dually or F450 chasiss/cab
- Thread starter skyraider
- Start date
Jack_Berry
Moderator Emeritus
get something like the gmc 5500 4 door crew cab and the big d-max. get it like a large pick up and you have a dual use vehicle.
moose
Veteran Expediter
call the Trailers Dealers , and ask for their advice.
you can also call Dan Hitches and trailers in Elkhart ,I.N
you can also call any auction house , tell them you need to move a car ,and ask them to fax over a list of carriers , and do a phone interview .
have 4,000$ set aside for accessory's ,
unless it is going to be an under 100 miller , you will have to install a DoT approved sleeper (2,400$ for the froad)
the F350 and alike will do just fine .(as long as you will register it for 26,000)
most trailers are goose neck .
don't buy new.
good luck.
you can also call Dan Hitches and trailers in Elkhart ,I.N
you can also call any auction house , tell them you need to move a car ,and ask them to fax over a list of carriers , and do a phone interview .
have 4,000$ set aside for accessory's ,
unless it is going to be an under 100 miller , you will have to install a DoT approved sleeper (2,400$ for the froad)
the F350 and alike will do just fine .(as long as you will register it for 26,000)
most trailers are goose neck .
don't buy new.
good luck.
Thanks for ur alls input so far, my son and I have also found a website called hotshot hauling.com that has more info then we can absorb in another life time so far. They suggested buying used and one guy told us what he would do if he had it to do all over. HE retired early due to health reasons. He also had enough info for a lifetime. We are looking forward and will do research till we are nuts, then make a decision.
details, survival is in the details
details, survival is in the details
Seems to me if you can anticipate all the snafu's, cover all the details, then the BIG stuff will fall into place.
You will notice several members on that forum that went from 1 ton to medium duty and all say they wished they had made the move sooner . Medium duties don't get hassled nearly as much at the scales . I wouldn't buy a 3 car wedge . You can haul autos on a step deck and have a lot more options on loads . Check out the for sale section on that site for an FL with 50' stepdeck and all needed tarps , binders , auto tiedowns , etc . for less than the price of a new 1 ton .
Brisco
Expert Expediter
Looks like you've already found HotShotHauling.com.
HotShot Hauling
Look over these 2 sites also:
ltlhotshot.myfreeforum.org :: Index
Geared towards LTL Freight in General. Only discusses cars there when trying to fill an empty spot on a trailer or as a "only choice we have" backhaul.
Auto Expeditor Forums - Powered by vBulletin
Geared mainly towards the auto hauling industry. Lot of information here about hauling cars.
One thing to take into consideration, cars are still not paying worth a flip right now. CD is filled with cars going for .30 cents a mile and lower. A guy with a "3 Car Hauler" cannot survive off of what the rates are right now. Let's say you load 3 of those .30 cent a mile cars on your trailer and your CPM is .60 cents a mile. You'd be better off driving someone elses truck for .32 cents a mile.
I'll also second the advice above. Try to be as versatile as you can. A 48-51 ft lowboy step-deck will bring in a whole lot more money than a 3 car wedge. If you do wish to try the "1ton/Trailer" route someday, set yourself up to run anything/everything you can get on that trailer. Running "Cars" only with a wedge limits you to just that, CARS. A Lowboy step-deck could easily bring in $3-$4-$5 a mile when rates are good and freight is abundant.
As far as the talk about "Medium" duty trucks being better off than "3500-4500" series trucks for running wedge car trailers and LTL freight, that's a discussion that's been fought over for a while now. The truth is, 1 guy with a Dodge 4500 may be running circles around a guy with an FL70 when it comes to overall net income, and vice versa. I have not gotten involved in those discussions. I always leave it at "to each his own", but there are guys that have lost their bottoms running Class 6-7 trucks instead of a Class 3-4-5 truck pulling the same freight with the same trailers just because of the higher maintenance/parts costs these larger trucks incur.
Kind of like the "Sprinter vs Ford-GM Cargo Van" debacle here. Again, to each his own.
Just like Expedite rates, Car/LTL Freight rates took a nose dive too. My advice, wait out the storm. For that last year and a half - 2 years, we've had black clouds hovering over the rates that has caused heavy thunderstorms and even fierce hail storms within all these trucking industrys. But, the blue skys are off in the near distance and the storm is more closer to the end than it has been for quite some time.
If you're running right now and "surviving", stay put. The day to make a change will be here sooner or later. It's just not advisable to make the change today.
I logged just like I logged when driving TT. I only took runs that would cover the cost of a hotel. I tried to stay close to home because in that business it seemed that's where you had the highest profit margin. There's no sense taking cheap freight.I'm not involved in that anymore am reading here and thinking about expediting
Brisco
Expert Expediter
The statement above that said "Sleepers are REQUIRED" is incorrect. If you log "Sleeper Berth" hours in your logbook, then you better have a DOT Approved sleeper installed on your truck. It's probably 50/50 on who have sleepers installed on/in their trucks to those who do not.
The guys who do not have sleepers generally do the Hotel Room every night. If they're running for $2-$3-$4 a mile, Hotel Rooms are a drop in the bucket for them. Plus, their hours are totally different than Expediters hours are. They're not getting called up at 8PM for a 7AM delivery 500 miles away. Most of 'em have regular hours. They load and unload during the daylight, they drive during the daylight, and probably 80-90% of their freight is not "time sensitive". At least on the LTL side it's not. Some of the "HotShot" freight may be, but at the rates those hotshot runs pay with these set-ups, these guys will run overnight and get a room immediately thereafter.
Running empty from one drop off to a pickup, you do have to log normally. You just write in "UNLOADED" up in the BOL # area on your logsheet for that day. Let's say you run empty from 8AM to 12PM. You start out by writing in Unloaded up on top. Of course you're going to "Load" from 12 to 2, so your logbook should show "On Duty-not driving" during that time. Now when you hit the road again, up in the BOL # area on your logbook will show "UNLOADED/#1876652", or whatever the number or type of BOL it has.
It's easy to understand. I thought this would be elementary to you.