Double Yellow's Company Driver to Independent Thread

Love the way you put your heart and soul into a explanation Double yellow.

I think if we could get the interest rate down to 4% and the term of the loan down to 5 years and tighten up our figures on the 5 000 in maintenance . It would than be a wash between owning the new truck over the old truck.

5000 a year for maintenance for the new truck sounds a little high. Other than pms the 1st 2 years there should be no additional cost until the 3rd year for brakes and tires.

Where you win is if you amortized out the new truck over 7 to 8 years before it starts needing expensive repairs.


As far as the old truck no matter how much money you shovel into it , it will still be a 15-20 thousand dollar truck for resale.

I know I am not telling you anything you don't already know. Just discussing.

Hope all goes well with your rebuild.

 

Another 2 or 3 years fixing/replacing in and out of shops might change perspective on new versus used. I know in my own circumstance I would have been better off to start from the beginning with a brand new tractor (this was '09 so brand new glider NOT an '09 EPA tractor). Hindsight is always 20/20.

 

And that your shop experiences are all good.

I remember reading about your kingpin replacement story that had you beating your head against the wall .Been there done that with vibrations.

When DY spells it out that you are only 500 dollars a month from owning a new truck over a old truck and all that is , is one or 2 loads a month to makeup, reality hits home. I would much rather be worrying about finding another load than if my truck was going to make it home

I am very mechanical and was completely on the other side of the fence 6 months ago.

But in the long run the ease of ownership .sure would be nice.

Granted it is going to cost you a bit more if you take some time off, though that could be worked down by keeping the truck for 7 or 8 years

 

DY, Are the charts east coast time?

 

I think buying an older truck is manageable, as is buying a new glider. There's pro's and con's. DY helped me do some number crunching on my glider decision. I think he wound up figuring about 0.10/mile more for the glider over 5 years and I figured about 0.05/mile more for the glider.

But there's a lot of estimating there. The glider should have far less variance, which alone is a good reason for someone to go that route.

The most important way to look at the difference and make a decision what is right for you IMO is this. A new glider gives you higher fixed costs, but your variable per mile costs go way down. Think about that, so the more miles your run in a week or month the better of a deal a glider is vs. an older truck.

So if you don't run many miles or you like to be able to park the truck for a month, the older truck may be perfect for you. If you run a bunch it helps the glider to pencil out, I was really surprised how over the course of time it's not that much more.

I'm not here to argue for or against the glider, I do have one, but I think owning an older truck is a good way to do business too. One thing that appealed to me is that I know I will have a 5 year old truck paid for with about 500,000 miles five years from now. With an older truck that could be accomplished with some disciplined savings and even with interest working for you, instead of against. But I'm not real disciplined, I like that having a payment helps me stay on task and moving forward.

Another thing to point out, is of course the first year with a glider is awesome, brand new, warranty, great !. Year 2 and 3 also good, under warranty. year 4 and 5. hmmm, still making payments but you could possibly have some big repairs too and are surely gonna have a few things like tires or brakes to deal with.... That will be a little less fun, but I'm enjoying the truck now and trying to get some cheese stacked for later on.

Either way you go, having a healthy stack of cheese at your fingertips is the key.

 

Nobody's mentioned that comp insurance is higher on a new truck.
I prefer a paid off truck so when things happen at home you can take time off, as I have since May 1, the payment clock is not running along with the IRS bill. Less pressure and no temptation to take a cheap load just to turn dollars.
If you are earning good money not just running a lot of miles to stay afloat (not super close margins) then a new truck cam make sense.
Now if I had a super fancy equation to insert here I would sound smart.

 

Yes, I just locked in 4.25% for August delivery on a new truck.

 

####roach Inn lol no thanks.

 

Mine may have been a bit under 5%, I can't remember off hand. It's not that risky for the bank if you put down the right amount and have the appropriate insurance. The magic number for my banker was 78%, and making $1500/mo payments he would have no trouble getting his money back by repo straight to auction at any time.