Tri axle vs tractor

I currently have two very nice trucks. I have a very nice tri-axle dump truck and I have a very nice tractor. They both require a certain amount of work to put them on the road, but they both are very nice trucks. I also should say that I have a family situation that sometimes requires me to stop what I'm doing to attend to Family Matters. Bear with me this post May be a bit long.

Let's assume that either truck will be ready by mid July possibly sooner but for the sake of argument that's just say either one will be ready mid-july.

I live in southeast Pennsylvania and the dump truck business here is pretty good.

Even so, I do not have any deep contacts in the dump trucking business I do not have anyone that will guarantee me work or push me ahead of anyone else or guarantee me that I will keep working. So I'm basically just a truck for hire. I have no problem with that I have no problem with going after work I have no problem with presenting myself as a man and I'm sure that I will do well.

The problem is that here anyway the dump truck business works on seniority. So the newest truck like myself would be the last one to be hired and it would be the first one to be let go in the fall or winter. Summertime isn't any problem to keep the truck working but I'm concerned about how long the truck will work. The reason that I'm starting later in the year is because of the family situation and some delays that I've had.

Now let me just say that everything that I own including my home is paid for. I have very low living expenses. So if I started in mid-july and got knocked off in mid-november that would mean that I worked four months. For me 4 months I would be able to more than break even as far as my insurance and my bills and etcetera etcetera and I'm sure that I would be able to go through the winter. It would not be a champagne and caviar winter but I'm sure that I could get through it.

But again being a new truck I'm not sure if I would get knocked off in October or November or December and I'm not sure when the truck would start up again. Because again when you're the new truck you're the last to get hired so I couldn't tell you whether that would be April or whether that would be May. So basically I would run the truck four months roughly and then the truck would sit until spring time which could be three or four months or maybe even a little more than that? I don't have the answer to that. So the fact that I may not have a year that I made a whole lot of money and the fact that the truck would be sitting for several months at least through the winter got me thinking about my tractor.

But my question is if I started the tractor in mid-july the tractor probably would work up until Christmas or near Christmas anyway and if there was work for the tractor I would think I could work a bit in January work at least some in February and March and if I wanted to I could start with the tri-axle in the springtime or just go from there.

I'm just mulling this over in my head because the insurance is about twice as much for the tractor so the expenses would be higher. Also most likely I would have to rent a trailer and I would have to pay for load board so the expenses climb higher yet.

So I'm really not sure if it's better to just run the tri-axle until I get knocked off and go from there. Or if I could work more through the winter would it be better to just run my tractor for the rest of this year and then in the springtime I can make a decision as to what I want to do.

Leasing the tractor on anywhere is not an option (I have been in this business forever I've had my CDL since CDLs have begun but I don't have recent experience because I've been involved with other things). For that reason I would have to have my own authority in either case.

The repairs for the tri axle are a little more money and will take me probably a little longer than the tractor, but it all comes out in the wash I think because the tractor will cost more to get going with the insurance trailer rental and load boards.

And just to let you know the dump truck has a remanufactured big cam engine from Cummins with about a hundred and fifty thousand miles on it and it runs like a top I also have a brand new Cummins big cam engine for the tractor that has 0 miles on it with a new block new can new crank new Pistons everything is new in there, and everything is paid for and there is money put away and I have a bunch of spare parts for these trucks. I will do my best to Bulletproof whichever one before I start.

So my question isn't about whether I can do this or Reserve money or any of that kind of thing my question really is primarily about the best movement given the time of year getting started.

Thank you for taking the time to consider this. What do you think?

*** also wondering how busy I can stay in the winter time with a van trailer.