Need tips on buying tractor and general O/O stuff

Please bear with me, this is being typed from my phone.

A little back story for anyone interested (feel free to skip this):

After putting in my 1 year at Covenant, I found out I'm not getting paid what I want for being away from home as much as I was.
While team is great if you can find a partner, I had the worst luck with partners that could pull their own weight compared to what I was doing, so I went with their solo, only to find out it was actually worse for me in the pay department (being the only driver in the tractor was FANTASTIC!!).
I quit and started looking for other companies to drive for, and while a couple of them fell through, it turned out in my favor: a family friend has a spare tractor that he needed a driver for. So after only a year of experience, I'm somewhat of an O/O (I would have thought it would take me longer).

Now I'm giving serious thought to getting my own tractor, but I'm not sure how old or new I want. The most of the drivers I talk to say Peterbilt or Kenworth are generally the best they have drove overall, which suits me, because I'm really liking the look of Peterbilt's aerodynamic, or either make's classic.
A very large portion of the drivers I talked to warn against any kind of regen or DEF equipped models due to it killing your GPM rate, but what in reading online is that they actually improve fuel economy? I'm confused on this...
I'm not looking for constantly trading in for the new shiny. I want to be able to hack and customize to my heart's content. Just yesterday I talked to someone who bought his Pete brand new twenty-six years ago, and it looked very nice compared to some later year models I've seen, including the 2005 Freightliner Century I'm currently in (but that is to be expected as a difference of someone caring for their baby as opposed to a company driver who doesn't much care what happens, it's not their own property).
I never thought to calculate what the 2011-2012 Cascadia's MPG was, but the Century tells me I get anywhere between 4.5 and 4.9 MPG. I think that's a little below average, but I've also only been in here for a month, so results are inconclusive?

My current driving deal is I take 50% of profits after fuel and tolls are paid, and the company I'm leased to takes 13% off the top before any of that. I don't pay for any tractor upkeep or scaling. I find and book my own loads (with some help from the owner) from a website (that my usage is paid for by the owner as well). I'm told from my father-in-law that loads over $1.70/mile are decent, but after lurking around on these forums, I know to try and keep my average more like $2.50/mile, which more limits how fast I can get loads, but for obvious reasons pays of better.
I stick with East coast for my loads.

I'm very happy where I'm at, but would like input on how good or bad of an employment I currently have?

For clarity, I haul with an air ride 53 dry van.

I'm interested in switching to flatbed loads from my current situation. I already know it's more work, but I think it could be worth it, and I could use the exercise...

Here's the main questions:

Can anyone give a little more information regarding whether DEF is a setback or if it evens out in the end?

Can I also get some pointers on some good ways to calculate deadhead miles? So far I've just been adding them to the estimated loaded miles...

Please feel free to address anything I've talked about. I'm very willing to learn anything more.

 

Assuming well-maintained trucks (a big assumption as you get into older models) the order of reliability is:

1) pre-2003 (pre-emissions)
2) 2003-2007 (egr)
3) 2010+ (egr, dpf, def)
4) 2007-2009 (egr, dpf)


As far as deadhead miles goes, shooting for some fixed percentage is silly. Your goal should be to maximize profit per mile. $3 per loaded mile with 33% deadhead is $2/mile. $2.50 per loaded mile with 20% deadhead is also $2/mile. All else equal, the $3/mile runs will be more profitable because it costs less to operate empty vs loaded.

 

I generally try to get my loads within 100 miles of my current location with at least 1000 loaded miles. Should I just forget trying to factor it in that case, since I am basically already keeping deadhead to a minimal?

 

Keep in mind the carb requirements unless you are willing to forgo California.
Keep deadhead low, but don't try basing runs on loaded miles. Your not a company driver being paid by the mile. Lowest miles with the highest profit keeping freight lanes in mind.

Also, it's MPG, not GPM.

 

Carb pushed back small fleet deadline to Dec 16.

 

Does that include the 1 truck independent?

 

I keep in the East coast. TX and North, everything East of that.

Right, but longer miles with the same high rate has a more favorable driving to stopping ratio, right? Quick short loads aren't bad, but then I have to look for another load.

Good eye. Didn't even catch that with my dumb phone's keyboard.

 

Yep, just apply for a loan for which you are in no way qualified so you can show CARB that you were turned down for a new truck.

 

I'm guessing that this has little to no impact on me, since I don't do CA?

 

If you don't do California, you could put a glider on the top of the reliability list