BobsLandscaping

Wish I could find a cool truck like that. It'd be a great promo piece for my landscape biz.

This is kind of funny actually. Everything went good until an hour ago, then I got rained out. If I had kept going my CTL was going to tear up the yard bad and I'd be replacing sod at my own expense. So now rather than having my equipment trucked to the next job tonight I have to reschedule everything. It never ends. How is the casino business anyway? I see you're in the Northeast, you gotta tell me some cool mob stories. Casino operator, NYC, come on, I know you have at least 5 good mobster stories. I've seen every episode of CSI:NY and Law & Order. Never been to NYC but it's on my life list. You wanna talk about unexpected and catastrophic expenses? Install an irrigation system and hit an unmarked fiber optic bundle with a Ditch Witch. The company that marked the utilities picked up part of the cost but my insurance company was still billed $458,323.25 and I had to pay a $9,000 fine out of my own pocket. All this to install $5,000 worth of lawn irrigation.

I'm up at 3am this morning doing some accounting, need to get some equipment ready to move, meeting the truck at 6 to start loading my equipment, and I'll probably call it a day around 8pm tonight. All in a days work. With 9 trucks you must be in a whole new circle of Hell called "employees". That can be even worse than non-paying customers. I had to switch insurance companies for my workmans comp, my last company required pre-hire drug tests. No joke, I tested over 200 applicants at $175 a test before I found 3 that were drug free. 1 never showed up, 1 quit after a week, and the last I fired for rolling my mini-excavator. This season I'm using a temp labor service, Express Personnel. I'm sick to death of employees. My new tactic is to spend money on attachments and equipment so I can be more productive on my own, hire subs for specialty work on big jobs (concrete and excavation companies mostly), for grunt work I'm just gonna pick up a few crackheads at Express. Rather than take on huge landscaping jobs that need a 10 man crew for a week. Like for a retaining wall I have going up in two weeks I subbed out the demo of the existing wall and the excavation of the site to another contractor. When I roll in the jobsites going to be prepped and I'll put up the new wall, plant the greenery, and go. I added 10% to the demo and excavation contractors bid when I presented it to my customer so I still make money on that part of the job. Not as much as if i had done it, but it works because I can be on another jobsite when that work is going on. Unfortunately trucks don't drive themselves so I feel your pain.

I know this is an old, old, old post but I wanted to make a comment. If you think it's cool or fun to own your own business try this exercise. Get a 5lb mini sledge and an anvil. Smash your nuts using the mini sledge and anvil. Like it? Good, then you're ready to be your own boss. You're gonna have plenty of days that feel like that, especially in a service business. Customers, collecting money owed you, equipment breakdowns, taxes, and a whole bunch of other stuff. It is really rewarding though to finish a project, have it look great, and have a happy customer that actually pays the final bill on time.

My brother is a welder in the Boilermakers Union. Won a bunch of awards from the AWS, AWS master welder, Welder of The Year, Apprentice of the Year before he became a Journeyman, graduated top of his class at Lincoln Electric Welding School, certified to weld in Nuclear Power by the NRC, has a BS in Welding Technology from LCSC, in short he's one of the best welders in the world. Easily in the top 10 list. He saw this and said that a properly welded joint is stronger than the metal surrounding it and that a proper weld on a truck frame can cause no problems. It's improper welds that cause problems. There you have it, another opinion to debate over.

I think a hooklift might be the way to go. Especially for mulch and topsoil jobs. If you've ever had 10 yards of mulch dumped in a driveway you know it leaves a big mess to clean up at the end of the day. With a hooklift I could get some dumpsters, fill them up with mulch, open the back doors and drive my machine in and scoop the material right out. At the end of the day shut the doors, lift the container and go. Plus if I got a 25 yard container I could buy 25 yards of mulch at a time for a discount and store it. Just need to tarp it to keep it dry. Same kind of deal for topsoil. A yard of mulch weighs around 900lbs, a yard of topsoil weighs around 2,000lbs. What kind of truck would I be looking at that an haul a 25 yard container of mulch or topsoil legally? Are 25 yard dumpster containers available? Can I still fit a conventional dumpbed to a hooklift? Like for spreading gravel? The kind where you can do a six inch spread, tilt the bed, and drive to spread it. How exactly does a hooklift secure the body to the truck frame once it's lifted up? I haven't really seen one up close. Can I get a chipper body for a hooklift? Like for holding wood chips after chipping up a tree? What are some other bodies I can put on the back of a hooklift? How about enclosed containers I can store tools in at jobs as opposed to hauling trailers? That hooklift idea is really growing on me. I like it.

Yeah, it's definetely a huge jump. I can tag the UD to 60,000lbs with a trailer (GCWR), I think I can tag a Granite all the way to 80,000lbs (GCWR). So having 2 rear axles (tandems) is enough to get me through snow and ice without having a powered front axle? I generally stay out of the mud, that means I'm tearing up a customers lawn. It's best to stay on pavement, less sod to replace. The man reason I'm looking at buying my own truck is I'm tired of having to run my business around truck availability. Few things are as frustrating as being ready to start a job and getting the call that I've been bumped for beter paying (oversize permit) loads and it will be a few days before my "compact" equipment is trucked to my jobsite. I'd rather truck it myself and pocket the mobilization fee I charge. My equipment is just outside of what can be safely and legally moved with a 1 ton, but well under the more lucrative oversize loads. Hence I get bumped at the last minute for big loads all too often. Equally frustrating is ordering XXX yards of material and waiting hours for it to show up. In the last 4 years I've lost enough money in waiting for trucks to pay for a UD easily. I'm not bashing truckers, I understand stuff happens and it's just business. It's time for me to make the move into mobilizing my own equipment.

I've been looking for a heavy duty landscaping truck. Something that can tow a heavy skidsteer, CTL, and a excavator in the 9 ton range. Currently I use a Isuzu NQR and have my heavy equipment delivered. This works, but it adds needless complexity to the logistics of moving my stuff from one job site to the next jobsite. Right now I can haul about 3 yards of material in the back of my NQR and dump it. When I need more for a large job I have it delivered. Currently I have nothing that can move large quantities of pavers, retaining wall blocks, or large orders of synthetic decking material. I have to have all that delivered, and frankly it's hard to get on time delivery. Last season I could have completed more jobs if I had been able to move my own material. I'm looking at dump trucks that can tow a 26,000lb GVW trailer with air brakes. A large tilt deck trailer that can move 19,000lbs of equipment or pallets of material will work nicely with a dumpbody. Currently the truck I really like is the Nissan UD 3300 (33,000lbs GVW) with a Pioneer 4x4 system. My Isuzu and Toyota Tundra have been super (216,000 trouble free miles on the NQR, 125,000 trouble free miles on the Tundra) so I know the Japanese can build a stout work truck. The other thing I like about the UD is that with a dump body and 4x4 it only weighs around 14,000lbs due to it's cab over design. It also has a very short wheelbase making it maneuverable, good visibility, and it's just a nice truck all around. The drawback is that the dealer is 800 miles away in California. That's the closest dealer to Idaho. So the warranty basically means jack. For an $80,000+ truck that's a substantial gamble. The other drawback is that my local truck shop as never even heard of UD, let alone seen or worked on one. I don't think NAPA will carry parts for it either. All trucks break eventually, someday my Toyota or Isuzu will wind up in the shop. However it's a lot cheaper to drag my Isuzu 200 miles to Missoula than an 800 mile tow to Cali if dealer level diagnstics are required. Despite the fact that I really like the UD I had to check out other options. The Mack Granite in a 6x6 dump configuration really stood out. We have some gnarly winters up here and for months at a time my two wheel drive Isuzu can't leave the driveway. That's why I'm looking at 4x4 or 6x6 trucks. I also do a little plowing in the winter. However a reasonably well equipped Granite 6x6 will cost almost $100,000 more than a UD. One of the benefits of owning a Mack would be that the dealer is only 75 miles away. A relatively cheap tow in the event dealer level service is required. However a Mack Granite will cost 40% more to insure than a UD and with a tandem axle configuration I have an extra 4 tires to replace and an extra axle to service. Obviously I'll be able to tow a heavier trailer so as my business grows I'll get more capacity without having to purchase a larger truck. I can grow more with a Granite. I'm having a really hard time justifying near $200,000 for a truck though. My dealers salesman is not the sharpest tool in the shed, he kept calling the UD "Jap junk", probably not the smartest thing to say to a guy driving a Tundra with a Japanese mom. Anyway I've been digging around here and it seems this is the place to ask questions and get straight answers. What will my projected annual operating costs be assuming 12,000 miles annually? What kind of fuel mileage can I get? The UD 4x4 gets around 16mpg, I'm assuming a Granite gets around 10? What tires should I spec for the best compromise between traction and longevity? Assuming I keep the truck for 10 years what can I expect to get for it when I go to sell it? Is the Granite well built enough to go past 10 years? With the low mileage I'll be using the truck for can I keep it for a long time? Is it a "disposable truck" like the Freightliners or Internationals I looked at? Those two makes didn't impress me at all with ft and finish. Peterbilt and Kenworth were better, but they don't offer trucks with a powered front axle. What are some common wear items that I can expect to replace and at what mileages/age do they typically wear out? The Granite is available with more horsepower, rear end, and transmission choices than the UD. What are the best specs as far as compromising between performance and economy in mountainous (Rocky Mountain foothills type terrain) areas? How maneuverable is a Granite in real world conditions? Things like U-turns, backing up driveways, visibilty, etc. Is there a way to spec a Granite so that a powered front axle is unnecessary in snow and ice? That would reduce the purchase cost by quite a bit. I do like the looks of the Granite, but I need more info so I can make an informed decision. The only other truck out there that I like is the Mitsubishe Fuso FG, but it's 14,000lbs GVW. Not nearly enough truck. For any Granite owners out there, how did you justify the cost to your bottom line? The Granite is considerable more expensive than other trucks.