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Yeah I agree, and right now it's nice not to have a payment, other than the one to myself. I think what pushed me over the edge was the Power steering gear box going out. Sometimes I think I shouldn't have done some of the things I did to the truck and saved that money for now, for instance new fuel lines, power steering fluid lines, hoses.....etc. I really shouldn't complain about the truck though because this is the first time it's given me major problems and I have been down. Of coarse if I wanted too I could chance it and put PS fluid in everyday but if I get inspected I'm probably OOS and that bill would be much larger. I'd rather not chance it. |
I replaced the power steering box on one of my trucks a couple of years ago. It started leaking, so rather than just repairing it I decided to just replace it. If I had paid someone to rebuild it the cost would not have been much different than buying a new box. With the new box we just had to unbolt the old one and bolt up the new one. Any major fluid leak could put you out of service. To me it wasn't worth the potential hassle.
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I hope you can continue to stay in business, Chris. Hundreds of thousands of owner operator and carrier trucks were repossessed this last year. I heard some figures the other day that said something like 33,000 more have lost them. I don't recall if that was during the last quarter or month. In either case it is a lot of trucks. Most owner operators could not afford to keep their trucks if they sat too long. Most could not make the payments on a new truck working for another carrier, even in good times. If you buy an older truck that is in good shape you could possibly make those payments driving a company truck should you finance it. It is good to plan for contingencies. It is difficult to plan for every contingency, but you can plan for most things. One thing about business is that there will always be something to challenge you. It would be foolish for anyone starting out in this business to buy a new truck, especially with this economy. |
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I think a new truck is the way I'm going to go but just later on down the road. I want a big down payment and smaller monthly payments, because like I said above, I'll have it for years and know what I have. Another thing I think about too is just keeping this one and modernizing it some. I know I can get the rear suspension upgraded. I'll have to see about getting the front upgraded to have the turning radius of the new ones. That really was nice about the newer one I drove. It's funny my wife says I'm too young for a new truck it'll just spoil me, she says I need to get beat around a little. |
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Ultimately, I really think it comes down to personal preference. The price you are quoting on that 389 is very low (about $10K more than I paid for my 379 back in 2005), and there is a reason for that. The economy. In this economy, I wouldn't consider buying brand new equipment unless I was absolutely sure that what I was doing was recession-proof, and even then I would seriously lean away from doing it. |
I've bought new trucks for 30 years,keep them 3 and trade in. I couldn't imagine putting a driver in a 8-10 year old truck. I have never had a problem of letting a truck sit because of having a payment. Never had a problem of freight to cheap or slow either. Maybe because i run a business instead of a bought and paid job.
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I also wouldnt buy a new truck. In the near future when im ready to buy a truck for myself i wouldnt pay no more than 35k. looking at some trucks on truck paper one can get a nice truck with like 400k miles on it for that price range and have no payments on it.
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Really that 2005 is still a baby considering the miles you can get out of the newer engines. Your trans and rears should hold up a while as well so the other stuff isn't that expensive to replace compared of coarse to a payment. Some guys (like Chris) trade them every three years, but a well built truck can last a long time if maintained. I personally wouldn't do that, but to each his own. If I bought a new truck and didn't have any problems out of it for three years, I'm keeping it. Your right that is a decent price on the 389 which is why I was thinking about it. Now that price though is without their program, you have to have a minimum 15K down payment. At nine percent, which is just a figure the salesman used we didn't run a credit check (but I have good credit) and 15K down on a 6 year note the payment was 1800.00. Funny thing though, I was there Saturday for a couple hours, and showed a lot of interest but haven't heard anything from the dealer as of today, maybe that's their final price I don't know, usually you get a call back with a better price. I kinda hope he don't call, if my wife has to hear about this truck one more time she'll shoot me, I think she really will. You make another good point too, flatbed freight is extremely turbulent right now. Three weeks ago I couldn't catch my breath then it slowed the following week and last week was a struggle. I would imagine with all the rain around here this week is a little slow as well. |
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A family that I have known all my life owns a Custom Harvesting business. Their trucks are 20 years old. They have 2 359's and 2 White (the brand, not color) GMC's. They keep all of their equipment in Mint condition, and clean. If you didn't know anything about trucks, you'd think that their stuff is brand new. Kinda like Snowman said, if I was an owner operator, I'd want something that's new, and shiny. Who wouldn't, but I grin from ear to ear whenever I get to drive one of their older trucks.
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