New Haul and Tow RV transporter build
- Thread starter tonkadoctor
- Start date
tonkadoctor
Full Access Member
It's a great feeling. This truck is blowing peoples minds wherever I go. Downside is everyone wants to talk me to death on the road when I stop. Can't make no money sitting still.
Freightrain
Just "B" it........
Great to hear you're doing well with it and don't wait to see if someone else doesn't come along with something similiar! Why not try for a patent? At least for your layout? Something to look at as maybe a manufacturer might have interest? Sell the patent and make some "easy" money?
Just a thought.
Just a thought.
tonkadoctor
Full Access Member
Because I initially stole the idea from a Canadian
.... and I'm the only one that knows 100% of the small details that really make this combo work right... Put this bed on the wrong truck or with the wrong wheelbase or bed dimensions and all you have is a headache to load and unload.
I'm still perfecting a few things and making minor changes.
There are not enough haul and tow truck bodies built to make money from a patent. Only about 1/2% - 1% of the trucks transporting RVs are haul and tows, less than 1/2% are tractor trailers and the rest hot shot singles with pickups.
Every haul and tow bed is custom built to the truck. Best way for me to make money with these beds is to build a truck and sell it.
Leasing to a new company last month, with much better pay, and hauling back cars and a boat have had a huge positive impact on the bottom line too.
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Freightrain
Just "B" it........
I see.
Ya, getting back hauls surely helps pay the fuel to get home again. Especially simple jobs like cars/trucks. Easy on/off.
Ya, getting back hauls surely helps pay the fuel to get home again. Especially simple jobs like cars/trucks. Easy on/off.
tonkadoctor
Full Access Member
I'm doing better than that, it's paying for the fuel for the entire trip.
Now maintenance, repairs and tires come out roughly the same at about $0.05 per mile in a pickup, medium duty or class 8 road tractor, insurance costs are about the same so the real variable is fuel cost. That said, let's do some simple math for a 2000 mile run (4000 round trip) with fuel at $3.00 gallon.
Pickup hauling singles @ 13 mpg avg
$1.25 mile outbound
$0 return ... 99% of the time you come back empty
$2500 gross
-$923 fuel
$1577 Net before maint and living expense
____________________________________
Haul and Tow doubles @ 10 mpg avg
$1.75 mile outbound
$0 return coming back empty
$3500 Gross
-1200 Fuel
$2300 Net before maint and living expense
_____________________________________
Haul and Tow doubles @ 10 mpg avg
$1.75 mile outbound
$1000 return coming back with a car or boat (I'm actually doing better than this)
$3500 Gross Outbound
$1000 Gross Return
-1200 Fuel
$3300 Net before maint and living expense
______________________________________
Tractor trailer with 3 units outbound @ 8 mpg
$1.85 mile outbound
$3000 coming back with 3 cars
$3700 Gross outbound
$3000 Gross return
-1500 fuel
$5200 Net before maint and living expense
Hmmmmm...... where am I headed next........ either a stinger steered tractor trailer or back to retirement.
What most probably don't see right away (if they even caught it at all)with everything in separate threads is what I have actually done in the last almost 3 years.
I started a business starting with something I already owned and kept finding opportunities and building it up in the middle of a bad recession to be more and more profitable and have steady work. It takes time and money. What I didn't do was borrow money for the last 2 trucks. I have no truck payments.
Started transporting RV's with my 2006 F-350... Beautiful comfortable truck, but the 6.0 and 6.4 powerstrokes are the wrong engines to hotshot with as they are horrible on fuel. Ran this truck for 4 months and traded it. Got a whopping 11.5 mpg avg loaded and empty with this truck.
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2nd truck, my 2004.5 Dodge 3500, this truck had lower payments than the Ford even after rolling in a ton of negative equity and it saved me $500 a week on fuel over the Ford when fuel was almost $5 a gallon. I ran this truck for a year. I average 15+ mpg loaded and empty with this truck
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Seeing virtually no competition in the haul and tow segment and that they were steady when times were hard I bought the F800 for $3000 and spent about $10k and several months putting it together with help from a good friend GEO. Ran this truck for a year before it was totaled by a dumb @$$ in a truck stop parking lot... While it was parked.
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With the medium duty killing me with a lack of power, comfort, horrible ride and a lot of broken parts (often because of the rough ride) doing some quick math and speaking with hot shot operators running class 8 road trucks a buddy and myself figured we could get better fuel economy, comfort and power with a converted road truck, and we were both right. Both of us hit home runs with the big trucks. Which is where I'm at now.
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Freightrain
Just "B" it........
Wow, that's quite a success story! Not sure if I'd retire or just keep raking in the cash?
spg
Big Red
Any new updates? Or have you been staying busy on the road?
tonkadoctor
Full Access Member
Been off the road since just befoe Thanksgiving due to medical problems. Truck is sold now and I am going back into retirement.
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Was the retirement entirely medically-induced, or did you decide you had had enough?
Hopefully you're doing better now...
h2odrx
Anti-O
hope all is well, maybe we could do a meet soon?
tonkadoctor
Full Access Member
Medically.... Again. And now I'm so medicated I can't safely drive the rig so I kicked myself off the road.
I couldn't move my arms to drive the truck because of pain, couldn't, sleep, pick up a 2 liter of Coke, shift or get my hands on the steeing wheel... Had to leave my belt off and leave the top button on my jeans unbuttoned so I could at least be able to not **** my pants because I couldn't get my fly open. And I was 1000 miles from home when it happened. Not fun to go to bed one night fine and wake up in pain and paralized. The morning it started I did manage to drive 20 miles from the truckstop, deliver my trailers, carried my *** back to the truckstop, then called a cab and went to the hospital, took a cab back to the truck, got doped up and went to bed.
They think I have Parsonage Turner Syndrome. It was a severe case and involved both shoulders, chest. arms, wrists and hands. Pain lasted a few weeks. I'm doing a lot better now but I have enough pills here to open a pharmacy.
tonkadoctor
Full Access Member
hope all is well, maybe we could do a meet soon?
Thanx Water Doc. Well, I'm always here. Work is just a 50' walk from the back door to the shop..... If I feel like doing anything.
h2odrx
Anti-O
dude that is sick, I'll send some up for ya! If George gets back we should kill a pig!
tonkadoctor
Full Access Member
NO NO NO. Don't send work my way thanks. They ain't gonna be happy when I turn them away or tell them $500 per hr straight time with a $500 1 hr minimum charge if the insist.
No outside work will be performed in my shop. I only wrench on my own projects. 1 or 2 custom vehicles per year produced in my shop is all I want to see.
Already been in that visious cycle in my younger years where you can't complete your own stuff because every body else wants you to work on theirs when they learn you can turn a wrench and are good at it. Uh nope, not happening, never again.
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