Business Plan/ Mentor Needed

Just look underneath it at all the cross members make sure everything there looks good. The floors are good, no daylight coming up through cracks. Check lights and see if the wires have been hacked up. Look at the brakes, tires and all.

Look for corrosion, not surface rust per say, but the really bad cancer kind that's eating completely thru metal deterioratin badly. The painted white aluminum panels of oustide walls can be susceptible to rot if crud got into the logistics post from something hauled in it that got wet or otherwise stayed damp in there.

Cancerous corrosion and hacked up wire harnesses would be red flags to me. Brakes, tires, alignment - that stuff is the cheap easy fixes and if those things need attention but otherwise the unit looks good then use that as a negotiation point to bring the price down with "well I'll be spending $2,000 on brakes and tires" or whatever amount...

 

15k sounds a bit steep for vanguard, maybe if it is in excellent condition, NEW tires and brakes are very good it may be worth a look.

They are good people at transit trailer at Chatham.

 

I would think most of them should be but that is just my thinking - I have only had to order specific parts for mine one time.

I have a Vanguard reefer, and I backed it into a dock crooked once and busted the top hinge that holds the door on. I still had 4 good hinges so I waited to get it repaired when I got home. I figured a hinge would be a common item and in inventory. It had to be ordered from China.

My great dane will be here soon. With the Carrier 7500 x4 unit and all the lights and bells and whistles ...

 

I am not sure if they are Chinese made or what. All I know about where it was made was a trucker story who said they arrive as a box of parts and are assembled here. Beyond that ... who knows. I will say mine was much less expensive to buy - maybe that was because our dollar was stronger than USD when I bought it - but it is not fairing well structurally today - it was manufactured Dec. 2009. 7 years 4 months, I would have expected it to stay in better condition than it has. Part of the reason I am going top of the line this time. I want this to be the last trailer I buy, if I continue on my current path of no intention to hire a driver / have more than 1 truck. On occasion you see someone who has kept theirs for 20 years. I want to be that guy.

 

Wow,great advice