New Trucks

Posted on 19-08-2005

"With fuel prices approaching $3 a gallon, what in the world are you doing buying a new truck?" Payments are more, but we’ve been doing really well lately, plus the other truck was starting to cost more in repairs and downtime. The secret to trucking with higher fuel cost is to only carry stuff that makes money! I told that to the Monster.com writer, but she only quoted me about my Proheat (now a Gen4 model) in this article on Monster.

I believe a truck is a tool, not a personal statement. "Pride in your ride" is fine, but a chromed-up truck doesn’t make any more money than a truck without chrome. Everything on this new truck is there to make or save money. The Proheat, shore power and refrigerator. Okay, I admit it, the six CD changer may not make money, but it came with the truck, I didn’t have a choice! With fuel tank heaters I don’t have to spend money on additives. I didn’t get a bigger motor that weighs more, the old truck had a Volvo 465hp and it did a great job. The Volvo motor is great for fuel mileage and if I did idle, it doesn’t have to fast idle like other motors have to. The shape is aerodynamic and the transmission is an autoshift that shifts at the optimum RPM for fuel savings.

I heard that last week was a good week to own a truck. Several dispatchers / brokers told me they had trouble covering loads last week. It may or may not be a "shortage", but we need to take advantage and get paid enough to cover the expenses, no matter what.

Check out Adventures in Trucking for some pictures of the new truck.

Comments

Aaron on 20 August, 2005 at 2:04 pm #

My truck has one of those auto shifters.
This is a freightliner and its called sure-shift.

It is sure convenient, but in old age its having a hard time finding gears. The computer and engine and transmission don’t seem to be communicating to well together. Even after having freightliner look at it.

Hey Wayne, do you know anyone who hauls trailers. As in driving your own pick-up and delivering travel trailers?

wayne on 21 August, 2005 at 8:17 am #

Mine was doing that toward the end also. I was told the clutch brake was getting thin. Have the clutch adjusted so it hits the clutch brake sooner and that should fix it for awhile. I see pick-ups that do that, but don’t know anything about doing that.

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