Buying a backup truck

On the penske thing you'd have to ask them, but I know a lot of their random for-rent CDL equipment looks like stuff that's off lease but hasn't been sent to auction yet so who knows. I've only rented OTR tractors and straight trucks and no PTOs on them, but they have all sorts of stuff I don't need listed for rent and kicking around their yard (I pick up from the regional maintenance facility which I think helps for being able to get a variety of gear). I know if you lease from them and something breaks they give you an equivalent loaner so I guess if they lease trucks to fuel haulers they should have some equivalent gear in reserve. I think it's the same deal with ryder and other larger lease outfits.

 

LOL yeah I figured that been there done that I had to learn the hard way also
TRUCKS DONT COME WITH A MAGICAL GENIE that alerts you when something's about to BREAK,

Who ever invents that is Gunna b a REALLY RICH MAN!

RULE OF THUMB I NOW USE..if I spend over or close to 50% of the what I paid for it NOT TRUCK VALUE,BUT WHAT I PAID FOR IT,I get rid of it Because if you sell it your not gunna get what you paid for it..UNLESS U FIND A DUCK who doesnt know any better ..anywhoo -UNLESS and that's a BIG UNLESS I REALLY,REALLY,REALLY,REEaaally ABsolutely LOVE the TRUCK...notice how I stressed that point LOL

but hey ATLEAST you can. Hall it up to EXPERIENCE and now you know

I have a formula,I HAVE QUICK ACCESS TO A AUCTION
SO if I need a MAJOR PART EX.MOTOR,TRANNY.i buy the whole truck around $3000- $5,000 and use the parts I need if tires are good I also take them too and store em til I need it, once I'm done I put the old broke parts back n DA AUCTION TRUCK ...and up up and away she goes to DA SCRAP YARD for either what i paid for it QUICK CASH,or back through the AUCTION LMAO...pretty clever huh?..

But I wish u DA BEST DRIVER!

 

i don't think its necessarily a bad idea, when i buy my next truck i plan to keep my current as a spare. seems how my work also requires special equipment mounted on the truck. rentals are out of the question as well. i would likely just carry non trucking liability on it till i needed it then swap my coverages. i don't think it would take more than needing it a couple weeks a year to pay the additional expenses.

 

Unlike many posters with their dull 2 pennies, I can see that you're trying to achieve 100% uptime to service your customer and I have heard the shop repair timeframes are crazy in the oil fields. I think an older paid for truck would be ideal. Your last post said it would be running 1 load a week, so really it will be a part time truck then. If you can make that work, only you can make that decision, on whether to finance another one.
As far as insurance goes when renting from Penske, I simply called my agent and told them which truck was in the shop and they added the Penske truck to my policy temporarily. It wasn't a big deal at all. But without a pump, it's probably not viable anyway.