thinking of buying a couple of sprinters,what do yall think.

[underdog777]

the way business was last year in my ford e350.im thinking of buying two sprinters to put on,or should i do more fords.im thinking the sprinters get little better fuel and can haul more skids.what do you oldtimers think.Im thinking the loads will just increase this year so this is a good time.but im torn between the sprinter and ford.i know of a couple of times i could have got load sooner with a sprinter,any info would be great,thanks

 

[ChrisGa23]

I would say go for it. Other experts will chime in with more experience than I am but if your company is keeping you busy and making money a small fleet of ford or sprinters should be able to keep them busy as well. Who do you drive for?

 

[Turtle]

It all depends on whether or not you are prepared to make the commitment to treat and maintain a Sprinter as if it were a Sprinter, rather than trying to treat it and maintain it as if it were a Ford. I'm not kidding. They are very different vehicles, and nearly everything you know about maintaining a Ford is thrown out the window then it comes to a Sprinter.

 

[RoadDawgg]

What are the maintenance differences?

I only ever owned a Ram Van (never never again), so I have no experience really with either.

Thanks!
Christopher

 

[Zoli]

How much cost you the investment on two sprinters and IF everything is going well how much time you need to recover this money?Unless you not not driving it I would not recommended it.

 

[chefdennis]

I'd pay real close attention to what Turtle said above and read everything you can on maintaining a sprinter....if you try an treat and maintain it like your ford, you will be spending money hand over fist in repairs...and that brings you to drivers, you have to depend on them to follow a maintainance schedule so that the vans will live....

The difference in maintaining Sprinters verses your Ford, is like the maintainance that is required to keep a Porsche 911 and a 1965 Ford falcon with a 289......

A few other things, if you are buying used, make sure you have them checked out top to buttom....

As for the extra freight...thats going to depend on who you are leased to....yea will will get runs that a CV is going to get, but are you going to get ENOUGH of them to get a good return on your investment with the extra expense of the sprinters over fords....

I'd be doing a new business plan and make sure that you are being realistic in your expectation as to how much it will cost you to buy, maintain and operate and makea profit with sprinters verses the fords.....

 

[RoadDawgg]

Never owned a Porsche or a Ford. Or a Sprinter.

Are you saying it needs way more maintenance thatn the Ford? Is the maint schedule clearly laid out in the guide and manual? Or is it just something you gotta figure out for yourself?

I still don't know anything more about the differences in maintenance.

Thanks!
Christopher

 

[EnglishLady]

Until someone more techie answers you here is the bit that I know from ours

Sprinters are more expensive to maintain than E350's - normal monthly around the $300.00 mark for the sprinter.

Filters etc are expensive on sprinters. One filter alone (fuel I think) is over $100.00.

Parts ..... sometimes you faint when you get the bill


We always take ours to a Dodge Dealer - so we know we are paying that bit more for parts and labour - but we also know it is going to get done professionally and we wouldn't have it any other way, seeing as its the truck that makes our bread & butter

 

[greg334]

Im thinking the loads will just increase this year so this is a good time.

I'm thinking that we may not have a good year like we did last year. TOO many people are too nervous about what the feds will do and how the economy may react.

If this was going to be a stellar up and coming year, truck sales would be booming.

The other thing that comes to mind is the driver. Many who drive for people with sprinters trash them. Driving the hell out of them doesn't mean they will last.

Here is a suggestion - but one sprinter and you drive it. Learn what you can do with it first, how much of a pain in the a** it can be then decide what to do.

 

[RedBird]

I know from reading earlier posts that the early Sprinters had alot of issues mechanical wise and as the years have gone by they have improved, but also from reading here very costly to maintain.

 

[davekc]

Buying and maintaining a Sprinter may be the cheapest part. Finding the drivers will be easy. Finding good productive drivers may not. The cost of maintaining good drivers may exceed your maintenance costs. Management skills and whether you can keep drivers profitable will be key if you are jumping in with limited fleet experience.

 

[greg334]

I think you're right Dave, management is important as much as the right driver. But the allure of being a van fleet owner may be too much for a lot to refuse. They see those dollar signs and skip over the learning curve. Van fleet ownership is the bottom of the list of money making things I can think of.

 

[davekc]

I think you're right Dave, management is important as much as the right driver. But the allure of being a van fleet owner may be too much for a lot to refuse. They see those dollar signs and skip over the learning curve. Van fleet ownership is the bottom of the list of money making things I can think of.

May get a better return in Vegas. Fleet ownership was much easier years ago because the margins were much different. With the operational costs today, there isn't nearly the room for errors as in the past.

 

[LDB]

Are you talking about new or used? You can buy 2 new Fords for the same approximate expense as 1 new Sprinter. How much are you going to spend on the vans?

If you are looking at used would you be spending more for Sprinters than Fords to get comparable used vehicle quality? How much more are you going to have to put into two Sprinters? How long will it take to recover that plus extra maintenance costs with extra jobs the Fords couldn't take?

Considering what drivers with no interest in the vehicles do to them I like the idea of getting yourself a Sprinter and putting someone into your 350 to test out all the headaches of fleet ownership. Good luck with your decisions.

 

[underdog777]

all these ideas seem good.im thinking of buying used because the time you pay new ones off they are old already.right on the point about me driving one of the sprinters ,so what i have figure out is buy one of each me drive the sprinter and put drivers in the 350s.that way if things go as planned i can add more sprinters later,as for as drivers i have some folks that are needing jobs around my town.so that ways i wont have to worry about the vans getting left somewhere,and hopefully they will take care of them a little better than the avg.also im thinking of paying 40 percent to driver,and me paying for fuel.that ways they dont worry about nothing but driving i also pay tolls.i will give each driver a wrights fuel card for fuel and maintance.the only thing that wont go on there will be major repairs.they will have to pay for workers ins.does this seem fair.

 

[greg334]

You ever been a fleet owner or managed a fleet?

It is far worst with vans than it is with trucks.

 

[LDB]

When you pay for fuel the driver has no incentive to not excessively idle the van or drive at sensible speeds. A driver who watches his idling and road speeds, driving for a company paying a decent fsc, will make more money on a 60% plus fsc split than 40%.

Rather than buying one of each you may want to get just one Sprinter for yourself and put a driver in the 350 you are driving now. Keep more of your money until you try out having a "fleet" of 1 driver and if it goes well then build on it.

 

[underdog777]

yes i see what you are saying but,also you have to worry about people not having enough money for fuel when they start out.and then when they do have money you have to worry about the way they control there money.so i would think me giving them a card that you can only get fuel and maintence on would take care of that promblem.and yes i think 40 percent should be pk on single drivers for teams i would give 50 percent

 

[greg334]

God I wish it was as easy as many think.

 

[Turtle]

Maintaining a Ford (or Chevy) can be rather easy. Most any place can do it, for one thing, so you don't really have to plan out the routine maintenance. For a Sprinter, for the things you don't do yourself (like filters and oil changes) you must plan them out to have them done by a Sprinter tech, usually (but not always) at a Sprinter or former Sprinter dealer.

Because Dodge dealers are no longer Sprinter dealers, the Sprinter parts at a Dodge dealer can often be higher than at a Mercedes or Freightliner dealer because the Dodge dealers are getting hosed on their prices. Often it's cheaper to buy your own parts online and then have the dealer install them for you. A fuel filter costs about $35 if you buy it yourself, and it takes about 10 minutes to change with a long handled screw driver and a socket wrench with a Torx bit. Have a dealer do it and it's $100.

But the main things about maintaining a Sprinter are two things, one is to stick to the maintenance schedule, absolutely, and the other is to use only fluids approved by Mercedes. The common sense notion of substituting Lucas or some other thing for a quart or two of oil after a certain number of miles may make sense in some trucks and vans, but it'll cause problems in a Sprinter. With a Ford, for the most part 30 weight oil is 30 weight oil, and any ol' oil will do. With a Sprinter, if it ain't on The List, don't put it in there. You can't just pull into Quickie Lube-It-Up and change the oil using whatever oil du jour they've got on special. The wrong transmission fluid will get you a brand new transmission, and it'll get you one right quick. The wrong engine coolant will get you a new water pump and heater core. If it says "For use in all aluminum engines" on the label, it's probably not for use in a Sprinter even though a Sprinter's engine is aluminum.

Learn the maintenance schedule and which approved fluids can be used, and don't deviate from that at all. Those who deviate from it find their Sprinter to be a POS with nothing but maintenance problems. It's a different mindset, and it takes a considerable amount of time to learn all the differences.