saving to be o/o

Mechanically my truck has been as reliable as an old dog. 1.2 million miles and still running strong. Never had a single mechanical issue unless you count an injector.

I've been running this truck for just over 1 yr and its only been towed twice. A failed ECM the first time and an unknown issue that caused a severe engine miss and shaking. Next day the mechanics could not reproduce the problem it was magically fixed and 5 months later it hasnt shown its ugly head.

Most of the issues I have experienced are due to the age of the truck. Wires, hoses, lines,.. things that will happen to virtually any 10 yr old vehicle. For me the key has been preventative maintenance. Looking for things that show wear,.. replacing things that are past their service life. Then its just a matter of keeping a regular maintenance routine. Regular PM/Lube services. Regular alignments, keeping the valvetrain checked and adjusted, repairing the little things instead of letting them slide until they cause a bigger problem. A little bit of money now to save from spending more money later. That and I dont run my truck hard. I was in a much newer truck before this as a company driver and it was towed 9 times from 2012 to 2013, I figure I spent as much time in hotel rooms while the truck was in the shop as I did home time. That truck only had 380k mi when I got out of it. So in my opinion no truck is a sure bet.

After everything I have done and spent on this truck,.. when/if the motor finally goes. I'm pretty sure I will rebuild or replace it. For me thats cheaper insurance then buying someone elses problems. They say you spend your first year getting your truck reliable and profitable. My truck is almost there. Not 100% yet,.. but close.

In my opinion you will spend similar money either on an older truck or newer truck. My truck is paid for. So when it goes in the shop, or I want to take time off, I dont have to keep paying that big payment. Truck will be there ready for me when its time to head back out.

Hurst

 

lets see....

- beater that nickel and dimed you to death

- 5 year old truck that turned out to be a nightmare

- new truck that spent more time in the shop than the road

So what pitfalls to avoid are they?
Maybe hauling freight with a bicycle is the way to go lol.

 

If you offered me a brand new truck, the first thing I'd do is look at ways to throw my old motor in it.

 

Im not sure anyone actually read your post. Why people are talking about fuel and stuff I have no idea.

signing on here at mercer you might be ok. But some things to remember. Expect to spend about 3k on equipment if you don't already have everything (headache board, straps, tarp, chains and the such). Mercer can help you with that.

Set up your escrow acct. to take about 20% of $ to the truck for taxes and maybe 10% for maint. For now. This will make $ a little tight right now, but as soon as you build that nest egg up a little you can adjust it. This should only take 6-8 weeks to save enough for most major repairs and the common ones too (tires, PM).

mercer has a fuel card and you will get 30-50¢ discount at the pump plus FSC is loaded on your card for every trip. Also you are paid within hours of completing a run so if money is tight just run a few short hauls (they pay well too) and you will be fine.

with that said, the more you have saved coming in the better off you will be. But 5k with mercer is doable. (Provided you don't blow a motor the first month)

 

Hopefully OP picks out a good truck. You guys telling him $5,000 is plenty must do all your own work or have trucks that don't have huge problems. I had a $7,000 issue with my truck less than a month into owner operating. Lots of things can go wrong and wipe out $5,000 in the blink of an eye. Starting out mistakes usually cost $ with zeros on the end. Most failures, inadequate funds...

 

No it doesn't. That's why I suggested the escrow acct. with 30% going into it from the start.

 

I'm in cdl school now. I plan to buy a brand new long nose Pete when I graduate and bring home at least $250 k my first year. Lol at you guys saying to save money. I'll be making bank yo

 

i started out with about 15k in cash after having the truck paid for going threw it and replacing everything i saw off the bat that it was going to need paying my plates insurance ect. basicly showed up to my first load with around 15k left in my back account and i still had a lot of sleepless nights and a couple times i was down to less than 1k in the bank. i was quite under funded for running under my own numbers but doing my own repairs and being able to fix a lot of things myself i made it. and had sell one of my personal vehicles along the way to pay bills (was a spare car i wasn't really using but still)

i recently bought another truck. really a pretty nice truck o/o truck pretty well taken care of. before i took it out for its first load, i replaced most of the exhaust went threw it and found a hand full of items did a oil change. then i start using it and find my compressor is cyling more than it should, spent some time finding some air leaks, replaced a couple hoses, then it was better but was still having some air issues. and water in the air tanks, replaced the air dryer found one of the lines from the compressor to the dryer had chaffed. replaced that hose, was still loosing air some where and was having some intermittent leak issues i couldn't find. then the break foot valve starts pissing all the air out. replaced the foot valve and then i was holding air real good (would still have 80 lbs after the truck sat off all night) but sometimes it would build air real fast and sometimes slow. found that the pressure protection valve on the compressor was getting week replaced that. then i had a issue with the jake breaks only working on 3 out of the 6 cyl found and fixed that problem. now none of this was super expensive doing all my own repairs but if you were paying labor rates it would really add up. and thoughs are just the items i ran across that had to be addressed that's not counting the things i did because well i wanted to, to make things work better or more comfortable or because i preferred to have things a certain way. and also not counting the hydrolic hose that blew out on me. because your not likely dealing with wet kit stuff.

and this truck has been a lot better out of the gates than my other truck was.

running under someone elses numbers with a company fuel card weekly or 2ce a week payments and a little luck 10K in the back when your ready to roll would probably be ok. but i think 5k is asking for trouble.

 

That was basically my situation. Luckily the truck has been solid so far.