Couple newbie questions...

[Kc0stp]

(01-17-2021 )Rawze Wrote:  The question that runs thru my head when I read their post is...


What type of freight are they going to be hauling?... and does the truck have the correct specs for profitability for this?

things like correct roof height? correct rear axle ratios?, what tranny?, what other options, etc.etc.etc.


And then ... how many miles on it already and how much money and work are they going to invest themselves into doing to get it reliably road ready again? .. or if they are just another future victim of the 85% failures due to under-educated ways ... the ones that cause new Owner-ops to dance around with a shiny-new-penny attitude and all of the blind-man's bubble, thinking that the truck is somehow magically going to get sold with it ready to roll freight right from the seller lot like a complete fool. - You know .. things like doing all the 250k mile maintenance items like re-torquing all the wheel bearings front and back, replacing shocks, gear box and tranny oil, going thru the entire EGR and emissions systems and replacing all sensors + cleaning everything out, running the overhead valve adjustment, inspecting the cam thoroughly, checking/inspecting cab shocks and mounts, replacing the guts in the fuel pump right away if its more than 400k miles old, etc.etc.etc.

And then what about good business planning?... expected load times, truck paymants and expenses, etc.etc.

And then how much experience under someone's belt they have driving already?... and how much have they practiced how to slow down and save fuel with the truck they are already driving instead of putting the fuel all the way onto the floor like a dumbarsse due to horrible company-driver, truck-and-fuel-mileage-killing habbits?


Then there are the things that others pointed out... Investing in some basic tooling to wrench on it with, a laptop and adapter to troubleshoot it and keep it away from the network of OEM rip-off nitwits, etc.etc.

Owning a truck is a vastly different career than driving one.

- those are the things that run thru my head any ways.

Let's see if I can answer these in order

Going to be running mainly reefer occasionally dry van, 525 cummins 2350, 13spd manual, 3.42 rears, high rise sleeper with full fairings, 232 wb and from a dry van fleet.

Sitting at 920k miles with 180k on documented overhaul and clutch, and have extensive maintenence records for truck since it was new. former medium duty mechanic do plan on doing most work myself. For its age its in really good shape but will be getting egr tuneup (including all sensors) asap and all fluids changed valve adjustment within next 20k miles.

Business planning wise, 20cpm set aside strictly for maintenence until it hits 30k in the bank, 60cpm to me upto 7k a month. Any additional profit reinvested into the company and truck payment is well under the 1k/ month mark.

Experience wise, had cdl for 7 years and been towing my personal racecar for an additional 5 (dually +51' trailer 35k lbs) I'll be the first to admit in class a I've been your typical company driver not caring about fuel mileage. However personal vehicles I back it down for fuel milage but always followed the assumption its better to get off the hill asap vs lingering and not using full throttle.