Buying older ISX truck for cash vs "fleet maintained" newer ISX

[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!