Cheap way forward?

[Camino LS6]

You guys have all been unwilling witnesses to my fruitless search for a decent plow truck, and distractions with more interesting stuff as I look for ways to get things rolling on my personal automotive front.

Sorry about that if it transferred my frustration into yours!

When is he going to freakin' buy something?!!

Well, maybe not until I sell my daily driver Tahoe.

I'm unlikely to find what I'm looking for within budget, so that means I have to find a way to increase the budget, and selling the Tahoe is probably the most effective move I can make on that front.

Of course that means I have to push the wagon back into service for a while which I hadn't planned on.

Getting the wagon back on the road again and legal won't take all that much, and I don't have too much I want to do to the Tahoe to get it ready either. So, this may be the way to get things going.

The risk, of course, is that every day I don't find a plow truck moves me closer to having to buy one at the yearly peak of value. That's not a great situation to be in, but other options look thin.

[ocnblu]

General winter weather forecast for the Mid-Atlantic region: Lots of SNOW. Hence my die-off on a Sonic RS or a 2WD 1500. My Patriot seems like such a good compromise of fuel efficiency, utility and 4WD, that I think I'd be nutso to get out of it so soon.

Convoluted story short: get yer butt in gear and don't be drivin' that nice wagon when the snow flies.

[Camino LS6]

That would be the nightmare scenario.

[BigPontiac]

What do you expect the Tahoe sale to add to your truck budget? Another $4,500?

[Camino LS6]

What do you expect the Tahoe sale to add to your truck budget? Another $4,500?

Minus the cost of getting the wagon squared away and the Tahoe itself puffed up.

Not really enough to get what I'm after, but closer.

[balthazar]

Good luck, something will show up.

Ocn- that really what you heard WRT snow this winter??

[ocnblu]

Yup, something about a "developing El Nino pattern", or some such.

Edited September 10, 2012 by ocnblu

[A Horse With No Name]

Since I fix heating as well as AC and electrical, by all means, bring it on.

Camino, I'd say get rid of the Tahoe ASAP, and if it comes down to it, I'd take a small personal loan, even though your opposed to doing so. Two grand for an extra nice plow truck (an additional two grand that is ) can be made up in a week or so of plowing.....

My daughter (the older of the two you met in Philly) is getting ready to head off to college next year, she's going to be spending far more than two grand...

Two grand is a minimal amount to borrow in terms of your livelihood and your ability to take care of yourself.

[Camino LS6]

I quit plowing commercially a few years back, Horse.

So, there is really no income from that source to balance any loan.

And, we aren't talking about 2k here - there is a huge gap between the 3-5k trucks and those at 10k and up where there just isn't much of anything for sale. The pickings are oddly slim.

If I get that close, I'll find a way to make things happen - but it just hasn't been like that.

On both the high end and the low, the trucks for sale are mostly overpriced junk.

[A Horse With No Name]

Ouch....seems like a couple of years ago around here, you couldn't give pickups away.

Now...I don't know what happened...but there is one hell of a shortage of decent trucks around here also.

If your not plowing commercially, why not plow with the RPOS?

[Robert Hall]

Ouch....seems like a couple of years ago around here, you couldn't give pickups away.

Now...I don't know what happened...but there is one hell of a shortage of decent trucks around here also.

Maybe a bunch of them got C4Ced back in '08...

[balthazar]

^ Probably a significant factor, yes.

[Camino LS6]

Ouch....seems like a couple of years ago around here, you couldn't give pickups away.

Now...I don't know what happened...but there is one hell of a shortage of decent trucks around here also.

If your not plowing commercially, why not plow with the RPOS?

It's critical that the lane be plowed and kept open these days, and if the ROPOS coughs up its last in the middle of January - I'm screwed.

That, and the fact that I need a truck I can actually drive places, makes this a must do.