Now that that truck's been mine free and clear for awhile, I was last night crunching the numbers for true cost of ownership. It started as a fuel cost per mile and grew from there. I'm going to ignore things like bigger injectors and fancy HP stuff

For me, it comes out as follows:

Fuel: 20¢-25¢ per mile
Tires: 1.6¢- 2.5¢ per mile (~$200 per tire- ~50K life)
Oil/FILTER changes: 1.2¢-1.5¢ /mile (with $25/gal oil and $15 filter @7500miles)

Trans/diff/t-case changes: .47¢/ mile (yes, less than a half cent)



Now I obviously ignored things like brake pad replacement (haven't need it yet) and other things like a brake flush and fixing things that break.

Interesting though, isn't it? I mean, the fact that a premium oil like Premium Blue is still a tiny fraction of operating costs compared to fuel.

Fuel is the biggest cost by far, and the difference in MPG between city and hwy can easily more than pay for a premium oil like Redline at $30 bucks a gallon!

I was surprised that tires cost more per mile than do oil and filter changes, even with milder hwy tread tires that last longer and don't cost as much to buy as a mudder. If I went with Toyo M/Ts for example, my tire cost per mile would climb to almost 2.8$/mile-- nearly doubling (assuming 35K life).



I'm still pretty amazed that even a really expensive oil changed earlier than it needs to be is STILL cheaper than the cost of tires!

You Dually guys are really getting hosed on tire costs, I bet!

I don't feel so bad now about spending $25-$30 for a gallon of oil, since even at that price is still a tiny fraction of my total operating costs for the truck are.

If nothing else, take this as incentive to drive slower and air up your tires or whatever else to get better MPG-- since fuel is about TEN TIMES greater than your next highest operating expense.


Oh, and I can get my $2600 Dynatrac kit to pay for itself in only ~100K miles!


Gee, I need a life when a calculator is entertainment!

jh
I know a person could go into a lot more detail on this, but these are the main items I'd consider predictable expenses.

 

Knowing how much some of my toys cost me over the years is NOT something I want to be made aware of

Oh well, I have yet to see a U-Haul trailer on the back of a Hearse...but perhaps that is something I could put in my will...

 

Both you and I . Nice write up.

I guess fuel filter cost at like $13 every 15K miles isn't much to calculate.

 

I like your analysis and love your conclusion: Might as well spend more on the good stuff, 'cause it's all just a drop in a very large bucket.

Why do I think that is not a good thing to show the CFO?

 

Isn't that the truth.

 

i know have way more truck than i need, i only pull a 6x12 enclosed tamdem with 1-2 bikes on longs trips 4-5 times a year. I had a small truck that was almost paid for but i ran into some things that i needed a real truck for and had to borrow a friends (04.5 Cummins). I love my truck it is $$$ but i get that much enjoyment out of it. I try not to think about the $ and that is hard for an CPA to do lol Life is to short not to have the things we enjoy

 

Aren't excel spread sheets fun. Actually scarry when you look at costs like these.

Just for fun start playing with tire costs, tire life, mpg, and tire pressure. You should find a cross over point where it is more cost effective to air the tires up and let them wear sooner and get better mpg than to air them down, get worse mpg and the tires last longer.

As for the dually and tires, I find that if I rotate the tires I get far better tire life. Since I generally run unloaded I get pretty good tire life anyway. With only rear drive I don't wear the fronts out nearly as fast.

My spread sheet covers everything I've ever bought for the truck. Even car washes. I don't keep cost per mile for everything but I could.

Re-occuring costs are the one that add up. That's why fuel cost is so high. Your monthly payment adds up too but hopefully it will end.

Fuel cost just went up $.20 per gallon since I last filled up so that's going to hurt. My goal is to cut down 1 trip per week per project and one fast food meal per trip. It should help the costs even out and reduce the waist line a bit. haha It may even help mpg as the truck won't have to haul as much of my beefy #$% around.

 

As expensive to operate as my CTD could be, it's still much cheaper than the monthly $$ on our other vehicle. Being paid for counts for a lot!

Discounting the payment, our other vehicle is about 3.5¢-5¢/mile cheaper to operate.

My truck doesn't get driven that much lately, so even though $50 for fuel hurts, it's probably only once a month that it needs that much.

I'm trying not to recollect that fuel was $1.50/gal when I bought this thing

 

Back in 1999 when I first bought the truck, it was said, you will save enough in "100000" miles to make up for the additional cost of the diesel engine.Well I just turned 102,000 miles.
7110 Gallons of fuel >> $12,008 dollars.
27 Oil Changes, 297 Qts of Oil >> $520.00
27 Stradapore Oil Filters.>> $230.00
8 Stradapore Fuel Filters >> $96.00
$12,854 So far. Forget about trans fluid, trans filters, rear gear lube, shocks, brakes, and tires. I want to know if I'm finally ready to start saving now.
Plus fuel has gone up at least .60 this year
Bob H

 

It is still cheaper than a shrink...

 

I've had my truck from about the same time. I didn't keep as accurate track of the Windstar van but I know that it didn't get better than 20 mpg very often around town and that my truck got 20+ nearly year around except towing down south. This was when the tables were turned on gas. As I recall gas was a good $.30-.40 per gallon less.

I guess today I'm starting to lose ground comparing costs.

Justifying the truck is now partly hobby so I can still do it. While I have to admit $4.00 per gallon is getting hard to take.

My counter is to simply eliminate one 50 mile trip per week regardless of the event. I only 'work' (retired) 4 days per week now and I add a fuel cost to my hotrod services one way or another.

It's getting harder to get by that's for sure. It looks like the gov't subsidy for ethanol and E-85 has been wrong. Had it gone to bio-diesel especially the algae process I think things would have been different. The diesel electric hibred probably would have been much better too.

I think the cold starting could easily be taken care of by automatic heaters like Espar and Webasco that would function seamlessly so even higher values of bio would be possible.

Mileage improvers are definitely going to to be the "in thing" from here on.

 

What's your insurance cost per mile? I get reamed on my insurance...

 

My insurance is pretty cheap considering I have low or no deductibles and I keep high limits and full coverage even though it's paid for.

Most people I know just revert to liability insurance when a vehicle is paid for, but this truck is still worth enough to where it would cost a LOT for me to fix out of pocket if something really bad happened. I'm loathe to total it and get a newer one, though-- that's the downside to full coverage.

The way I see it, I can either drive this truck with the high cost of fuel, or incur another 12-15K in debt on a different vehicle in an effort to improve fuel cost.

If fuel really starts to hurt, I might buy an old econobeater and drive it into the ground.

 

I don't know why my insurance is so much higher than what everyone else is paying. I'm over 30 yrs old with a clean driving record. Checked around on rates and everyone was pretty close to the same price. My truck's paid for too - I guess what I saved in interest on payments I just ended up shelling out to the insurance company - but there's no way I'd have just liability. Anyways, a shade over $ .30 a mile's not too bad really...

 

Check Tennessee Farm Bureau.