Educate me: What's the real cost of owning a $2000 Semi?

[tedly]

Re: Educate me: What's the real cost of owning a $2000 Semi?

I guess you could yank the cab and engine and install it on a 1 ton pickup frame.
Or go the other way and drop a 1/2 ton pickup body on the FL frame.

Dude, you realize that those engines are roughly chin high when they are out of the truck sitting on a pallet? They take 10 gallons of oil. GALLONS. You don't realize the size of these things until you are face to face with them.

[tiresmoke!]

Re: Educate me: What's the real cost of owning a $2000 Semi?

I don't think he was intending on dropping the 855 into the 1-ton chassis.....good night, you'd flatten the tires trying to support that weight.

I've seen quite a few "semi pick-ups"....most are 379 Petes with the hood slightly downsized, sitting on either Ford or Dodge frames with the diesel pickup drivetrains

Those old Shakers are made of aluminum(cabs, anyway...aluminum framed examples rode nice, but too susceptible to fatigue cracks)....hell, if you're looking for a play-toy, that may be the route to go.

"600hp six is just the bigest loser"? What the hell they putting in your water over that way, Boxer?!

LMAO

[seanm]

Re: Educate me: What's the real cost of owning a $2000 Semi?

The engine is closer to 3000lbs if it is a heavy duty class engine. Most take 10 gallons of oil and go 10-15K miles between oil changes. The last set of brakes I bought cost about $600 for steer and tandem axles for pads and drums. Some are more, some are less.

Generally anything over 26,000lb GVW and/or has air brakes requires a CDL. Getting a CDL isn't that difficult, getting a truck and trailer to practice and test in is the most difficult part.

The commercial plate will be on a state by state basis. Some states are anything over 1 ton is commercial. Some states, anything with tandem rear axles is commercial. Others are more lenient. As stated before, check with your state registration and see what the options are. Don't forget to ask about "heavy highway use tax", IFTA, apportioned plates, DOT numbers, etc. Just because you are driving it for fun doesn't mean the state will agree that you are non-comm.

Don't forget to ask about "Classic", "Historic" , RV or farm plates and any restrictions that may apply. One of those plates may make alot of the other requirements vanish. Then check insurance options.

After dealing with the DOT and state registration office for several years, one thing was always true. Ask 5 different DOT officers the same question, you get ten different answers.

[BOOOGHAR]

Re: Educate me: What's the real cost of owning a $2000 Semi?

im gunna throw in my 2 cents here

I was recently working at Diesel truck repair shop in Houston and was DOT inspections so heres the lowdown

regesitration will hit you for atleast 500 bucks, insurance I couldnt tell you since it all depends on drivers record and insurance carrier and what all you plan on using the truck for

DOT is a yearly inspection in texas and will run you 65 bucks and heres what DOT inspectors look for, fluids dripping, no exhaust leaks, wipers working, horn(s) working most trucks have 2 horns - air and city, tread depth on tires minimum 5/32nds on the front 2/32nds on the rear, brake lining ie how thick are your brake shoes, axle seals leaking into the brake drums, and all lights have to work, if there is a light on it, IT HAS TO WORK, emergency flashers, turn signals, low/high beams, running lights ect ect

what kinda engine and tranny does it have, how many hours and miles are on the truck and does it have maintence records and log books

[tedly]

Re: Educate me: What's the real cost of owning a $2000 Semi?

I think someone said this earlier but if you are serious about buying one of these, don't get freaked out by the mileage. These behemoths don't even get all the bugs worked out of them until about 100,000 miles. I've thought about turning one into an RV before, but that would be a lot of work.

[Hemi Joel]

Re: Educate me: What's the real cost of owning a $2000 Semi?

Laws vary form state to state, but here in MN it would need to have a certain number of RV features to be registered as an RV. Like a toilet and a fridge or something. Also, you can probably register it for less than 26,000 GVW, then you don't need a CDL to drive it. That will still cost you about $400 per year. Unless you register it as a farm truck under 26,000, that will cost about $100 per year. Like someone else mentioned, there is a heavy highway vehicle use tax for trucks, but it doesn't apply till the GVW hits 55,000. And there is an exemption to the tax for trucks that travel less than 5000 miles per year. If you are tagged at 55K+, you still need to fill out an IRS form and sign an exemption form and bring it to the DMV when you get you license tabs. Around here, the DMV workers are to stupid to acknowledge the exemption form, so I have to drive 20 miles to a town where the DMV gal is smart enough to read the form and sell me the tabs without a paid receipt from the IRS for the heavy highway vehicle use tax. :P
True, the annual inspection will cost you $55- 85, but the shops that do that usually won't let a truck like that out the door without finding $300 - $1000 worth of stuff they will make you fix before they put the sticker on it. That is how they make $, the inspection is a break even for them. I got tired of that racket and went and became a DOT certified inspector myself, so I can inspect and sticker my own trucks. It wasn't too hard to get, and has saved a lot of $$. But a 4 hour refresher course and test is required every 2 years.
Old trucks like that are always going to be a money pit for repairs and maintenance. It seems there is always something going wrong just because they are so worn out and fatigued after a million miles +. If you toast a differential, $1500 for a used one. Clutch, brakes, air compressor, air valves, electrical, all that stuff costs bucks. In my roofing company, I started out with old trucks because they were cheap to buy. But they sure did cost a fortune to keep going. Eventually I upgraded to newer stuff with under 300,000 miles and the cost of operating them went way, way down. Whatever you do, good luck!

[A/Fuel]

Re: Educate me: What's the real cost of owning a $2000 Semi?

We had a Freightliner for a while and towed a 53ft Renagade. The trailer had a bathroom and a few other things that let us title it as a RV. Before that, we had a Chevy dually and a 50ft trailer that was way over loaded, and it worked that chevy pretty hard. The semi was actually easier to drive, especially with the jake brake. We never stopped at the scales and didn't really have any issues, except in New Mexico and Ohio.

[Eliteman76]

Re: Educate me: What's the real cost of owning a $2000 Semi?

I know nothing about semis aside from big x huge and cool as hell.
I say hack the cab off, and drop on something vintage:

Extend the cab a bit for a sleeper, and make one hell of a ramp truck.