Stubborn66

WoW, and pull your damn pants up

LOL and shiny trucks

Beautiful trucks, but I could not imagine working one, I would be too afraid to scratch it

Great Project, can't wait to see it finished

I would love to make an ass out of this guy at a court hearing. The only saving grace to my reputation is he is not local, this is a van I hauled to Philadelphia but I still dont like it

Had a guy 25 years ago make a bogus claim that stuff was stolen from a van in our lot. I told my insurance company that if they paid the claim, I would drop them.... In the end I won the case. I am pretty good friends with my insurance lady, she knows how I feel and will go to bat for me if necessary. I already told her would not settle this, I will change carriers if they don't fight. I have never had a claim and I'll be damned if I am going to pay for something that is not my fault.......Long story but I think this guy is a blow hard and I cant imagine a lawyer telling him he has a chance of winning this. Time will tell

I am getting about 9mpg, but it does a lot of idling. When you figure gas is .50 cheaper than diesel it's not too bad. I have to get that gauge fixed though LOL. I am finding that they made the bigger tank right up until they went fuel injected and put the pump in the tank. I could make something up but I don't want to take the time. I am keeping track of the mileage and carrying an extra 5 gallon can for extra weight😀 I am using the parking brake and locking it in 4wd drive low range to keep pressure off the parking pawl in the transmission. I am happy with how well it sits still. I actually had an idea to make "kick stand" stiff legs for under the front bumper similar to what I saw you did for your 4 wheeler but I don't think I am going to need them. I did an Amazon with it and the driver, the genius who got it stuck, told me I couldn't get him out with this truck. I love it when someone tells me I cant do something! red neck kinda of describes me LOL

I don't take the time to take as many pictures as I would like to but I make sure to document any damage. I have also heard that companies are starting to put sound and video in the cabs to protect themselves from claims of harrassment from customers. Where does it end? I got a guy coming after me for damage from back in June. I documented the shit out of that incident and took two dozen pictures to prove I was not responsible and he now says " we will let the courts decide". My insurance agent is confident we wont lose but I am concerned because the insurance carrier may decide to just pay it rather than fight because it is cheaper for them. I DO NOT agree with that position but I don't get a say. AND, if they do that it would still go against me, imagine that!

I like the home made things that out work everyone's expectations.

I have been using old fashioned Flares on the Interstates around here. I think there is something about an actual flame and smoke that get drivers attention more. There are so many combinations of flashing lights, cones, and triangles left along the roads today that drivers don't seem to pay attention but the flame and smoke seems to get their attention IMHO. I buy the 15 minute flares by the case now

I like the Collins Dollies, I will put up the the extra weight to get the extra capacity

We have made some progress on this truck while using it. We got the lights installed on all the compartments, lighting on front and back. Mounted the air compressor I got from Ed and a generator I had here. We have more to do but so far this seems to be working well. I have used it on multiple winch outs and it pulls well. I am getting close to 10K in weight which will help for winching but it likes gas! The last picture is of one of the winch outs. I put it in 4wd, low range and it sat still, I was impressed. The drive way was narrow and I would have beat up the mirrors on the wrecker to get back in there. I need to figure out a few more things and get it lettered.

The only real challenge is the weight for anchoring, they are kind of light. The S10 has a receiver mount so we can take it on and off We just picked up an F350 single wheel 4wd with a enclosed utility body on it, we mounted the winch on that permanent just because it is heavier. We are not even done with setting this truck up and I have run half a dozen winch outs and it works well. When I think back to the winch outs I did over the past year, I believe I could have done half of them with this set up. Going in to this season, my biggest challenge is going to be deciding whether I take the wrecker or the service truck. Any kind of leaning and I want two lines to control, but just straight pull out I don't need it.

I spent a lot of time figuring out what my real costs were this year and had adjusted my rates earlier in the year so I had a decent profit. I am just going to keep going for now, the 4% hit isn't going to break the bank. I really don't see fuel coming back down in the near future so I will likely add the surcharge next year. I think I will do it as a surcharge where I can when the price of fuel in our area is over $3.75 per gallon, that way it will be a separate line item on the invoice. I can then take if off, if and when the price comes down. I just saw fuel at $4.15 on the turnpike tonight I am also going to address the credit card issue next year. I do charge extra for credit cards on the towing part of the business but I have never added a fee for credit cards in the repair shop, I need to start, the monthly fees are really adding up. The cheap guys did not affect my decision, they will come and go, but they cant offer the service I can. The customers I want will see that too. Stay Safe

We still have a couple guys running around here for 35.00 local tows. I pass by one of those places pretty frequently and the truck is generally sitting there. It blows my mind, but to each his own.

The simple answer is to raise your pricing. To not seem like your gouging, wait until the new year. Trucking companies have been using fuel surcharges for years and traditionally it is supposed to be based on the market price of oil and was adjusted once per year in market price ranges. The bigger trucking companies but their fuel on the futures market so they have found a way to make the fuel surcharge work for them in many cases.....that is a whole different scenario. For small companies like most of us here, IMO. When I did my operating costings earlier this year, I used $3.50 per gallon in my calculations. Then, I calculated what I needed my margins to be to cover those costs and give me a reasonable profit. I also used that margin to calculated how much of a discount I could offer larger repeat customers or clubs if I chose to. I was happy with where I was at. In my case, I did not raise the rates or add a fuel surcharge this year. This year, I did add an overnight premium to my rates. It has slowed down the overnight and when I do go out I get a premium for that work. No, when I re-run the numbers now, I used $4.00 per gallon. That raises the cost of fuel alone by 14%. In my operating costings, it raised my cost per mile to run the truck by 4%, in turn it has eaten up 4% of my margin. So, in my scenario I would add a 4% surcharge when the fuel hits above $3.75 per gallon. From $3.50 - $3.75 would be normal market fluctuation? Personally, I am going to ride out the rest of this year and then do something were I can, likely a fuel surcharge when the fuel is above the $3.75 mark. I will have to continue to eat the 4% on the rates I have with the couple of clubs I do work for or drop them because they will not pay surcharges. I would also highly recommend Quick Books, it is worth the cost of purchase and the time to learn how to use it. Hope this helps

Prayers

I finally made it up to Ed's today and met him and his son, they have a nice operation there and I wish I could keep my trucks as clean. I bought the compressor he had, it will work out well for us, it even has electric start! I actually got a call on the way home and did a tire change LOL but I dont like working along the road with just four way flashers so the lights will be the priority this weekend I have an electric start generator coming in with my son this weekend and he will get to work on wiring. I was able to get most of the lights mounted but have not had time to work on wiring. Hopefully some pictures as we go this weekend

I actually ran in the other night, it runs real good. I can get the pump/ sending unit I need for this one. I thought they made an optional bigger tank for these and that I cannot find. This has a single 18 or 19 gallon tank on it and I would like to get a bigger one on it. This will be a money maker for sure, I could have done half the Amazons last winter with this truck

They also build into money makers!!

Nice Truck, that will be our next upgrade when we are ready.

Started to think about where to put stuff on this truck. I want to keep the most used stuff on the passenger side to keep us out of traffic as much as possible. Here is the start on one of the compartments.

We are going to add a hitch on the back of this as well that will double as a step. I am getting more ideas as we get looking at this. I am ordering another set of magnets, this will need to be a work in progress while we use it. I need to get the fuel gauge fixed next, I see me running out of fuel if I don't, between the three of us that will drive it, it will be me! We have it just about all buffed out. The paint was oxidized pretty good but it came back well enough that I wont have to paint it, we may put more lettering on it than I normally would. Had a young kid I was paying 15 an hour to buff it with a machine, he quit, he didn't like it.

We got some time this week. We took an old shop press that I had bent a year or so ago. It worked perfect to make brackets for extending the frame on the front to mount the winch. Ran an extra support to tie it into the frame rail. Not really the project I was planning on starting with but once we got looking at it we just did it while we had the time.

Thanks for the input guys. I never even thought of pulling the wheels, I was focused the hook up, that would have been the trick to keep the front bumper off the ground. I think I still would have needed the cribbing. I had lifted it from the hitch once and the hitch seemed to move like it was not tight or could not handle the weight so I went back to the frame. I did not get any of the forks when I bought this, I will look into getting a set of extensions. Based on this, I think I will need them. The few trucks I have towed from the rear I have used the boom. thanks again