maintenance fund

Ok I have never had a dedicated maintenance fund, just a fund.
I do my own work or at least always have, and do some things differently.
I do my heavy maintenance when I am off, not when I am working the truck, and it doesn't matter if I have plenty of money or not.
The way I do it right or wrong, some could and some could not do, due to not having the lace to do it.
Every dealer has monthly sales, most parts houses has monthly sales on select parts, this varies from month to month.
When I am working and bringing in bucks, I buy what I can use that is on sale, some of it just a couple and some in bulk. The last time I bought 30/30 brake chambers I bought 20 of them, for some reason the dealer had to give me another 5 bucks a piece off, so it was even better than the sale. I buy enough brake drums, shoes, s-cams and kits all when they are on sale if I can, to do a brake job when I need to.
The same with u-joints. I have 3 trucks that use the same ones, so i do not mind having 6 or 8 sitting on the shelf. I buy all sizes of air line in 50 feet rolls, heater hose in however many feet comes in a box, 25 or 50.
I buy stainless flex exhaust pipe in 10 foot sections, exhaust clamps by the case, windshields 8 or 10 at a time. I keep a large brass fitting bin stocked and the same with bolt bins, plenty of wheel seals and bearings,. assortments of everything imaginable, and many more parts that a guy uses every year or 3.
It does not bother me or even matter if I will need it for a year or three more years, when I do I have it and am not worried about having money coming in to keep the rig up.
I usually take off quite a bit, in anywhere from a couple of weeks to six months at a time and do a lot of stuff in my leisure. I do not get any more than on eday away from home, so even when I have to replace something, and can make it home, it is rolling again the next morning, Our parts houses are not open on weekends, and there are times that, that is when i work on the truck.
Right or wrong, that is the way I do it and it works for me, and like I said, it will not even be possible for everybody to do it.
There are drawbacks, FRIENDS. lol they know I may have what it takes to get them going usually, so if they are on the road, somebody going up may come grab what they need, or if they need something after hours or weekends.
Another is I may get to messing with it and replace things before a guy normally would.

 

YES and YES

And a sawmill and well drilling rig. lol

 

I know exactly what you are talking about. When I had my shop,I had no choice but to charge some folks more for a repair that they had worked on themselves at times.
One of my pet peeves is wiring, I buy and fix up old trucks sometimes, god folks can make a mess with wiring, even new trucks and dealers can.

Not really, but there is a story about that.
Two years running , the KW dealer advertised them on sale, but do not stock that brand.
At first we had this pissing match over windshields, same thing we don't stock that brand that we HVE on sale. lol
I stocked up on windshields the next time I went to Canada, and told him about it.
The second year of we don't stock those spring brakes, a week or so after our discussion, he called and said he ordered a pallet and they had come in. I stopped by that evening and ha had already sold all but 20, so I took them all. It made him mad. lol, then when he out my bill in the computer, by buying 29 he had to knck off another 5 bucks a piece, and got didn't like that either. lol