Is it because of the orange?

At those prices for an eleven year old van I would buy new, but what do I know I am a trucker.

 

Do you think a new trailer offers at least $21,000 worth of additional utility for a 1-truck operation that is just starting out?

 

Most definitely it does. Hindsight is always 20/20 if I were to do it over again I would buy brand new right from the start.

 

Would you please elaborate?

 

You'll have a dozen different people on here tell you that they never needed anything newer for a dry van. Most of them, if you ask, don't even pull a dry van full time so really what they think doesnt matter. You will find shippers who reject out of hand any trailer with a build date over 10 years old. Doesn't matter if it's pretty or not. Paper mills shipping roll stock are one type of shipper. Bottled water where the trailer is loaded by those heavy robots. The automakers will turn you around at the gate and you'll go somewhere to a crossdock to unload. Auto industry is my moneymaker. Make big bucks off roll stock and water/colas also - anyone who says they're cheap were just suckers who got suckered - they may be but not when they go in my box they aren't. You'll miss loads. It ain't the end of the world but does suck when it happens. Limiting yourself.

 

9800 for a decent trailer. $6000 for new tires. Now your at 50% of new. Spec the trailer the way you want it, as light as you want it, add in an inflation system, etc. when you pay it off in 5 years, you'll still have quite a bit of resale left.

 

$6000 for new tires? Holy #### where are you shopping? Maybe if you were to replace rims and all tires but I would think you should be able to get new tires for around $3000 mounted and balanced and ready to roll.

 

If you read the whole thread, you'd see the OP is swapping out for super singles as soon as he buys as the trailer, so $6k is a pretty freaking good ballpark.