3500 drw & wedge/flat bed info needed

In that class of trailer, skip the wedge. If you are seriously wanting to transport vehicles, look into the Kaufamn EZ-Loader 4 series. It's a shorter trailer, but has a lift to access the neck and provide even more deck space than a wedge ever could.

I've experienced both behind smaller trucks, stay away from the 3500 due to less-than-effective braking. The ride may feel nicer, but the impact into stopped traffic at the bottom of a hill won't. At a MINIMUM, the 4500 can do the work(not a f-450 since its still in the consumer range). The suggestion if you are stuck with retail financing a medium duty "small truck" is the 5500 which the ratings can support a 4-car load.

But over the years, I have come to terms with the business and the income/expense/comfort balance is out of line with the current market. Skip the little truck and do it right with a big truck. After about 4-5 months you WILL want the bigger truck.

With the little trucks costing almost double the price of a good condition big truck, the choice should be obvious. And honestly, the fuel mileage isn't that much different in the 4/5 car market. a 4 car behind a 35/4500 truck will get in the neighborhood of 7-8mpg. A decent spec'd big truck will do the same considering the load+trailer will gross 20-25k# on average.

 

I would go with a class 8 truck as well. You can sleep in the truck and fuel mileage should be decent pulling a wedge around. With a dually you will need to find a motel every night, which will increase your cost of operations. If things don't work with the wedge then you can always go to pulling a van or other type of freight if you have a class 8 truck. Most who pull wedge trailers or other types of "hotshot" freight use 1 ton Dodge dually's. Dodge seems to hold up better than the other dually's, according to a number of owners with whom I have spoken. A manual transmission will do better than an automatic. You will pay considerably more for the dually than you will pay for a good used class 8 truck. If you want to go with a wedge, I would suggest finding one that will haul 4 cars rather than 3. You will be looking at a 53' 102" with flippers. You should be able to find one for around $6,000-8,000. A friend of mine just sold a 3 car for $4,000.

 

I recently hauled cars for a buddy with a F750 with a C7 and a allison transmission and a 3-4 car wedge trailer. The trailer seemed to do the job just fine it held the weight of three trucks/SUV's with no problem and had a 16k winch on it to pull up non operational cars which was nice to have. The problem was the truck. The ride was HORRIBLE I put a thousand miles on it in two days and I was beat to hell, but the truck was not air ride and did not have air ride seats and with a long frame it just beat me up bad. The second problem was the transmission. Pulling three cars on the trailer I would have to put it to the floor board going down hill to build up momentum to make it up the next hill and would still lose over ten mph going up the next hill due the transmission not downshifting. The one good side was that driving at 65mph I was getting over 12 mpg with the truck. If this is your first adventure in trucking be prepared to RUN ALOT to make money. Also first starting out you'll be hauling cars like I was that were repo cars and about half of those cars had to be pulled onto the trailer which took a long time and is very difficult to do by yourself.

 

A lot of people who want to do hotshot will purchase a step deck. It offers more flexibility in the type of freight you can haul. Tarasport and Cherokee make nice steps that have ramps and are designed to haul cars and other types of freight. Many who used to lease to Jones or Hot Shot would pull their step decks. They mostly hauled vehicles, but had the flexibility to haul other types of freight. With a wedge or regular car hauler there is only one thing you can haul. You can usually pull their steps with a 1 ton dually or class 8 truck. Again, a class 8 truck will be more flexible.

 

I'm surprised nobody said anything about having a partner in a one truck operation. What percentage of the business does this guy get for providing some startup funding ?