imagineero
Addicted to ArboristSite
Fishing for some very generic advice here... kind of off topic, but you guys are the only ones who have been in a similar situation.
Should start out by saying that I'm in aus, so figures/models aren't really comparable, or laws. I bought my first real truck a couple years ago. It's a 15,000lb GVM truck with a 10 cube bin. It carrys around 6,500lbs. It cost me $5500 and it's old. 78 model toyota dyna. It was all I could afford at the time, but it sure has cost me some money. I've spent somewhere close to $15,000 on it over 2 years, just to keep it running. It's now pretty much worthless as it's rusted out to the point it cant pass inspection any more. I wasn't a very savvy buyer, it had a lot of faults when I bought it, but truth be told I made good money off it and couldn't afford anything better. I don't want to make the same mistake again.
I've been shopping round the last few months for something better. To keep under the weight level for yearly serious inspections it's going to be under 26,000lbsGVM. I've got $20k to spend, and finance isn't an option. This really isn't a lot of money in australia, trucks are pricey here. To give you some rough ideas of what a truck costs to run; rego/basic third party insurance is about $3k/year, an engine rebuild is about $6k, building a chip bin is $5k-$10k do it yourself depending on how fancy you want to get. Repairs can add up real fast. Brakes are worth about $1000, tyres are abour $300 each. In my weight class I'll be squarely in single axle territory. $20k means your're still looking like 20 years and older in truck world here, so it's early 90's and older.
So obviously I've got to make some sacrifices.
Very generally speaking, would you be going for an older lower mile truck, or a newer higher mile one that hasn't been as well looked after? Would you spend all your cash and get the best you can knowing that you've got nothing left to do any work on it, or buy something in the lower end of the market and have $$$ left over to fix'er up? Here's a couple scenarios for you....
You can get something like a '92 mitsubishi fk415 with a tipper but no bin out of rego and needing work for inspection with 300,000miles and looking a bit shabby for $6,500. Which leaves a lot of money for rego, a chip bin and some repairs, maybe some paint. But it will still be worth not much more than $10k if you want to sell. Maybe even afford an engine rebuid so I'd know I'd have a good reliable engine.
You can get an older (mid 80's) truck of similar size with no chip bin but well looked after and with rego/inspection already passed, good tyres etc and only 150,000miles on the clock for $18,000. PLenty of receipts for work, documented service history.
You can get an early 90's high mile isuzu FSR500 with a chip bin but no rego and somebody has done a backyard swap out of the engine, no receipts or records for work, $13,000.
You get the idea. I'm sure plenty of you have been there before. Very broadly speaking, how would you be spending your money on old/new high/low mile, fixer upper vs mostly done etc? Resale isn't super important to me, but I'd like to be able to hang on to this next one for 4 or 5 years and not be spending a ton of money to keep it on the road. All advice/experiences welcome!
Shaun
Should start out by saying that I'm in aus, so figures/models aren't really comparable, or laws. I bought my first real truck a couple years ago. It's a 15,000lb GVM truck with a 10 cube bin. It carrys around 6,500lbs. It cost me $5500 and it's old. 78 model toyota dyna. It was all I could afford at the time, but it sure has cost me some money. I've spent somewhere close to $15,000 on it over 2 years, just to keep it running. It's now pretty much worthless as it's rusted out to the point it cant pass inspection any more. I wasn't a very savvy buyer, it had a lot of faults when I bought it, but truth be told I made good money off it and couldn't afford anything better. I don't want to make the same mistake again.
I've been shopping round the last few months for something better. To keep under the weight level for yearly serious inspections it's going to be under 26,000lbsGVM. I've got $20k to spend, and finance isn't an option. This really isn't a lot of money in australia, trucks are pricey here. To give you some rough ideas of what a truck costs to run; rego/basic third party insurance is about $3k/year, an engine rebuild is about $6k, building a chip bin is $5k-$10k do it yourself depending on how fancy you want to get. Repairs can add up real fast. Brakes are worth about $1000, tyres are abour $300 each. In my weight class I'll be squarely in single axle territory. $20k means your're still looking like 20 years and older in truck world here, so it's early 90's and older.
So obviously I've got to make some sacrifices.
Very generally speaking, would you be going for an older lower mile truck, or a newer higher mile one that hasn't been as well looked after? Would you spend all your cash and get the best you can knowing that you've got nothing left to do any work on it, or buy something in the lower end of the market and have $$$ left over to fix'er up? Here's a couple scenarios for you....
You can get something like a '92 mitsubishi fk415 with a tipper but no bin out of rego and needing work for inspection with 300,000miles and looking a bit shabby for $6,500. Which leaves a lot of money for rego, a chip bin and some repairs, maybe some paint. But it will still be worth not much more than $10k if you want to sell. Maybe even afford an engine rebuid so I'd know I'd have a good reliable engine.
You can get an older (mid 80's) truck of similar size with no chip bin but well looked after and with rego/inspection already passed, good tyres etc and only 150,000miles on the clock for $18,000. PLenty of receipts for work, documented service history.
You can get an early 90's high mile isuzu FSR500 with a chip bin but no rego and somebody has done a backyard swap out of the engine, no receipts or records for work, $13,000.
You get the idea. I'm sure plenty of you have been there before. Very broadly speaking, how would you be spending your money on old/new high/low mile, fixer upper vs mostly done etc? Resale isn't super important to me, but I'd like to be able to hang on to this next one for 4 or 5 years and not be spending a ton of money to keep it on the road. All advice/experiences welcome!
Shaun
