omfg, a tow vehicle?
Posted by A1337STI
Albert Kun Mod Moderator Location: SF Ca. Join Date: 01/07/2008 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 1,732 Rally Car: volvo 242 |
John Vanlandingham Senior Moderator Location: Ford Asylum, Sleezattle, WA Join Date: 12/20/2005 Age: Fossilized Posts: 14,152 Rally Car: Saab 96 V4 |
William Timmins Professional Moderator Location: Redmond WA Join Date: 02/26/2008 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 648 Rally Car: 3 xr4ti/74 capri/02 bug eye |
John Vanlandingham Senior Moderator Location: Ford Asylum, Sleezattle, WA Join Date: 12/20/2005 Age: Fossilized Posts: 14,152 Rally Car: Saab 96 V4 |
edward mucklow Senior Moderator Location: charleston,wv Join Date: 05/31/2011 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 763 Rally Car: ford mustang LX 5.0, 1973 VW Beetle |
Grant Hughes Professional Moderator Location: Whitefish, MT Join Date: 01/11/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 6,818 Rally Car: BMW |
Albert Kun Mod Moderator Location: SF Ca. Join Date: 01/07/2008 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 1,732 Rally Car: volvo 242 |
Alex Rademacher Professional Moderator Location: Reno,nv Join Date: 09/10/2007 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 686 Rally Car: 93 GC with an 01 RS swap! |
uhm sounds great... except the price. I could take a loan and buy something but i want to keep it under 10K 3 year loan, payments about $300. enough to pay it off in a hurry, not high enough to really hurt my rally budget.
http://reno.craigslist.org/cto/2582141223.html only 2wd hmmf. (probably be fine) http://reno.craigslist.org/cto/2569718283.html ?!? really cheap, so i like that. not sure its going to get good towing mileage and only sits 2 . http://reno.craigslist.org/cto/2569717069.html already set to run grease ... and i know a restaurant owner (free grease supply) ... makes that really really tempting 180 gallons of grease , even if only 10 mpg is still a free 1,800 of towing per trip ... (pretty much any rally I've done so far)  
problems with that last one? (and my GF loves ford trucks too) hmm.... |
Chad Eixenberger Professional Moderator Location: Grafton, WI Join Date: 02/01/2007 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 484 Rally Car: 1988 VW Golf #687 |
John Vanlandingham Senior Moderator Location: Ford Asylum, Sleezattle, WA Join Date: 12/20/2005 Age: Fossilized Posts: 14,152 Rally Car: Saab 96 V4 |
How many gallons of gasoline can you buy for 3500 bucks? and at 14-15 mpg how many miles will that $3500 get ya? A lotta miles. I just happen to know a tow packaged equipped---fully---1992 Suburban with 90,400 miles that you could get and save $3500 and it would be essentially FREE driving for whatever the miles you figured 12,000 to 15,000 miles approx. New tires (well 2000 miles max), AC, LSD huge brakes, controller everything. John Vanlandingham Sleezattle, WA, USA Vive le Prole-le-ralliat www.rallyrace.net/jvab CALL +1 206 431-9696 Remember! Pacific Standard Time is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time. |
Alex Rademacher Professional Moderator Location: Reno,nv Join Date: 09/10/2007 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 686 Rally Car: 93 GC with an 01 RS swap! |
I'm probably looking at 6,000 miles in going to and from rallies per year.
$3500 in gasoline(or diesel) at today's prices is ~ 12250 miles or 2 years of rallying for me so you are selling a suburban for $6000 that will tow just fine? (or know of one) hmm... 14-15 mpg is it a diesel? I'm liking the sound of this ... would just need a 1 way ticket to said suburban and a pre-approved loan from my bank (or any bank) hmm..... I might need to jump on that .... hmm.... 
|
Grant Hughes Professional Moderator Location: Whitefish, MT Join Date: 01/11/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 6,818 Rally Car: BMW |
Save some money and pay cash for a trailer first.
Rentals from Penske last I looked would run me about $350-450 per rally weekend. That's less than one months car payment and insurance. For reference. I'm going to assume you have just liability on your rally car. My Impreza costs me $30-35 per month for basic 100/300/100 liability only. Let's say I bought a 2001 Duramax crew cab for $10k. Dave's truck essentially. We'll go with your number of $300 for 36 months. To insure that truck, which will require full coverage at least for the first 36 months is going to be $165 per month on my insurance but only $90 after disounts for safety, multi-car, and being a incident free driver. So about $390 per month or $14,040 per year to own the truck. Now let's look at cost of ownership... Average truck deprication is about 700 per year so your truck is only worth ~7900 at the end of the 3 years. What is the oil capacity and how many miles are you going to drive and how much will that cost you. How much are tires? Can you afford $800X number of cylinders if you have injector failure? Let's just theorize that you sell the truck, spent $2000 on maintenance over the three years, so your total cost of ownership was about $8000. You could have probably rented a truck 20 times over three years for that same cost, but never had to worry about maintenance. Of course, you then have to budget cash money to pay for the rental for each event but you have to average the cost of ownership anyhow. It's almost a universal truth that vehicle owership of any kind is always a money losing investment. I have a different outlook in that I prefer to have the cheapest and most minimal car my life demands. I try to make that be a Honda Ruckus scooter as much as possible.
I want a truck so bad but everytime I get close I start thinking about all of that and change my mind. I'm also lucky enough to have good friends who will usually let me borrow their car when i need it. If I get serious about doing a full season or towing all over I will pay cash for a truck to save on insurance and interest fees and treat it like I treat all my cars. As a potentially disposable item. Dave Kern towed with a diesel Suburban for a few years before getting his Duramax. he could probably give some feedback on it. Though his was mostly local hill climb events. I'll never understand a rallyist buying a non-crew cab truck. You are guaranteeing your crew has to either be uncomfortable or that they have to drive out in a different vehicle. Spend the dough and buy a crew cab. |
Alex Rademacher Professional Moderator Location: Reno,nv Join Date: 09/10/2007 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 686 Rally Car: 93 GC with an 01 RS swap! |
Dave Kern Elite Moderator Location: Centennial Join Date: 07/11/2008 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 1,085 Rally Car: Compact M3 & Evo IX |
We got rid of the suburban as we were anticipating entering more out of state events. The suburban with 4 people sitting in it doesn't have much room for spares at all. FWIW, the older suburban TD engine wasn't really a great TD but it did the job here in Colorado just fine. I wouldn't set the cruise control in the mountains, I'd just drop it down a gear and motor up at a reasonable speed. The newer duramax (2002) you can just set the cruise and hammerdown.
Duramax is nice for towing and carrying 5 people in comfort, but due to my HOA, I'm stuck DD'ing it because I'm not allowed to have another car in the driveway. Sucks to get 16mpg in a DD when I don't "need" such a big vehicle. I kinda think Grant should get a 2 car trailer for next year...and let me store the truck & single car trailer at the shop so I can drive an econoshitbox and save the truck for the long hauling. Team building and sharing of resources and such.
Dave |
John Vanlandingham Senior Moderator Location: Ford Asylum, Sleezattle, WA Join Date: 12/20/2005 Age: Fossilized Posts: 14,152 Rally Car: Saab 96 V4 |
No, my dearly departed Dad's 92 thang with EVERYTHING!!! to pull a 38' Airstream for $4000, not 6000. Just turned 90,400 mil 3-4" of documents. Even the AC works. John Vanlandingham Sleezattle, WA, USA Vive le Prole-le-ralliat www.rallyrace.net/jvab CALL +1 206 431-9696 Remember! Pacific Standard Time is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time. |
Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.