Question:
Well I head out on the 4th of April for training and looking forward to it. These questions are not about school, just tractor questions in general. Reason, after my first year I might buy a Rig and both my wife and I hit the road in a couple of years after our children finish High School.
1. I will be driving Van for the first year then I may move into flatbed hauling equipment. Question is if I buy a Rig with a headach rack or the box style rack would I still have the room to pull a van if I kept the rack on? Would I still have enough room to slide the 5th wheel to balance out my weight?
2. Just wondering if the Rigs with the supersize sleeper can be mounted in place of a standard sleeper and still balance out the weight on the 5th wheel or would I have to have a different frame?
Thanks and be safe.

Answer:
1.) You need to have a little extra length on your wheelbase than you would w/o a rack.
2.) You need to have a lot of extra length on your wheelbase to get it to fit and balance right.
Answer:
I love this place. Pages and pages of Posts by "Dreamers".
The answer to your questions is "it depends"on how the Tractor
is spec'd. The wheel base and mounting positions of options being
the main factor.
I'd like to add a word of advice and reality please.
Worry about it when you actually find you're suited to "it",concentrate
on the present.
Answer:
You're about nine years early on wanting to be an owner/operator. Make your mistakes on someone else's dime. BOL

Answer:
There is a lot of depends here as stated....
For example. How much room you will have to pull a van with a headache rack on depends on factors such as the type of headache rack and how it has to be mounted, over all wheelbase, sleeper size etc. A basic headache rack will usually sit close enough to the sleeper not to cause a problem where as one of those fancy enclosed jobs with the extra chicken lights may require more room.
As far a the super sleeper thing goes. You will need a lot of extra wheel base to have one of those and pull a trailer. Go online to Truckpaper.com and do some searching. Look at a Pete 379's. In the sleeper size search first for 63 inch sleeper and note the wheel base, and then type in 96 inch sleeper size and see how long those are.
One thing to consider here though is weight. I have seen many flatbed companies specify needing to be able to scale (load) 50,000 lbs (without needing a permit) and you are not going to come close to that with a supersleeper.
My final two cents worth here. While it is good to have dreams and plans for the future do not be impatient for the future to get here. Take your time and really learn the ins and outs of the business and make sure you are truly ready to take the next step.
Answer:
Thanks for the advice. You can be sure I will wait until I know this is what I want to do but if this is for me I'm not going to wait 9 or 10 years to become an O/O. You only live once and I feel if a person wants to do something they should go for it and not dream about it until their to old to walk. Well tomarrow I leave for school.
Again thanks for all the advice over the past year.

Answer:

Yes, you only live once.... live being the operative word. Financially speaking, do you know how many times you can die? Being an O/O, many times! But the bill collectors keep dragging you back from the dead.. lol
I don't know how much experience you have in the trucking industry. I mean, you could have been in it for years, just not on the driving end of it thus the reason for your starting school tomorrow.
Assuming this is a brand new adventure for you, to aspire of becoming an O/O within one short year of starting school is a nice dream but it is absolutely not smart.
Do you know anything of the business other than what you have read here? There is great advice here but it does not take the place of real experience. Do you have friends or relatives that are already in the business (O/O) that you could get some face to face time with on the ACTUAL business of trucking? If so, set a date with them and have them show you their books for the previous year.
Another thing, the first year of driving is usually not the most lucrative venture in the world. Usually "newbies" are paid less than what they are worth. Most companies know they can get away with paying them less because they know most "newbies" are desperate to get in some "driving time" so they can actually get a job that pays better than poverty level. Unless you have something else already set up with a real trucking company and not one of the newbie truck driver mills, you probably won't be able to save very much money to go toward buying a truck and being an O/O. If you have good credit you would be able to pull it off, but if things go wrong you could always cut your losses and go back to being a company driver. What you wouldn't be able to do is repair your credit, at least not in the short term.
Dream if you wish.... Dreams are a nice diversion from reality and sometimes they are all that gets you through. In the mean time, learn what you need to know... don't worry so much about what truck you will buy, what type of trailer you will pull, what kind of freight you will haul, should you use brokers, should you use load boards, or if 20 chicken lights per side on the tractor is enough or should there be more... (just kiddin)
Instead think about whether you want to be an Independent Operator (running under your own authority) or if you want to be a Lease Operator (your truck leased to a carrier). You will be getting plenty of "steering wheel time" so focus on learning what regulations and laws would pertain to the venture you want to pursue. Learn the ropes that really drive the trucking industry. If your company will allow it, ask them if you can possibly help find a load when you seem to be "stuck" somewhere and ask if you may deal with the brokers to a limited extent. Of course not all companies will allow a company driver to even look for a load let alone inquire about them, mostly because they don't want you to know how much the load pays.
Good luck on your new venture of being a truck driver. It can be one of the most rewarding careers one could have.
It can also be one of the worst decisions you ever make if you try to jump into the deep end of the pool before you have even learned how to swim.Ben Franklin

Answer:

There isn't too many words spoken here that are wiser. Lexy doesn't 'pull any punches'. She tells it like it is.
Bad brokers, bad carriers, good brokers (is there such a thing?), good carriers (this is a little bit more common )
It seems that in this industry, everybody and their brother has their hand out.............wanting tolls, exorbitant shop fees, high fuel pices, a 'tax for this' and a 'tax for that', etc...........
Like others have said, DO YOUR HOMEWORK BEFORE TAKING THAT LEAP!

Answer:

Thanks Hoss... Guess all this grey hair has finally paid off... I have wisdom! My hubby is always telling me I am wise.... but he usually finishes it up with a$$.
Actually, if I thought it would have done any good, I would have told him how it really is and to ditch the truck driving school idea. Instead of spending a few thousand bucks going to driver school, spend that money going to a tech school and learning something like computer aided drafting. My mother does computer aided drafting and she make BIG bucks and that was from day one, not ten yrs after day one.
But we all know the pull of the open road is no force to be reckoned or reasoned with. You know.... no boss to look over your shoulder, no time clock to punch, freedom to do your job the way you want to.... etc etc etc.
Of course on most jobs the boss doesn't actually "look over your shoulder". Most times they are in another room doing their job which has very little to do with you personally. But even if they did look over your shoulder a couple times a day, it is still a whole lot better than calling in to dispatch and having your arse chewed out because you didn't quite run that 1500 miles over night like they told the receiver you would. Oh, and then you get the honor of getting your arse chewed out again by the receiver!
There is an advantage to punching that clock. You don't have to "think" about your job until you clock in and you don't have to "think" about it after you clock out. No late night blow outs and not being able to get in touch with anyone at the company. Come Friday afternoon... you get that paycheck and head out the door.... no job to think about again till Monday morning. Sleep in your own bed with peace and quite.... no knocks on your door followed by "ya wanna date?" Beats the hell outta driving for two hours past when you got sleepy looking for a place to park so you can get three hours of sleep before you have to get up again just to make your delivery time. You finally find an empty spot on the entrance ramp of the last rest area for a 150 miles, set your brakes, pull off the jeans you have been wearing since early that morning.... peel off your socks, lay down, and just as you get in that restful sleep, you get a knock on your door followed by "Driver, you can't park here. Move on" Only this time instead of a toothless, god-awful ugly lot lizard that won't take no for an answer, it is a state trooper that won't take no for an answer either. So, you drag yourself up hoping he isn't interested in your log book.
Everyone has the freedom to do their job the way they want to.... the only way to do your job is the correct way. But we all know that truck drivers have to fudge in that area some time... such as logs, load to heavy so you re-route yourself on the back roads, and all the other little stuff that isn't quite the correct way, but it is the best way at the time.
Personally, I kind of like the idea of knowing I am going to get a check every week and how much that check will be. And the bigger the better. All the freedom in the world and little checks don't pay the bills.
But I digress....Ben Franklin