buying a cheap used truck?

Don't know. The rule of thumb is FIRST find the lease or freight and then buy the truck to fit the situation. You might want to pull a tank and find out a heavy double sleeper condo is not the right truck to have. Or a daycab will work fine for local runs, but not when you go a little farther and have to stay over til the next day to reload back home. A 6X2 (tag axle) will do ok in the summer but going across the mountains in Canada will present a problem. Learn the business, pay attention and the right deal will find you.

 

The short answer is yes. I know a guy who has a 2006 Freightliner with a new inframe he is selling for $20,000. In the last few years I have seen decent trucks in the $10-13,000 range. I know a guy who just sold his Freightliner for $11,000. He had just put new tires on the truck. He always took good care of it. I believe it was a 2001 or 2002 Century. You don't need to spend $50,000 to buy a good used truck. But, you do need to carefully check out any potential purchase before writing a check. I always advise anyone thinking of buying a truck to take their time and don't get in a hurry to buy a truck. When you rush you make mistakes.

 

You absolutely can find a truck in that price range, but you need to go over the truck thoroughly. Make sure all records are available on rebuilds and other maintenance, don't just take their word for it being done. As mentioned above, have a game plan before buying a truck

 

make sure the power train is A1, clutch, tires, turbo, hopefully no egr, no rear ended issues and save 5k for anything else and go for the sky hopefully you will be making dough so put some back in it as you go rather pay myself 50 cpm than be paid that

 

Lot's of deals on columbia's and century's in that price range. You good with a wrench? At that price at least a few things will need to be replace/rebuilt. 2003 is personally the newest I'd be looking, don't wanna deal with egr, dpf, and def. Unless you live in cali then your f'd

My dad recently bought a 1993 Mack ch600 mid-roof for 22k. 800,000 miles and taken really good care of. Some may say he over paid for a 23 year old truck but it's all subjective. That old bulldog is built like a tank compared to the new trucks and rides smoother than the new cascadia's I was driving. And running shined up old iron is something to be proud of.

What lanes are you looking to run? Reefer, flat, van, step deck? Lot's of people will tell you now's not a good time and you won't make it. As long as you have a business sense about you and good work ethic you should be fine leasing on to a company. Starting off you need a good 15k in the bank for repairs or at least a line of credit. Something expensive will probably break that 1st year. The 15-20k trucks are gonna need some TLC

 

Here are some latest results of the recent Hess auctioneers auction in PA thats going on today for the trucks marked sold for price ideas. Check it again tonight for the trailers as its still going.

http://www.hessauctioneers.net/!X0/for-sale/!13000

 

http://www.truckpaper.com/listings/trucks/for-sale/7213401/2007-mack-vision-cx613 Here's an 07 mack vision for 16,900 that could probably be haggled down to 15k or even a little less. Gonna need the frame blasted and painted to stop the rust but it's right in your price range. Turn it up to the 460 file or xt if they let ya and you'll have a good pulling truck as long as the egr doesn't give a fit. It can't give you a fit if it's not there to begin with....all I can say on that topic.

That e7 will go forever if maintained properly. Our 93 has 800k and no blow by. Still seeing 27 or so psi which is real good for the 350. The bottom end is pretty strong with the cross-hatched buttress bolts. I grew up around Mack's so im a bit biased if you can tell

 

What part of PA? Do they have regular auctions, I know my dad would like to check it out

 

I would start with truck paper. Thats how I found my truck. I picked a hand full of states. To look in. Do it over again I would have picked Texas to buy in. Less rust on their trucks.