Wannabe Team driver with husband.

Truck will have an inverter for the cpap

 

Company drivers & teams generally don't change trucks often. I usually changed less than once per year. Once the truck is assigned you you drive it until it's broken or they give you another. I equip my truck for everything. It can take me 2-3 hours to move trucks. It hardly ever happens. Lousy companies have lousy old trucks and they go into the shop for major repairs a lot. Don't work for those companies. You are not going to complain until a bad company changes.

Ask all the questions you have. But most questions are asked over and over & never searched. Most frustration you'll notice comes from seeing the same question asked for the 12th time this week. Search is your friend. It's in the upper right corner of every page.

 

Dot not cracking down on glider kits .don't know where you heard that' and it is my recommendation you buy a glider kit .I love mine

 

A married team can make huge bank at a LTL company without the responsibility of owning. HUGE!!!.

 

Generally I would be first to tell anyone looking to get into Owner Operator to run as a company stiff at least a few years. But in your case you already are familiar with trucking for what it's worth, good and bad.

I would buy a glider, a older truck that is not required to have the newest emissions crap or emissions anything beyond a basic muffler installed at factory when it was built. You don't even need that. Run straight pipe if you like.

In my opinion today's emissions in the overpriced computer crap boxes on wheels burn easier than ever before because of the temperatures they operate at. (Not to mention the stupid weed burning exhaust all over again, Some things should truly stay buried back in the 70's) And the computer stuff reduces your driver information at the dash board to just a few gauges. RPM, Speed, fuel and air tank pressure. That's it. Anything else you need a computer to tell you there is a problem. Im old school I like having lots of gauges and actually am a computer to work out a problem long before it is a problem.

When I drive one of the two cars today I know nothing. When I drove some of the older muscle cars equipped with certain gauges and sensors to the engine, transmission etc I knew how the car was doing in real time. I don't need a computer to tell me it's not feeling well.

If you can do debt free buying a truck and or trailer outright, have at it. I would be the first to tell you to get to it. Your next problem is insurance, authority, fuel most especially.. don't be driving that thing unless you are making money with it and property or business taxes etc each year.

There can be good money in trucking. I found it with Pharma. And I'll go back to them if I was to do it again. I know Ive been a broken record about this.

Income is one thing. Expenses as you make the money is really important. If you know you are going to make x dollars over 3 days on this particular run, try to add up all of your exact costs including food for you and so on. If you can manage the expenses to make your loads profitable then you are going to be profitable. Not a failing business sliding deeper into bills you cannot pay.

Good luck.

 

My suggestion would be to decide which is more important, having an adventure or making lots of money.

If you want an adventure, buy that old cabover and try to find your own way in a very unforgiving industry. With a little luck you might even make enough money to live on.

If money is important, spend the cabover seed money on a reputable CDL school for both of you then apply to Old Dominion and start depositing $80-90,000 in the bank every year. That's $80-90k for each of you. Do that for 5 years, then with a cool half million in the bank you can pay for lots of little adventures in your coach.

 

I’m curious...

1. What kind of mechanic is hub? Does he have all of that ASE certificates?
2. What job are you retiring from in March 2019? Will you have a pension?
3. What does your husband do right now?

See, I love travel. I love being OTR. But I’d rather do it on the bike. The thing that would concern me is if your husband is thinking that he can buy an old truck and keep it going...especially an old cabover (see Mr @tscottme post). Short wheel base? Spring ride? Armstrong steering? Can you say grueling to turn at slow speeds and lots and lots of internal bleeding? I was peeing blood.

I started in cabovers.
they look cool and all, but the only way I’d run a cabover nowadays is if it had a 240 wheelbase, and air ride. Those really short ones would knock the fillings out of your teeth if you rolled over a penny. Now, if you told me that hub was going to buy one and stretch the frame and put air ride under the cab and drive axles, I would tell you to get that done before you try to run team. Odds of doing that before March, without deep pockets is impossible. Now if you do have deep pockets, I would say, heck, just take time off and get that Wanderlodge going and hit the road for a bit. Mechanics can ALWAYS find work.

4. Got any pics of that 1983 Wanderlodge? Not judging, I just like old iron. ANY old iron.