker help me out back in the beginning. We lived in a little apartment complex in Fayetteville Arkansas. He come set it out and back in for 250.00. Gave me a few helpful tips. I’ve always been grateful to that ol guy.

 

I think there are good arguments for both scenarios, it just depends on your personal situation and what you want.
In my situation I had alot of work done in 2019 ...inframe etc etc and some other work that the sun has set on and can't be discussed here .
At my age and condition of my truck I have no incentive to buy new or even trade up to a newer truck other than for the new truck smell.

 

Thread just another example of how there isn't any one size fits all solution. Put 5 truck drivers in a room and somehow you end up with 6 opinions

 

To play devils advocate, one could say, if you spent more time searching for better paying work, building a client base that pays well, rather than spending all the time under the truck you would be better off.

But in saying that, I spend all weekend working on the trucks as taking them to the shop is such a pain in the butt, even though I could afford it.

Knowing what you can and can't do is the most important thing, I will grease, service, tyres, basic part changes, but anything major I am too busy to allocate 15hrs of straight time to, (I could do 1hrs a day for 15 days) so when my shop can get 2 guys on it and get it done in an 8hr shift that's money well spent.

Honestly though, if you are running that thin of a margin you are only a blown turbo or diff away from disaster anyway.. I did my own work because I enjoy it, get better results and save money, no because I can't afford to pay someone to do it.

 

Isn't it funny how age and pain changes your mind on some jobs lol.
In the last year I also quit doing my own lube work on my pick ups and last week contracted with a lawn service company to do all the fertilizer, weed and insect control on my yard.
All the stuff I did in my teens 20s 30s and 40s has caught up with me .

 

There are two camps here.
If you run older equipment you need to be able to work on it.

Or you can run new equipment.

I’ve had both. I will take new all day every day. For me I would rather pay a truck payment and have very little maintenance as opposed to no truck payment and having to spend my free time fixing a truck.

The money is the same either way, but downtime is much less with new.