Starting hot shot trucking with half ton ford f150

Get a better truck. I have an F150 and I'll tell you right now you're going to kill that truck quick pulling 14k lbs on the regular. It's gonna be a gutless pig as soon as you try and run your first hill with a decent load.

 

@AModelCat said you will ruin that F150 in short time. As far as bare bones entry level IMO a one ton diesel. The newer ones are so high plus with the freight so slow will make for a tuff go right now.
You also count on having enough cash to get started with until money flow starts coming in.
You need a to have a way to access freight near your home base.

 

How do cargo vans do this then? The Ford Transit has the same engine as mine, but with less towing capacity. Surely there have to be some small loads I can do reliably that the diesels are too expensive for, until I can afford one myself

 

A pick up truck is going to be working open deck freight on a trailer. It's got a much in common with the cargo van market as a freaking airplane.

Gotta love internet forums. You got people with literally decades experience doing what you want to do, and yet you guys without a single second of experience in the industry think your smarter than all of them.

 

If you don't like the answers you're getting, try asking different questions.

 

That's actually what I just did buddy.

Maybe "hotshotting" isn't the right term, but what I am looking to do is what courier/delivery drivers do with cargo vans. Light loads under 5,000 pounds. I can easily do that in my ecoboost. That is what cargo vans were built to do.

 

No you can't do them cause they are NEVER going to put them in the back of a pick up truck bed. You act like you think customers have no say in what kind of equipment they choose to use. They have ALL the say.

You want to haul cargo van freight then you need to buy a cargo van. You want to haul hot shot freight them you need a bigger truck so you can pull a trailer plus the cargo without burning up your transmission and/or rear end. Your eco boost, heat like all head tons is designed to occasionally move a couch or refrigerator and pull a small bass boat around on the weekend. It is not designed to work hard day in and day out and trying to force it into that role is going to be a very expensive lesson.

Oh and fyi. The poster you wrote wasn't giving you advice. He was being sarcastic. You got answers you didn't like so you simply rephrased the question hoping to get a different answer.

 

Your setup to fail, bad idea. F150 is not the truck for the job. I love my f150, but it really is more of a car than a truck.

 

Accurate description the poster should appreciate the response

 

Nope, it’s not heavy enough to haul skid steers. I did several times with mine, when I wanted to take it home from the shop to work around the house, and it was all it would handle. It will never last two months trying to do that every day. And if you do it, you end up on the flatbed truckers Hall of shame thread on here, downside up, because you tried to stop quick and went all over the road, and fully indigenous in the bushes. Absolutely minimum for doing hotshot hauling will be a one ton. I wouldn’t hire you to haul anything for me with any less