2003 ISX suggestions needed

[Rawze]

(08-04-2017 )DDlighttruck Wrote:  I took a short look on ebay at the chinese inline 5 you had mentioned. I have a laptop and printer in the truck already. It is kind of the next in line purchase. Just need to narrow down a good one.
It's all about making the run. I drove from Toronto to Indiana with about 4 ribs left on the belt, praying it would make it. It did, delivered and then fixed the truck. There's some stuff I know I can't do yet, and some stuff that just isn't practical to do in a parking lot. I generally will try to do most of the repairs, but some stuff I don't have the time for either. I did one kingpin myself to get it through the safety, but the other side I had the shop do when I was up north for a week. Yes I can do it but then I sacrifice some down time. I bit the bullet and paid a guy $250 to bring me coolant a couple weeks back. Blew a hose, cut it shorter and re-attached it, but only had a gallon with me. Hence wanting to add a second saddlebox. $250 for 3 gallons of coolant and 3 gallons of water is cheaper than a tow but still.
I'm trying hard to find a balance right now. Recently it's been drive all week wrench all weekend. I don't see that changing for awhile.

Welcome to truck ownership. Getting a used truck is like getting a used house that had bad tenants that wrecked it. - Used trucks just don't generally get sold that are profitable out of the gate. It takes time and effort to get them back to some reasonable glory where they don't nickel you to death.

Keeping after as much of this as possible places as much money as possible in your pocket instead of someone else's hands. Your goals should be 2 fold...

1) To drive it like you own it, manage time very well so that you can drive the LOWEST speeds, fuel consumption, and wear in every possible way. Installing Boost and pyro gauges (on the outside of the manifold like in my videos) help you learn and be good at this. Managing time very well allows you to slow down and become more profitable too.

2) Learn to maintain and repair it yourself as much as possible. Last I checked, tools were a lot cheaper than a mechanic. Get on top of the maintenance and stay there to keep downtime and unpredictable expenses to a minimum.

Doing those 2 things well = money you can build up in the bank (I recommend for people to keep a goal of about $30k in reserve in the bank ) for that day the engine lets go, or the day you need a new clutch, or tranny, etc. You are running a business, keep it on a solid foundation and it will always be good to you. Make profitable decisions with long term goals in mind and place all the power hungry glory and typical BS aside that others do. There is no profit in that.

If you want to learn about your truck and trucking business in general, this place is a good place to learn. I don't allow false BS on here or things that will waste peoples money. This forum is about helping people as genuinely as possible and not taking something from them like other places do. That is why the site is free, and it is the thousands of members on here that have already been through the O/O hardships that can give the best advice.

Take that advice and those stories you will find here and use them to grow what you know. That is what it is all about. How profitable someone in trucking is per truck long term says a lot about the advice they try to give to others. Follow along with those people who are the most profitable per truck already and they will all say the same thing that I just did... > "Learn to slow down, fix your own s$it, and invest in the tools and equipment necessary to become as self sufficient as possible".