Buying first truck. Thinking Pete 379

Here comes the war... and black sky's again... but what do I know...

 

There is plenty of oil left. I've never worked in it but in my mind it goes something like this:
Cost to produce oil from middle east (per barrel) maybe $25 say.
Cost from Alberta...idk $50?
Cost from shael. 60?
Cost from under Antarctica 120?

When price rises above those then they start mining it. To think we are running out is a ridiculous thought. We have more than we will ever need. There will be some other factor, ww3 maybe, and we won't be talking about our "finite resource". Nevermind diesel/cng or diesel/lng I'm sure will come around.

 

there is a lot of things to take into consideration when buying a truck there are a lot of variables. i would consider a hood as a want and not a need, i considered a couple petes when i was looking for my current truck you do need to buy a truck that will make you happy, you don't want to buy a truck solely on price or solely on what kind of truck, it needs to work good for what you want to haul, i don't haul general freight i run from 90k-105,500 typically and go offroad so i had even more considerations to take into account. but in the used truck market sometimes you have to make compromises for a truck that will work good for you that will be hopefully reliable and not need a ton of work. repairs are probably the biggest thing that puts most new o/o out of business. it took me probably 6 months of looking to buy my last truck.

 

the figure you hear quoted when they talk about amounts of oil left your hear the term "recoverable oil" recoverable oil is a skewed figure, its its the amount of oil that can be recover at current oil prices with current technology and be recovered at a profit, price of oil goes up, the amount of oil that can be recovered goes up, new drilling technology processes the more oil becomes recoverable, we are not in any danger of running out of oil for the foreseeable future.

 

I'll sell you a 93 W9L with a 60' flat top. You can rebuild the Detroit anyway you want. The trans., driveshaft, rears, and Pete Flexaire all have less than 400,000 original miles. They came from a salvage truck. It isn't pretty but I put about $15K in other parts into in the 3 years I've had it. Also 8 new drives (lopro 24.5). I was going to keep it until I retired but I bought by accident (no pun intended) a 95 that better fits what I now do. Short hood, little bunk, short wheelbase works well for job sites.

 

Nickles and dimes absolutely add up. No one is disputing that.

But to find out what they add up to you need to use real numbers not some ridiculous figment of our imagination numbers. A non aero truck doesn't have to get 5 mpg. It's more like 7.3 to 7.8. A new aero truck does not get 10 mpg. It's more like low to mid 8s. Sure you will find a horribly specced 379 driven by a moron that only gets 5, and a new truck pulling dedicated 5k lb fright on flat ground getting 9. But those aren't accurate portrayals of what a guy can expect to get running typical loads in regional or otr operations. And we can't use 100k miles either. The vast majority of successful operators are running 60 to 80k miles a year. Not because they are lazy, but because they are pulling decent paying freight vs the garbage rates on long haul cross country runs.

So using 7.5 Mpg vs 8.3 a difference of. 8 which is probably being overly optimistic towards the aero truck, on 2.40 a gallon fuel on 80k miles (the very top end) is a difference of $2,468 dollars a year on fuel. That's barely over 200 a month.

I promise you, when i am twisting my body into a contortionist trying to access things on my truck i would gladly exchange that money for a truck that had the engine in front of the cab instead of half buried under it. And none of that even touches on the fact that i have spent a boatload fixing the dash that likes to break every time i hit a rough spot in the road. Or the tin can doors that rattle themselves apart. I kid you not, my 3 owner 2 million mile 379 had a quieter cab when i parked it than this plastic truck did within a week of driving it out of the dealership with less than 50 miles on the odometer. Brand freaking new and started rattling itself apart in under a week.

 

I don't know anything about trucks so I wasn't talking about this particular case. Obviously I suspect you're right, because if you weren't NO ONE (least of all Rollin Coal) would use the none aero trucks.

I was just pointing out that saying that a nickel or two shouldn't be the difference between success and failure was very misguided. That's a nickel or two of profit, which for most O/O's is probably ~10% of their bottom line at the end of the year. And the way to make it <10% is to never ever ever do something like let .05 or .10 per mile go.

 

I think what that posters point was is if that nickle or two is a make it or break it point then you are already screwed. Obviously i want to keep all the money i can, and i take fuel mileage very seriously, but if my profit margin is completely dependant on getting good fuel mileage then i have no business owning a truck.

 

I do drive an "aero" truck but if you look at pics in the profile you will note it does not have a roof fairing to help streamline air up over the trailer. I am one of those bad business guys that doesn't bother with or worry about fuel mileage.

 

I wonder what those guys in the HH forum get for fuel mileage? Bet its 4 or less. Guess they're all gonna go bankrupt too lol.