Slowwwly but Surely
It’s been kinda stale around here lately, well with Rev and Steve getting along so welland it looks like the s**t jokes are done on Mackmans thread, so I thought I might post where I’m at with my quest.
After hanging around here for a couple years and trying to absorb all the useful information, I bought a truck in August. I looked at a lot of trucks for a long time both on truck paper to compare prices and also a lot of truck lots around the MD, PA area. I bought this truck from a private seller who also used it to start up his business. After talking to my mechanic, who I met just prior to going to look at the truck (he was a CAT mechanic for 23 years, now has his own business), and some other knowledgeable people (I won’t mention any names unless it’s ok with them), I decided to buy it.
It’s a 1984 Pete 359 w/ a 63” sleeper
400 Cat 3406 B
18 speed
3:90 rears
1.4 million miles, inframed at 500, 1 mil, 1.3 mil
Paid 21,000.00
It came with the original Owners Chassis Bill of Material, all maintenance records since new, and recent oil analysis. A short gap is missing where the 2nd owner had it. It’s been well taken of by all that had it. I’m always leery of used equipment but the MD inspection went pretty well. Biggest item was the brake drums, all four failed by the width of a hair probably. 16620 is the max, mine were 2@16624, 16648, and 16680. Thought I might need a power steering gear box but it’s just a seal. The rest was minor.
I had my mechanic do a full PM, along with the brake drums, brakes, and some other things. All fluids looked great according to him and he can’t believe how well the truck has been maintained. Other truck owners have come to his shop as well and offer positive comments about the shape of the truck. One of them took it out for a ride and said it felt great. That makes me feel good about the purchase. I don’t have any pics yet, I told the mech I was in no hurry, so it’s still in his shop. I also want to finish buffing it before I take any pics. :wink:
I chose this truck for a few different reasons, in no particular order, first, if this venture doesn’t work out or if does and I upgrade to a newer truck I’ll keep it and fix it up for show, second, if I do need to sell it I should be able to get my purchase price back if I take care of it, third, this was the cleanest truck I looked at, far better than some of the newer Internationals, 2000 year range +/-.
Enough of that, so far I’ve met two pretty good contacts for work, one just recently. He has about 20 trucks that run for him, they (the truck owners)have their own authority. He takes 11%, he has his accounts to get out, then he will get you back. He is willing to help me out getting started, sort of a mentor I guess. He has an extra flatbed that I can use (I’ll rent it, I wouldn’t accept a free ride from any one), I’ll have to buy the securement equipment and tarps for it though. I usually get a pretty good read on people and he seemed genuine. I’m not naïve when it comes to business though; we each get what we need from the other. He also has step deck freight. I like the idea of renting his trailer for a bit because it should allow the truck to earn the money to pay for the trailer, instead of me fronting it all. Also, I can work it when I want, I don’t have to commit to it full time right out the gate. That will allow me to still hold the construction business for a while. I can also stay with the region, 600 mi radius, insurance will be cheaper. I have much more talking to do with this contact but for now it seems good.
The other contact is for local work, this post is getting long so I’ll wait on that.
I’d still like to network a little more and find another one or two good contacts. I’m not going to move the truck till I know I can make money with it.
My long term plans would include finding my own customers and possibly a brokers license so I can offer more service. That’s distant though, the broker part that is.
For those that might say “you bought a truck without any work?” I’ll say this, I’ve never had much success trying it the other way around, be it what ever tool or equipment it might be. In my experience people don’t take you serious unless you can say you’re ready to go. They don’t want to hear your thinking about it. You have to be reasonable of coarse. I wouldn’t have bought a 100,000 dollar truck. This truck allows me to be pickier about where I put it to work. My plans are to wait till spring, hopefully things will start to pick up, maybe some of the guys with high overhead will drop off too.
All expenses are logged and the truck business will have to pay me back with interest.
I’ll open it up for comments, suggestions, criticisms, spellink eroors, and of course punctuation errors;’!?.
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Originally Posted by RostyC
