Buying a cheap, old cabover.

Yeah. That makes sense. Their fleet trucks are no older than 09, so I guess they would have age requirements for O/O also. Doubt I'll find any really good deals on an 08 or later cabover. Not going to get it cheaper than a hooded truck, anyway.


Hard to say if I'd find it worthwhile to switch to O/O on any level, if the truck's got to be that new. I don't want to be paying a $150,000 or greater debt down while I run freight for the same price I could have gotten using a $5,000 truck somewhere else. That seems like a really huge difference in profit.

 

I know recent model cabovers exist because I walked up to and looked over one sitting in my company's yard just today. (Whether or not the internet is reliable, I like to hope my eyes are. Otherwise I should expect to fail my next DOT physical, no?)


Looking at the cabover, I can see now that the cabovers my company uses are not like the ones from the 80's. The Chassis is just as long as the Chassis on a normal truck. However, the cab begins and ends right up next to the front tires. The 5th wheel is in the way back of the Chassis.

So think about it: Probably the trailer is going to overhang really far over the 5th wheel. That's how they're beating the length restrictions. The overall vehicle will be the same length as a normal truck pulling a 53 foot trailer. The distance between the drives and the rear tandem will probably even be close enough to go into California. But that overhang allows the trailer itself to be longer than 53 feet.