Garbage Hauling

I think you would be better off with a daycab than a sleeper truck. I know some guys that run garbage in live floor trailers. They run horribly overweight. But they are funded by the city so no one bothers them, not even DOT. They gross out 120,000+. You may be able to get some goverment funding with the soild waste business. That would help with the fuel and tires. You're going to loose tires in the landfill. They are frowned upon when they go into a truck stop... no one wants a rank smelling truck next to them. Nothing wrong with the business though! I say work out the little kinks and go for it! Look into the gov./state/county funding though.

 

I pull a walking floor trailer everyday, and the maint. for a walking floor is a lot more than for your typical trailer. Make sure all the slats on the floor are all there and not damaged, check all the hoses and valves for leaks or excessive wear. What kind of tarp is on the trailer? Is it a hand tarp or a roll tarp? Or is it an automatic covering system? Are there hooks on the back of the trailer? you will need good strong hooks to be pulled back into the cell when its muddy. Also on the tractor to be pulled out. Good luck and I hope this helps.

 

By the way, set up a tire fund fast. you will need it.

 

I would have some real problems with the concept of the trailer belonging to someone else and me accepting the responsibility for the tires and all the maintenance on the trailer. Does this mean if they give you an old trailer and the walking floor fails, that you are on the hook to pay for the repairs? If the trailer has junk tires (especially since we know they are planning to load the trailer beyond the legal weights and rated weights for the tires), are you expected to buy them new tires to replace them. There are a lot of things righ there in those two issues that I would look very seriously at before signing on.

I would leave the 18 speed behind, and settle for a good 13 speed. If you break down and have to change a trans, a rebuilt 13 will cost you about 3000 installed with a new clutch. An 18 will cost you 6000 or more for a rebuilt, and the 13 will do everything that the 18 could ever do for you. We pull 164,000 pounds in Michigan and use 13's all the time.

Look at other haulers doing the same work and see what they are using for a tractor. Whatever model and specs they are using, follow them. There's no shame in being a copycat under those circumstances.

Fuel mileage won't be great, probably in the 6 mpg range, but that's not too bad for what you are doing. As for making 600 miles per day, that's all dependent on the roads and the traffic and lots of other things. Don't forget, if you are loading and unloading at either end, then you have some hours there to account for. Unless you are really lucking out on your pickup and delivery locations and not hitting any traffic, plus not encountering waiting time on either end, you are going to be hard pressed to make those miles work daily.

 

PM me with your address, and I'll send you a copy of the Michigan Truck Trader magazine. It's about 250 pages monthly showing what's for sale in this part of the country. We pull what are called "Michigan trains", so the heavy speccing is common here. May take me a couple of days to get it out in the mail since it has to be dropped off at the post office vice thrown in the mailbox, but it will give you an idea of what's available here. it may seem a long ways off, but it's actually only about 14-15 hours of driving and that's not much when you are buying a truck and need the right specs.