Chart of the stock market 2000- present.

[Oregonhunter5]

I believe just because we are running high, doesn't mean we are headed for a bust. Busts happen from many contributing factors. Not just a few years of a great stock market.

 

[Argonaut]

The other thing is I am buying a medium duty truck, I would suppose a F450 would be considered a ton and a quarter rig. A comparable used one a few years old with 70-100K miles is still going to be $35-$45 grand and I have no interest in buying a $40K truck with a 100K miles. One a year old with 20K miles they will likely ask what I paid for this one (which had a $61K sticker and I paid $52 for) Matter of fact I have seen several used trucks on Craigslist for more than what I paid for the new one.

Really buying a new one or keeping my old one were the two options.

Modern medium trucks are wonderful. I really miss my IHC crew cab diesel flatbed. I will probably buy another in the next year or so. Some of my boats and equipment are just too big for my 3500. Here in Idaho, they are not a big deal to drive, licence or insure. My brother is dumping his late model Ford for one as well. It sounds a bit like your mileage expectations are pretty low for a medium size truck. They are a different creature than a pickup. They are designed to be maintained. You will be buying what is left in the truck, not how much has been used. I would expect up to 750,000 miles with basic maintenance in a medium truck with a quality sleeved engine and an Allison or good manual trans. Condition in commercial trucks is simple to evaluate, run it on a shop dyno and an oil sample will tell about engine condition, brakes, steering, rear end, Springs are easily checked and repaired if required. I think a good 26,000 GVW 100,000 mile truck has more life left in it than a new 3500-450. I sold a 1991 IHC 1654 last year that had under 40,000 original. It has been a truck owned by the US army, used as a munitions delivery truck to the ranges in Ft Irwin. had a IHC DT engine and a 12 foot flatbed. Paid 800.00 + expenses for it, sold it for 6500.00, the guy that bought it is a fire contractor for a big ranch. He has called me 3 times looking for another like it...........he claims 14 MPG light on the highway.

 

[CoastRange57]

I have been up as high as you can get in business and as low as you can possibly crash as well. When the economy turned down in 2009, I did not owe anybody a dime for anything, except our house / property. Our business suffered and basically went down, so I just closed the doors and took a few years to sell off the equipment. We had retirement funds in place and those were untouched. Kept our home/ property. I was out of the work force for 3 years due to health issues.

Over time we managed to claw our way back and made some real estate flips and investments and did fairly well. We are 60 and 56 years old, still working. My wife did have some inheritance income, and we used those funds to buy some property in Central Oregon, one piece it live on and a speculative / growth property. We live on property in the Tualatin Valley that is fairly high value in a red hot real estate market. We are selling this property next year and moving to Central Oregon, building house and shop and probably doing some more 1031 buying as well. Real estate has been very good to us, we are good at it and will continue to pursue that.

At that time we will have no mortgage, we have not had car payments for over 15 years now, we will both work for another 4 years or so, but will be able to cut back on hours worked. The investments we have are doing well, we are approaching a point where I have been using some of that for real estate purchases in areas where I expect to see double digit growth over the next 10 years.

When I was a partner in our consulting business, we worked with business's to show them how to become profitable. We could show them pathways to being profitable, we worked on a recurring basis for several years with most of them. I had a group of them gathered in Denver one time, and they were all profitable by that time, and I told them now that you are profitable to take at least 25% to 40% of the net profits out of the business and the market segment completely.

One of them asked me well what do I do with the net profits ??? I told them to write me a check for whatever they wanted to invest and I would give them an invoice for whatever they wanted it to say.

I use debt to build my business originally, mostly for hard assets like equipment, tractors, dozer, excavators, trucks but paid everything off well ahead of schedule and then was on a cash basis. I could write checks for new, but it is a horrible value to me , although I certainly see Iron Monsters reasons for doing so. We are putting a very nice manufactured home on our Central Oregon, since at our age, spending the money on a stick built could be better use elsewhere.

Cash is king, it just takes discipline to get there.

 

[IronMonster]

Modern medium trucks are wonderful. I really miss my IHC crew cab diesel flatbed. I will probably buy another in the next year or so. Some of my boats and equipment are just too big for my 3500. Here in Idaho, they are not a big deal to drive, licence or insure. My brother is dumping his late model Ford for one as well. It sounds a bit like your mileage expectations are pretty low for a medium size truck. They are a different creature than a pickup. They are designed to be maintained. You will be buying what is left in the truck, not how much has been used. I would expect up to 750,000 miles with basic maintenance in a medium truck with a quality sleeved engine and an Allison or good manual trans. Condition in commercial trucks is simple to evaluate, run it on a shop dyno and an oil sample will tell about engine condition, brakes, steering, rear end, Springs are easily checked and repaired if required. I think a good 26,000 GVW 100,000 mile truck has more life left in it than a new 3500-450. I sold a 1991 IHC 1654 last year that had under 40,000 original. It has been a truck owned by the US army, used as a munitions delivery truck to the ranges in Ft Irwin. had a IHC DT engine and a 12 foot flatbed. Paid 800.00 + expenses for it, sold it for 6500.00, the guy that bought it is a fire contractor for a big ranch. He has called me 3 times looking for another like it...........he claims 14 MPG light on the highway.

I got a 2007 SBA 4300 International with a DT466 and an Alison with 146k on it I want $15,500 for if it would work for your guy... it only gets 8 mpg but it drives like a pickup.




The F450 is s 16k to 19.5k GVW (all the same truck, just depends on what you want on the sticker) truck and it's been getting 13 mpg around town and 16 mpg freeway and it's a hell of a lot cheaper to maintain than the International.