Maybe you can pick up cargo along your route...

[Yosemite_Sam1]

Semi Sleeper Cabs

...and make some dough along the way.

Discussed with the wife sometime ago for our post-retirement life and plan to tour -- and this will be ideal.

Except, it became hopeless to teach her how to drive with trailers.:E:R

[Yosemite_Sam1]

colliehauler wrote:
If that is what you wish for retirement check into it. Colonel Sanders didn't start his franchise business until he was 65 years old.

Indeed, the day we stop dreaming -- even of just places to go and see -- will be the day nearer and closer to the end.

[Yosemite_Sam1]

bucky wrote:
We all can dream in these troubled times. The monetary reality will likely kill the dream but look into it and good luck. To do this will require you to own your own trailer as well as the tractor.
There are several apps that are load based on destination/origin that don't lock you into a specific company or broker.
One of those rigs will also cut into your load limits as the tractor comes off of the 80K lb limit.

We have abandoned that dreaml. Or maybe consider it if (and when) we get a Tesla semi.

I already lost touch with the broker friend after our move.

But for those others thinking of going to this venture, he told me that he can even give me the preferred cargo because we will be the ideal husband-wife non-stop tandem complimented with our college education -- although we would need a high-level security clearance.

I bet and made a good guess that the cargo will be something that goes big boom coming from nearby Camp Pendleton, lol.:E

[colliehauler]

If that is what you wish for retirement check into it. Colonel Sanders didn't start his franchise business until he was 65 years old.

[bucky]

We all can dream in these troubled times. The monetary reality will likely kill the dream but look into it and good luck. To do this will require you to own your own trailer as well as the tractor.
There are several apps that are load based on destination/origin that don't lock you into a specific company or broker.
One of those rigs will also cut into your load limits as the tractor comes off of the 80K lb limit.

[Yosemite_Sam1]

QCMan wrote:
If you are smart, you will get your advice from DOT instead of "some guy" that you know from church. He has nothing to lose by giving you bad advice. You have everything to lose by following it. If you doubt me, wait till you get pulled over and try handing that story to a state trooper.

I'm smart, you want to ask me what my IQ is? :o:B

Bejuses, have you read that he is into cargo-trucking broker with decades in the business who was an owner of a trucking company himself and simply switched to a more lucrative, less stressful and headaches of brokering?

[QCMan]

If you are smart, you will get your advice from DOT instead of "some guy" that you know from church. He has nothing to lose by giving you bad advice. You have everything to lose by following it. If you doubt me, wait till you get pulled over and try handing that story to a state trooper.

[Yosemite_Sam1]

QCMan wrote:
Driving a commercial semi and hauling up to 57' trailers can hardly be called a retirement. It entails getting full time commercial insurance, a contract with someone that will arrange for your loads, fuel tax agreements and a whole lot more. That is without factoring in that a load will probably need to go someplace other than your planned vacation spot. Also, nobody will agree to arrange loads for you when you tell them that you only want loads that go to point A from point B. Driving a commercial semi is a full time profession. Leave it to the pros.

It is not that as if we will be depending on this for a living, lol, but I did asked a cargo-trucking broker friend from my former church, and his answer is that this can be arranged with him I bet as another trucker church friend says his lease with one of the big boys did not allow him to refuse cargo or routes and dreaming of being independent one day after paying off his lease.)

And yeah, my ideal set up like this will be on a Tesla semi (discussed in a separate thread here. I'm sure wifey now will be willing to be on the wheel with it being full self-driving).:B

[QCMan]

Even moving rv's ( travel trailers and fifth wheels ) requires commercial insurance as you are doing it for gain. That adds in all the same things as if you were hauling goods in a box trailer or flatbed trailer. On top of it, you must have a CDL. And all appropriate endorsements. Then add in that you have to stop at all weigh stations and have to keep a log and it can be a real pain. As I said, best left to the pros.

[ford_truck_guy]

QCMan wrote:
Driving a commercial semi and hauling up to 57' trailers can hardly be called a retirement. It entails getting full time commercial insurance, a contract with someone that will arrange for your loads, fuel tax agreements and a whole lot more. That is without factoring in that a load will probably need to go someplace other than your planned vacation spot. Also, nobody will agree to arrange loads for you when you tell them that you only want loads that go to point A from point B. Driving a commercial semi is a full time profession. Leave it to the pros.

Pretty sure he was/is talking about possibly moving RV's as a retirement plan....

Don't think he thought about the fact that the most important piece of the commercial side is having a commercial trailer, either flatbed - van - refer van - step down.....

at least I HOPE that is what he was talking about,,,,:h

FTG

[ferndaleflyer]

QC sure are some of these on the road.

[QCMan]

The longer the trailer, the easier it is. The wheelbase of the tractor is not really an issue.

[BurbMan]

How in the world could you back up a trailer with a tractor with that long of a wheelbase?

[QCMan]

Driving a commercial semi and hauling up to 57' trailers can hardly be called a retirement. It entails getting full time commercial insurance, a contract with someone that will arrange for your loads, fuel tax agreements and a whole lot more. That is without factoring in that a load will probably need to go someplace other than your planned vacation spot. Also, nobody will agree to arrange loads for you when you tell them that you only want loads that go to point A from point B. Driving a commercial semi is a full time profession. Leave it to the pros.

[opnspaces]

They look nice inside. I saw the prices though, $55,000 to $150,000. I'm assuming that is the cab modifications on your existing tractor.