A little about me

Hi guys, my name is Josh, I am a 22-year-old from California, and I currently work in the family business at our Boat Dealership near Sacramento, CA. I've always loved trucks and always wanted to drive, mostly thanks to my grandpa. I've been reading these forums for quite a while now but recently decided to sign up to share my opinions from what little experience I have and knowledge I have gained on these forums.

As I said, I am lucky enough to work for my family, we are a fairly frugal family, so I am pretty secure in my job right now. Right now I see this as just a job (could become my career) and I'm also looking at trucking as a possible career as well. My Grandpa is almost 82 years old, has been driving since he got out of the Navy almost 60 years ago, and still loves it. He just bought a new truck a few months ago, a 2009 KW T2000 with a 550 Cummins, this is his 3rd or 4th T2K, and also had a 2008 Pete 387, and quite a few KW T600s before the T2Ks. He doesn't drive all that many miles anymore but during Christmas time he drives twice a week to Portland, OR from the SF Bay for 3 months.

My dad also drove OTR in the early 80's for my Grandpa, back when he was contracted with GM and Mack Trucks to haul parts and tractors back to the west coast from the respective factories. Now the company is mostly O/O's driving the I-5 corridor between Seattle and LA. They still have an LTL division using Mack and International city trucks. The few Company Line Trucks left are all the T600s, T2000s and the lone 387. Good part is they are all kept up and most have been through out of frame overhauls when necessary, and all are O/O spec.

I know what it's like for Truckers, my dad didn't really like it and only did it for about a year, but he still keeps his CDL current and every once in a while drives. There's that urge from within myself to follow in their footsteps and at least try trucking out. Right now, part of my job is to tow boats to different places, I know what it's like to drive some distance at 60 mph towing some bigger stuff. The biggest truck/trailer combo I've ever driven was a 2008 GMC 3500HD Duramax/Allison pulling a 34' x 9'11" boat, I was probably 24k lbs and 55'+, it felt pretty good and was pretty easy going through I-80 EB over Donner Summit. I can only imagine a 550 Cummins at 80k.

I'm thinking about going to Driving School even just to get my CDL for future use, but I'd love to drive truck for a couple years to at least scratch the trucking itch...I know right now is not the right time, but maybe in a year or two. What do you guys think?

Thanks,
Josh "JW430"