If you had $70K to start on your own would you buy outright or finance?

A lot of the people here that say not to do it have probably never owned a truck. You have money saved and that’s a lot different than someone that comes here asking how to get a truck and start running with the $10k they have in the bank.

 

just because "some people" "probably never owned a truck", does not mean they never had a business, or kept the books, or ran a business.

there are degree's of ownership (of any type of business) or money management, or operating a business.

 

How handy is your mechanic friend? I’ve been eyeballing a 379 for sale out in CA with a 12.7 Detroit in it. It’s a single axle but they only want $30k for it. You can get a Freightliner cut off all day for less than $3k so for about $35k or so you’d have a solid 379 with a bulletproof engine. You can still overhaul the 12.7 for about $12k last I checked.

 

So based on your ownership experience, why do you recommend that the OP not buy a truck when he’s in a better position to do so than many?

 

Just curious OP, what is your background/experience in the trucking world?

 

Or tried a lease purchase because they couldn’t get financing with a 550 credit score and $16 in their bank account...

trucking is not really like any other business....

 

Buy outright, every time. Definitely would not be leasing on to anyone though. If I was to do that I would just drive someone else's truck. As far as stuck in spot market only, it depends if you actively make them calls to shippers then you can potentially bypass spot freight, with luck.

What to buy? IMO, the cheapest one with the least miles on the freshest rebuild .. motor, trans, rears, etc. Or a dirt cheap one that you know you have to inframe out the gate. Always pre emissions and never anything with a first-year release motor.

The only thing with old trucks, plan to replace #### near everything that hasn't been replaced. Sometimes while under load =)

 

Why would you say that? Best resale value, and 100% easier to service, and work on. I am not saying they are the only trucks to buy. I have owned both, and worked on both. One thought came to mind is..if he has 70,000 bucks saved let it earn interest , and drive for someone?

 

I was in and out of the commercial parasailing business for 25 years

1st time in I lost my shirt after losing 1 of my 2 motors right at Spring Break .

And than having a guy rebuild it who owed my buddy money who owned the beach site I ran out of

I was kind of obligated to let this guy rebuild it and according to my buddy he was a Hell of a mechanic.

He got the Hell part right.

After 10 days of him being “Right Back”with my powerhead he installed it.

Motor didn’t run for Krap.

So than 2 days later his “be back tomorrow “ he goofs with it for a little while and says your carbs are shot need new ones.

I explain to him it ran like a charm before it scored a piston from the oil pump taking a crap And needing the rebuild .

At what point did the carbs go bad the 2 weeks of the motor sitting waiting for you?

That was the argument he was waiting for and stormed off and told me to never call him and I’m on my own.

So I have always worked on 4 stroke motors and had hot rod cars and boats but had never touched a 2 stroke.


I had twins on my boat so I had an identical motor I could switch parts from

1st thing I did was switch over all the electronic coils and wiring as it was few years old and we were operating in saltwater.

Motor doesn’t run any better. Just to be sure I put the wiring from bad motor on good motor and it runs like a champ.

Not a Electrical problem.

I than switch out the 4 carburetors and Krap motor still runs like Krap. Good motor still runs great.

So there nothing more to switch so I decide I will do a compression test and 1 of the four cylinders is way off.

I pull the head and immediately see what the problem is.
The piston says EXHAUST on one side of the top and INTAKE on the other side

The piston was installed 180 degrees off.

So off comes the carbs again and by finagling a socket in I was able to remove the piston and flip it over.

Put it back together and it runs like a Champ.

This is 3 weeks right during spring break when you make all your money for the year down here back than.

With in a week of getting it running again Spring Break was over and it was costing me $200 a day for crew and gas to go out and hope for getting paid rides .

6 rides a day just to break even plus insurance and maintenance but there just wasn’t the visitors down here in the summer back than.

After 3 months I was totally broke and tired of everyone making money but me.

I bailed out and let the boat go to another buddy of mine that still runs it up north in New Jersey


My 1st big Failure and within a year I lost all my hard earned investment money that I had bought the boat and equipment with.

It was 1986 I was 22 and newly moved to Florida. I still had a nice roof over my head and as my dad would say -2 Good hands - put your chin up and go out and get em.


I had started a restaurant hood cleaning and bar janitorial business to work at night to fund the failing parasail business and it thrived once I gave it my full attention.

Had that for a few years to fund other business ideas. But the night hours sucked and Help to work the hours were less than reliable .

But it paid very well and I got to enjoy life without stressing about money


Years later I got back into the parasail business on a Flook and was successful being I only wrenched on my equipment and depended on no one else.

There is a fine line between making a lot of money being my average in a week on the Outerbanks was $35,000 and losing your But

You had 8 weeks to make all your money for the year so make the days count.

A full hydraulic system failure if allowed to overheat was $7000 and took a week to have built by the winch shop costing 35000 in lost revenue.

Outdrives not properly serviced would blow to the tune of 5-10 thousand depending on how badly it failed.

Parasails were 2 grand and you needed a minimum of 3. Crash one on a launching and tear it up it’s junk even if you do repair it

Never ending maintenance and replacements and repairs as there is with semis and trailers also.

I saw many operators go broke over the years because the Bad days Ate the good months and they didn’t invest in expensive spares to have on hand or renew their equipment

I can easily see the Fine line between making money in trucking and Losing your shirt.