How do you guys buy long distance

[merrick4]

Ok first off thanks to Baby Cad over at the main office of CAD for getting me unbanned. I guess whoever it was that caused some type of issue the other day had Cingular as their ISP so I was banned too.

Anyway I am still looking for a truck and trailer. I've gone to all the dealers in South Florida, (Miami and Ft Lauderdale) but there isn't much of an inventory. One guy had a couple of trailers that looked promising but one is in Orlando and the other is in Chicago.

So how do I proceed? I could fly to Chicago and look at the trailer but that's as good as me opening the hood of my car and looking at the engine. That is I don't know what I'm looking at. I could of course pay someone to take a look, how do you guys go about it? Also with the trucks, I look on truckpaper.com but what good is it to find something in Oklahoma. At least here I have a good mechanic.


Also have you guys heard of National Truck Protection? It's a warranty company. Looks good, just wondering if any of you have used it?

Thanks

[merrick4]

Well I'm banned again from my laptop. This is a pain in the a**. I'd wish they'd fix this already.

[GMAN]

When I am looking for another truck, I stop in at dealerships as I drive around the country. I usually find something fairly close to home. TruckPaper is a good way to find trucks for sale. Some of the forums have a section to well trucks and trailers. Landstar has a section where there BCO's (owner operators) can advertise their equipment for sale. You need to be leased to them in order to advertise or list something for sale, but anyone can check out the equipment for sale section. You can sometimes find people advertising their equipment for sale in truck stops. Many have boards used just for the purpose of advertising jobs and equipment for sale. You might even try advertising in your local classifieds that you are looking for a truck and trailer.

[merrick4]

Thaks GMAN. The problem is though that you know what you are looking for. I'm tempted to just buy new and I know what I'm getting at least. I know that's not smart but...

By the way when I called up CAD today and not to blow smoke up your toches, but I told them how much I like this board and that they are fortunate to have someone such as yourself here. And that for the advice you give you should be paid. I meant in just in general but I think he thought I meant that they should be paying you. Maybe that's why I'm banned again from my other computer

[Doghouse]

Merrick, do you know anyone who can give you some advice? Maybe a diesel shop owner, or spend some time on the maintinance thread here at CAD, it could give you some insight into the workings of a truck.
Good luck

[merrick4]

Yes I do, I'm not doing this blind. But I don't like imposing on people. I mean here I ask a question and if you guys are reading it or replying then obviously you have made the time. I have one guy who I like to call my mento, but I can't be calling him and taking him with me everywhere. I do have a good mechanic in Miami that told me to bring in the truck and he'd be more than happy to do it.

The problem is out of state. I like this warranty program I mentioned above. It covers a lot and there is no mileage restriction. They have to check out the truck first though.

[GMAN]

I appreciate the vote of confidence, merrick4. I guess that will teach you to want someone to be paid to post. :wink:

You could pay someone to check out a lot of trucks for the difference in buying new compared to used. Besides, you can get a lemon in a new truck as well as you can a used one. We can tell you some basic things to look for when browsing dealer lots. Once you find something you like, then you can spend the money for a mechanic to check it out for you. Making big payments will get old. There are some good deals out here. It sometimes just takes a little time and effort to find them. There is NO WAY I would buy a new truck starting out. It would not be a good business decision. You will have enough to worry about with the other aspects of running your business than making big equipment payments. I know......it is easy to justify the extra expenditures, but in reality you will put a lot of unnecessary pressure on yourself. Relax. It takes patience to find a really good value. If you get in a hurry, you are more likely to buy something which isn't a good value.

[Doghouse]

Take your time,that's what I did.
The truck I bought sent many drivers running for the hills. Here is what the experience was like.
I saw the truck on e-bay, and called the guy, he had a horrible phone connection, but I went forward with trying to meet him.
I go all the way to his town 100 miles away in one of the worst rain storms Florida had last year.
I get to his town and he meets me at the Flyin J, we go to his garage unit.
He puts up the door, and the truck won't start,...he spends 30 minutes trying to jump it off his 6 cyl pickup truck.
Finally it fires off, it runs well, no weird smoke, no weird sounds.
He pulls it out of the garage, and has to reattach the level thing in the back to get the airbags to fill up.
All the while I'm looking at the most cob-jobbed diesel generator/Home Depot refrigerator/RV A/C unit on the roof. (none of this stuff worked by the way, but he seemed to love his handi work).
The truck had wires sticking out of the dash,..multiple switches to turn on the A/C, and ignition. The seat was leaking air, and the sleeper was stripped to the walls, with those trucker girl silhouettes everywhere (hood, dash,sleeper walls,windows).
The truck ran for an hour while he showed me all the stuff that he tried to get working, but would not work.
Then he dropped the bomb,...the truck was reported stolen a few years ago, and the only reason its on the road now is because they were using another VIN from another International.
This little tidbit sent every other driver running for the hills, and nobody wanted to bid on it.
I noticed the ruck ran well, and had great oil pressure, there were no weird noises coming from the engine,....so I offered the guy $8,000 on the spot, and we ended up at $9,000.
I paid him and then waited 3 days for him to deliver the truck to me,...at one point I couldn't get a hold of him, and I thought about calling the police,...but I waited, and he came through, brought the truck to me.
When I finally got it home I sent out the oil, and had a diesel mech. look at it closely.
So far the only issue engine wise is that the fan is always running, so that will have to be dealt with,...oh, and it has a couple of oil leaks (what Detroit doesn't ).
All in all its been pretty good, I have gone to start it every week for almost a year and it never fails to start, and run good and strong, I idle it for hours sometimes, and wind it up to 1800 rpm to blow the dust out of the pipes.
Now, all said and done, I sure hope that when it breaks down,...its something I can figure out,....or just tow it and get it fixed.
The facts are that I paid about $10,000 for it, and put another $12,000 into it to make it as dependable as possible,.........we'll see about that when I go on my first run,...very, very soon.
Good luck on your search Merrick,.....its loads of fun :wink:

[rank]

....I told them how much I like this board and that they are fortunate to have someone such as yourself here. And that for the advice you give you should be paid.

That's it I'm not posting anymore.

[heavyhaulerss]

merrick... you will find drivers who will tell you to buy new or expensive. i bought my 95 intl in 99' for 15,000 cash & people to this day tell me i need to or should of bought something more expensive & should of worked out a truck payment to have a write off ? ?? almost 8 years of making money without a payment & i get this from drivers about 30 % of the time. do take your time. if you dont know much about trucks, take someone with you who does. or take prospective truck to a place like a detroit dealer who can perform a dyno test on it & look the whole thing over. will cost a couple hundred, but thats better that getting a lemon. as far as national truck protection... ive seen there ad's. i being myself would not get their protection.. it's like betting that your going to break down. these co's dont stay in business by helping people. they stay because they charge more than they will pay out. j.m.o

[Doghouse]

I don't know if I could have dealt with a new truck payment either, so I'm with you on the used truck thing.

[merrick4]

Doghouse, I could never ever do what you did. I'm truly glad it worked out for you, but I don't trust people like that. I know about the loss of the mom and pop places of the world, but I like the fact that I can go into a Walmart and if it breaks, just take it back.

Of course we are now talking about trucks, but I like the fact of having warranties etc. Even right now I had water come into my house the other day during the rains and I'm waiting on the builder to come over and take a look. Like I said I like warranties.

Really as for a new truck i can get one without a payment but of course that will not leave me much for repairs (plus I need a trailer).

I mentioned the National Truck Protection in the original post but nobody has commented on that. It looks pretty good. I can get a warranty for about $3000 with no mile restrictons on the truck and it covers quite a bit. Of course they want to check it out first but here's the website if anyone's interested:


http://www.nationaltruckprot.com/

[person]

It seems like you need to hire someone big time to help you buy a used truck. Ask at your mechanics. Get someone in your hip pocket that knows what they're doing. It is the cost of doing business. It will be money well spent.