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Can $10,000 Semi Truck Make you money?Owner operator Chris Weber shares his story. Episode 78 — Transcript

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0:00biggest hurdle that i probably went
0:01through
0:02was
0:05welcome to truckee podcast my name's
0:07sebastian this podcast is all about
0:09trucking we love diesel engines semi
0:11trucks being on the road and freedom so
0:14let's go
0:15[Music]
0:21the market is a mess chris what happened
0:24yeah the market is a mess right now but
0:26it just
0:28there are some things that are paying
0:29ridiculous amounts of money and then
0:31there are some things that just aren't
0:32paying anything at all and
0:34being able to make that adjustment
0:37um
0:38especially with today's fuel prices is
0:40it's going to make or break people
0:43i'm already seeing that to be honest
0:45with you i've heard of some companies
0:47around chicago that are
0:49you know
0:51they're trying to keep it the
0:54under the radar but
0:56again and i own i own a fleet so i can i
0:59feel it as well we you know we've
1:01stopped my
1:02spot market operation was about 10 so it
1:05wasn't that bad
1:07but
1:08it's it's it's yeah tell me tell me more
1:10so tell me uh tell me brief intro like
1:14what do i do the spot market every now
1:16and then
1:18i do spot market every now and then but
1:20most i currently run a dedicated that
1:22i've got set up with uh
1:24with an agent i've been working with now
1:26for about a year
1:27uh he actually runs a lot of freight out
1:29of general motors
1:31used to do it with ford and then ford
1:33kind of wasn't working out so i switched
1:35over to gm
1:37um
1:38but then whenever they're plants shut
1:39down i'll switch over to
1:41the spot market kind of play around
1:44there for a bit kind of see where
1:45everything's at
1:46um
1:48before my dedicated turns back on again
1:50but
1:51um
1:53like if you're able to get an automotive
1:55freight like that from what i've seen so
1:57far that's where a lot of the money is
1:58right now and
2:00especially with general motors
2:02specifically they're the only ones that
2:04are paying a high enough fuel surcharge
2:06to actually cover these high costs of
2:08fuel
2:09um i ran grocery loads i want to say two
2:11weeks ago
2:13and i was only getting like 32 cents
2:16a mile for fuel surcharge
2:18wow now i'm back doing general motors
2:21i'm getting 71 cents per mile feels per
2:24charge
2:25so i mean it where are you based out of
2:28where where are you at right now what
2:29stage
2:34so
2:35i'm currently based in uh toledo ohio
2:38and then i actually run
2:43to uh and then i run kentucky back up
2:46into
2:47like akron
2:48and ohio and then ohio back to lansing
2:52and i just kind of make that loop um
2:55with the dedicated and then whenever i
2:56get on the spot market i usually shoot
2:58for anything that's going for
3:02i'll try to find some sort of hazmat
3:03going into chicago because it's usually
3:05staying decent and then i can pretty
3:08much pick wherever i want to go at that
3:10point and find something that's over
3:11four dollars a mile going just about
3:13anywhere
3:14most of the time i try going to florida
3:17i can get some pretty good loads out of
3:19there
3:20um i usually shoot for like the
3:22panhandle area because as i start
3:24working my way back up north going into
3:26like alabama mississippi
3:28uh i tend to find even better freight
3:30that then gets me back into ohio to get
3:32me back home
3:34and so i ended up doing fairly well in
3:36that regard
3:38yeah that's actually been no further
3:40west than kansas
3:42okay that's pretty good and how long do
3:45you usually stay out
3:48i'm usually about four or five days and
3:50then i'm home for the weekend
3:52uh that's pretty much what i told my
3:54wife i would do when i started doing
3:56this because i was a company driver to
3:58begin with
3:59i was home every night but i was working
4:01a 14 15 hour day
4:03you know
4:04sleep at home for six seven hours and
4:07getting right back up and do it all over
4:08again
4:09so
4:10like while i was home i was kind of not
4:13home if that makes any sense yeah i
4:16started doing this job and then most of
4:18the time it's i'm out four days and then
4:20i'm done
4:22the dedicated i run puts me home
4:24actually every other day so i'll
4:26actually work six days doing this but
4:27when i'm at home i'm at home for
4:30four or five six hours
4:32the day that i get home and then i don't
4:34have to leave until everybody else is
4:35gone in the morning
4:36so that makes it really nice for that's
4:38nice for me to do the run that i'm on so
4:40tell me tell me more a little bit how
4:42did you get get into
4:44being an owner up can you share your how
4:46long you drove as a company driver and
4:48then when you pulled the trigger on
4:49actually buying a truck and and becoming
4:51an owner up
4:54so i started i actually got my cdl in in
4:582015.
5:00after my dad had passed away he gave me
5:02a little bit of money
5:04uh with inheritance and i went ahead and
5:06i took that inheritance to get my cdl
5:09and start a driving truck
5:11um
5:12did flatbed to start with
5:14then went local about a year after that
5:17i just i got tired of the otr thing
5:19um was local for the longest time you
5:22know
5:23from 2016 up until
5:27like right at 2020
5:29um i had a buddy of mine he had bought
5:32currently driving now
5:35a running owner operator doing a local
5:38thing
5:38and then he got into financial issues
5:41[Music]
5:42he was he really wasn't running his
5:44business
5:45properly and you know when usually when
5:48you see a lot of influx and money the
5:50first thing you want to do is you want
5:51to go spend it you really don't want to
5:52go you know
5:53a lot of people fall into that trap of
5:56well i have all this on hand cash when
5:58in reality it's not really on hand cash
6:00anymore it still belongs to the truck
6:02still belongs to the business
6:04and because of that
6:06with his first major breakdown it cost
6:08him 20 000
6:09which he was able to fund out but then
6:11like three months later had another 35
6:13000 repair pop up
6:16and this all happened in the span of
6:17like seven months and it buried him so
6:23having to go he went company for a
6:25little bit
6:26but then he couldn't make the payments
6:28to the shop to that fixes rig then he
6:31couldn't make the payments on the truck
6:32itself so he was deferring his payments
6:35to try to make up for it so that you
6:38know he'd try to get some money in the
6:39bank but he currently uh
6:42currently today
6:44he actually team drives with his dad
6:46and so his truck just sat there for a
6:49year and a half
6:51and uh he and i got to talking one day
6:53and he was talking about how the truck
6:55just sitting there kind of was bothering
6:57him and
6:58how he got he didn't want to
7:00own a rig or you know they were just
7:02sitting there that was costing the money
7:04each month so i told him like well
7:07why don't i just buy the truck off you
7:09we talked about it for about a month
7:11went back and forth on some details and
7:13then i i told him i'm like well i'm not
7:14going to pay for what you had done to
7:17the truck and
7:18maintenance and all that but when it
7:20comes to the bank note i'll pay that off
7:22transfer title to me we'll call it a day
7:25um and that's what i did i ended up
7:27buying the truck for a little over ten
7:29thousand dollars nice um i had to i had
7:32to put another seven thousand dollars
7:34into it to get it road legal uh needed
7:36tires it needed breaks i had to do
7:40i think two
7:43uh two pancakes had to get replaced for
7:45the brake chambers
7:47um
7:48you know and that that at least got a
7:50road worthy for me to start working
7:52um
7:54i did that in october of
7:58october of 2020
8:01and then i actually started with
8:02landstar
8:04in
8:05november
8:06of uh of the same year
8:09we got landstar did their inspection on
8:11the truck something that they require to
8:13make sure the truck is safe and legal to
8:14drive down the highway
8:16and then the way i went i started
8:18driving the rig
8:21tell me what the rig is what is the
8:22truck
8:23so i currently have a 2013
8:26780
8:28uh volvo 780 with a d13
8:31uh this particular d13 is actually the
8:34one of the
8:36i believe the mechanic said it's the
8:38second generation v13
8:40that they made this is where they still
8:42have the you still use shims to
8:45adjust the valves rather than changing
8:48up the uh the adjustment screws was what
8:51they eventually went to that that
8:53actually happened three months after
8:54this engine was made
8:56um
8:57three months later the 2014 models have
9:00the
9:01the next one up from what i'm currently
9:03driving
9:04yes um
9:06runs pretty good uh she i bought her
9:08with 830 000 miles on it currently has
9:11988 000 miles on it and running pretty
9:14strong right now do you know do you know
9:16what they did what type of work the
9:18previous owner did what was it what was
9:20the high bills that he uh
9:22got so
9:24the first the first set of high bills
9:26that he ran into was the agr cooler
9:28failed and he also had a leak
9:32in the uh
9:33in the
9:35oil cooler
9:36and
9:38maintenance alone on that was already
9:39five thousand dollars right out the door
9:41because he you know he always took his
9:43stuff to a dealership
9:45um
9:46we could talk about that a little bit so
9:47that
9:49yeah so he
9:51that was part of it that was his first
9:53that was his first one
9:55then
9:56probably
9:59two weeks later so he had to put a turbo
10:01on the truck too
10:03um so that kind of collectively in that
10:06section was his first major ordeal that
10:08he had wrong with the rig
10:10um
10:11with his second malfunction ended up
10:14having to do with
10:16some of the other accessory components
10:18he had to put a radiator in the clutch
10:20fan
10:21assembly like locked up
10:24and caused a bunch of issues there
10:27um is that a manual or ice shift
10:30no this is a 13-speed manual speed okay
10:33yeah it's got a eaton puller in it it's
10:35really nice that's a good combo yeah
10:38yeah
10:40um
10:40336 rears
10:43so it used to be a fedex truck is what
10:46this truck used to be and then when he
10:48bought it from the dealership
10:50um
10:52yeah that was in i think he bought this
10:54in 17 i think when he actually bought
10:57this rig
10:59what's your fuel mileage since i have
11:00you on the ratio what's
11:02are you tracking your fuel mileage
11:05so i'm currently
11:06in the summer time i'm getting right
11:08around seven seven seven eight somewhere
11:10in that ballpark
11:11and then during winter time i get around
11:13seven one to six nine somewhere in that
11:16ballpark and what's your average speed
11:19i currently drive 63.
11:22yeah
11:23good
11:24that's enough i was driving 65 68 for
11:27the longest time
11:28and then
11:29like as prices started to kind of
11:31increase a little bit i'm like you know
11:33what we're just going to kick the rig
11:34down some
11:35started driving 65 i tried using
11:38additives trying different things there
11:40found the additives not really doing
11:41much of anything but i noticed that
11:43slowing down the truck more helped
11:46um
11:48so i at some point i want to redo the
11:51screws on the truck
11:52or the differentials yeah um and get
11:56them to put them at like 264 because i
11:58don't haul a lot of weight well like
12:00even when i'm on the the spa board i
12:02rarely pull anything over 25 000 pounds
12:05oh yeah
12:07yeah so if i can if i can get away with
12:09putting like 264 rears on here and get
12:12better fuel economy i'm really hoping
12:14that'll help with that
12:16yeah definitely that's that's the way to
12:18go i have some gliders that
12:21are have the direct
12:22transmission and 270 force
12:25and the fuel mileage is crazy uh it's
12:28such a big difference and
12:30that's definitely a good move especially
12:32yeah like you said you're not hauling
12:34heavy
12:36you know what you're not that tall
12:37anyway so that's
12:39i don't know what do you think it's
12:40gonna i'm trying to think if you're at
12:427.7
12:44yeah you can go into the eights easy
12:46with with with doing that
12:48yeah eight and a half to nine is what i
12:51would be hoping to shoot for if i were
12:53to make that kind of move
12:54um the nice thing about where i drive is
12:56i don't pull hills like it's ohio's
12:59fairly flat michigan's fairly flat and
13:02then a portion of kentucky that i'm in
13:04is only you know i'm only in kentucky
13:08for 30 miles so like
13:10the hills that i do pull are
13:13not very big they're not even graded
13:15yeah yeah so that's good
13:17and then
13:19and so and then obviously going to
13:21chicago whenever i'm on the spa board
13:23and running back down south of florida
13:26like the most hills i run into is
13:28tennessee and even then
13:30there's only like one or two big poles
13:32that i even take through tennessee at
13:34all so i mean i just i i really don't
13:36run the truck through the mountains if i
13:38if i can avoid it
13:40yeah and would you say so how how would
13:42you say
13:44how much
13:45how important is how fast did you learn
13:49that fuel mileage is one of the most
13:51important things
13:58probably when fuel when i when i started
14:01buying fuel at 350 a gallon so when i
14:04the cool thing about landstar and i
14:06don't know about any of the other
14:07companies but the discounts that we get
14:09on on fuel are really good so usually
14:12what you see on the board is not what i
14:13pay i i'm usually a dollar under that
14:16um so they probably have a deal most of
14:19the time of a dollar
14:20you get some kind of a discount off of
14:22the cash
14:24uh cash price uh i'm assuming because
14:26it's a pretty large fee so they they
14:28worked out do you fuel at specific
14:31locations like or like pilot and phijs
14:34or is it anywhere you get the discount
14:38our
14:39our biggest discounts come from ta petro
14:42and loves
14:43and i do get discounts at the other
14:46places it's just not as much like we're
14:48we're talking
14:50you know anywhere between 30 and 80
14:52difference
14:53between
14:55going to ta petro or loves compared to
14:58like a pilot flying j or even speedway
15:01for that matter because like speedway
15:03tends to have cheaper fuel
15:05by like 20 30 cents already and then
15:07landstar gets like an additional 20 25
15:10cents
15:11on top of that but it's still always
15:13cheaper to go to ta petrol lumps
15:16for us loves is recent loves has only
15:18been recent for about the last probably
15:19seven months
15:22most of the time it was just ta petro
15:25so you're at landstar how how how do you
15:28how do you like it
15:36uh it cut out real bad
15:38repeat that again would you how would
15:40you say how do you and how do you like
15:42being at landstar
15:46i like it for my first company here over
15:50on my like my first company that i've
15:51that i've been with as an owner operator
15:54there were hurdles i had to get over
15:56because then just because like i was a
15:58company driver for
16:01like six years
16:03so you have this company driver
16:05mentality and then you buy your own rig
16:07and landstar
16:10will get out of your way nine times out
16:12of ten for you to go do whatever it is
16:13that you want to go do
16:15and it's not something i was ever used
16:17to it it took me a good three four
16:19months
16:20to book my own freight set up my own
16:23schedules
16:24um
16:26and do all that sort of such it was a
16:27steep learning curve at that point to do
16:29that
16:30um
16:32i think then i was only hauling like one
16:34or two loads a week and thinking that i
16:36did good because well that's what i did
16:39as a company driver and it wasn't until
16:42it wasn't until i had to redo
16:45um
16:46a class and what they do is you you
16:48start in with the company and then
16:50[Music]
16:51about three months later they make you
16:53go through a course
16:55to verify that you know what you're
16:57doing with the load board how to
16:59properly search for loads how to not
17:01bombard yourself with a bunch of loads
17:03because there are they're like if i were
17:04to look at the load board right now i
17:06can pull up over 80 000 loads to go and
17:08to go and book across the country right
17:10now
17:11you know how do i turn 80 000 loads into
17:1325 in my area this way i can pick and
17:16choose where i'm going to go and and try
17:18to get the most money out of it
17:20um once i took that class
17:23i went from hauling one or two loads a
17:25week to hauling three to four loads a
17:27week and almost tripling my money that
17:29was making before
17:31in the same time frame of going out
17:34um that also helped me land this
17:36dedicated that i'm on too because like
17:38once i started pushing myself
17:40and making
17:42making relationships with these
17:44different agents that even that post
17:46these loads on the board
17:48they notice that hey you know you're a
17:49good driver
17:50how about this i've got this other load
17:52here i'm not haven't even posted on the
17:54board yet do you want it you know and
17:56then that relationship just kind of
17:57turns into what i currently do now
18:00is i run a dedicated lane that
18:03you know it gets me home every other day
18:05and i'm it's it's six loads a week and
18:07it's solid money
18:09it really is tell me tell me about the
18:12training for the atlanta star how is
18:15there specific training right before you
18:18start or is it is it they let you go
18:20they sign you up
18:22sign you on and then they just kind of
18:24pull you back in to
18:26to to check on you but is there like a
18:29training right before you start
18:33um so they
18:35you have a classroom deal that you do
18:38for the first two days
18:39um once you get it once you get accepted
18:42at landstar you'll go through and and a
18:44lot of it's just going over hazmat stuff
18:46because they want to make sure that you
18:48you understand because at landstar you
18:50have to have your hazmat
18:52you know that it's that is a requirement
18:54so the first your the very first day
18:57you're basically getting the crash
18:58course of hazmat
19:00making sure that you understand it fully
19:02before you sit there and decide to grab
19:04a hazmat load and take because hazmat
19:06does pay well depending on what it is of
19:08what you're hauling
19:09um like most hazmat loads do pay pretty
19:11good
19:13um
19:14and then into the second day they start
19:16going over the load board they let you
19:18research a little bit
19:19they'll do a few examples they'll have
19:21you like maybe plot out a route and that
19:23sort of thing and then they show you the
19:25tools that they have that can actually
19:27plan a route for you
19:29ahead of time and then you just call the
19:31agents up and book the freight you know
19:33which sometimes works sometimes it
19:35doesn't
19:36but then you also get an advisor that
19:38you can call at any time
19:41and it's usually somebody who's been at
19:42the company for 15 plus years
19:45uh is who their advisors are so or if
19:47you have any questions like maybe you've
19:49got load board questions maybe you don't
19:51know exactly what to ask the agents when
19:52you call for a loan
19:54like for me my my learning curve
19:56that i learned real quick was grocery i
19:59had no idea what a lumper fee was until
20:01i came to landstar
20:03and it wasn't until i delivered a load
20:05to kroger i was told well it's 400 to
20:08unload your trailer my jaw dropped i'm
20:10like what
20:12i had no idea but that was a question i
20:14should have asked right at the start
20:16and
20:18that was that was part of that learning
20:19curve but having that advisor was
20:21actually quite helpful
20:23for me to
20:25bounce ideas off on well this is the
20:27route that i planned what do you think
20:29you know and
20:30and it it's it's a super supportive
20:32program even for new drivers coming into
20:35it and even veterans here at landstar
20:37too sometimes even they
20:39run into issues or snags or they can't
20:41quite adapt and so others will help out
20:45it's a great company to come in and work
20:47with for that reason and it's
20:50the best way somebody told me about it
20:52is that landstar is as close as to your
20:54own authority as you can get without
20:56actually having it yeah i've heard that
20:58i've heard that before did you have
21:01is there any training associated with
21:03trucks and and
21:05just like like knowing trucks or that's
21:07completely left out and it's just purely
21:11booking and how lansa works is there
21:14that is
21:15it is purely up to you at that point
21:17there are some things that they will
21:18guide you on so for example one of the
21:21things that
21:22when they when they talk to other bcos
21:25or
21:26or other landstar drivers um about when
21:28they go to buy a rig
21:30is making sure that you are not
21:34you're not financially strapping
21:35yourself so they do not recommend that
21:39you
21:40go out and buy a truck and have a 4 000
21:42payment they recommend that you try to
21:44get that payment as close to like
21:45fifteen hundred a month if you possibly
21:47can and even that they say can be a
21:49little bit too much um
21:52especially depending on what you're
21:53doing i mean they'll help you in those
21:55regards but they won't point you as the
21:57you know where to get your truck fixed
21:59how to get your truck fixed how to do it
22:01yourself um the only other classes that
22:04i know of that they do is when it comes
22:06to like if you want to haul like a step
22:08deck or a flatbed
22:10you have to take a secret uh securement
22:12class
22:14um
22:15just to make sure that you know like how
22:17to secure everything to the deck how to
22:18make a d.o.t legal you know making sure
22:21you have the proper equipment that you
22:22have
22:23um so on and so forth so i mean that's
22:26that's about as much of the training
22:28though that they have for the truck
22:30itself no they it's
22:32you know
22:33they do offer discounts at some places
22:35they get your truck worked on
22:37but
22:38that's hit or miss sometimes it's not
22:40it's not all the time have you had good
22:43experience with shops they recommend or
22:44they work with when they let's say they
22:47they have a discount with you know shop
22:49y
22:50abc
22:51have you worked at any of those shops
22:55i've worked with a handful of them um
22:58one particular in maslin ohio that i
23:01went to i had a trailer had a hole in
23:03the top
23:04uh found out that they also worked on
23:06rigs there too and so while they were
23:08also fixing the the hole in my roof
23:11uh i had them put a wheel seal in on the
23:13tractor as well
23:14at the same time and like
23:17like that's that's about the most of my
23:18extent that i have with it
23:21i ended up like the nice thing about
23:23where i live is i have a lot of local
23:25guys there and four volvo dealers
23:27that i can go to if the truck needs work
23:30on
23:31so is that is that what you do chris is
23:33that that you go to uh volvo or you have
23:36a independent shop that works on your
23:38truck
23:39i do both
23:40so when it comes to accessory items on
23:43the rig
23:44so if i have like a turbo or pulleys or
23:49um maybe it's the the cooling system
23:52so that that sort of such i will take to
23:55my independent guy and it's just because
23:57he's cheaper uh he charges like 95 an
24:00hour he's pretty good guy a little messy
24:03but you know you just give the truck a
24:05bath you call it a day
24:07when it when it comes down to when my
24:09truck starts throwing engine codes or
24:11starts throwing like uh anything having
24:14to do with the after treatment system i
24:15take it right to the dealer and i let
24:17them do a full diagnostic on it just to
24:19verify what's going on
24:21and then just because it's so finicky at
24:23least it's been that way with this rig
24:26this rig has had a very finicky life
24:28with its after treatment system
24:30and it's like a lot of it just because
24:32of how neglected it was for the years
24:33that it was like i i've had to rebuild
24:35it already the only thing i haven't
24:37replaced on the after treatment side of
24:39this rig is the scr everything else is
24:41brand new
24:43on the truck
24:45you're at 800 000 miles so um are you
24:49saving for that scr already
24:54um
24:55pretty much pretty much uh i was told
24:57that the ftr itself was like ten
24:59thousand dollars just
25:00just for the part that doesn't even
25:02include
25:03like what they have to do to install it
25:05and all that sort yeah labor labor
25:08involved
25:08the part itself is is expensive but you
25:11if
25:12it all depends on uh multiple things but
25:15usually
25:17you you're in that mile range that it
25:19could already start um you could start
25:24maybe seeing something that's gonna
25:25that's gonna indicate that you're going
25:27to have to uh switch it but
25:29tell me about so
25:31um
25:32when you got the truck from
25:34from the guy
25:36you had to put the emission since then
25:38or he did it for you and you just ran it
25:41or was it something that you had to
25:42address when you bought it
25:45no it's something i had to address right
25:47off the bat see the
25:49well okay not right off the bat i drove
25:51the truck for five months
25:53but every now and then i would get a
25:54knock sensor code and then it would ask
25:57for a heart rate gun i would do the
25:58regen and go away
26:00um
26:02and i wasn't sure
26:04that's when i talked to my buddy on the
26:06phone he's like well yeah it's been
26:07doing that for like for like a year
26:10like when i was driving it i'm like well
26:12then you didn't take it to a shop to
26:14address it he's like well no you just
26:15run the regen code goes away you drive
26:17down the highway just leave it alone
26:20so that's what i was doing well
26:23at one point it started to become more
26:24frequent it went from like every other
26:27month to every month to
26:29every couple of weeks and then it turned
26:31into every couple of days
26:33i'm like all right i got to get the
26:34singing and i got to figure out what is
26:36going on and it's my it's
26:38a lot of that's my fault i should have
26:40had a pre-inspection done on the rig
26:43proper to start with like had them pull
26:45the valve cover and check all that stuff
26:48man it was bad
26:50it was bad um
26:52but that's also chris that's also
26:53something that uh particularly in pre
26:56pre-inspection uh the scenario
26:59it's pretty hard to catch it because it
27:01did take you a little bit of time to
27:03actually start seeing the frequency go
27:05up which means you were just using it
27:07and then it was just getting clogged up
27:09and plugged up so
27:10necessarily if you actually checked for
27:12it
27:12the tech would say well it's good for
27:14now do you want to swap it now or do you
27:16want to keep going make some money and
27:17then put it back in here which i would
27:19recommend that
27:20you just never know at what point you
27:22actually have the you know what what
27:24when the the
27:26region's not going to go through and
27:27then you're going to have to tow the
27:28truck right so that's just that that's
27:30the risk but if you see the cadence
27:32increase then that's usually when when
27:35you want to you want to address it but
27:37the knocks so so sorry so uh
27:40what did you do did you just send the
27:42dpf to be baked or what did you do with
27:44it
27:45no it came out in pieces
27:47oh wow okay i took it to the dealership
27:49and they and then they were tearing they
27:51were kind of tearing it apart
27:53um the death filter was
27:55like rusted
27:57like it had never been replaced on the
27:58truck at all
28:00um
28:01the
28:02the the dev filter actually came out in
28:04three big pieces
28:06um
28:07there's the piping that goes from
28:11um
28:12from the turbo it's like a flex pipe
28:15that goes to down to the the d.o.c that
28:18was just riddled pin holes
28:21um
28:23and then
28:25like i said i had to replace all that
28:28and then just to finally get to the root
28:30cause of the whole problem i had six
28:32injectors that were bad
28:34they did a leak down that's typical
28:36that's typical it's typical and then
28:39once they fix that uh two weeks later i
28:41did the injectors i had to wait for
28:43parts to come in
28:44and two of the injectors had black soot
28:47all over the top of them
28:49it was it was bad so we did a six pack
28:52on it and then i had to put another
28:54turbo in it
28:57uh probably seven months later that was
28:59actually this year i put a new turbo in
29:00it the actuator is actually went bad not
29:03the turbo yeah and um
29:07the like everywhere i called said that
29:09while they don't do the actuator because
29:11you you used to be able to buy the
29:13actuator itself they don't do that
29:15anymore you have to buy the whole thing
29:17so i went ahead and did the whole thing
29:19and like now the truck is running like a
29:21champion
29:24cummins does separate
29:26commons has a separate actuator and
29:28turbo
29:29gotcha yeah okay it's it's a lot more
29:32expensive than volvo's turbo but still
29:34okay so you did that and then anything
29:37so do you do you have a ballpark of what
29:39it what it costs you
29:41remember so it cost me
29:43that first set of repairs that i did was
29:46like right at twenty thousand
29:48um
29:49i spent fifteen thousand doing
29:52rebuilding the after treatment system
29:54and then
29:55um
29:57then i did the
29:59uh the six packs of injectors that was
30:02another four thousand dollars
30:04and then i also had to address
30:07a
30:08coolant link
30:10that i had in the uh
30:12tank reservoir
30:14which is apparently a common thing on
30:15these so i just had them while they did
30:17the injectors they did that at the same
30:19time they didn't charge me into labor
30:21they just charged me parts to do that i
30:23thought that was cool and then had them
30:24do the
30:25had them um
30:27do the thermostat at the same time
30:30because again they were already that
30:32deep into it
30:33so
30:34yeah good okay
30:38good uh no and i was going to ask you so
30:41pretty much
30:42um the only thing right now that
30:45you i mean you've done all the emissions
30:47other than the scr which is going to
30:49probably you know i mean i think you
30:51still you
30:52i've seen trucks go up to a million you
30:54know i mean you it all depends on on
30:56many factors but usually what i found on
30:58on my d13s it's just a lot of that is
31:00electric too so before the actual the
31:03actual scr has issues or
31:05you have you start having uh
31:08uh you know uh
31:11issues with sensors usually you dig for
31:14the electrical because it's been a while
31:162013 it's been a while so you're gonna
31:18have some
31:19uh wiring issues which which usually
31:21uh fix the issue but at the same time i
31:24was gonna
31:25ask you are you putting your nox sensors
31:27are you doing oem or are you doing
31:29aftermarket
31:30oh yeah yeah i always recommend that
31:34we've had multiple issues i've tested a
31:35couple of aftermarket ones and they they
31:37never worked um so we just we just found
31:40whoever
31:41manufactures the oems and we just order
31:43a bulk because
31:45you're not saving it's it's it's cheaper
31:47but the like we had so many issues with
31:50with trucks not being not being able to
31:52complete regen and and um
31:56causing a lot of problems and i just
31:57walked away from the aftermarket i try
31:59to walk away from anything after market
32:02it has anything to do with emissions
32:04or the performance of the engine so
32:07yeah that's
32:08that's a good one
32:10the only thing aftermarket that i have
32:12is the dpf is aftermarket and this is
32:15because volvo did not have installed a
32:18dpf filter for me in stock to buy and
32:21they said they were on like a two month
32:22or three month back order but they had
32:26plenty of the aftermarket ones so i just
32:28went ahead and got one of them
32:29uh cheaper but i mean it still fits
32:32still works
32:33um spoke to quite a few different texts
32:35that said that they hadn't had any
32:36issues or callbacks with them so
32:39i just just went ahead and went with it
32:41uh what tires are you running
32:43are you any specific anything specific
32:45or you're just whatever you you want to
32:48afford you you can afford
32:51so currently i use i like i really like
32:53continental
32:55um so i currently have continental hs3
32:58pluses as spheres
32:59and then i run
33:01the
33:04the hdl2 dls on my drives
33:09and then they're 11r 22.5 that's 11r is
33:12what this truck was spec with when it
33:14was originally built so i just went
33:15ahead and
33:16kept it this way it didn't mess with the
33:18speedometer or any of that sort of such
33:20i know i probably could get better fuel
33:21economy going with
33:23like a 295 75
33:25you know low pro somewhere in that
33:27ballpark but it's
33:30there
33:30i got mixed feedback on
33:33making that jump on whether or not it
33:35would actually hurt anything in the gear
33:37train um by doing a tire change like
33:40that i didn't think it would but
33:42then again i'm also not a diesel tech
33:46yeah no no it wouldn't yeah the only one
33:48would be
33:49you would definitely save a decent
33:52amount on fuel but
33:54again decent i think it would be vis i
33:56think you would recognize it i think you
33:57would see it especially with some uh you
34:00know
34:01low rolling resistance tires you
34:03definitely you could get it especially
34:05when you when you run your truck you can
34:08put the low resistant tire in the back
34:10because you're you're taking care of it
34:12like for a fleet obviously it's a little
34:13different i used to think when i was
34:15driving much walk
34:16now you can get super singles you can
34:18play with it and kind of monitor what's
34:19happening but if you're starting to have
34:21a fleet
34:22drivers don't care and you're putting
34:23expensive tires
34:25and it's just like
34:26you know a couple mistakes you go to a
34:29place where you shouldn't and all of a
34:30sudden you're losing an expensive set of
34:32tires as an owner up i strongly
34:34recommend low resistance tires
34:35especially the type of work that you do
34:38um
34:38that's that's
34:40that's going to save you you know all
34:42those things add up right the tires the
34:44the size of the wheel the arrow you have
34:46around the truck the uh how fast you
34:49drive this speed is the number one thing
34:50but
34:51um
34:52yeah so
34:54uh yeah it wouldn't change anything you
34:55would just have to recalibrate the
34:57speedometer which
34:58you know any volvo dealer would do it
35:00for you
35:05interesting yeah also do that next time
35:08i'll i'll definitely keep that in mind
35:09next time i buy tires yeah the only
35:11thing you would have to just remember
35:13the there's a different rim size too so
35:16you're gonna have to find rims that that
35:17could be costly right but if you have if
35:20you have those the rims uh already or if
35:22you find cheap deal on the rims then you
35:24just swap the i would swap it out i
35:28would go to lowepro
35:31yeah
35:32tell me
35:33tell me
35:35uh if you were gonna start
35:38you've been doing this
35:39for some time but if you're gonna start
35:41today what advice would you give to
35:42yourself
35:48um
35:51i didn't send you that question today
35:53man
35:54no i wasn't expecting that one what
35:56would i tell myself um
36:02honestly i don't know i i really don't
36:04know what i would tell myself if i were
36:06starting this today
36:07other than
36:12the only thing i can come up with is
36:13just kind of go with your gut feeling
36:15like sometimes when you're booking
36:17freight and you're trying to look for
36:19loads and
36:21you you have an idea in your head of
36:23where you want to go
36:25because you know that the next area
36:27you're going to go to is going to put
36:28you
36:30into a like a better area for freight
36:33you know you you may deliver to some
36:34ho-dunk area
36:36and then the next load
36:37might take you to the next major city
36:40for you to grab something really good
36:42but it only pays like a dirt cheap
36:43amount
36:45or you could just deadhead there
36:47get there to that kind of freight and
36:49and go with it anyways and i have been
36:51burned so many times
36:53on this thought theory that if i have
36:55less than 50 miles deadhead i'm making
36:57money
36:59so many times i have lost money
37:02booking that freight and then being like
37:03oh well it's going to take 10 hours to
37:05unload you or all the the shipper you or
37:08the receiver you've gone to is going to
37:11take
37:12five hours to unload that and which
37:14now screws up the next load you want to
37:16go pick up because you scheduled
37:18yourself
37:19in a particular way
37:21you know for like a two or three hour
37:22unload
37:24and uh
37:25man a lot of times i was second guessing
37:27myself just saying like you know what i
37:28should just deadhead there and a lot of
37:30times i took myself out of it
37:31and just just you gotta stick with your
37:33gut
37:34like sometimes you just know
37:37so learning learning
37:39lanes right so learning to because some
37:42of those some of the things are
37:44unpredictable almost right with with
37:46long
37:47unloads but
37:48learning lanes and understanding
37:50probably the the the spot market
37:53if you you know if you're running otr uh
37:55as an independent or with somebody just
37:57knowing how to plan properly yourself to
38:00to get the best roi on the rig right to
38:02have
38:03all the mileage covered
38:05what about what about truck advice
38:09what would you say to a guy if somebody
38:10was asking you uh
38:13how to get started with a truck
38:20let me ask you a different question
38:22what do you think was
38:25i just kind of take it took it to
38:27something else right now because
38:28i would ask you
38:31what was your biggest mess up or your
38:32biggest um
38:34screw-up
38:35uh or your biggest hurdle that you went
38:38through
38:39um in your in your own operating biggest
38:42hurdle that i went through
38:46biggest hurdle that i probably went
38:48through
38:49was
38:50i honestly was actually buying this rig
38:53um
38:54i had i had the option to buy a
38:57different truck
38:59um it was a
39:01it was a 2016 mac
39:04with uh with an mp8 which is this is the
39:07same as the d13 same time there are some
39:10differences but it's the same thing
39:12uh pretty much but it had an i shift
39:14transmission
39:15it had 300 000
39:17miles and they only wanted 36 000 for
39:19the truck
39:21and
39:22with the amount of money that i have
39:23made
39:24and put into this rig i could have paid
39:26that one off
39:28inside of a year
39:30and that's probably the route that i
39:31should have gone
39:33um
39:34but do you think that 2016 wouldn't have
39:37issues
39:38i'm sure it would have issues but it i
39:40probably would have ran into those
39:42issues much later down the road because
39:45if i had ran into those issues in the
39:46first year it was warranty
39:49oh okay even at 36 000 miles like the
39:52the previous owner who bought the truck
39:54for ran a fleet and
39:55he only bought from this dealership they
39:57always were new
39:58all the work was done at that particular
40:00dealership all the time it went nowhere
40:02else to get work done so they had a
40:04complete full work history on the rig
40:07they knew everything that they had ever
40:09done to the to the truck
40:11um
40:14it was very well maintained
40:16you know all that sort of such right you
40:18know just all up and up from there but
40:19then the guy also bought the extended
40:21warranty to go with it too so it
40:23actually took the warranty to 800 000
40:25miles oh wow
40:27yeah so the truck had i think the truck
40:30had like 616 000 or 609 000 miles so i
40:35was covered for the first two years
40:36easily right so
40:40with this rig event you know i've paid
40:43out over almost forty thousand dollars
40:45in just repairs at forty thousand
40:47dollars and i easily paid off that other
40:49truck inside the first year and it's not
40:51like i haven't made that money here at
40:52landstar i've i've easily made that like
40:55here here's the thing like even though i
40:57put a lot of money into this rig i paid
40:59cash for all of it
41:01i did not have to take a loan on any of
41:03it like i did
41:05cash money went down into it and that's
41:07hard to do
41:09yeah that really is hard to do you know
41:10if that's if that that's actually
41:12probably would be my first that'd
41:15probably be one of the things that i
41:16would tell myself
41:18right off the bat is bank that money
41:21and then try your best and not spend it
41:23because it's you don't know what's going
41:25to come down the pike like i'm currently
41:26saving up to in frame this truck
41:29with the way the market's currently
41:30going and with
41:33with the way truck prices have just been
41:35all over the place this last two years
41:38it just makes more sense for me to
41:40rebuild this than what it is to try to
41:41buy a new one and get into a payment
41:44so like that's that's currently the goal
41:46is i'm saving up the money i'm going to
41:48end frame the rig and then i'm going to
41:50redo the screws at the same time
41:52you know this way i could try to get
41:53that fuel economy like
41:55with having like a a good solid engine
41:59and um
42:00the good thing is the good the good
42:02thing chris is that
42:05with the d13 i can i can tell you you're
42:08not going to have to in frame that until
42:09at least 1200 1. 1.2
42:13i can confidently say that the d13s
42:16are
42:17solid engines you could
42:19that's good you're doing it i'm not
42:21saying you shouldn't but definitely
42:23you have some time
42:25which i would argue
42:27if you watch if how the engine's running
42:30and performing
42:31you might run into
42:33additional set of problems with
42:35emissions because if you start
42:38um
42:39you know if you're going to start having
42:41a lot of soot and you're going to be
42:43you're going to watch watch the
42:44injectors because that's going to just
42:45clog up your system again and that's
42:47going to cost you a pretty penny to get
42:49that fixed right but
42:51as far as in frame
42:53i
42:54i'm pretty confident you're not going to
42:56have to do it for a long time as long as
42:58you take care of the the engine and
43:01um just emissions right to me always the
43:03emissions are the the biggest enemy
43:05because if you don't have enough dry
43:07powder in your in your savings account
43:09to tackle that it usually wipes people
43:12out just because it's a very expensive
43:15fix because a lot of troubleshooting and
43:17then trying to find the issue you fix it
43:19and then your engine
43:20has issues and then you're messing it up
43:22again right
43:26you know and it's
43:28and it's something it's it's another
43:29section of the truck that has to be
43:31serviced on the regular too
43:33like
43:34probably one of the biggest issues that
43:36my buddy had when he ran his truck
43:38when and i especially when i was driving
43:41and i i wasn't helping either
43:43was like he had never had the truck
43:45service for that portion of the
43:47of the engine at all
43:49and because of that i ended up
43:51rebuilding it
43:53so i mean that just what it boils down
43:54to but if you regularly service it just
43:56like you do anything else yeah it costs
43:58more it costs more to service that sort
44:00of such but as long as you're doing
44:02those sorts of things and keeping
44:03everything clean as best you can in
44:05regular intervals it's going to last
44:07just as long as everything else does you
44:09know i mean volvo even comes out or has
44:11a sheet
44:12that tells you like yo this is when this
44:14needs clean this is when this needs done
44:16this is you know
44:18that's something i didn't even realize
44:19they had until
44:21my first major repair
44:24yeah
44:25and um
44:27now i kind of now i follow it
44:29um
44:30yeah true uh what is what do you think
44:32is missing in the upper owner operator
44:34world
44:38what do you think own operators need
44:39more
44:41of
44:42what do we need more
44:45honestly it's
44:48for whatever reason this this industry
44:50has turned into an every man for himself
44:53rather than actually helping others
44:55anymore and and i don't know why it made
44:58that
44:58that change that it did
45:01um
45:02i've spoken to a lot of drivers that
45:03it's almost kind of like fishing you
45:06know everybody has like that one fishing
45:08hall that they go to and they never want
45:10to give up or get rid of or or help
45:12others out because they've got maybe a
45:14particular technique or a particular
45:16lure or they've got a or something right
45:19the same things in the trucking industry
45:21you know i mean at the end of the day
45:23we're all trying to make money here and
45:25we're all trying to and i understand
45:27that we're competing with each other you
45:29know even even here at landstar i can
45:30compete with other bcos for the freight
45:32that i grab
45:33but at the same time we don't want to
45:35see anybody fail either
45:38and that's that's kind of the hardest
45:40thing to get over is
45:41like when you see something like
45:43somebody struggling or if you notice
45:45that there's a
45:47that they're about to struggle
45:49it's it's it it's helping to get them
45:51informed
45:53of well what hurdle they're about to go
45:55over and what they're going to have to
45:57save up for i mean this conversation is
45:59one of them you were you know you talked
46:00about
46:01you know having them worrying about that
46:03str coming up here real soon like i know
46:06it's something i'm gonna have to that
46:07i'm gonna have to deal with
46:09in the near future
46:10but
46:12i didn't know that six months ago i
46:14didn't know that eight months ago it
46:15wasn't until i had another conversation
46:18with another volvo owner kind of like
46:20what we're having now
46:21for me to learn that you know and it's
46:23those kinds of things you know
46:26yeah and people
46:28and that
46:30there was a there was a time here at
46:32landstar where i was kind of struggling
46:34with
46:35booking freight
46:36and
46:38like the the various facebook groups
46:40that i was on could see that i was
46:42struggling a little bit
46:44and
46:45you know i spoke to my advisor my
46:46advisor poked me into a couple other
46:48people
46:49and they were giving me a couple of the
46:50honey holes to talk to to be able to get
46:53freight going and it was like it was
46:55right after i just got done spending 15
46:56grand about cleared myself out because i
46:58didn't realize that i thought having 15
47:01grand and i'd be just fine for
47:03for
47:05uh for money enough and
47:06i did that in one shot
47:09so
47:10it's like so like now i've got that
47:12mentality like everything like as much
47:14as i can throw in there i can you know
47:17obviously i got to keep the house and
47:18the wife and the kids happy you know and
47:20that's fine
47:21but like the truck is what feeds the
47:23table at the end of the day
47:25you know exactly
47:27and it's why i like help
47:29like i try my best to help others that
47:31have those kinds of questions when it
47:32comes to financing is
47:34like like right now i run a zero deck
47:36company and and i have from day one
47:39um
47:40kind of proud of that
47:42someone is showing by at a time no you
47:44should be that's that's a hell of a job
47:48no i do my best
47:50granted i got lucky i lucky buying the
47:53truck that i'm in now but i mean it's
47:55you know
47:56but uh
47:58she's been running really good here
47:59lately i haven't haven't really had
48:01issues since february at all she's you
48:04know pretty strong
48:05um
48:07the market is what's been trying to
48:09try to work around but you know the
48:11dedicated help
48:12you know but it it took hard work to get
48:15you know to set that dedicated up and to
48:17get that relationship made with the
48:19agents to do so
48:21yeah um yeah
48:22no you're definitely doing a hell of a
48:24job and i i was going to ask you
48:26what do you think we could do
48:28uh in our own operator forum group what
48:31do you think um
48:33what do you think we should
48:34how can we you know i started a facebook
48:37group just because i i wanted to
48:39take it away from
48:41the youtube and more of a have a
48:43community where really owners care about
48:45helping each other it's just not that
48:48you know ego or maybe just like hey like
48:51genuinely trying to help and i i've
48:52noticed you've been helping a lot and i
48:54appreciate that because this is it
48:55that's why
48:56i was like hey i want to talk to chris
48:58because
48:59that's what i that's what i want to do
49:02at heart is i want to help as much as i
49:04can with whatever i can so drivers can
49:06do better choices and maybe have some
49:08more info and make better decisions what
49:10do you think we could do more in our own
49:13operator forum group
49:19probably the the one thing that i would
49:21say that we could do more
49:24is is kind of helping people understand
49:26the financial side of things
49:28um because it is
49:31the
49:32the statistic that blows me away the
49:34most
49:35is that
49:36three out of every 10 owner operators
49:39actually make it as an owner operator
49:40after five years
49:42like that is such a small number of
49:45drivers
49:46and and the biggest killer is is being
49:50able to manage their money
49:52and
49:54so it would it would be really neat
49:56i don't i don't know how we would be
49:58able to implement it or how i could even
50:00help to implement it but it would be
50:02how
50:04how do we set up a deal to be able to
50:06help others understand that finances are
50:09very important and to try to put back as
50:11much as you can
50:12to the truck
50:13because a lot of people have this
50:14mentality
50:16but my buddy has this problem he still
50:17has this problem now
50:19um he thinks that you get paid first and
50:22then the truck gets paid
50:24and that is such a that's a terrible way
50:27of going about doing it the truck means
50:30that regardless of what happens during
50:32the week if you have a baller week you
50:34make sure the truck gets it you know
50:35gets that extra bonus for that baller
50:37week and if you're having
50:39if you had a terrible week
50:41you know maybe you go you don't come
50:43home with as much cheddar but the truck
50:45still needs its money regardless of what
50:47it is and that that is so hard for
50:49people to wrap their head around because
50:51that's just not the mentality they're
50:53used to having then you know they they
50:55come out here and they do this and they
50:56get the first few paychecks and they're
50:58like wow i just made ten thousand
51:00dollars or i just made twenty thousand
51:02dollars in a month
51:04and then they go blow it they go buy a
51:06car or they buy a boat or they they
51:08maybe they buy a bigger house than what
51:11they should you know
51:13that or maybe they put a bunch of chrome
51:15on their rig or or do a bunch of touch
51:17and then
51:19then when it comes down
51:20to actually fixing the truck when a
51:23major breakdown happens
51:25then they try to well well i can't do
51:27this i have to finance it then they go
51:29finance it and then they don't pay off
51:31what they finance because they're like
51:33oh well i just got a payment truck truck
51:35will be fine for another six months let
51:37me tell you that's not how that works in
51:38the real world
51:40yep yeah
51:42that's a good that's a good advice
51:44sorry go ahead
51:46my dad had a big influence on that my
51:48dad was a farmer for many years and i
51:51even helped him out when i was a kid and
51:53all the way up into my team kind of
51:55watching him how he budgeted money from
51:56the farm because he made sure that the
51:58farm took care of itself each year he
52:01didn't really make a lot of money off of
52:02it but
52:04or at least okay profit he didn't really
52:06make much off of it but like the farm
52:07still made enough money to buy its own
52:09seed fix its own equipment do all that
52:12sort of such and i just kind of
52:13translated that to what i'm currently
52:15doing now which is like a lot of drivers
52:17would have went belly up
52:19with with the repairs that i that i had
52:21to make
52:22just in the year and a half of owning
52:24this rig
52:26yeah yeah
52:28i agree with you a hundred percent i i
52:30almost want to take it a little
52:33uh my angle always was
52:35uh you know the the entry level the
52:38entry to trucking is somewhat low
52:40because you could just go out and buy a
52:42rig right
52:43and that's why a lot of owners don't
52:45make it because not only they don't have
52:47the financial
52:48maybe knowledge or maybe
52:50resources to learn about uh about it but
52:53what i what i look at is
52:55when you buy a truck which is what you
52:57do what how you did it
52:59you have to have this enough cushion and
53:01just take care of it as a long-term
53:02investment think about it as a long-term
53:04plan and and running it as a business
53:07and that's primarily the problem with
53:09with owner ops like you said they're
53:11getting the big paychecks and all of a
53:12sudden transmission goes out and you're
53:14out 15 000 well and you have a nice car
53:17but the truck needs that transmission
53:19right and it's a
53:20it's a dif it's a
53:22it is a learning curve one obviously
53:24because you have to you know
53:27really be committed to making it like if
53:29you commit to hey i'm gonna figure this
53:31out it's what do you do you you you
53:34educate yourself and when i drove as a
53:37as an owner up and i started my company
53:39same thing i would listen to people try
53:41to find resources to be able to hey how
53:44can i how can i do this and and that's
53:46what i think
53:47i would like to provide uh is exactly
53:49what we're doing right now is talking
53:51about it but two having a community in
53:53which owners like you
53:55new owners come in and have the
53:57mentor-mentee relationship where guys
53:59could really have some advice from guys
54:02on how to make it better because
54:03ultimately
54:04my goal is to do better trucking
54:07and that's just my mission right like i
54:08it doesn't have to be
54:10spectacular and you're not gonna be a
54:12millionaire but you should just you
54:13should just try to do it a little better
54:15and i i really appreciate
54:18the feedback as i do
54:20i do miss i missed it i missed i missed
54:22i have a lot of content that that's
54:24about trucks because that's what i feel
54:26a lot of the
54:28money sucking mistakes happen that's why
54:30i want to talk about trucks because
54:31usually
54:32um that helps a lot and then but you're
54:35right the financial aspect
54:38of being an owner operator is something
54:39that is very important and the cash flow
54:42understanding cash flows and how to how
54:44to manage your money your it's a good
54:46feedback man i really appreciate that
54:49well and i i rarely work on my own rig
54:52like it's
54:54nine times out of ten if if there's
54:55something that needs fixed on the truck
54:57i take it for somebody else to go do it
54:59and get it done but i can only do that
55:01because of the fact that i'm i'm
55:03disciplined enough to make sure that
55:04there's money in savings for the truck
55:07for that to happen like the truck has
55:09its own account to deal with those sorts
55:11of problems and to deal with those sorts
55:13of things
55:14and yeah i could probably save money by
55:16doing a lot of that myself but you know
55:18i've also got a three-year-old at home
55:20and to me it's worth the money to take
55:22it to a dealer or take it to my mechanic
55:25or one of those one of those sorts of
55:27deals
55:28you know and
55:29and just have them do it
55:31but at the same time i would argue
55:34you you know what to tell them like you
55:36understand your rig right yeah and and i
55:38see that on my shop side that that's not
55:41necessarily the case and standard uh
55:43drivers come with trucks and they have
55:45no idea what's going on and then they're
55:47upset because you tell them they're
55:49you know scr is out right and and they
55:52need a new scr so so i i agree i agree
55:55with you you don't necessarily have to
55:56work on your truck you just have to know
55:58and understand the truck to make sure
55:59that the shop you work with is not
56:02coming up with crazy things
56:06and and whatever truck you're driving
56:08like
56:09like this is probably one of my one of
56:11my other pieces of advice that i would
56:13give to especially new drivers is
56:16whatever truck you decide to buy and all
56:18trucks have their own quarters
56:20stay away from international with their
56:23navistar engine or whatever that max
56:25force max force that oh god stay away
56:28from that pier don't buy one
56:30but
56:32usually most seller trucks like every
56:35one of them have their own quirks right
56:37i mean it's that's just the thing but
56:40learning those corks
56:41understanding
56:43when what will go out when
56:46knowing that ahead of time is huge
56:49it'll really allow you to budget
56:51ahead of time for like you'll be like
56:54okay why i drive uh
56:56you know well we'll take my truck for
56:58example i know that this truck is an
57:00injector fiend
57:01you know usually
57:03three hundred thousand four hundred
57:05thousand put a six-pack in it like that
57:07that's just what's gonna happen right so
57:09i know that in that time i'm going to
57:12budget
57:13to make sure that i have that money in
57:15the account later on
57:18to where when that problem arises i just
57:19get it done yeah
57:21you know and it doesn't matter what
57:22truck you drive cascadia is the same way
57:25they have their own quirks you've got
57:28you know kenworth's doing their own
57:29thing you've got peter belts on their
57:30own thing pac cars and their whole other
57:32league
57:34you know i mean every engine has their
57:35own quirk every transmission has their
57:37own quirk
57:39it's all it's
57:41and you can do a lot of research on
57:42there are a ton of youtube videos forums
57:44that you can join
57:46um i'm actually part of a group it's a
57:48volvo masters group it's a great group
57:50yeah i'm there too yeah
57:52you know you have issues with your rig
57:54or maybe you've got codes that popped up
57:55that you don't know what they are you
57:57know they
57:58they are more than willing to help you
57:59go through
58:00and kind of give you at least a general
58:03idea
58:04you know this way when you go and talk
58:05to a dealership you can kind of point
58:08them in somewhat of a near direction as
58:10to what you're looking at and what
58:11you're thinking you know and then they
58:13can kind of go from there and take it
58:14from there
58:15um
58:17but that's that's huge is learning
58:19because i'm not a diesel tech i went to
58:21college for automotive like i can i i
58:24was trained on how to build cars and how
58:26to make them go fast you know that's
58:28that's what i did in college
58:30i don't know a dang thing about diesels
58:31when it comes to that matter
58:38and learning the various different
58:40things to
58:41um
58:43this way i actually sound fairly
58:45confident when i go to a dealer but then
58:47i also know what i'm looking for when
58:48i'm pre-tripping my truck
58:50you know like especially looking for the
58:52common issue
58:54yeah
58:55no you definitely do uh know your stuff
58:58and i would say
59:00um
59:01we
59:02i would just want to know from you
59:03what's your plan for the future now uh
59:05what what how are you seeing next three
59:07years for yourself and what's your what
59:09are your plans
59:10well the next three years
59:14next three years i'll probably still be
59:15in this rig i'd like to have something
59:17different myself and it's just
59:20this particular year of truck and engine
59:23are a little bit more of the problem
59:24child
59:25um it's when you get into
59:28you get a little bit newer
59:30truck before they did the the common
59:32rail and they're they're a bit more
59:34reliable
59:36um
59:37i don't i don't know why volvo has that
59:39but it's like they do a first generation
59:41of anything and then it just kind of
59:42goes downhill it's it's like that
59:45anybody second or third yeah yeah you
59:47get into the second or third iteration
59:48all of a sudden things are working well
59:50um
59:52but i'll probably have a different truck
59:54in three years by that point better i'll
59:56have this one rebuilt
59:58and driving we'll see what the market
59:59does but like i really have no
1:00:01intentions of expanding into like i'm
1:00:04probably just gonna just do this one
1:00:06truck and call it a day
1:00:07um
1:00:09but like i'm i hate doing paperwork it's
1:00:12probably the one thing i hate most
1:00:14like i just want to drive the truck
1:00:17and my wife won't do the secretary work
1:00:19either so
1:00:20so i'm stuck doing all of it
1:00:22so i i couldn't imagine trying to do
1:00:24payroll with like this is where like i
1:00:27commend you 100 on that there's no way i
1:00:29could do payroll at the same time i'm
1:00:31trying to pay a bunch of like i
1:00:33i barely even trust anybody to move my
1:00:35truck from my parking spot to a garage
1:00:38let alone let somebody drive it across
1:00:39the country and haul freight
1:00:42yeah
1:00:43so yeah oh and you know what it's
1:00:46you can have a really good life doing
1:00:48what you're doing and i it's either all
1:00:50in or owner up that's how i looked at it
1:00:52i really enjoyed it as a single owner
1:00:54operator but i wanted to you know i
1:00:56wanted to build something else and i i
1:00:58understand it's like
1:01:00if you figure this out and you can make
1:01:03money and you have a life that you want
1:01:05and you're happy that's the number one
1:01:06thing that i that i go for right like
1:01:08you
1:01:09you don't have to you don't have to
1:01:10build a fleet of trucks you don't have
1:01:11to build a trucking company you can have
1:01:13a really nice life uh being one truck
1:01:14operator but chris it's been an hour
1:01:17believe it or not and um i re i i yeah i
1:01:20know right
1:01:21so let's do let's plan for this next
1:01:23time you're in chicago uh just hit me up
1:01:26uh text me and just stop by at the shop
1:01:28and we'll chat a little more maybe shoot
1:01:30something i want to shoot a video with
1:01:31your rig
1:01:32and uh
1:01:33yeah are you gonna are you planning to
1:01:35be here
1:01:36anytime soon or do you have a load
1:01:37already
1:01:38booked
1:01:40well i'm hoping to get an apu installed
1:01:42on the truck
1:01:44i think i got it scheduled for july
1:01:46we're going to see how that goes um and
1:01:49having a green apu put in yeah the
1:01:52green's a company it's not a battery one
1:01:54but uh from what i'm told green's a
1:01:56pretty good unit to buy
1:01:58as well as like thermo king but i kind
1:02:00of like the idea of being able to go to
1:02:01o'reilly's and buy parts for it
1:02:04so which is why i'm going with the green
1:02:06apu instead yeah i know i know those
1:02:08guys good that's a good unit uh and
1:02:09we're not too far so if you are planning
1:02:12to come and you're scheduled just again
1:02:14shoot me a text and let's
1:02:15stop by and or even before if you're
1:02:17around just let me know i'm around
1:02:19always around the shop or in the shop or
1:02:22in here and it would be nice to you know
1:02:25chat more about trucks and other things
1:02:27that
1:02:28that are happening in the industry so
1:02:31appreciate you man i'm not going to keep
1:02:32you any anytime longer
1:02:34thank you for
1:02:35for taking time and you know talking to
1:02:37me and sharing your your experience and
1:02:39then
1:02:40uh again um be safe out there man and i
1:02:43i um i appreciate everything you do out
1:02:47there hustling doing doing something for
1:02:49yourself and i always
1:02:51you have my full support as an owner if
1:02:52there's anything i can help
1:02:54i'm here
1:02:57well i definitely love the channel
1:03:00actually one of your your videos were
1:03:02kind of what got me started when i first
1:03:04bought this truck i was watching the
1:03:05different volvo videos uh that you had i
1:03:08know you're a fan of d12s and i had a
1:03:10d13 but i'm like it just kind of made me
1:03:13appreciate that like you know like no
1:03:15it's not a kenworth and no it's not a
1:03:17peter belt but they can be a very loved
1:03:19truck and they are nice like like i
1:03:21won't argue the creature comforts of
1:03:23this thing is amazing and the
1:03:24drivability is even like that's what's
1:03:27hard to get over i've driven many trucks
1:03:30and volvos are the easiest truck to
1:03:32drive on the highway and the most
1:03:33comfortable i i think yeah
1:03:37and i do i i i'm not saying
1:03:40yeah the seats yeah yeah but i can tell
1:03:42you about what i what i did i have a lot
1:03:44of the d13s i do have a lot of z13s
1:03:47right now i
1:03:48i don't have any d12s but again to me
1:03:51next to the 12.7 detroit the b12 is one
1:03:54of the best engines
1:03:57[Music]
1:03:58again thank you chris i'm gonna i'm
1:04:00gonna let you go appreciate you again
1:04:03and uh thank you guys for listening uh
1:04:05subscribe share and we'll talk to you
1:04:06soon
1:04:12[Music]
1:04:33you

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