What can i buy with 30K?

Since this has gone 5 pages and the OP didn't volunteer and nobody has bothered to ask .. So I will...
OP what are your plans for this 30k truck ? It kinda plays a part of what kinda truck you should be looking for

 

See...I told you. I mention tacos, and you got a ton of replies!


Your welcome.

You may send my payment in the form of tacos.

Sirscrapntruckalot - No. - God's form letter for prayers.

 

Old trucks aren’t worth it. Constant repairs. Constant break downs. A hassle.
If I had $30k. Wanted a truck. That is a good buffer amount to run on. I’d go with one of those guys who will set you up with a 3 year old truck. 300k something miles. Make payments to him. He’s taking a percentage till you pay off the truck.

 

Door Dash.

 

Please keep us advised on what kind of truck you get and what kind of hauling you're doing. The things you'll be learning can help the next guy that wants to do the same thing as you.
If your plan doesn't work out the way you want it to we'd like to know. Bad experiences can be learned from.

 

I will reply, to my own reply. Out here in the Texas and NM oil patch we see a ton of old, old trucks working every day. Keep in mind, these drivers are using them as ‘work trucks’, not patio show queens.
I you desire is local work, you should be able to find a decent unit in the 30k range, albeit it will more than likely be a day cab, or if your lucky, a coffin sleeper. You will need to look around, and shake the bushes as the saying goes.

 

Actually I was wrong, you can get


1/14 Semi Trucks Electric Kits Cars &

 

We just sold a 89 378 Pete for 30k, had a BC400 and a 13 in it, I think my uncle paid like $9500 for it back in the late 90/early00s.

I think I paid 15k for my 97 KW back in 2016, and I’d laugh at you if you put 100k in front of me for it right now. Your not buying a 30k truck to go right to work with, it’s a project truck, if you run local I might chance it to run it while working on it.

 

I can understand the idea of trying to find a cheap truck that you can work for a while and then save money and buy something better later, but I don't agree with that.

First of all this is not looking good the future right now. If it's possible it would be better for you to save more money and wait because the prices of trucks are going to go down. That's the others have said the writing appears to be on the wall and we're going to start seeing people bail out while they still can get a lot of money for their trucks and trailers.

Old trucks is completely an unknown. You might find a 10 or $15,000 truck then has a myriad of issues but keeps going. Or you can find a truck for more and you go around the corner and the engine blows up. You absolutely do not know and the only answer is to have enough money to repair whatever you buy and buy the best truck that you can.

And a lot of times with happens with these trucks that have time on them is that they'll start and run but all the slack adjusters have to be replaced. All the air cans have to be replaced all of the scams have to be replaced. The guy that had it put brakes on it but never put drums on it so they all have to be done. It needs Universals, seals are leaking, all of these wear items like fan clutch thermostats Radiator on an old truck any that can go at any moment. Rears Transmissions even things like fan motor blowers and windshield wiper motors all of this adds up and even more so it's down time

So the best scenario is you find this truck and you patch it up and hopefully you don't get any dot violations with any of the above items or anything else. You make a little money you try to save the best you can and maybe in a year you can afford something else.

The worst scenario which unfortunately is probably more likely, Is You by the truck you work for a week you're down for 2 weeks with a repair. You work for 3 weeks you're doing okay now you're down for another week of the repair. Now you work for a month you're down for another week you work for 3 months you're down for another two weeks and now all the sudden Kaboom the money that you saved has to go back into a large repair.

At the same point in time fuel is going up and the loads are paying less and you're struggling to make money and now you see the price of trucks has gone down and for your $30,000 you could have bought what currently is a 60 or 80 or $90,000 truck.

You work for 6 months or a year and you see that you can't make any money and whatever you have made went back into the truck and either you go bankrupt or you just have made zero.

I'm not being funny when I say to you you have just the same odds as if you took that $30,000 and put it on the craps table and rolled the dice.

And by the way, even if you were seriously a mechanic and had a place to work on it, the downtime and the cost of the parts and the fact you have no money coming in, in and of itself is a killer.

The way to make money is with a good truck that will roll all the time and when you have repairs to do they are small repairs.

I would say I'm not trying to dissuade you but at this moment I probably because if mostly where we are in the cycle but what I've said there is the truth about buying that kind of a truck.