How much was in your maintenance account?

If you can wrench em I say buy a 1995 to 2007 truck and run over it with a fine tooth and comb then when you find the right 1 buy it and hit the road running !!!

 

Those road call bandits are merciless. A road side stall resulting in a tow and a local shop fix can easily go somewhere around $5K -10K depending on the issue. Over a year ago, I had some major issue which resulted in towing, letting an inept local shop to work on it, truck rental and another towing to a competent shop and finally $12K less on my account.
Banks and their credit lines, not credit cards, are safety net but being 100% relying on them from the very get go is already a sign of weakness. It is hard to be patient once you have enough for a truck down-payment and you are approved for a truck loan. I started with $20K cash available, which for me is the minimum at which I can feel comfortable.
As an example of a high degree of volatility of a cash flow even for one truck is that my balance can sway from as high as 40K to as low as 20K in a period of 12 -16 months.

 

I stop and help a lot of drivers.. Ive been there and the Lord blessed me with help so i try to repay it. The average owner op now has a fisher price toolset from china. Either in a blow molded case or just dumped into a duffel bag and partly missing. That driver needs a big maintenance account. In my opinion they are a high risk owner op unless they have access to lots of emergency money. They may be masters of the 6 day turnaround and making bank.. I dont know.. I only get to meet them when theyre frazzled on the shoulder in desperation. No tools, no diagnostics skills, under load and far from home. This problem may not require a lot of money but this PERSON will make it so. They need a big emergency line. Issues are 50/50 in severity. Ive seen broken compressor wheels and holes in pistons. Ive helped with chafed thru oil feed line and pinholes in radiator hoses. Thats kinda luck of the draw.

A tale of 2 fan clutches. I thought i had an input shaft bearing about to sling up in PA. Pulled over immediately and go to figuring. It was fan hub bearing. I locked it in and limped to KW. Got pete courier to bring me the part next morning and i handed off the core. It cost my boss only the part fee [$1600] and i replaced and made my load on time.

I helped a guy in the gorge few months back in a 2019 KW. Let the growling sound go until the fab hub let go at 98k miles, into the radiator. Thats a huge money and time repair. Is warranty gonna cover the radiator? The tow etc etc? Could be a $15k bad day. He finished climbing the hill until it shut down. What if the exhaust valves melted or block deck warped?

Point is the operator is the first line of defense against huge repairs. A tow alone can be 2grand easy. Throw on $125 a day in storage while you try to get a diagnosis and that card is getting a workout.

Emissions is the devil. That junk makes it twice as hard to be succesful IMO. Ymmv

 

Btw i worked at a heavy diesel shop and for a short stint at a road ranger shop.

They can staple up a business license just as easy as you got yours. Ive seen "the pro's" mess up just as much as the amatuers to make it to 4 o'clock. If you want it done right do it yourself has always held water for a reason.

 

Hate to say it but if you can't wrench, don't buy a truck. I'm not saying have the ability to rebuild a diff and engine but if you can't figure out how to run a grease gun and change a headlight.........

I wouldn't have anything less than $30k sitting there, ready to be utilized if needed.

 

true but it still took a few years to get to that point. didn't have a shop my first couple years i worked on my truck in parking lots. it helped that i had pretty much all my debt paid off before i made the leap too. still took a couple years till i was to the point that after a expensive repair i didn't have times where im looking at my bank account thinking, if a check doesn't come in this week i wont have enough for fuel next week. doesn't happen over night, takes some time hard work and discipline and a little bit of luck.

 

Absolutely correct......

 

Lots of real world experience talking in here and I don't hear any of it advocating for a low emergency fund. Things can happen so quickly and unexpectedly that run the expenses up anyone starting without at good maintenance fund is rolling the dice. Not just that but this is business and you'd better believe that there are sharks in the water.

I was down for 2 & 1/2 wks right from the get go before I hauled a single load as an O/O. I'd just bought the truck and took it to the dealership for just few upgrades I wanted to do mostly creature comforts and cosmetic. The new seat I'd installed had an air line that leaked so I took it back they got me right in and since it was just a simple repair told me I'd be outta there in about 10 mins. The mechanic however didn't wait for there roll up shop door to go all the way up before he pulled my truck in the bay he jacked hell outta the roof of the truck you'd think a guy would stop as soon as he hits something but nope. The shop offered to fix it in their bodyshop and promised to expedite the work if I agreed not to take it elsewhere which I did.

So a week later I get the truck back and workmanship of the repair was terrible the paint had tiger stripes all over the roof and the bondo job was uneven as hell. See they're figuring that after a week of being down I don't have the funds to sit any longer and I'll be forced to accept a poor repair. If I had accepted the poor repair then had I needed to I'd never been able to sell the truck in that condition without taking the cost of a proper repair out the sale price which could've been $10,000. Or maybe they figured I wouldn't notice and I didn't at first until I got the truck out of the shop and into the sun light for good look. So I took the truck to different body shop nearby for advice they took pictures documented the issue and agreeed to accept the work if I needed them to but the problem was that if I let them repair it then I'd need to go after the original dealer for the charges costing me more time.

So I get back to the shop who made the repair to let them know I wanted the poor repair fixed correctly. I'm going around the truck trying to point what's wrong with the truck and body shop manager and lead body guy as if they don't see the problems are saying to each other "I don't see anything wrong with it do you". In the middle of pointing out the issues to them they each conspicuously got called away lol so I'm standing there by myself I was furious. I went to go talk to the owner and even though I was pissed as hell I very politely layed my cards on the table told him I'd been to another shop who'd agreed to repair the truck correctly and agreed to work with a lawyer to document the issues to assist in any possible lawsuit. The owner agreed to fix the truck and another week and 1/2 later I got it back all issues corrected.

So my emergency fund saved me from being forced to accept faulty workmanship the cost of which would have come out of my pocket. Anything can happen even things that aren't your fault that you have no control over and shut you down for several weeks and that's before we even talk about emissions issues.

 

Hard work and discipline. What a concept.

 

And a reliable wife. NEVER UNDERESTIMATE A SPOUSE'S ABILITY TO SINK YOUR SHIP. bring her home flowers and stuff once in a while.