Anyone bought a Uhaul Box Truck?

[beejaykc aka Munch A Bunch]

Anybody here bought an old Uhaul box truck? Most 14' box trucks from Uhaul are running about $2800 here in my area and have anywhere between 180,000 and 225,00 miles on them. Price seems right if indeed the maintenance has been kept up.

On the downside - they're 1 ton trucks and only gonna get 10-12 MPG.

If not Uhaul.........Penske? Other?

Thanks, guys!

[mission vending]

Price seems right if indeed the maintenance has been kept up.

That's the million dollar question. Most of the U-haul vehicles I see come up on the market are pretty used up.

[Golfdogs]

I bought a 10' Budget rental with 130k. I've had it for a year and it has served me well. It is an e350 and gets 11mpg. I just put new shocks and ball joints on. I just wish it had a 12' box on the back!

[CajunCandy]

Gas Uhaul--no!

Diesel Uhaul---- maybe

All the one I looked at was gas, v-10, over 200,000 plus miles, worn out tires, and god knows what else!

I would pass!

[cvending]

We have purchased 4 10ft. U-Hauls over the last 5 yrs. All had over 120K miles. Two were Ford V-6, 14.5 mpg, two were GMC V-8, 12 mpg. All were automatic trans. Tires have been the biggest expense to date. All now have over 175K on them.

[Walta]

One of my customers traded in fleet his 200k mile plus box truck for full size vans. He said the lower fuel bills and zero repairs more than cover the payments.

Whenever I look in back of venders box trucks I see mostly air and empty shelves and product scattered all over the floor.

Walta

[beejaykc aka Munch A Bunch]

One of my customers traded in fleet his 200k mile plus box truck for full size vans. He said the lower fuel bills and zero repairs more than cover the payments.

Whenever I look in back of venders box trucks I see mostly air and empty shelves and product scattered all over the floor.

Walta

But the drivers of the box trucks still have straight backs and good knees......

[AZVendor]

The three trucks I used were Isuzu NPR diesels with 14' boxes and step bumpers. You should be able to find 10 year old Isuzus with less than 150K on them for a pretty decent price. The diesels will last forever if not overheated or run out of oil. We refrigerated the boxes with the engine-driven compressors (the same ones that ran the cab a/c) and foamed the sides, roof and under the box for insulation. The foam was then shaved down and covered with plywood screwed to the Z posts. We then custom built shelves from 2x4s and plywood or osb. The shelves were slanted so that stuff would stay on the shelves without sliding off. The bottom shelves were about 11' of canned soda on each side (Coke on one side, Pepsi on the other) stacked 6 cases high. We could get about 140 cases on each truck. Then the middle shelves were for all the snacks and candy we were working out of and the top shelves were for spare product and coffee machine supplies. We had rolltop safes with hockeypuck locks in the front blind-bolted through the oak plank flooring and heavy padlocks on the rollup doors. The ice chests for food machines would sit on the floor between the shelves where they could easily be slid around for soda access. We just pulled the cases of soda off the shelves, stacked them 3 high and slid them down to the rollup door. Because of the AC we would have candy and racks of Hostess and Dolly Madison pastries out on the shelves so they were easy to pick from. Here in Arizona, the trucks ran 12 hours straight to keep the boxes cold. All we put on the motors was engine hours due to all the idling at accounts, the mileage on our trucks was pretty low.

If you ever decide to move to pre-kitting your machines, you can then very effectively use cargo vans. This is because you are only taking the specific amount of product that the machines need based on historic usage or telemetry and electronic monitoring of the machine inventory. Pre-kitting will allow you to service up to 20 machines a day with just a cargo van, since you have no unneeded products with you.

[dogcow]

I've looked into used box trucks from the major rental agencies for a while, what I found was at least in FL

you can get a better deal from a private sellers, the trucks the rental places are selling are knocking on

deaths door and they arent exactly a steal. I also would strongly consider buy a diesel and liftgate

[mission vending]

The three trucks I used were Isuzu NPR diesels with 14' boxes and step bumpers. You should be able to find 10 year old Isuzus with less than 150K on them for a pretty decent price. The diesels will last forever if not overheated or run out of oil. We refrigerated the boxes with the engine-driven compressors (the same ones that ran the cab a/c) and foamed the sides, roof and under the box for insulation. The foam was then shaved down and covered with plywood screwed to the Z posts. We then custom built shelves from 2x4s and plywood or osb. The shelves were slanted so that stuff would stay on the shelves without sliding off. The bottom shelves were about 11' of canned soda on each side (Coke on one side, Pepsi on the other) stacked 6 cases high. We could get about 140 cases on each truck. Then the middle shelves were for all the snacks and candy we were working out of and the top shelves were for spare product and coffee machine supplies. We had rolltop safes with hockeypuck locks in the front blind-bolted through the oak plank flooring and heavy padlocks on the rollup doors. The ice chests for food machines would sit on the floor between the shelves where they could easily be slid around for soda access. We just pulled the cases of soda off the shelves, stacked them 3 high and slid them down to the rollup door. Because of the AC we would have candy and racks of Hostess and Dolly Madison pastries out on the shelves so they were easy to pick from. Here in Arizona, the trucks ran 12 hours straight to keep the boxes cold. All we put on the motors was engine hours due to all the idling at accounts, the mileage on our trucks was pretty low.

I LOVE my Isuzu NPR!!!! Your setup sounds very much like mine.

Seeing as how we came up with a very similar setup and having never met or talked, it must be the absolutely best way to do vending.

[moondog]

I LOVE my Isuzu NPR!!!! Your setup sounds very much like mine.

Seeing as how we came up with a very similar setup and having never met or talked, it must be the absolutely best way to do vending.

Yep,

The NPR's are great trucks but you absolutely, positively, must keep all six tires inflated properly or they'll bounce all over the road on you.

[AZVendor]

They need to be quality load range E tires, properly inflated and rotated. We never had any alignment problems or abnormal wear, but I did learn tire store brand tires won't do the job. I had 2 automatics and one stick with never having to repace the clutch. The brakes were good too, and the turning radius was phenomenal. I could get one into a standard parking place. The only major problem we had besides a/c compressors was one bad injector pump. Be sure you do your tuneups and adjust the valves. Looooooved those trucks.

[moondog]

They need to be quality load range E tires, properly inflated and rotated. We never had any alignment problems or abnormal wear, but I did learn tire store brand tires won't do the job. I had 2 automatics and one stick with never having to repace the clutch. The brakes were good too, and the turning radius was phenomenal. I could get one into a standard parking place. The only major problem we had besides a/c compressors was one bad injector pump. Be sure you do your tuneups and adjust the valves. Looooooved those trucks.

We always bought the industrial grade tires ( had six of them across two locations ) but the inflation is critical. I had the alignment checked numerous times but never a problem. Those diesel engines do need the valve "flash" every 50K miles once they're broken in at 100K.

[mission vending]

We always bought the industrial grade tires ( had six of them across two locations ) but the inflation is critical. I had the alignment checked numerous times but never a problem. Those diesel engines do need the valve "flash" every 50K miles once they're broken in at 100K.

I only use LT series tires with 10 ply side walls to hold the weight of 150 cases of cans and bottles.