Tractor Weight question?

Hey :
You said it. Aim high... The 20,000 lbs will hurt you. Reefers are heavy and you will have a hard time getting loads.
Ya , I know some do it.
I pull dry van that weighs in just under 17,000 and am 34,000 empty.
"04" Columbia. CAT engine etc.

On almost all of the newer trucks the steers carry more then we used to be able to get up there. Just the way they are made now.

It looks cool to run the 5th wheel way back but the MPG go away doing it. None of my X long hoods could scale heavy loads. I could never get the steers to carry there share.

After 29 years of this I have found that I hate food warehouses and paying lumpers and hauling heavy produce and such. trying to sleep under that reefer sucks too.

I have also found that tugging on tarps that weigh more than I did got very old very fast. The DOT watches Flatbeds more than any others out here. $50 to 100.00 to tarp a load just aint worth it IMO.
I get $40.00 Plus per stop and don't fold tarps in the snow and rain anymore. 8 to 14 stops per load and 15 to 20 minutes per stop I can live with. Adds up fast.

Not trying to discourage you in anyway. Just saying it like it is. There are some that would never give up their Flats. and reefers. I don't own the trailer and don't have to fix it .

The Big sleeper will be nice.... You will love it.. Good luck .....

 

I am not sure. I do know that it is dog eat dog. W/ your own authority and such it will drive your cost up. 8 to 10,000.00 per year cargo insurance etc.
Maintaining your own reefer , the whole 9 yrads.
Unless you know you have the freight NAILED down I would be careful.
I turn right at $1.75/mile pulling their trailer. that is hard to do these days.
I get paid withing an hour or two of truning in my paper work. I can pull for any broker as long as they have a 85% or higher credit rating. And I get paid.. NO waiting. You WILL WAIT....

Just getting your own authority does not get you better loads. It helps but, You must now go find the freight. Make the deal and then KEEP it.
The next thing you know some jerk is pulling your freight for .10 cents a mile less then you can.

A % contract is the only way to go. If leasing . Any per mile deal sucks and you will run your truck and yourself into the ground.

 

Hey again.
As far as the Economy goes. It is what it is. it ha snot changed in the trucking industry in over 20 yeras now. In fact there is less money now than there was then.
I pulled Steelcase furniture out of Grand Rapids MI. in the early 80s for as much as I am pulling for now. the fuel cost was no where near what it is now. Meals were way under todays cost.
Deregulation Killed us all.
Look at the Phone business today. What we now have is so complicated no one understands it. More phone companies than we can count. Along with that came , things {charges } on your phone bill that no one can even explain what they are. The Phone business was also DEREGULATED.

The same thing has happened in trucking. We used to sit down and eat lunch with a different carrier that was pulling the same freight as we were. Not anymore. They are Direct competition. Back then they were not. The RATE was the RATE.
We also now have so many trucking companies that no one can even name them all.
We also have bought and paid for all the new DOT rules. So many compaines and so few real truckers . Mill drivers are being pushed out of the oven so fast that they will likely not make it.

Years ago we road along with soem good ol boy that would Bother to teach us how to ACT, Drive and do any and all other aspects of what it took to be a trucker. That is gone.

So Back to the subject.. DOG eat DOG, it is a tough road to travel.

 

Hey :
I taught both of my now grown sons to never give up.
NEVER GIVE UP......
I was and likely still am a DREAMER.

Best of evrything to you.

 

That 386 would be a bad choice for reefer, it's far to heavy. It would be good for HHG or stepdeck or just bobtailing around. Plus it looks new, so it isnt what I would consider a starter truck for a newb, due to the price. Those sleepers are s p e n d y.

 

American Trucker, I can't help but acknowledge your great ambition. In reading through some of the your post I'm gathering (correct me if I'm wrong) that you have either little to no experience on either the refer side or the flatbed side and certainly not in ownership of a truck, and the unit level responsibility it takes.

That's not to say you shouldn't do a thing because you don't have the experience, it just means the likelihood of "many" things blindsiding you will be greatly increased. The kind of things that can turn you up upside down in a heartbeat.

I have a post here on my blog about the "Stages of Development" in trucking and I site a couple of "very" important reason from personal experiences that you should be very sure you have processed yourself through each stage carefully before taking on the next. One of those example I give would have landed me square in jail had I been running my own authority; (oh which by the way if you haven't gotten through the leased on stage, I beg you "do not attempt to run your own authority" ) any way, fortunately I was at company level and the situation was handle immediately which 'financially" I would have become bankrupt if all alone.

Nothing wrong with dreamin and all, that's healthy, but just so's ya know, this trucking thing is a beast, so before you try to tame the lions, I'd advise you to start with the foxes, goats or donkeys or somethin, lol, you'll be glad you did.......and now you know....... what I know.......Jo Bernard