Parking up long-term

know a guy who works just part of the year and he lives comfortably, he works feb till around the end of april which coincides with the planting season then parks it up till august when harvest starts and works like a dog till harvest finishes around the end of oct and parks it up again till next feb

Harry, Plan B why don’t you sell the truck and buy a nice boat and stick the remainder in the bank, and go on the agency when you need extra cash or you are bored. At the end of the day the truck will only depreciate over time, so sell now and max your cash.

If you are set on plan A, at least find some covered storage for the truck, inside out of the elements, a nice corner of a warehouse somewhere?

The narrowboat lifestyle certainly appeals to me, good luck with your plans!

Plan B gets my vote.

Because he’s in with G & would still prefer to drive his own wagon on work he doesn’t mind doing than deal with some gob ■■■■■ baw bag at an agency at a guess like.

There’s lots of food for thought here, thanks. I would imagine that by next year, when the truck will be seven years old, it will have already depreciated in value as far as it will go, or at least it will only be depreciating by a couple of thousand pounds a year after that, I figure it will be down to about £10,000 by then, maybe less, although it should still be in reasonable condition.

One of the problems with doing agency work is I won’t have a car, and will probably be in fairly remote locations for much of the time so I would anticipate that causing its own problems.

And yes, I do get bored sitting at home but this will be different, there will be plenty of ongoing maintenance etc to keep me occupied when I’m not actually travelling.

Spoke to the guys at Renault today, they didn’t see any problem in parking it up, and said they would deep-charge the batteries before I did park it up and then run it up once a month for me.

I know there are a few people on here with an interest in boats, I believe Rhythm Thief is planning something similar, so for them this is pretty much what I would be looking at, this is up for £27,000 but would probably sell for £24,000.

narrowboats.apolloduck.co.uk/fea … ?id=269778

why not hire it to a local haulier. they can put it on their o’licence, tax it, insure it and maintain it.
you get a little income. ok, it might need a little work doing to it when you take it back, but the income from the rental will cover that and it’ll probably need a bit doing after it’s been stood.

I suppose if its properly prepped it might be ok when you get back to work, but our trucks do very little in the winter and we seem to have a spate of issues in the spring when we start using them more regularly again.

Actually the fact you’d have it parked up between April and September is what really took my interest in this thread, it works really well with our racing season. I know you didnt want to put a driver on it as you didn’t want to worry about looking after the admin, but what about renting it out?

Silver_Surfer:
Because he’s in with G & would still prefer to drive his own wagon on work he doesn’t mind doing than deal with some gob [zb] baw bag at an agency at a guess like.

Nail, head, hit. :wink:

limeyphil:
why not hire it to a local haulier. they can put it on their o’licence, tax it, insure it and maintain it.
you get a little income. ok, it might need a little work doing to it when you take it back, but the income from the rental will cover that and it’ll probably need a bit doing after it’s been stood.

Reasonable idea on the face of it, but again there’s the problem of not knowing who will be driving it, I’m only the second person ever to have driven it, I drive it as smoothly as possible, and take as much care of it as possible, and so did the previous driver, who took me out for the test drive when I bought it, it is a very well-looked after truck.

Probably everybody would say the same in my position, they’ve known blokes who they would be happy to let drive it, and blokes they wouldn’t let within 100 yards of it. Drivers and screwdrivers! :stuck_out_tongue:

Ironically I do know someone who I would be happy to drive it, someone I used to work with, but he’s in the nick at the moment and not due for parole in May 2016, still that might give me the chance to do my bit for society and rehabilitate an offender. :wink:

suppose if its properly prepped it might be ok when you get back to work, but our trucks do very little in the winter and we seem to have a spate of issues in the spring when we start using them more regularly again.

Actually the fact you’d have it parked up between April and September is what really took my interest in this thread, it works really well with our racing season. I know you didnt want to put a driver on it as you didn’t want to worry about looking after the admin, but what about renting it out?

That’s what I would do but with a few exceptions.

Typical rental price of a HGV is approx £300/ £350 give or take a week. For that you get R&M .

As you wouldn’t want the headache , reduce the rental with conditions that the persons renting are liable for R&M, they give you a months deposit and month in advance. Truck is returned in the condition you gave it less for wear and tear. You could get a few grand for no headaches.

If you are keeping the truck then I 'd be looking to get rent from it when you are not working it.

If its on racing work then it wont be overworked will it?

Food for thought there HM!

routier:
If its on racing work then it wont be overworked will it?

Food for thought there HM!

We’d do about 20,000 kms max over that period, mostly motorway, autoroutes, and not pulling full weight.

muckles:

routier:
If its on racing work then it wont be overworked will it?

Food for thought there HM!

We’d do about 20,000 kms max over that period, mostly motorway, autoroutes, and not pulling full weight.

that’s nothing in that period, Muckles you should PM HM, could work out for you both.

I wouldn’t rent out my lorry if I was in Harry’s position. It only takes one bad day and there could be all kinds of trouble he doesn’t need.

Harry Monk:

limeyphil:
why not hire it to a local haulier. they can put it on their o’licence, tax it, insure it and maintain it.
you get a little income. ok, it might need a little work doing to it when you take it back, but the income from the rental will cover that and it’ll probably need a bit doing after it’s been stood.

Reasonable idea on the face of it, but again there’s the problem of not knowing who will be driving it, I’m only the second person ever to have driven it, I drive it as smoothly as possible, and take as much care of it as possible, and so did the previous driver, who took me out for the test drive when I bought it, it is a very well-looked after truck.

Probably everybody would say the same in my position, they’ve known blokes who they would be happy to let drive it, and blokes they wouldn’t let within 100 yards of it. Drivers and screwdrivers! :stuck_out_tongue:

Ironically I do know someone who I would be happy to drive it, someone I used to work with, but he’s in the nick at the moment and not due for parole in May 2016, still that might give me the chance to do my bit for society and rehabilitate an offender. :wink:

What’s he called? I might know him. :laughing:

Harry

Best of luck, it is something we have been planning for some time.

Modern life is rubbish and every day I find myself giving less of a ■■■■.

As you say Harry you still have 11 years before retiring,if you have enough money to cover these years then fine,if not then time to let the dream go.I don,t know what sort of work you do but there are plenty out there waiting to get in on it.Iwould just do the canal thing at weekends and holidays as it can get boring and repetitive after a while and the children you have at 16 or so still need a good few years support yet,get them off your hands and then sell the house,truck and the lot and then go for it. good luck in what ever you decide.regards, jack preston. p.s. I don’t mean to be a pessimist. :slight_smile: :wink:

The work would still be there when I got back, the firm I sub to know what my plans are. One of my operators even owns a narrowboat himself so they all think it’s a cracking idea. Lots of the subbies come and go because they have their own work during the harvest etc.

I couldn’t keep myself until l retired, I have a small amount of savings but I don’t have any other source of income, I figure six months at work will pay for six months of leisure per year. To be honest, it’s driving a truck that I find boring and repetitive, especially now all of the long-haul continental work has disappeared.

My kids think it’s a wonderful idea, the reason I haven’t done it before is that they weren’t old enough, but now they are. I’m sure they’ll spend loads of time on it, I think one of them would probably end up living on the boat with me.

And also a 20 year old, £25,000 boat doesn’t really depreciate so if it didn’t work out I could always sell it, move back in with my girlfriend and go back to doing what I’m doing now. I will just say though that I go on a forum called “Canal World” which is similar to TruckNet and it’s very rare for people to move back onto dry land unless they are forced to by ill-health etc. Most people say it’s the best move they’ve ever made.

I’m at the point now where if I didn’t do it, I know that I would always think “What if?”. As I’ve said before about putting my own truck on the road, it’s the things you don’t do that you regret, not the things you do do, even if they don’t work out quite how you planned.

Surprising just how many lorry driver i know, and others who are planning to, that live permanently on narrow boats, if i may say so Harry they too are slightly unusual characters, and i mean that in a complimentary way.

Couple of things spring to mind here

One is batteries, smart chargers work well for keeping batteries in charged condition and can be left on permanently, many car owners use these and CTEK, a respected maker offers them in 24v too, i’d sooner make sure the batteries were always charged than risk jump starting electrical issues…bugger Amazon link doesn’t work but its a CTEK 24v 14a smart charger/conditioner…other makes and suppliers available.

Two is corrosion, you’ll be standing the vehicle just after the salt has gone, i’ve seen the undersides of thousands of cars defleeted for several months at a time with a good coating of salt underneath baking on all summer, not good and highly destructive.

Make sure you give the vehicle a serious full steam cleaning all over and under, and maybe touch up/oil spray things that would otherwise corrode whilst stood, but drive it far enough so the discs arn’t rusting already before you go off up the Swanney, maybe there is a chemical or light paint you can spray on the discs that will simply wear off when you resume driving.

If the vehicle has fresh engine oil in, then internal corrosion isn’t a risk.

If it has to be outside i’d be inclined to make a full canvas cover for it like some caravan/motorhome owners do with their respective campers, maybe a seperate section to cover the chassis and all coming right down to the floor, might make it awkward if you want someone to move it periodically, but in theory if its completely clean and dry when stood, and the batteries are on a smart charger, then i see little need to move it at all, could always have a doorway stitched into the cover to allow someone to start the engine and run it up for 20 minutes every month (air intake hole too and somewhere for the exhaust to escape), they could select a gear and take up drive gently without moving it at all, in order to keep the clutch plates from sticking.

I’m inclined to agree with you about not wanting someone else to drive it, the best drivers will already be in full time work and their bosses, if they have an ounce of sense, will make sure they don’t go anywhere.
You might find a semi retired chap, who maybe warm country’s it for the winter, indeed i used a know a top class retired bloke who towed his caravan down to Spain for the winter and agencied the summer here to pay for it, its getting the two of you together that’s the trouble.

The girlfriend is either very understanding H or just glad to see the back of you,and what about the lads education? But Hey , give it a try.

Juddian:
You might find a semi retired chap, who maybe warm country’s it for the winter, indeed i used a know a top class retired bloke who towed his caravan down to Spain for the winter and agencied the summer here to pay for it, its getting the two of you together that’s the trouble.

That does sound like the ideal scenario, someone who only wants Summer work, can just crack on, doesn’t need babysitting, and can sort out minor problems themselves. If I could find somebody like that nearer the time then I would consider doing that, but drivers like that really are a dying breed… I wouldn’t be able to get back from Lancashire to Kent because a headlight bulb needed replacing. :stuck_out_tongue: