trucker40 said: (quoted from post at 08:58:07 01/20/09) A lot depends on how much truck you want and how far you are going to drive it.Depending on what kind of license you already have,how much weight you want to pull,and where you want to go,you could get a light single axle tractor with a smaller Diesel motor like a 3208 Cat and it will pull a couple of tractors and maybe be under 26,000.If you look long and hard you might find one for maybe a little more than 4000 dollars.
You should have a CDL anyway if you are crossing state lines.What do you do bypass the scales and see if they come after you?On a day when they are in a bad mood you could end up in trouble,they will be in a bad mood if they come after you.
Insurance is another thing.If you have a good agent and explain everything to him,you can probably get some for about what you pay now.
If it was me,and I needed a truck,I would talk to the Insurance man and weigh the difference in what a real truck would cost compared to a smaller one.It might not be all that much.Then road use tax is 575 dollars a year on big trucks,you have to have a fire extinguisher and triangles,copy of DOT regulations,physical card,and fuel permits for the states you run in.
Besides all that you will want a real trailer that you can haul stuff on,and by then you could haul for hire.Get a couple of good paying loads and it would pay for all of this stuff.Tires are expensive,everything on the road is expensive.
I dont see how you can bypass scales now.If you drive over 100 miles,haul loads over 26000,and cross state lines,you look like a target for them.Say you have 2 or 3 tractors loaded up,you are under 26000,but you look like you are hauling a big load,they most likely are going to look you over.Then it will be whatever they say at that scale house,and if you get 4 or 5 tickets at 200-275 a piece,it doesnt take long to have that 575 road use tax and state fuel permits paid if you look at it that way.
The worst I can think of is if you have a 80,000 license,that can be 1500 dollars in Missouri depending on what states you want to run.I dont know what a farm license would be,but you can get a license for a 300 mile radius thats only 350 or something like that,for 80,000lbs.
The bottom line is it will cost more.Probably not as bad as you think,especially if you are a farmer,have a good Insurance agent,pick a good truck,know where you will run,and can pass the CDL test.On a bad day at the scale house in either truck,it probably can cost more than all that in fines.
Like everything else it depends on what you want to do.It costs a lot any more to run a truck across state lines.Far as repairs you could buy a 9 speed transmission rebuilt for about 1500,a take out from a junk yard for 1000 or less.Give somebody about 6 hours labor and it would be changed and probably last 100,000 or more miles.A motor would get expensive,but most of the time it can be fixed if you keep water and oil in it.
I only put on about 7,000 miles per year doing farm hauling. Luckily live smack dab in the center of the state so my circle of farm-miles-to-home is fairly large and don't have to mess with crossing state lines. Livestock markets are well within 100 miles and that is the furthest I typically go. I probably mis-stated above when I said "get around scales", I should have said I never attract enough attention with the dually to get a DOT to pull me over and scale me on the road with portable scales. I don't live near or drive past any permanent scales so those wouldn't be an issue. I used to work for a trucking company in the 80's back in North Dakota and saw many overweight fine receipts come across my desk...I am sure those fines and scale-skipping fines haven't gotten any cheaper since the 80s.
Thanks for all the advice, I will post back once I make up my mind.
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Today's Featured Article - Listening to Your Tractor - by Curtis Von Fange. Years ago there was a TV show about a talking car. Unless you are from another planet, physically or otherwise, I don’t think our internal combustion buddies will talk and tell us their problems. But, on the other hand, there is a secret language that our mechanical companions readily do speak. It is an interesting form of communication that involves all the senses of the listener. In this series we are going to investigate and learn the basic rudimentary skills of understanding this lingo.
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