An old man's career goes flat, Snackbar moves to open deck

Run 100,000 miles on a passenger vehicle in one year, then come talk to me.

Think of it this way - go into any home improvement store and buy the best toilet they have. If you install it in your house, with proper maintenance it will outlast you. The bottom gasket will never leak, the porcelin won't crack, you'll notice when the float/flapper/whatever begins to fail and can replace it before it's a problem. Take that same toilet and install it in a truck stop - how long will it last?

 

he clearly stated that a vehicle over 200+ thousand miles if maintain will still run efficiently… Where did he say running a car 100,000 miles a year?

 

My post was about running a car as a pilot vehicle running at least 75,000 miles a year - something it is not designed to do.

I do not argue that a car can run 100,000 on scheduled maintenance without a problem. I do assert that pilot cars breaking down mid trip isn't necessarily an indication of a bad company, but rather a result of use not matching design.

 

I have the phone numbers to several police departments, taxi companies, and livery services that will disagree with that statement, at least when it comes to these cars

 

Again, I'm not saying that vehicles hit 100k and implode. I'm saying they're not designed for the use they're getting and stuff breaking down mid trip isn't unexpected. It's certainly not an indication of a bad company or shoddy maintenance.

There are things you can change proactively, and there are things you should wait until they break. I wrote up my truck for a coolant leak, shop pressure tested, changed a part and it was good for two weeks until the low coolant alarm went off 15 miles from the yard. Turned around, swapped trucks and continued on. Shop couldn't find anything wrong. Two weeks later the radiator blew on the day driver. 3 days after getting the truck back, the fan clutch blew. Truck has 706K on it and these things are expected at that age - regardless of how well you maintain it.

 

I have a 2012 Accord with 235,000 on it. Runs and drives great!!

 

I hope my 2018 Ram with 6.4 Hemi lasts a long time. I use it to pull my 5th wheel. I have changed oil, all filters, trans. tune up all by factory time and mile schedules. My Dakota with 4.7 v8 lasted over 225,000 with normal maintenance.

 

Looking the part is also a consideration when it comes to escort vehicles. As are certain states/ provinces laws. Pickup trucks and SUV’s are legal everywhere. Western Canada doesn’t allow cars or crossovers to escort loads.

He runs an entire fleet of 99-03 f-250 and f-350 SRW trucks with 100 gallon transfer tanks in the bed. We don’t have to stop during the day for fuel like we do with gas burners. Nearly all of our issues with loads being damaged by other “drivers” happens in truck stops. The less we are in truck stops the better. These are also 4 door trucks with the back seat removed and a bed added. We don’t always stop where a hotel is within reasonable distance or price.

Another factor is oil change intervals. He’s run older gas burners before and they basically need an oil change after every single trip.

Currently he has 4 trucks running tx-on, two ruining ok-tx-ga-ok, and sometimes a single from tx-wa. We have more work that we would give him but like everyone, he just can’t find good help.

edit to add: these trucks all have 250k+, some of them have significantly more. My main escort had over a million before the truck was wrecked. He looks for the old grandpa trucks that spent most of their life pulling a fifth wheel camper a few weekends a year.

 

We haul our own equipment, and when we pilot ourselves we use one of our pickups. They all have transfer tanks for diesel and pack enough tools to handle most any type of on road repair, as well as all the blinky things. As I get older I often wonder about piloting for hire, and figure if I did that I might put another tansfer tank in and be able to pack more than two hundred gallons just to help the trucks when getting fuel is tough. IFTA reporting might be a chore in regard to fuel receipts, but obviously you guys have it figured out. Seems to me that a person could charge a bit more to cover the expense of running a 1 ton if that person had the tools and knowledge to help with minor repairs and pack extra fuel.

As to the mileage on cars, I don't know because I haven't owned anything other than pickups or an Excursion since the 80s, but of the pickups we have, the mileage on them is:

1. 2008 - 390K
2. 2011 - 268K
3. 2015 - 220K (service truck)
4. 2016 - 280K
5. 2022 - 50K

Yes, they require maintenance, but putting miles on them faster (more miles per year) typically results in less problems per mile. Periods of little use is what usually leads to higher repairs per mile in my experience.

 

The Love’s in Wichita must’ve been needed badly. Every time i’ve passed it, the place has been slammed with trucks