Buying a fixer upper

I would say that you would be better served by setting some money aside in the bank and then buying a newer / lower mileage truck once you have a decent amount of money saved up.

Otherwise, you could end up sinking large amounts of money into a truck that may have many more problems that what you can initially see when you buy it. A new engine here, transmission here, chasing electrical gremlins for 6 months......stuff like that.

 

Planning on being independent? With a yard jockey truck? -_-

 

This is the route I'd go if going into trucking. But I don't think you'll find something decent enough to tinker with for $10k. I'd say shoot for around the $25-30k mark and get a solid starter truck that's not beat into the dirt already. Just to put things into perspective, my project truck I'm working on cost $3k to buy, I've invested $2,500 into it already not including about 40-50 hours of my time and it'll need about $35k in parts just to get it roadworthy.

 

I've noticed that trucks that sit, just sit even if they worked GREAT when they were parked, for any appreciable length of time seem to develop all manner of problems.

 

That's what I'm doing to mine. Except I've got to tear it right down to the rails and start fresh. It was a lot worse than it appeared once I started into it.

 

my guess is you'll need a comfy padded board to lay across the seats for that period of nap time or a small sleeper.

could always throw up a hammock

 

Hafta swallow it first...