JedidiahStolzfus
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Lancaster, PA
My wife and I have been working towards starting our own food truck for about 15 years. Of course, this is a difficult thing to do considering kids, school, and all the other things that crop up in life that just get in the way of fulfilling your dreams.
We originally were looking at trucks, but it's tough finding them, that they'll work with our menu, and at an affordable price. Then I hit some horses and killed our Suburban. We had never thought of getting a trailer because I knew the suburban wasn't gonna wanna pull a heavy trailer. When we got the Sierra, suddenly getting a trailer was a possibility. Last tuesday, one came up that suited our needs and was well within our price range.
Like most things that I buy, it needs work, but it's completely outfitted already and originally cost $26,000. We bought it for $3000. It is a salvage because it was in a crash, but a minor one. It currently doesn't have an axle, and the compressor unit for the fridge is nearly ripped off. The skylight is broken and there's glass everywhere. All of that is easily fixed.
We didn't know anything about the damage though when we contacted the guy. Wednesday and thursday I was out so I left it up to my wife to contact the guy. She talked to him several times over those days, and apparently charmed the hell out of him. Original price was $3500, he sold it to us for $3000, which is what he paid for it. Helluva a nice guy. I called him on thursday evening to ask him some questions that she didn't. First thing he said was that my wife was so nice and sweet and that I'm lucky to have her. I thanked him and told him I know. I asked him if we came down tomorrow could I leave him with $500 cash to hold it until we could get the rest of the money. He said he couldn't do that because he had two other guys coming on friday afternoon to potentially buy it. That got me down because I knew we didn't have $3000 cash laying around anymore due to some other things we had to pay for recently.
Got home and told my wife, that he wouldn't take a partial payment to hold it. Then she surprises me, she's been squirreling away money just in case something like this came up. We called him back and said we'd be down on friday morning to take a look.
Friday morning we get up bright and early, go to the bank and get the money and then head down to Aberdeen, MD. We sat down with him for a while and made small talk, just to get to know each other, he's a man of morals and conviction and runs a salvage yard. Very nice and friendly, but I could tell he's also not someone to mess with, he's gotta be tough being in the tow and salvage business. We go out back and there it is, sitting up on cinderblocks.
We spend about 45 minutes going through it, taking pictures and talking about things we could do and what we'd need to do to fix it, and how do we get it home with it having no axle. We decide that we'll work it out, we have enough friends that we'll figure out how to get it home. Head back inside to talk to the guy and tell him we're buying it. He's happy because the one guy that was coming in this afternoon was a real asshole and he's happy it's going to us.
While he's doing the paper work, I'm already on the phone with a friend to get him working on how we get it home. Initial idea was to drag it onto a flat bed trailer, but then the problem of getting it off came up. We'd have to drag it off onto blocks or stands, something we couldn't really do with the layout of our driveway. Nevertheless we knew we'd come up with something. Money and title are exchanged and we own it. He's ok with us keeping it down there until we can figure out how to get it home. Super nice guy, told him we'd invite him and his employees up for the grand opening.
We head off, wife is giddy, and I'm excitofied (combo of excited and terrified). Meanwhile, we have to get back home, and get packed for our weekend in woods for my birthday. We spend the hour drive home braining storming ideas. This dream went from on tuesday night being "how are we going to get this done" to "it's happening RFN" We had a couple months worth of work to get it ready. We do already have suppliers lined up for our menu. Our focus is on local suppliers, nothing will come from Sysco.
The kids are all on board, #1 and #2 will work with me in the kitchen taking turns from day to day. #3 is marketing and scheduling. She's very good at that. She'll also work the front taking orders and money. #4 will also be working front, but also running his own venture at the same time, selling fresh popcorn.
Pictures of the outside
Other than the axle missing, this is the only real damage on it. The corner where the fridge compressor sits got ripped off. The compressor is still attached by the copper lines. My question is, if I cut those lines so that this compressor can be removed and the trailer hauled home, can they be reattached somehow? Can the compressor be recharged with coolant? I know I'd need a professional HVAC guy to do the job, but can it be done?
Our cabin in the woods was a lot of fun, and you couldn't really find a more secluded spot.
After we backed the truck 1/2 mile down the trail, I had to back it up the trail after getting down there and finding there was no way to turn around.
Earlier this week we had pulled the trailer hitch off the truck because it was rusted through, I had actually pushed my finger through it. When we got home today, #2 helped me install a new one in about 20 minutes.
I have a brake controller on the way to install because eventually I'd like to put an axle with brakes on.
That's it, we've been working on this for years, and we're very excited.
We originally were looking at trucks, but it's tough finding them, that they'll work with our menu, and at an affordable price. Then I hit some horses and killed our Suburban. We had never thought of getting a trailer because I knew the suburban wasn't gonna wanna pull a heavy trailer. When we got the Sierra, suddenly getting a trailer was a possibility. Last tuesday, one came up that suited our needs and was well within our price range.
Like most things that I buy, it needs work, but it's completely outfitted already and originally cost $26,000. We bought it for $3000. It is a salvage because it was in a crash, but a minor one. It currently doesn't have an axle, and the compressor unit for the fridge is nearly ripped off. The skylight is broken and there's glass everywhere. All of that is easily fixed.
We didn't know anything about the damage though when we contacted the guy. Wednesday and thursday I was out so I left it up to my wife to contact the guy. She talked to him several times over those days, and apparently charmed the hell out of him. Original price was $3500, he sold it to us for $3000, which is what he paid for it. Helluva a nice guy. I called him on thursday evening to ask him some questions that she didn't. First thing he said was that my wife was so nice and sweet and that I'm lucky to have her. I thanked him and told him I know. I asked him if we came down tomorrow could I leave him with $500 cash to hold it until we could get the rest of the money. He said he couldn't do that because he had two other guys coming on friday afternoon to potentially buy it. That got me down because I knew we didn't have $3000 cash laying around anymore due to some other things we had to pay for recently.
Got home and told my wife, that he wouldn't take a partial payment to hold it. Then she surprises me, she's been squirreling away money just in case something like this came up. We called him back and said we'd be down on friday morning to take a look.
Friday morning we get up bright and early, go to the bank and get the money and then head down to Aberdeen, MD. We sat down with him for a while and made small talk, just to get to know each other, he's a man of morals and conviction and runs a salvage yard. Very nice and friendly, but I could tell he's also not someone to mess with, he's gotta be tough being in the tow and salvage business. We go out back and there it is, sitting up on cinderblocks.
We spend about 45 minutes going through it, taking pictures and talking about things we could do and what we'd need to do to fix it, and how do we get it home with it having no axle. We decide that we'll work it out, we have enough friends that we'll figure out how to get it home. Head back inside to talk to the guy and tell him we're buying it. He's happy because the one guy that was coming in this afternoon was a real asshole and he's happy it's going to us.
While he's doing the paper work, I'm already on the phone with a friend to get him working on how we get it home. Initial idea was to drag it onto a flat bed trailer, but then the problem of getting it off came up. We'd have to drag it off onto blocks or stands, something we couldn't really do with the layout of our driveway. Nevertheless we knew we'd come up with something. Money and title are exchanged and we own it. He's ok with us keeping it down there until we can figure out how to get it home. Super nice guy, told him we'd invite him and his employees up for the grand opening.
We head off, wife is giddy, and I'm excitofied (combo of excited and terrified). Meanwhile, we have to get back home, and get packed for our weekend in woods for my birthday. We spend the hour drive home braining storming ideas. This dream went from on tuesday night being "how are we going to get this done" to "it's happening RFN" We had a couple months worth of work to get it ready. We do already have suppliers lined up for our menu. Our focus is on local suppliers, nothing will come from Sysco.
The kids are all on board, #1 and #2 will work with me in the kitchen taking turns from day to day. #3 is marketing and scheduling. She's very good at that. She'll also work the front taking orders and money. #4 will also be working front, but also running his own venture at the same time, selling fresh popcorn.
Pictures of the outside
Other than the axle missing, this is the only real damage on it. The corner where the fridge compressor sits got ripped off. The compressor is still attached by the copper lines. My question is, if I cut those lines so that this compressor can be removed and the trailer hauled home, can they be reattached somehow? Can the compressor be recharged with coolant? I know I'd need a professional HVAC guy to do the job, but can it be done?
Our cabin in the woods was a lot of fun, and you couldn't really find a more secluded spot.
After we backed the truck 1/2 mile down the trail, I had to back it up the trail after getting down there and finding there was no way to turn around.
Earlier this week we had pulled the trailer hitch off the truck because it was rusted through, I had actually pushed my finger through it. When we got home today, #2 helped me install a new one in about 20 minutes.
I have a brake controller on the way to install because eventually I'd like to put an axle with brakes on.
That's it, we've been working on this for years, and we're very excited.
