Cartman

Heres a pic of my buddies and I on our trip down to Little Sahara Sand Dunes...in Minnesota our unalert driver let the 7 pin connector drag on the ground and it shorted out the brakes with the lighting for the trailer...fire department had to be called and the trailer had to be unloaded asap... http://www.syracinginc.com/pics/albu...2003%20005.jpg
we towed it with the mighty cummins (99)
Got around 15MPG @ 80mph
Also had 2 55 gallon drums of methanol in the back of the truck....if it were on fire it could of got VERY ugly!

Patrick Campbell

Bad Ramer, who do you haul for??

Bad Ramer Jamer

I'm a self employed sub contractor. I haul for a couple of different guy's. Do you need a car hauled or something?

Patrick Campbell

No, I would like to get into the car hauling business though. Just curious as to whether most guys haul for dealers or what. Not sure how to get into it really.

Bad Ramer Jamer

Now's not a good time to get into the buisness. Especially for the little guy with a 1 ton. The fuel price's are killing me. If you could haul more than 3 car's at a time it's better. You absorb the cost's. Heck, I pay about 1,200 amonth just for insurance. Then I give the guy I'm leased onto 15%, wich is nothing compared to what other place get. If these price's don't come down, I'll be looking for a new job myself. Cal

Haulin_in_Dixie

Pretty truck, tell you what I have learned about trucks and using them the way you do. Just like a woman, they get old real fast, and cranky too

Patrick Campbell

Crazy - I actually called up about a quote from Progressive the other day and they told me $12K not including ON hook (cargo insurance). Just 750K liability+ comprehensive on my truck and no comprehensive on the trailer. I thought that was out of control. Maybe it is what I should expect to pay. This is in the NYC area so nobody wants to write anyone a policy let alone a little truck.

Anyway thanks for the advice. I am sitting on my current job for a while, getting settled in and getting the truck fixed up (something I want to do regardless of whether or not I start hauling). Just out of curiosity do you find yourself going over 26,000 # ?

Haulin_in_Dixie

A couple of things wrong. Get a cdl, insurance is cheaper. With authority it is better still, or leased. Never use a car insurance agency, use only a company that does big trucks. Cargo insurance is necessary. Don't run without it.

Weight, your truck weighs 7000 plus, the trailer is 7000 plus ready to run. You have to figure 3500 pound cars although some will be less, but way more with three suv's. You may stay under 26,000 some of the time or even most of the time but you cannot run the business that way. And for cdl some states add the gross of the truck to the gross of the trailer. 7000 + 21000 So a cdl is necessary and tags to 30k or so. With three conversion vans on I get above 32,000, closer to 33,000.

budsowner

The trailer and excavtor 23,200.

Bad Ramer Jamer

Before I got my CDL and up graded my plate's, I was over 26k alot of the time. I was very fortunate and never had any problem's at the scale's. It's really hard to pick and choose your load's according to weight. Funny thing is now that I'm legal to haul more weight, it seem's like I'm getting more smaller stuff.

What's happening now is they are really giving the guy's with dually's a hard time. Every body and thier brother is getting into hauling. They're using old truck's that just don't perform as well as the newer one's, and ther's more safety issuie's with the brake's and thing's. We get a full DOT inspection all the time.

All I can say is you do everything perfectly legal, and have all your I's dotted and t's crossed. Cause if you don't, the DOT will let you know. They'll even write it down on a piece of paper for you,,,called a ticket.

budsowner

I only haul for my self.I would hate to get into hauling as buisness.

Patrick Campbell

I will go for the CDL. I think it is definitely a right step even if I do stay under 26,000. I already picked up the manual and started reading.

I wonder if I could take the test using my little truck hooked up to a trailer registered/plated anything with a GVW over 17200 (8800 GVW on the truck) that would technically make a CDL be required... or would they say uhh, you need to take the test in a real tractor/trailer with a 5th wheel coupler?

Bad Ramer Jamer

As long as you have a combination over 26k, you'll be all right. That's how I did mine. And it doesn't even have to be plated that high, as long as the gvw tag is that high is all that count's. I had to use my friend's truck wich was rated at 12,200 because mine's only rated at 11,500. After I got my CDL I upgraded my trailer from 14k to 20k.

Hoss

I don't own any trailers. I bought a diesel simply because that's what I wanted to have. But, I did borrow a friend's tag-a-long just long enough to snap a few pictures.



There's a couple more pictures in my gallery...just in case you're into ugly trailers hooked up to beautiful trucks.

durasmack

Leave it to Hoss to find a trailer like that to hook up to..... Hey Hoss, if you can make it up to Ohio mid October, I can find you a nice transfer sled to hook your truck to.....