Hot Shotting w/ my 6.7

OldschoolPSD · Jun 23, 2017

That's a lot of driving in a pickup anyways. The seating position in a semi is a lot more upright. I don't think my back could take that much seat time in a pickup.

psduser1 · Jun 24, 2017

TrickTruck said:
I went to a parts dealer in Elkhart to see about all the other crap I was required to have by the Transport company. After chatting with the owner a bit I laid my cards on the table and asked his opinion.

Bottom line, doing everything right, being really smart about it, you maybe clear $1k/week. Put some of that back to replace the truck when it's slap azz worn out in 2 years and guys are not making a lot of $$ doing this.

If someone were retired and wanted to travel the country and get their bills paid half way it's not a bad option, but the owner of the parts place told me that most of the guys doing this are too dumb to do simple math.

I was looking for a hole in my calculations, but there isn't one. The math simply doesn't work for drivers. They'll bust their hump, risking their lives, working 14hrs a day and see very little return for all their effort.

On my way back to my wife's sister's house where I'd been staying, I passed Horizon, whipped it around and dropped off the tags and all their other stuff. The trainer was at the door and he was genuinely surprised when I handed him the stuff. All I told him was that this was not a good fit for me. Thank you for your time.

I did learn some stuff about driving that I already applied on the 700 mile trip home, I think the 2 day class has already made me a better driver...and I thought I was pretty good to begin with, lol.

Good for you.

TrickTruck · Jun 24, 2017

Thought y'all would find this amusing...

I sat down this morning and did a spreadsheet.

Bottom line, at the end working your log maximums for a week, if you are putting $ away for maintenance (rule of thumb, is that it equals the fuel) you come out NEGATIVE by over $300/week.

My gut feel was this was the stupidest idea I've had to date and I just proved that it right up there on the dumb scale.

Feel free to poke holes in the spreadsheet, but I sure can't find any.

Tom@BigTimeKustomz · Jun 24, 2017

Robin, at least you realized it now versus a few months down the road and you were negative $2100 bucks and basically destroying your brand new truck. I wish you luck in finding a job in your field brother!

CATDiezel · Jun 24, 2017

Why I said you would be light years ahead just driving for someone else....

Wal-Mart door greeter.

With your degree.... I think you should take a career in another state and get off the east coast.

bluedge8 · Jun 26, 2017

Where most guys think they are making money is the maintenance costs, they don't save that money and they spend it, weekly- makes them feel like they are making money.

Vader's Fury · Jun 26, 2017

There are a few ways you could cut your cost down as well. If you spec out your truck right, you could sleep in it and that would remove the hotel cost. Also if your good at it, you get a backhaul load each trip. The key is to minimize miles that you are not loaded as they are what kills your margins. Even if backhauls pay a little less than your outbound load, they still are better than bobtail miles.

It is hard to stay in the black though. Most of the guys I know that are into it slowly end up upgrading their truck size in order to make more money.

Bustedknuckles · Jun 27, 2017

Way to actually crunch the numbers and not just dive in headfirst and regret it strongly in a few months! Have you looked at just driving for fedex or something? A friend of mine makes 120k a year driving for FedEx and i know a few other guys making around 80k...

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griz700rocket · Jun 27, 2017

I know brothers that do this. They started with 7.3s and ran them for years. Then fuel costs went sky high and they traded one for a small sleeper rig with aluminum trailer. They would go south with two campers on the trailer and one behind the 7.3 and then back north with the 7.3 on the trailer behind the rig. Did that for a while and now they both run sleeper rigs and get back hauls coming north. They seem to do ok with it but they know all the ins and outs as they have been doing it for 15+ years.

TrickTruck · Jun 27, 2017

bluedge8 said:
Where most guys think they are making money is the maintenance costs, they don't save that money and they spend it, weekly- makes them feel like they are making money.

That's pretty much how I have it figured too.

Those of you who do this for a living, please don't take offense, but I think you need to find someone better at math to do a projection for you.

Way I see it, you are working your tail off, risking your life, eating crappy food and sleeping either in your truck or fleabag motels, all to put 200,000+miles on your truck a year, not having made enough to pay for a new one when that one is slap azz worn out and all just to owe the MAN money.

Makes no sense to me.

It is cool hauling $200k RVs though. Talking to a guy on bookface now that's all excited because he's hauling monsters for a living. I sent him my spreadsheet.

Yea, I'm glad I tried, but equally glad I trusted my gut and got out before spending another $1500 on stuff just so I could haul the first load.

TrickTruck · Jun 27, 2017

Bottom line for ME: I need an engineering job.

As my wife puts it, my job right now is 'getting a job'

In between, maybe I'll mow some lawns.

ncollins64 · Jun 27, 2017

If your ever interested in possibly relocating, check out Nissan USA. Google Nissan brassring and type in decherd tn jobs, this is the power train plant. Then you have vehicle plants in Smyrna tn and canton ms. There always looking for engineers. I've been there since 05 and it's a good job even though I'm trying to go offshore.