Wanted to buy a tractor, found a mobile home toter, now what?

I was offered a mobile home toter for $2500. It's a 1990 volvo single axle tractor with a hydraulic ball hitch and toolboxes on it. I could convert it to have a sliding fifth wheel pretty easily, it used to have one, or i could use it as it is, the hydraulics work great. Truck itself is in great shape for its age, but it needs a couple of minor things that i can do myself (it needs a fuel tank strap and an air tank...but its drivable, the air leak isnt significant unless you shut the engine down, and the fuel tank isnt going to fall off...just needs the stuff before i get it inspected)

I can get a fifth wheel for $400, so thats not such a big deal

I cant find a company that would lease-on a single axle (even though i found several that were OK with the age), for fairly obvious reasons...and i can only find one company that actually deals with toter owner-ops, (bennet), and they want 2 years experience, which i dont have.

Getting my own operating authority is totally cost prohibitive to me right now.

And i'm almost thinking about just buying it to convert it to a motorhome.

Any suggestions on companies to work with? I'd get my own operating authority later and go completely independant, but its just not an option right now.

I also didn't take it for a test drive but im not giving the guy a dime until i get one. its at the end of a long dirt driveway, down a hill, and it was too muddy to move the truck (its not stuck or anything, but its obvious it needs the ground a lot firmer to be able to move!)


Also, the door specs sticker is missing. Is that legal? How can i get it replaced? Is there another record of the VIN number somewhere? I guess it was being plated for 54,000lb, is that the GCVW for a big single axle truck like this? It sounds about rigt to me.

 

The owner told me he parked it because the inspection stickers ran out last fall, it needs that fuel tank strap and air tank to pass (the fuel tank strap was replaced by a rope ), and that since the mobile home "freight" was slow, he just parked it instead of fixing it. He also has two other trucks, one is wrecked and parked next to the one i wanted, and one is still leased onto bennet and has a driver driving it (and hes making $400-$600 a week working 2 days a week, apparently).

Bennet wouldn't take me because i dont have 2 years of experience in that though. I'm unemployed right now, and if i could get $400 a week, I'd be happy. And the freight is going to pick up eventually.

I'm not making the investment without having a job lined up, unless i get another job and do decide to make it into a motorhome, i am sick of sleeping on someones couch. That ball hitch would be awfully neat to pull my car with..

I did start wondering about just getting an intrastate authority and a fifth wheel for it though. Pretty soon we'll have a lot of boats that need to be moved, i live about 2 miles from lake michigan, and i bet a lot of them didn't come from out of state..

by the way, how in the heck do they line up the hitches for the mobile homes? I've pulled small trailers with cars with ball hitches, and i had to rock the trailer to get it to line up...i couldn't imagine rocking a mobile home.

 

and apparently its just as rediculous to get an intrastate trucking authority here as it is an interstate. Meh.

 

The money for the truck wasn't going to come out of thin air either. Just because i live on someone's couch doesn't mean i don't have money, but no, i dont have money. I was planning on getting a part time job to get the capital to set up. Regular jobs around here barely pay enough to exist, but since im not paying rent, and im getting food stamps in a couple weeks, i'd be able to save quite a bit of money. Also, the truck has 3/8 tanks of fuel (300 gallon capacity, so around 120 - 150 gallons).

I know about the significant expenses of fuel, but if i could lease on with one of those companies that can take the fuel out of my settlement, then it seems like it'd be a little easier to start up. But, all those companies want double axle trucks, and most want a truck a lot newer than a 1990.

the_possom, i only remembered this hitch going up and down, but maybe it was a six way. I just remembered you push the lever in to go up and pull it out to go down. I know NOTHING of these hitches, so ..

I'm thinking i'm better off just trying to get my freight broker authority (another idea i've thought about a lot), and making that truck into a motorhome. But i don't have any idea where to even look for a $10,000 surety bond.