Buying a truck

I've been looking around for a tri-axle dump truck, and I wanted to share a little of my experiences.

If I were someone that wanted to come into this business of trucking and buy a truck, I would pay attention.

Okay so I start looking around at dump trucks and conversing with owners.

Okay Mr truck owner, how long have you had this truck?

12 years.

Okay, great. Do you have service records?

Oh no no, it's a great truck.

Well what repairs have you done to it in 12 years?

Just what I put in the ad. (something happened there was a manifold leak and an injector was replaced).

Okay, what happened with the injector problem?

Oh I don't know.

And the way that he said it, he answered me like that was the most ridiculous, preposterous, ludacris question I could have ever asked him.

And this is the thing. I have encountered this guy over and over and over again.

Sometimes it's somebody that had the truck for 4-5 years, and apparently they bought it as a thing they were going to run hard for 4-5 years and get rid of it.

Okay Mr truck owner. What repairs have you done on this truck?

Oh I haven't done anything, what a great truck.

You mean in 5 years years, you haven't done anything? No slack adjusters, no air cans, no drive shaft work, no Springs, no work on the bed, no engine work, absolutely nothing.

Well I change oil every 10,000 miles.

Could the guy do any less maintenance to the truck?

And if the person before him did the same thing, how big of a piece of crap do you think that truck is?

If you're going to buy a truck and you encounter people like this, run for your life.

I guarantee you, if I went and I DOT inspected that truck, I would put him out of service.

There are plenty of guys that think that if the truck will start and go into gear and pull a load, that's the greatest truck ever.

Anybody that has had any truck for any period of time that can't give you any service records whatsoever is someone just running it into the ground and dumping it on somebody else.

I'm so amazed because most of these guys have however many trucks they have and people working for them, and they have no clue how to take care of them, they could care less and by the time they get rid of them they are literal junk.

My advice to anyone buying any kind of a truck, find something that is rebuilt and they have receipts for it and it was his truck and he has service records.

All the rest of it is junk.

Or you have to be a mechanic, and really know how to do repairs, and you really have to be good at spotting a diamond in the rough instead of a money pit.

Another guy had his truck turned up like 30%.

Okay Mr truck owner, are you the only one that drives that truck?

Oh no I got a bunch of guys whole bunch of guys drive that truck.

Run for your life.

You're not going to tell me there aren't drivers in that truck, that are a lazy on the hill and don't feel like downshifting... after all it's a Mack, and they'll pull...

Yeah well let a turned up Mack pull down to lower RPMs and see how hot it gets before it self destructs.

Probably happens daily.

You NEVER put a driver in a turned up truck.

No thank you.

So my advice to anyone going to buy a truck is to learn as much as you can before you go to look at it, or take a mechanic, but any owner that's going to act like you're talking about the guy down the street's truck, run for your life.

And when you find that truck with the service records that one person drove it that took care of it, that's the wrong time to get cheap.

I would absolutely pay more for a truck like that, no question about it.

I had a guy 20 minutes away from me, I wouldn't even go look at that truck after I talked to that guy.

Anyway, it's just some of the tales of craziness when you're looking for a truck.

Always remember, even with tractors, whatever truck you buy that's beautiful that looks wonderful that's great and perfect, always figure you're going to put at least $10,000 into that truck right off the bat.

There are many that have put 20, 30, $40,000 +.

Happens all the time.

The business of this business is rough.

The buying of trucks is just incredibly difficult, especially dump trucks, if you're looking for something used that was taken care of.

If you're going to purchase a truck always remember...

No paperwork no rebuild.

It's amazing how many people have spent $50,000 on a platinum rebuild, but doggone it they just don't have the receipts.

But they want you to pay them as though it was just rebuilt.

And you know there's just as many that the previous owner just rebuilt it right before they bought it, there's almost no miles on it, but doggone it they sold that truck without any paperwork...

Why would anyone even do that? It's worth a hell of a lot more with the paperwork.

It's a lie that doesn't even make sense.

Everyone keeps the receipts for taxes.

Everyone.

Any shop that did the rebuild, you can call them and they'll go right into their records and they'll tell you the date that they did it.

Don't listen to anybody's BS.

And unfortunately when it comes to truck drivers and buying trucks, there's just BS everywhere.

Hey everybody be safe and good luck whatever you're doing.