I'm going to buy a used Schneider Truck

Total cost after owning the truck for a complete week....Zero Income. Oh, my fuel tank is empty..

SpeedCo PM- $725
NC Sales tax & prorated IRP plate - $1750
Partial year 2290- $177
Insurance Binder policy $370

Day #1 repairs- $234 labor and DOT inspection
- Parts $80

Day #2 and #3 repairs:
- labor $599
- parts, cooliant and DEF $160

Truck Wash- $65
Mudflap Reflective Strips- $35
Other Accessories- $50

So this is what I paid so far on top of my initial $4k downpayment. I've been very lucky that the shop owner gave me such a huge break. He assigned a dedicated mechanic to work on my truck for 2 1/2 days. I was at the shop 3 full days. Shop even loan me his company van to do errands and go to hotel. It is very fortunate that I have this kind of relationship with a shop owner. I can tell you it didn't happen overnight. It took years and lots of patience. And No, we are not related, I'm Asian and shop owner is White. Point is that you need to find the right mechanic that clicks in personalities and pay him promptly. I Also tip the mechanics well so they always greet me and eager to be helpful.

For those of you who wants to be an owner operator, I want you to know that getting the truck is the easy part and the down payment for the truck is just a small fraction on your total investment in the truck. It has been my experience that within the first month on all of my previous trucks, i had put in between $3000 to $10,000 in repairs. These truck ranges from 450k miles 3 year old trucks to over 1 million mile 15 year old trucks. I've heard of many very lucky fellas that had a lot less repairs on their newly acquire trucks but then again, I personally known guys that goes broke due to maintenence. Here's a little secrete, I've tried buying enough pre emission '03 or older trucks and have had way too much issues too. This is why I took the plunge and bought a newer Emission truck because I am sick and tired of the older trucks breaking down on me.

Well enough rambling...I'll update on my progress after putting more miles...

 

Update on my Ex-Schneider truck.

So after my last shop visit, while bobtailing to Orientation with a small carrier, my darn check engine and emission lamp came back on. The same two NOX effiency low messages came back. Truck had no issues for around 300 miles after last shop visit. At this point, I was getting very desperate and very anxious if I would pass inspection with the new carrier. To this point, I have spent over $12k for down payment, plates, insurances, repairs, etc....I just quit my dayjob and no income and the first of April was soon aproaching. My $1300 Rent will be due as well as all my bills.

For all of you guys wanting to be an owner operator, my situation is very real and common. Be prepare to go all in before you buy a truck. As you can see, buying a truck is the easy part. Cash flow is a big problem.

So I got to Orientation in Georgia and only needed to change a Torq Arm because the bushings were bad. $350 bill. My check engine was still on but the mechanic let that go. After orientation, I got assigned a very nice 2016 dryvan. However, i did not want to load just yet due to my check engine. The shop at orientation didn't have the computer to diagnose my truck so I had to go to another shop again.

Based on what my trusted mechanic had suggested and from my own research on the net, I needed to change out the two NOX sensors. Even though it test out fine using the Detroit diagnostic computer. So I went to Freightliner and the parts guy there was asking if I'm sure because he said that NOX sensors rarely go bad, and, there are no refunds on these $750 sensors. I was very desperate and took a gamble and purchased the sensors. The Freightliner shop wouldn't be able to see my truck for a couple of days at least so I went to the new TA/Petro in Columbia, SC. The TA shop didnt have the special socket to install the sensors so it took all day for them to locate the special socket. TA gave me a real deal and came through for me again. Total labor was only $160 for swapping my sensors and resetting my check engine light. The old NOX sensors were a pain to remove because they were rustwelded to the One Box. It took a lot of lub and fiddling to finally remove them.

I deadhead another 300 miles home with the trailer and so far, so good..This is just my second week of owning this truck and my stress levels are rising too quickly for my comfort. Zero income so far, and might need to sink more money into this Emission crap.

 

Hey CAT SDP,

I have to disagree with you. Not looking for an arguement here but I've had really bad experiences with Detroit, Cummins, and Freightliner dealerships. By the time I got a truck with a CAT, I've already given up on the big shops. Perhaps you are local and only go to the same dealership. Since I've done OTR all over, I've been to shops everywhere. I owned a previous 3 year old freightliner with cummins isx all pre emission and was towed over 26 times to these big shops. Also owned 7 other trucks too. Those thief ripped me off. The very last time I went to Freightliner to charge my AC system cost over $800 and they didnt even replace anything. Oh, it took them over a week to get to my truck. They said it was for troubleshooting. TA charges less than $200 for AC service at the time. Yes, the big dealership know more and have more skills. But, most work that I need on the road are parts installers, not Mechanics. The so called specialist are masters of ripping people off.

TA have lots of newbies but they have done wheel seals, change leaf springs, relace my drive shaft, now my NOX sensors and many more things with absolutely no downtime on my part because there is no waiting for days and weeks for a mechanic to even look at how much they can milk me.

The best solution is to build good relations with mechanics that own and work at their shop. After a decades of taking my trucks to the big dealers, I have never met any of the mechanic nor talked to them. I'm just a number to them and the service managers are worse. The very last time I went to Freightliner was for a DOT inspection on my truck. They failed it and said I needed $10k worth of repairs. I took it to local shop and it pass. Got 3 level 1 inspection on it and it pass.

I'm not trying to argue with anyone here about which shops are best. I'm just telling you from my experiences over the past decade, if my truck needs to go to a shop while away from home, i look for a small owner operated shop where the owner is the main mechanic. Their rates are better, and will usually work on my truck right away. If I had to go to a big dealership, I would go to Kenthworth or Peterbilt, then Volvo and lastly go to Freightliner as they have the worst service and wait time. There are too many big fleets that goes to Freightliner so you won't be their priority.

 

All the new trucks with DPF and DEF all sucks. Just from talking to owner operators with these new emission truck at TA while waiting for my NOX sensor to be replace, I met 2 guys that did a DPF delete and they were very happy with the new results. One guy said Volvo wanted $27k to fix his DPF system so he deleted it and had no more issues. I think that as these trucks gets older, folks will start to delete the DPF and DEF because fixing the EPA crap cost more than its worth. It used to be that EGR delete was hush hush but Most of the owner operators I've met deleted their EGR. I already have 3 sources lined up for this eventuality so if my system acts up and further, bye bye DEF & DPF.

I thought that Pete or Kenworth would be great buys but my previous employer had 2010 to 2015 Pete and volvos and MAC trucks, they all have issues. Check Engine light always come on and they smokes and have no power. The reason why I decided on a Cascadia is because from personal experience driving them and talking to many owner operators and shop mechanic at Penske, and iDeal Lease, Cascadia seems to have less problems and they are cheap. They shake and rattle. Even on a brand new 2016 cascadia that I put 70k miles from 25 miles on the OD, it shakes and vibrates hence FreightShaker

My fail safe plan is to finish up an out of frame rebuild on my old 2000 Kenworth T600 with a Detroit Series 60 motor. Just hope I have the funds for this.