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in2trux

There are no short cut's in this business. You would be well advised to listen and take everything said here and think it through before pulling the trigger. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

Old proverb in trucking, " If it wasn't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all"
Anything that can go wrong, WILL!

There is nothing wrong with carrying some debt. That's just a fact of any business. It's called LEVERAGE. Most businesses never make it past 5 years. The first year is the hardest, no question.

When you are over leveraged there is a 99% chance the business will fail.
Income to debt ratio should be no more than 25%. The lower the better.
Every hour you spend on your truck, not paying a shop or dealer is money to the bottom line!
Tools pay for themselves many times over.

With $150k average gross income, you can carry a $60k note @8% for 4 years and have your base fixed cost @ 12% of gross. That only leaves 13% to work with to reach the 25% cap.
You can breach that but no more than 6 months, S__t happens.

Every used truck needs an in-frame and clutch!

We bought our truck from R__h, $62k,it was just out of warranty from a small carrier,2013.
Head and cams were replaced shortly before we purchased under Cummins warranty.
Throw out bearing went out in first 6 months. Time for new clutch even though it still had decent meat on it. Input shaft was beat to S__T, so rear leaking rear main, input shaft and seal was replaced. Air compressor failed in first 3 months, leaving my wife on the side of the road in torrential thunder storm, $3600 later, back in business.

150k miles later, bad injector blew a hole through #3 piston, cracked rings.Truck had 535k miles on it when we bought it, damage was done from ingesting too much soot. That's AFTER finding Rawze!

670k miles, In Frame time! Thank God for Gearhead! Done right the first time and it runs like an ape!

So, my advice, find a 2010 that's had a bunch of work done to it for maybe $25k and do a full in-frame right out of the door, NEW clutch, Reman tranny and then MAYBE you can load,deliver, repeat. You might have some leverage getting a dealer to build it in to a deal with 10% down.
Save the rest of your bank because YOU'RE GOING TO NEED IT!

I've been in this game for near 40 years and don't care to hear myself talk or give advice.
Good luck and good truck'n!

arch_stanton

sledge, Money is cheap to borrow currently,the interest will be far cheaper than labor paid to a mechanic to maintain an old truck the motor is only a small part of what will need repair.
Will your family be happy that you spend every weekend fixing something that is wrong with an old truck? Are you willing to lean everything about a the trucks systems Electrical,air,brakes,drive line. Yesterday I rebuilt a fan clutch and saved 300 over a rebuilt one and saved the labor on the R and R by doing it myself still took 5 hours with trip to the parts store, got the wrong kit the night before so I had to go back Saturday,2 weeks ago same truck needed an air compressor parts over 400$ plus another Satuday i knew I needed the compressor because when the air dryer cycled it left oil residue on the ground next week I will service the air dryer on Saturday.

You can make money with an old truck or a new truck but no matter what else happens the truck has to run and be dependable everyday, then you can worry about fuel milage.

I don't think 33K will be enough to rebuild an old ISX but It will make a down payment on a newer unit and leave you some operating capital, if you make the jump to Owner you cannot have too much extra money, and good credit rating and a CC with a zero balance and a 10K limit will get you through the s++t happens maybe

Sledge

(04-02-2017 )Brock Wrote: Here. Finance this, get with unilevers and don't look back, if it's still on next month then I'm buying it. Old guy has heart problem, is 65 and retiring. Reman Detroit has 500,000km

I appreciate it but I have no guarantee that I am going to pull trigger in 30 days.
Saving 750 a week took time, more wont hurt anything.
If you want the truck please feel free. I am probably missing something, but not sure exactly why you like the engine and spec's, beyond the aerodynamic and 13 speed.

*Edited for clarification*

Brock

(04-02-2017 )Sledge Wrote:
(04-02-2017 )Brock Wrote: Here. Finance this, get with unilevers and don't look back, if it's still on next month then I'm buying it. Old guy has heart problem, is 65 and retiring. Reman Detroit has 500,000km

I appreciate it but I have no guarantee that I am going to pull trigger in 30 days.
Saving 750 a week, it took time. Little more wont hurt anything.
If you want the truck please feel free. I am probably missing something, but not sure exactly why you are promoting it so heavily.

Promoting it so heavily? shi#t man sorry for trying to help out. I've got 20 trucks saved in my favorites list and am having trouble narrowing it down, this one seemed real good. Thought I was being nice. I don't know the truck, or the guy.... I'm in Alberta and never been to the east.

arch_stanton

If you can save 750 a week you may have the discipline to run a trucking business wait another year then you can start with 50k in the bank after the down payment,insurance, ect
This business will still be hear.

Sledge

(04-02-2017 )Brock Wrote: Promoting it so heavily? shi#t man sorry for trying to help out. I've got 20 trucks saved in my favorites list and am having trouble narrowing it down, this one seemed real good. Thought I was being nice. I don't know the truck, or the guy.... I'm in Alberta and never been to the east.

I apologize, "promoting" was the wrong description. All I really meant was if you want the truck then go for it. Don't wait on my account.
I do appreciate the suggestion.
I don't really like specs. Also I read that nothing but ISX can be properly de-mandated, am I wrong in this?

All I am really looking at right now are ISX Prostar/Cascadia.

(04-02-2017 )arch_stanton Wrote: If you can save 750 a week you may have the discipline to run a trucking business wait another year then you can start with 50k in the bank after the down payment,insurance, ect
This business will still be hear.

Currently at $33,000 CAD ($24,626 USD), slowed to $500 CAD once goal was reached.
Originally was planing for a +15% downpayment on new truck, but no longer thinking that way.
I have thought of what you suggested, one of the reasons I'm not feeling gun-ho.

Rawze

(04-04-2017 )Sledge Wrote: ...
I read that nothing but ISX can be properly de-mandated, am I wrong in this?

All I am really looking at right now are ISX Prostar/Cascadia.

Although I would not own one myself, gearhead and Unilevers can do Detroits on the same level of quality. They are the only one's I have seen that can though. Everyone else who does them is just poking blindly at them with the wrong software it seems. DDDL, DDDE, winols, are NOT anywhere near the correct software to do custom tuning on them with properly, so if someone tell you that is what they are using on detroits,.. run like hell the other way.

(04-04-2017 )Sledge Wrote: Currently at $33,000 CAD ($24,626 USD), slowed to $500 CAD once goal was reached.
Originally was planing for a +15% downpayment on new truck, but no longer thinking that way.
I have thought of what you suggested, one of the reasons I'm not feeling gun-ho.

I had only driven trucks for about 1 year. That is when we decided to buy our own. At that time, I had enough in the bank just sitting around to buy my truck brand new for cash and park it in the driveway if I wanted to. -- I was not stupid though, because I would have had nothing left.

I offered to drop half down up front, and got a deep discount on the truck (I gave $88,000 for it brand new), then half way through the deal, I re-negotiated and ...

* Got the payments down to about $420/week by pushing half the price out to the last (balloon) payment. This pretty much guaranteed my profitability margin would be good no matter what.

* Went on to pay on it for about 1.5 years, then just wrote them a cashiers check for the rest, and got the title. I saw no point in paying interest and we were successful, so I decided to just simply pay it off.

===

With only my one truck, above all my household and other expenses, I have managed to...

* Put all the $88k I spent on it back into savings in less than 2 years.

* Pay out the remaining $78k on my house in one lump sum to become completely debt free.

* Start an Internet forum so that I can help others do the same, costing me $700/month to run.

* buy the property and house next door for another $50,000 without even financing it.

* Spend the money for an inframe on the truck last year and didn't blink an eye about the costs, already had the money set aside for it even after buying the next door property.

Then out of nowhere, like being side-swiped by a freight train...

* Wife got breast cancer that came from nowhere without any warning. It grew so fast, in a couple months it was the size of a golf-ball and had spread fast up into her left arm by the time they cut it out of her a few weeks later. With no health insurance, it cost us roughly $33,000 out of our own pockets total. Hopefully they got it all, she is doing well and back to driving for now. In fact, if it were not for forum donations keeping the forum going, I would have likely had to shut down the forum. Thanks for all who donated enough to help keep it going.

* Keep our heads above water through all this with no regrets on our financial decisions.

I am still 100% debt free and slowly we are starting to recover. Looking back at it all, sure we could have not purchased the neighbors property and held off that inframe maybe a while longer, but she got the cancer with no warning shortly AFTER we had done these things. That is what life does to you, so if someone thinks they got it all figured out,.. Let me be the first to say that they absolutely do not!. You take it as it comes and work through whatever is tossed at you the best you can. I am very glad we do not spend our money, we save every penny we get, and we squeeze every last red cent possible out of your truck when it is rolling. If not for that, our story so far would have looked pretty bleak.

My point is that even if you have all the money to buy a brand new truck,.. don't shoot yourself in the foot. You never know what life is going to bring you in a week, or a month, or a year for that matter

My own story is a very strong case towards being successful by slowing down to roughly 60 mph on your own, saving as much fuel and operating costs as possible, and maximizing your profit margin above all else while out on the roads. Anything less and your just feeding your ego at the cost of being away from home and your family. To me it is not worth being out working hard if you don't press out every last red cent in what you are doing. Nothing else than that matters in comparison. I have never seen any money come from a bottle of chrome polish. I have never seen any profit margins or gains anywhere close to what we do in a square-nose truck. I have never seen anyone get close to our profit margin when they fly down the freeways trying to get that extra load in for the week. I also have never seen any higher profits in having the power turned up in your truck. those things are NOT good business decisions, I don't care who you are, or how you try to justify it. - Argue against this all you want to but It just don't happen that way. You are only fooling yourself at the end of the day.

Brock

No worries sledge. Cheers.

I've asked unilevers about the Detroit's, he told me they do very well tuned but when it comes time for rebuild..... they are very pricey.

Plus side for a owner buying a isx is this forum! Priceless.

Waterloo

Damn Rawze... Story of my life. ;-) When it all looks bright and sunny on the horizon, life kicks you in the ass and cuts your nuts off... Made it, lost it, made it again, lost it again... After awhile, you just don't give a shi#t. I roll with it, can't do much more, no need getting hysterical like some do, it is what it is. I'm having a ball this week, the vampire is down in Florida and I am cleaning out my garage! I haven't felt this good in a quite a few years! I can't wait until she goes on vacation again! :-) :-) ;-)

And trucking sucks. LMAO!