Posted: 12/23/2008 12:51:33 PM EDT
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- 4 heavy duty tires for 14,000GVW dump trailer- $833.44 - oil change, fuel filter change, transmission fluid flush on F350- $522.75 - Jimmy Johns sandwich delivered while you wait for your work to be done- $5.25 + tip - Getting raped in the butt with business expenses: fucking priceless when you are off season. |
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Welcome to grown-up-ville. 
Look at it this way, you are bailing out the economy at least!  Truck tires this spring- $1000 + brake pads $300 new chainsaw $800 dump trailer battery- $120 truck batteries $360 i blew out a main bearing on my stump grinder a few weeks ago- quotes $202 for parts, labor might be up to $500  ( they always quote high to cover their asses, labor SHOULD be 200 or less )
its been a VERY expensive year for a SMALL business like myself. and thats not all ive had to pay for- and i have $4500+ / month in bills expenses. its not suppose to look like this! 
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Damn bro. You're getting killed. Why so much for a trailer battery...? I run two car batteries on mine and they power the winch and ram all day everyday no problem. The second one I consider insurance. Charges from the pigtail. I have a good supply of used batteries to pick from as they go bad, but you can get them for $20 a piece tops from your local wrecking yard.
As for truck batteries, I'd almost be inclined to spend the money on new good ones if I didn't have the resources I do. |
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Damn bro. You're getting killed. Why so much for a trailer battery...? I run two car batteries on mine and they power the winch and ram all day everyday no problem. The second one I consider insurance. Charges from the pigtail. I have a good supply of used batteries to pick from as they go bad, but you can get them for $20 a piece tops from your local wrecking yard. As for truck batteries, I'd almost be inclined to spend the money on new good ones if I didn't have the resources I do. its a big ass marine battery. i paid $60 for a marine battery this spring, that was a complete TURD from the get-go so a month ago i went to national battery and bought a RV ? marine battery. for some reason mine doesnt charge off the truck, i just plug the charger up to it every few dumps. the good thing is now i get free tire rotations and balancing on every damn thing i own! 
as for the truck batteries, they were getting crappy and i could tell one cold day it wasnt going to start- so i dropped the $360 for "insurance" ive got quite a large box of receipts AGAIN and better not get f'ed on taxes again 
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The diesel oil changes are steep if you pay to have it done pretty much anywhere. Diesels are spendy to have the maintenance done. Does your truck have the 6.4? the belts have to be set to a certain tension to keep the bearings from burning themselves up- i know how to adjust the belts when they are loose, i dont know how to set them in the first place. so either way id have to take it in for that issue, the work SHOULD only be 2 hours to do the job..... 65-70 bucks an hour. |
| Not to be a smart ass or anything, but I'd think someone as skilled as you would be able to do all your own maintenance yourself, especially since you're paying so much for labor. Now someone like me on the other hand, well, I'm only fooling myself thinking I could do the maintenance myself. |
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Not to be a smart ass or anything, but I'd think someone as skilled as you would be able to do all your own maintenance yourself, especially since you're paying so much for labor. Now someone like me on the other hand, well, I'm only fooling myself thinking I could do the maintenance myself. like i said though, the belt tension is the key issue- takes a tool to adjust it i believe, and too tight or too loose and the bearings will be wrecked again in no time. if it only takes 2 hours to fix the current issue, thats ~150 in labor rates, to make sure its done right. oil change on my truck... the filters are 15 bucks, and i think its about 14 quarts of oil. to do it at home wouldnt save me much money, and id still have to dispose of 14 quarts of oil. transmission flush- requires a pump that draws out fluid from the transmission and replaces it. trust me, i do plenty of the maintenance myself, when its practical. |
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oil change on my truck... the filters are 15 bucks, and i think its about 14 quarts of oil. to do it at home wouldnt save me much money, and id still have to dispose of 14 quarts of oil. transmission flush- requires a pump that draws out fluid from the transmission and replaces it. There is one thing Chevy did right on the HD Diesel Picky... Oil change is 10qts and filter is about 15. Costs about $70 to do it myself with full synthetic. Oil analysis said I could go a lot longer than the 7500 miles I did. In hennepin county, they take oil for free, as well as any place that sells oil. Just use old Milk/washer fluid jugs. I drop it off whenever errands take me near 169 and Jefferson highway. I did mine last week when it was about 15f outside. Drain, eat dinner, have beer, and fill  I can do it faster than I can drive to and from my dealer plus waiting. I love doing maintenance on it. It's high enough off the ground that I don't even need ramps or a jack.
Tranny is even easier. Drain the pan (remove plug), change an external spin on filter, and add 7qts fluid. If you use a power flusher, you will damage the tranny on the Allison. Synthetic fluid and filter costs about $8 for the filter and $80 for the fluid. At least on the Allision, you change the filter every oil change or two, and change the fluid a lot less. Does the Ford really cost that much for an oil change? My Chevy dealer was actually doing them cheaper than I could do it myself, but I had a hard time figuring out what oil they were using. They claimed it was a synthetic, but were only charging me $3/qt, which is way too low for a full Diesel syn. Fuel filter is the easiest. Filter is $40 though. Just remove, replace, prime, and done. Did that in less than 10 minutes last week too. |
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On your battery issues... Do you think a battery isolator/combiner would help you out?
I ran a Hellroaring iso/comb unit a few years back with my F250 PSD and dump trailer rig and never had battery problems... Just lucky? Maybe... But if you think this may be an avenue you'd like to explore, hit me up. I've got a new, never installed Hellroaring BIC-85150A kit sitting under my bench collecting dust... I've closed my business and sold off my equipment so this is doing me no good... I'll make you one a heck of a deal too.... |
| That is just a pillar block bearing. I'm a computer guy but used to do industrial maintenance. You could easily replace that in a few hours. Just lower the grinding wheel on a block of wood. Remove the shaft nut. You may have to apply some heat to the bearing to get it removed and then install the new pillar block bearing. Make sure you buy some anti-seize when you put on the new bearing. Better yet, if the rig has a lot of hours do both of them. You might want to check the balance on that wheel. |
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a couple 15/16 wrenches and a new bearing holder should fix that. With some luck it could be fixed in 20 minutes. anti-seize is your friend. All those expenses will be 100% tax deductible anyway.
paying taxes is good: means you are making money!!! Paying more taxes every year: means you are making more money every year!!! |