O/O truck age?

I though this was a survey.

Anyway she'll be 17 in Sept. Bought 'er new. Driving 'er 'til I retire. Nuther 15-20 years.

 

LTL can pay better, but will involve a lot more time to book loads. You can lose your shirt doing LTL if you don't watch what you are doing. You can buy a class 8 truck for less than you would spend for a F650 or 750. It is much more flexible and you will probably spend less on maintenance. I have a friend who went broke with a Dodge 1 ton dually. He had a transmission go out and his engine was about to go when he got rid of it. He put a lot of money in it. He could have spent the same amount of money on a class 8 truck and would probably still be driving it.

With a class 8 truck you can more easily lease it on with a carrier or get your authority. Anything smaller will really limit you as to what you can haul.

 

So did I...

She's almost 33, but doesn't look a day over 20, thanks to all that sunny southeastern race season weather.

Just got an in frame 17k miles ago (only 720,000 on the clock), 2 year old paint touchup (needs to be done again right), and as long as the transmission and rear ends hold together until I can get them gone through this year or the next, she should be on the road another 10 years at least until she's retired as a farm truck.

 

Keep in mind, I'm new to this, so I also keep a $0.10/mile maintenance slush fund (not to be confused with my $0.15/mile general maintenance fund for fluids, rags, lube, PM, etc.), because something is bound to break. Good business management dictates that you MUST go over your numbers from time to time, and adjust them to your own figures and intervals. Ask drivers with experience with similar equipment how far down the road it made it, then budget on the worst case scenario.

Engine interval
Have oil analysis done often, and regularly, so you can track the increase of particulate concentrations in your oil over time. The first few won't tell you anything unless something is WAY off, in which case, make sure you get a lab analysis to back up the shop analysis if you didn't go that route in the first place. A rapid increase in certain metals can point to big problems before they're big problems, and often save you a rebuild caused by catastrophic failure, or just premature failure of a particular component that wouldn't necessitate a rebuild if you can go in and replace it before a failure.

I budget for an in frame rebuild every 500,000 miles (about $9000 for a VT-903, so $0.02/mile) but don't expect to need one that soon. Better safe than sorry.

Transmission interval
Transmissions are such a strange beast, that once one or two things go wrong, you might as well just get a new one, since a synchro there, and a spline there will easily run you more than half the cost of a remanufactured transmission since repairs often involve 90% of the labor involved in a transmission swap. Be gentle with a transmission, and it may last a million miles, but if you're a city driver with a bad temper and a bum clutch knee, it might not last a year.

I budget for a reman transmission every 400,000 miles, since in my experience driving a company truck, they start getting a bit wonky around 400k, especially if they have computerized sensors, and have big, fat wiring harnesses. (A reman 18 speed without a core is about $8000+ labor, so a nice round $10,000, or $0.03/mile)

Axle interval
Axles and differentials are some of the most neglected components of the drivetrain on most tractors. Many only get a peek through the fill hole at full service, and the rear housing plate usually doesn't get pulled until there is a major problem that needs inspecting. Otherwise, they get a pat on the ### and are sent down the road.

I really need to get my pumpkins gone through since there are 0 service records on them, but they present no known issues, so I'm budgeting at 750,000 miles, which some may say is overly cautious. (A matched set of rear differentials is $3000 on the steeper side of things, and many O/Os can be persuaded by their pocket books to throw in the replacements themselves, so $0.005/mile (yes, a half cent per mile))

Clutch interval
Really depends on whether or not you use it, and how effectively you use it. I've seen rookies burn them up every 30,000 miles like clockwork, and company trucks I drove were usually sold before I wore the one down that was on the truck when I picked it up, so I was doing 100,000 miles or better. I'm just going to save up the cash for one at $0.02/mile, plus a little extra, kick it into a savings account, then wait until I need a new one, and readjust my figures for a better cpm estimation. Parts and labor for a new clutch is somewhere around $2,000, so it won't take long to save that little rainy day fund up.

So, all in all, $0.33 per mile off the top for everything you asked for according to my guesstimates, but better numbers might whittle that down to $0.20/mile, or blow it up over $0.50/mile if I bought a total POS and ran it I stole it.

With a truck over 10 years old, start worrying about things like fuel pumps, electrical systems ECMs (if you have one), and rust repair, plus extra labor costs for the techs that go crying to the office every time their impact wrench snaps a bolt while they're installing a mudflap.

Good luck playing the numbers game. We've all got our own philosophy on it, and any O/O worth their salt should be able to pull their figures up for you to admire/fear/cry over together.

 

Just don't black out the sun, and you usually won't have an issue with emissions on older trucks, just like older cars. As long as they meet the emission standards at the date of the engine's manufacture, nobody will bother you outside of California, as far as I know.

What I've gathered from older O/O's that have rebuilt their own engines, their advice is that if you can rebuild the engine from a 4 wheeler, you can rebuild a class 8 engine; they're just bigger. Just line up a week off, grab an inframe kit and a 24 pack to lure in a second pair of hands, pull the hood off, and get to work.

 

I am in the process of in framing my 3406E model cat as we speak .

The parts are bigger and heavier and the torque wrench is bigger too .

If you have a manual and the know how it is not hard just dirty and heavy work.

You just take your time and double check your work and everything should go ok .

If I run into anything that I have questions about I can just call my cat shop and they are good enough to help with special tools and any info I need .