The costs of living out of AND in your truck..?

What are you? You just described my nightmares

 

That's the way he likes his coffee.

 

I guess I like my women that way too.

But Im a vampire. I haul blood and prefer to drive overnight.

The onlyh person more vampire than me is Frank Speak

 

Yea, I am in fairbanks. I have never actually seen it get to 70 below right here in town, 60 but not 70, so somebody is exagerating. I have seen 72 below once. It has gotten colder than that up on the road, but I missed it.
And the wind. I lived in eastern NM for years and detest the wind, it rarely blows here in town, get out of town or up north and that is a whole different story. I had to chain up on finger once laying on the ground holding on with one hand at all times. lol
I learned a couple of things that trip,it was my first winter.
Have good sun glasses. I never wore them before, and they are a must have here.
Never ever get out of the truck in a blow with your shirt tail out, while I was chaining up blind because my eyes blew full of snow and it turned to ice, it packed and I mean packed 2 or 3 inches of snow under my shirt. right up to my neck, which turned to ice from my body heat. When I got back in the truck, it thawed and I was soaking wet, my belly stayed red for a couple of weeks though.
When I got back to town, I went straight down and bought some good sun glasses and a pair of good ski goggles too. lol

 

That's man mode right there. My eyes froze but whatever. I gotta job to do. My hat off to you.

 

I was gonna say that, but .................

 

It's not like I had a choice. lol I could see nothing but the inside of the windshield and kept slowing down till I spun out. I knew I was on finger but couldn't tell you if I was in the road or what lane. I got on both radios and told anybody that could hear not to drop off the top, but got no responce.
When I got back in the truck, before I could move a pilot rig pulled up. and told me he had a 14 wide with a push truck coming up the other side. lol I was just in time.
The blow was bad, but he could see much better as the sun was not in his eyes.

 

In my humble opinion, sir, your plan is only a few minor details away from the dream life I currently enjoy.

Difference #1 - Get your CDL and, at the same time, have your wife get hers. I know, I know, she can't back a riding lawn mower and is scared of traffic. My wife was too. Now, she backs to docks while singing to the radio. It's not rocket surgery; your wife can do this.
If you both get your CDL at the same time, you instantly become the #1 draft pick of the rookie trucking world. Companies will fight over you. You will get the best trainers and the newest equipment to learn in. You will also make substantially higher cpm than rookie solo drivers and, because all the miles get paid to the same bank account, you will be earning an excellent income almost immediately. We chose Werner and earned around $3500 a week right out of training.

Difference #2 - When it's time to buy your own equipment, do not get a pimped out "condo" tractor. They are huge, don't fit in any standard parking spaces, and are much more difficult to maneuver, and less fuel efficient. You will rarely see extended sleepers anywhere except in the household moving business because they can't maneuver inside tight warehouse real estate or even most truck stops.

INSTEAD, when you're ready to buy a truck, get a standard, basic work truck with a standard sleeper. As a team, you won't spend much time sharing the bed anyway and, as an owner/op team, you will be making enough money to get a pimped out hotel room pretty much any time you want.

My wife and I are "semi-retired" as we like to say. We earn enough in 4 or 5 days to take 2 or 3 days off each week and we earn enough in 9 months to take 3 months off every winter. We pick the lanes we want and stop when and where we like, basically just booking a load to the place we want to go next. We NEVER run on recap hours and often get 34hr resets with 20 or 30 hours still on our clocks.

We also have the option of running team loads to make fast money or running solo loads so we can take our time and "smell the roses." For instance, today we picked up a load after a 3 day break in Amarillo, visiting family, and are now on a solo load to Miami. We are already over half-way there with 2 and a half days til delivery. So, we are stopping for a day along the way to visit our daughter and will still arrive in Miami early enough to get a hotel and catch a nice dinner before our drop on Thursday morning. Still, for the 72 hours we are under the load, about 30 of it spent actually moving it, we will gross $3700. We will catch one more load on Thursday to take us into the weekend and so, with all the days off and stops and such, we will probably earn about $6000 by Sunday. (Of course, there are expenses like fuel and tolls plus maintenance kitty and insurance, etc. That's not take home pay. We will probably keep about $4000 of it after all is said and done.)

In my opinion, it is far and away a better living and life than driving solo, even with your wife on board.

Good luck!