One year as a O/O with one truck. Is buying a second as backup wise?

If you stay close to home, buy the same truck. Same make, model, year, color....and the same VIN.

 

That's what you get for buying a '13

There is a difference in 20k in warranty work and 50k out of pocket ..... I still think the op was taken advantage of.

 

I've done it. The Pete in my sig is the summer truck. What the others have said about idle trucks is true. It took me a couple weeks to get the winter truck ready. A rat got in and ate the wiring to my strobes. My MV3 valves weren't working right. Two wheel seals were leaking. Two lining rusted to the drums. In order to have one at the ready, a fella would have the backup truck moving a little bit.

I'm not saying it's cheaper from a maintenance standpoint. But service failures and lost revenue due to down time would be reduced.

 

If it were me instead of having the back-up I would bank the money it would cost or either sell the one you have and put the monies together and get a more dependable truck. They are all going to require repairs or maint at some time , I would bank the money and use those times for a mini vacation or to work on my honey do list. If you have dedicated freight that has to move I would think it would be cheaper to lease a truck short term for a few days. You stated $2000 per month just for a spare earlier. ( did I misunderstand you) I haven't ran the numbers on keeping a spare around but I know having one would not be worth 2 grand to me. Now if you had 4 or 5 trucks running dedicated freight I could see where it could be worth it.
Only you know your numbers but with paying a driver, take another $24000 out per year just to have a spare, would it still be worth it?
Like I said earlier, I would spend some to get a better truck and take your time researching before you buy. $50,000 in repairs is astronomical. Either you need a new truck or new mechanic or both it sounds like, possibly even a new driver if he is tearing things up.. For that kind of money it could have all new running gear from front to rear.

 

To keep a truck that you are going to swap out, the insurance would be easy. Just bobtail on the one that wasn't on the road and rotate it when trucks are switched.

What would you need to do to stay legal as far as cab card and tags? Surely you couldn't swap those out every month?

 

If you buy a second truck use a second truck. Save money and deal with breakdowns as they occur. A sitting truck is a wasted truck. In a month you could either have three second truck sit and cost you 2 grand out use it and bring in 15-20 grand in revenue. Sitting is a waste. If you made 15 grand a month revenue on a truck that's 180 a year. You're willing to pass that up to instead pay 24 grand a year to have a spar? Drive them both. When something breaks have it fixed. Pay your driver's while they're in the shop so they stay happy and be done with the spare truck ideas.