steve g
Member
with the problems I have had with my pickup truck that pulls a trailer its got me thinking is there any other cost effective way of operating a business vehicle. I have been looking at total costs, depreciation, fuel, repairs etc and figuring exactly what it is costing me to operate. I would hope most of us are smart enough not to get mad when someone proves we are wasting money. I know I sure would not be. the other thing that provoked this was the ron beatty thread, this guy thinks the vortexs are making him rich. in the end it all comes down to how much money you put in your pocket, I have a wife that likes to spend money, and I have expensive hobbies, I would rather feed those than have a powerful machine that the people that actually know me have no clue how much of a badass I am. there are certain things that don't make you money directly or at all. I work from my home, I could rent a commercial location, but that would cost me money and not bring business back to me to pay for it, I put a vortex unit in the same catagory. oh but what about the people who come running out of their homes with wet crotches begging to have a vortex clean their home, I call bullshit on that, besides A SLIDE IN CAN BE INSTALLED IN THE SAME BOX TRUCK THE VORTEX USES. it can have the exact same wrap put on it, you get the drift, ok on to the numbers.
example one, vortex unit, I am figuring you plan on keeping your machine for 6 years, in that time you will drive 150,000 miles and run the machine 5000hrs,
purchase price-100k
truck fuel 12mpg 12,500 gals @3.25/gal= 40,625
truck maintenance 2k
truck repairs 4000
machine repairs, 2k this is for hoses and little things etc, I am figuring the same amount for a slide in
tires, you have six with the vortexs 3 sets at 175/tire $3150
machine fuel, 5000 hrs 2gals/hr is 10000 gals @3.25/gal is $32500
depreciation, lets say with a truck with 150k on it and a machine with 5k on it, you can sell it for 15k at the end of 6 years, that is 85k in depreciation
depreciation 85k
total cost for 6 years 169,275 or 28212.5/year good hell that is alot of money to pay for your equipment before you ever see a damn dime!!!!!!!!!
broken out per mile and per hour on the machine
split the residual value of the truck and the truck mount for simplicity sake at the end of 6 years, so in this case the truck is worth 7,500 and the machine is worth 7,500 add the cost of the machine and truck related expenses separately. figure you spend 35k on the truck and box, so 65k would be what the pure machine would cost, who could deny a blower, HX, pump and tanks and wiring costing 65k isn't way over priced ?!?!?!
truck
fuel 40,625
repairs and maint, 6k
tires $3150
depreciation 35k new 7.5 residual value = net depreciation of 27.5k
total cost to get to 150k .52 cents/mile
vortex machine
fuel 32.5k
repairs and maint 2k
cost new deducting the cost of the truck is 65k the machine is worth $7500 after 6 years, net depreciation 57,500
total cost to get to 5000 hours $18.40/ machine hour!!!!!!!! holy good mother of god.
example 2
ok lets figure an example with an extended one ton van with a large slide in, 25k for the van 25k for the truckmount its simple and can be done easily for that price. if you want the wet crotch customers do it up in a box truck for 10 grand more, as you will see its not the vehicle that is killing the profits.
van fuel, 12mpg, 12,500 gals at 3.00/gal=37.5k in gas to get to 150k miles, I figured gasoline cheaper, because it is and has been about .25/gal or more cheaper for the last few years.
maintenance 1200 a gas engine has cheaper oil changes
van repairs, 4k
tires, you have 4 tires to buy instead of 6, $2100
machine fuel, 5000 hrs @1.5 gals/hr =22.5k
at the end of 6 years and 150k miles and 5000 machine hours you have a residual value of 7k 3500 for the van and 3500 for the truckmout.
so that is 43000, in net depreciation
total cost= 110,300 or $18383/year
separately
truck
fuel 37,500
repairs and maint, 5200
tires, 2100
paid 25k for the van its now worth 3500, so that is 21,500 in net depreciation
total cost to get to 150k miles=.44 cents/mile
large slide in
fuel 22.5k
repairs 2k
paid 25k for the machine its not worth 3500 after 6 years net depreciation 21.5k
cost/machine hour is $9.20/machine hour
summary
next time you see or hear a vortex owner start laughing, because they are wasting an obscene amount of money, it it costing more than double the to operate a vortex when its all said and done, they are having to fork over nearly 30 grand a year before they ever see any profit and that is just on machine costs, lets not forget there is insurance and all the other expenses, unless that unit is running well over 100k in volume the vortex owner would be better off just getting a 9-5 job making 50k/year. after 6 years the owner of the slide in will put an extra 60 grand in his pocket. there is also another hidden cost and that is the finance charges and their difference if you finance this deal, plan on it costing another 4 grand more over 6 years over and above the van and slide in figures I didn't even figure those costs. if you say a van is too small I want to run a box truck, have at it, the problem is not the truck costing you so much money its the vortex machine you do have a little higher /mile cost with the box truck but its not the killer. in all this IMO the real way to save money is if you are a little mechanically inclined and can work on the machine a little and don't mind buying a used machine, the point is there are lots of ways to get the costs down even more from the van and slide in numbers I posted. I think all of us would be better served taking a hard look at just what are our real expenses, not best case scenerio but as actual as they can be figured. after all its profit that is the reason we all do what we do.
example one, vortex unit, I am figuring you plan on keeping your machine for 6 years, in that time you will drive 150,000 miles and run the machine 5000hrs,
purchase price-100k
truck fuel 12mpg 12,500 gals @3.25/gal= 40,625
truck maintenance 2k
truck repairs 4000
machine repairs, 2k this is for hoses and little things etc, I am figuring the same amount for a slide in
tires, you have six with the vortexs 3 sets at 175/tire $3150
machine fuel, 5000 hrs 2gals/hr is 10000 gals @3.25/gal is $32500
depreciation, lets say with a truck with 150k on it and a machine with 5k on it, you can sell it for 15k at the end of 6 years, that is 85k in depreciation
depreciation 85k
total cost for 6 years 169,275 or 28212.5/year good hell that is alot of money to pay for your equipment before you ever see a damn dime!!!!!!!!!
broken out per mile and per hour on the machine
split the residual value of the truck and the truck mount for simplicity sake at the end of 6 years, so in this case the truck is worth 7,500 and the machine is worth 7,500 add the cost of the machine and truck related expenses separately. figure you spend 35k on the truck and box, so 65k would be what the pure machine would cost, who could deny a blower, HX, pump and tanks and wiring costing 65k isn't way over priced ?!?!?!
truck
fuel 40,625
repairs and maint, 6k
tires $3150
depreciation 35k new 7.5 residual value = net depreciation of 27.5k
total cost to get to 150k .52 cents/mile
vortex machine
fuel 32.5k
repairs and maint 2k
cost new deducting the cost of the truck is 65k the machine is worth $7500 after 6 years, net depreciation 57,500
total cost to get to 5000 hours $18.40/ machine hour!!!!!!!! holy good mother of god.
example 2
ok lets figure an example with an extended one ton van with a large slide in, 25k for the van 25k for the truckmount its simple and can be done easily for that price. if you want the wet crotch customers do it up in a box truck for 10 grand more, as you will see its not the vehicle that is killing the profits.
van fuel, 12mpg, 12,500 gals at 3.00/gal=37.5k in gas to get to 150k miles, I figured gasoline cheaper, because it is and has been about .25/gal or more cheaper for the last few years.
maintenance 1200 a gas engine has cheaper oil changes
van repairs, 4k
tires, you have 4 tires to buy instead of 6, $2100
machine fuel, 5000 hrs @1.5 gals/hr =22.5k
at the end of 6 years and 150k miles and 5000 machine hours you have a residual value of 7k 3500 for the van and 3500 for the truckmout.
so that is 43000, in net depreciation
total cost= 110,300 or $18383/year
separately
truck
fuel 37,500
repairs and maint, 5200
tires, 2100
paid 25k for the van its now worth 3500, so that is 21,500 in net depreciation
total cost to get to 150k miles=.44 cents/mile
large slide in
fuel 22.5k
repairs 2k
paid 25k for the machine its not worth 3500 after 6 years net depreciation 21.5k
cost/machine hour is $9.20/machine hour
summary
next time you see or hear a vortex owner start laughing, because they are wasting an obscene amount of money, it it costing more than double the to operate a vortex when its all said and done, they are having to fork over nearly 30 grand a year before they ever see any profit and that is just on machine costs, lets not forget there is insurance and all the other expenses, unless that unit is running well over 100k in volume the vortex owner would be better off just getting a 9-5 job making 50k/year. after 6 years the owner of the slide in will put an extra 60 grand in his pocket. there is also another hidden cost and that is the finance charges and their difference if you finance this deal, plan on it costing another 4 grand more over 6 years over and above the van and slide in figures I didn't even figure those costs. if you say a van is too small I want to run a box truck, have at it, the problem is not the truck costing you so much money its the vortex machine you do have a little higher /mile cost with the box truck but its not the killer. in all this IMO the real way to save money is if you are a little mechanically inclined and can work on the machine a little and don't mind buying a used machine, the point is there are lots of ways to get the costs down even more from the van and slide in numbers I posted. I think all of us would be better served taking a hard look at just what are our real expenses, not best case scenerio but as actual as they can be figured. after all its profit that is the reason we all do what we do.
