To Van or Not to Van***That is the Question

[spraymasters]

We have the opportunity to pick up a 1997 Chevy Astro Cargo Van at about $8,000. It has 115,000 miles on it but has been kept up by the company that Gloria works for and it is in fantastic shape. No problems with it and the miles are all highway delivery miles.
I have been using my own vehicle {Trooper} to haul around our rig. Anyone have some pros and cons to this purchase? I know that we will have to finance for about 2 years which gives us a payment, plus insurance and tag each year. Throw some thoughts our way to think about...THANKS! :>:


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Living Life On the Edge Makes Us Dizzy...WE LOVE DIZZY!

Dennis A. Cormier and Gloria A. Wagner
North Georgia Spray Masters, Inc.
spraymasters@hotmail.com

 

[Scott Stone]

At 115,000 miles it seems high to me, but, your local market could be different. Are you going touse it to tow a trailer? If you are does the trailer weigh over 4000 lbs? Astros don't have an exceptionally high tow capacity. Or are you going to mount the equipment inside? If it is just the washer and hose reels and No water tank, it might work. If it had less miles I would definitely consider it. If the miles don't concern you and it was always driven by someone older and more responsible I would definitely consider it. Just remember how everyone treats company cars before you jump at it.

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Any statement that I make about equipment, processes or your hair color is my own personal opinion. I usually base it on personal experience. If you disagree with me you are free to reply on both the BBS and by e-mail. If I am totally off base please explain why on the BBS so that we may all know why
Bus. Phone 480-834-3434
Cell Phone 602-509-9741

 

[David l Saulque]

I bought a new Astro Van two year back and mounted a Joey Bed at the side door. Have not had a problem. I do recall that the tow rate was @ 4000 lbs I think that-I would check it out. I remember it being a sales point, it might have been a option that came with my van.

The miles would make me look closer at the records of upkeep.

David

 

[Laurie Grathen]

Hi Dennis & Gloria,

We started out hauling everything in our Explorer and a small trailer. We don't haul water...we've simply made a strategic decision not to work on jobs where there's no water available. Last June it became clear that we needed a different vehicle and decided on a Ford Econoline van. We too, took on the payment, insurance, etc. but found that it was one of the best decisions we've ever made. Not only do we ALWAYS have what we need now because we don't have to load up and unload for every single job (constantly forgetting something vital), the van has turned out to be the best use of our advertising dollars so far. We spent $400 to have custom graphics put on it. It's a constantly moving billboard. And has a MUCH LONGER life than newspaper ads. We still pull the small trailer with the big machine but we can now often go without the trailer. We couldn't do that before.

Finally, purchasing it really helped our taxes last year. We were in the dubious position of actually showing a profit last year...the purchase of the van, and electing a Section 179 (I think...) we were able to take accelerated depreciation and wipe out the entire profit on which we should have paid taxes...so the van actually cost us a lot less in hard dollars than we paid for it.

Laurie Grathen

 

[Douglas Hicks]

Glad to hear you are in the position to spend more money. When I bought my new van 5 years ago, it was a scary thought, going into debt for 5 years. But after taking the new equipment deduction of $17500 for the first year, deducting the interest, and finding how effiecient I could work out of a larger van, it all worked out for the best. Tald this over with your accountant. When I neede a second van last summer, I priced out new and used. After taking into account the initial cost, I factorerd in the cost of interest. I found it was actually less expensive to buy a new van than a low-milage used van. My concern about a high milage vehicle would be the cost of down-time. The cost of repairs is not the dollar cost, but the sales you cannot make because the van is in the shop. My mechanic will work on my van on Saturday and after regular hours. He gets all of my business, that way he is more willling to work on my van.

Contact the Chevy dealer for information on the GVW and any recalls that may affect your van. Talk to whoever may have been doing the service for any possible problems with the van

Before I ordered my van, I laid out the size and shape of the floor in my front room. Then I made some cardboard cut-outs of my equipment. I laid the cut-outs on the floor in different positions. That let me know I needed a larger van.

Let us know what you decide and why, I am sure others are going to need to make the same decisions in the future.

 

[Ken]

Hi Dennis,

We have a completely enclosed tandom 14'(i think?) trailer w/ our business logo on both sides. Holds our pw & equip, ww equip, latters etc. Ken also has quite a large tool chest he's gonna put in there, and there is still lots of room if one day we decide to add a water tank etc, and we pull this with our Ford 4x4 Supercab truck.
If I remember correctly you have a trailer simular to ours? Are you thinking of expanding?

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Northern Lights Pressurewashing and Windows. Ken/Kathy Erb

 

[David l Saulque]

Another side of the coin is this. I had a very large trailer and the more space I offered my crews the more space they filled. I myself fall into this pitfall. Now I use vans with proper space for needed equipment. Planning is the key-the more equipment you have the more you have to move to get to what you need day in and day out.

David

 

[ameri-clean]

We work out of a pick up and a 16' trailer. While it is not the ideal situation, we are a debt free company and plan to stay that way. If you have payments you are working for the bank!! "The borrower is slave to the lender", and all that! Good luck what ever you decide.

 

[Glenn]

Go for it, you won't regret it. The purchase will be a tax deduction. All milage you add also and if you use it specifically for the biz you won't have to log.
Glenn

 

[Schmutz Man]

Hi folks,
The question that comes to my mind is when was the last time you had a service type business come to your home/business and they drove up to the door dragging a closed/open trailer behind a Ford Explorer type vehicle. The only ones I see around here are U-Haul, fly-by-nighters and powerwashers. What type of message are you giving a potential client, "I'm really thinking about getting into this business if I see the potential and make some money, meanwhile this is my pasttime so let me at your $500,000 home. I really know my stuff! Trust me! I'll get a truck if I'm successful" Go for it! Get the truck and get a 1 ton cargo that can really carry something. No need to buy the latest! Just get one with about 5 years and service records. Let me tell you, commercial vehicles aren't even broken in until they reach 100,000 miles. We buy ours from the State police and they have outstanding service records. Regarding downtime, we had to have a major overhaul of one truck due to a maintenance snafu on our part and it was down for 2 days. You could have the same thing with a new one. We have big Chevys and they are indestructable! The downtime on all commercial vehicles is negligible! Good luck and get a truck !
The Schmutz Man

 

[Ken]

With our trailer, when we take off to a job, we always know that we have everything, and nothing is left behind.(except maybe underestimating the amount of cleaner)

We set ours up so that we have easy access to anything we want to get at. We have our pw mounted in the centre, so that it's right there when you open the big doors, w/ the exaust facing outside. The big tool chest w/ be mounted in the centre at the very back and there is still lots of room if we ever decide to carry water(which I don't think we will bother with) and that would be mounted behind the pw, in the centre also. We have it boarded on both sides for anything we want to hang up, and the latters are held to the side along the floor. There is still lots of room to walk around the outside of everything, to get at what we want, and loads of room to expand in the back.
We just love our trailer and it's great to know we have all the room we'll ever need,and some.
Having seen your nice trailer Dennis, maybe all you need to do is rearrange how you have everything set up.
All the best, Kathy




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Northern Lights Pressurewashing and Windows. Ken/Kathy Erb

 

[spraymasters]

Thank everyone so much. You gave us lots to think about...that is all we thought about this weekend was what everyone said and should we put in a bid for the van tomorrow. We are not expanding or anything just need alittle more room and would like to have something to go out and do estimates with. We decided to go ahead and give it a shot. We will offer them $7,000 and see if they bite.

The van was very well maintained and all the mileage was highway. Found out the hauling weight was 5000 pounds so it will haul our trailer easy. We will split some of the things we have in the trailer and put them in the van. Now, like Laurie we will not leave anything behind...we will have it all either in the van or in the trailer! We will finance it for a couple years and do the tax thing. It will make it easier on us I hope to do the "moving advertisement" also. Once again thanks so much for your advice. Hugs to each of you!!

Den

 

[spraymasters]

Just to give you an update... We offered $7,000 and they agreed; was to give them a check and pick up van tomorrow. Yesterday, the AC went out; they didn't have a clue what was wrong and didn't want to take it anywhere to find out. We knew if it was the evaporator core it could cost up to $1,000 to fix so we renegotiated to price of $6500. and they agreed. In talking with our maintenance man, found out the AC unit is fine, it's just the vacuum thingie that works the vents opening that isn't working; cost $50.00 at the most to fix!!! He also just filled it with gas, so we came out ahead on this deal and still have money to put a hitch on and logo, wiring etc. Thanks for all your advice and support. We appreciate it, as always
Gloria and Den

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Living Life On the Edge Makes Us Dizzy...WE LOVE DIZZY!

Dennis A. Cormier and Gloria A. Wagner
North Georgia Spray Masters, Inc.
spraymasters@hotmail.com

 

[nedparks]

Van or whatever is a personnal choice. However Schmutz man and the others are right on with looking professional. DON'T do the cheap this is a pay me now or pay me later thing.

Get a good easy to read sign with area code and number on it. Get uniform shirts from WearGuard and look right!!!!!

Neddo

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Ned Parks
Power Steam Cleaning
Akron,Ohio
330-328-8309
nedparks@yahoo.com

 

[spraymasters]

Hey Ned,
You are exactly right. We have an enclosed trailer that has our logo, hot water pressure washing, and our phone numbers on it. Plan on doing the same to the van. We also have uniforms with our logos sewn on the pockets and all of our correspondence is professional looking and also has our logo and name. We try and do it up right the first time and really strive to show others that the pressure washer CAN be a professional and not the flunky down the road who does a half/@ss job.

Den

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Living Life On the Edge Makes Us Dizzy...WE LOVE DIZZY!

Dennis A. Cormier and Gloria A. Wagner
North Georgia Spray Masters, Inc.
spraymasters@hotmail.com

 

[Glenn]

One more thing....
If you don't post a picture of the van/trailer combo after the lettering, well, I just might talk Shi# about you, hehe
Glenn

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"Hmmm, If everyone has a photographic memory... mine must be out of film."

 

[nedparks]

Is there a place on this board we could post pickers of our rigs to see what others have done?

 

[Scott Stone]

There is a members picture area. Mostly it is other contractors putting pictures of their wives, or partners for people to drool over. And there are just a couple of pictures anyway. I am sure Dan can post them if you don't know how.

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Any statement that I make about equipment, processes or your hair color is my own personal opinion. I usually base it on personal experience. If you disagree with me you are free to reply on both the BBS and by e-mail. If I am totally off base please explain why on the BBS so that we may all know why
Bus. Phone 480-834-3434
Cell Phone 602-509-9741