Change my mind

You've got a great attitude, and I admire that. Wish you the best.

 

With your background I'm sure you'll be fine if you become an owner operator.

My advice as far as a truck that needs a rebuild is...

If the truck is clean and it has had a lot of recent work done to it then there's no better feeling than having your engine rebuilt.

With that being said, you also have to consider everything else along with the rebuild. Injectors turbo water pump heads thermostats oil cooler front and rear seals accessory Drive starter alternator belts hoses fluids motor mounts and radiator mounts while you are in there...

And if you put the rear seal in then you really should put a clutch in and resurface the flywheel and put a new pilot bearing in and shaft and check your clutch shafts and all your linkage...

Of course then the transmission should have a new rear seal and new oil and probably new exhaust or at least parts of it...

But it is such a good feeling when everything is new!

Aside from checking the engine if it were me I would crawl under that truck check all of the U-joints and get a pry bar and I would check the the brake cams to see if they have play and check the drums...

Probably a whole brake job all the way around that truck is maybe $1,500 and if you put new cams and drums and brakes you probably will end up replacing all the slack adjusters and air cans and a new new Air Dryer on top of the original $1500... probably another $1,000 or so...

But it is so nice when everything is new!

If it were me, any truck that I would buy I would figure $10,000 in repairs without including any engine work to be figured in right off the bat.

And the best 2 cents that I can give you is to find a truck the you have all of the service records for. Whatever it cost you to buy that truck that's the best that you can do.

If you can buy one from an owner operator that is retiring that is the very super ultimate best of all.

Good luck.

 

@God prefers Diesels i would say go for it, but know your expenses first, with insurance premiums for new start ups and maintenance costs soaring right behind it I wouldn’t do this anymore if I had the chance.


To me trucking is dying, and dying fast. The low ballers are all around and growing.


Oh and that 90k is going to get eaten up fast. One brake down and 5k-10k gone.


Some here say go company, I would suggest that and wait out the next two years and see what happens.

 

Have you figured or seen the rates per mile and can you make a profit in that range. Remember you got a lot of driver that don't even know their own numbers and will haul freight at very low rates. When I had my own truck I figured I could run longer and more miles if needed. Just not go home and I could make money if needed. You got driver already doing that and they never go home. Lots of people don't even have a home or apartment. They live in their truck and they can haul really cheap freight. You got these mega trucking companies that basically only hire new drivers. So they pay them the lest per mile. They even run two student drivers as teams. That mean they can run a truck very cheaply and still make money.

Swift the trucking company only makes like 3-4% profit on their trucks. That's how cheap they run and how close they run to making a profit. When I first got my own truck I was surprised to learn hard it was to make a profit. Because everyone always says the trucking companies are ripping drivers off and keeping all the money for themselves. It not true trucking is horrible business for making profits in my opinion.

I ran for Landstar. We got fuel like 20-50 cents lower then the cash price. We got tires cheaper then truck stop prices because Landstar had accounts directly with tire companies. We just but tires on their account from truck stop. Even the truck stop did not know what we paid for tires. Landstar also took like 35% of the load rates that to much I think. You have to bill the customer and get them to pay. Some don't pay for like 30-60 days. So you have float all that money. When I was at Landstar they would advance us the fuel money if we wanted. Loads would cancel on me and I would get burned on the fuel money if I was deadhead 200 or 250 miles to pickup that load. Even with Landstar saying their paid for Truck Order Not used.

 

Um his wife would be female. lol

 

What is the new MC Authority entrant rate for insurance these days?

 

I have a 16 month 0% discover card that I just received in the mail with a decent limit on it If your thinking going that route.

. I also have a 0% card with my credit union but it charges 3%transfer fee for balance transfers as does the Discover and might be the case with your card also.

I'm all about using free money if you have access to it.

If the truck lot is going to let you pull a oil sample will they let you do one from the diffs and the tranny also?