..or not...or maybe... Right now, I'm doing this on my own, by myself. I'm going through my third winter and have been through three hot summers so far. This year has been better than the last, and the last better than the year before that. I've steadily picked up customers and my fiancé just recently came aboard. I was about to explode trying to do it all myself. It's been worth every single drop of sweat, frustration, and dollar though.
I started on my own in early 2011. I had quit a great job as an operating foreman after losing my parents to cancer back to back, and feeling sorry for myself. Or maybe that was my excuse, because I was getting burned out. I sat at home for a long time doing side jobs and readjusting to my life with a smaller family. and when I went back to get a real job running a dozer the pay was less than it was when I started in '94 as a kid out of high school with no direction. After two months of that I started calling old contacts looking for work, any work to go out on my own. It was my time if it ever was going to be, because the dirt industry was far from recovering from the crash at that point and good jobs weren't out there. I had nothing but a prayer. No money. No credit. No help. I'd say nothing to loose, but it's everything to me. My Dad never gave us a thing, and when he passed it all went to the Cancer Society. I think tough love pays off really, and can only thank him for that. I have friends that still receive way too much help from their parents, and 90% of the grading outfits I worked for started from land and family money or the company was passed down. Not to be bitter, but that's my experiences and it can be discouraging at times.
So, I landed three days of work. I was actually on the dozer working at D-tt-n Grading and calling rental companies for machines. I was gonna pawn my truck title to get money. After a bunch of hassle from the corporate rental places I resorted to Nasser Heavy Equipment. They have a yard full of machines and only half actually run, but they have a can do attitude and treat people like people. I went in there all cleaned up after a few phone inquiries and pleaded for them to rent me a machine. I offered my truck title. Which to me was everything. After connecting really well with Joe the salesman we went to the big guy's office. Well long story short they saw it in my eyes and heard it in my voice. I made a promise to myself I would stick that no pay job out for 90 days and something good would come my way, because the job before that I didn't last a week because I was hired to finish grade and they had me dig probe holes by hand. So, I walked mid day. This blessing happened right at the 90 day mark of me sticking that job out.
They gave me a hardly used Hyundai 140 for a week. After thanking them both I had to ask for transport. They hooked me up with a local lowboy guy they use and Joe told him I would be good for it. In the end the jobs kept coming and I had rented from them for an entire year for the price of what I could have bought a decent machine for. Not that that was my goal at the time.
After a few months of maintaining business. I got this jewel from their yard that nobody had even looked at during the down economy. A 94 Ford L9000 8spd w/a L10 Cummins genuine dump truck. The repossessed L9000 belonged to an equipment leasing guy that they do business with. Joe the salesman contacted him and vouched for my history. They had a 2000 Eager Beaver 20XPT across town at another yard that really needed a good home. Joe my new friend the salesman talked to the leasing guy and vouched for me. I got approved for this work horse truck and trailer combo.
It was a wet Saturday when I picked it up. The trailer didn't have deck boards and upon further inspections the trailer didn't even have any brake pads and was missing several vital brake parts. Didn't matter to me, it was coming home with me...even on wet streets at 30 mph.
Getting home with my first piece of equipment. That was a great day. She did something funky to this picture, but it's from that day.
This is after I did all the brakes, bearings, seals, sanding, priming, painting ,lights, deck boards, and DOT inspection on the trailer. I had also painted the L9000 it's original color. It took a long time to get the L9000 DOT ready. You can imagine the leaks that surfaced after sitting for so long, but it had a reman. Cummins from '06 and didn't get used much after that. I had to replace the windshield, several axle seals, motor seals, and a lot of other things I can't remember but it finally passed the DOT inspection with flying colors and has been a great, dependable, hard working truck.
This is right after getting the L9000 the way I wanted it.
I started on my own in early 2011. I had quit a great job as an operating foreman after losing my parents to cancer back to back, and feeling sorry for myself. Or maybe that was my excuse, because I was getting burned out. I sat at home for a long time doing side jobs and readjusting to my life with a smaller family. and when I went back to get a real job running a dozer the pay was less than it was when I started in '94 as a kid out of high school with no direction. After two months of that I started calling old contacts looking for work, any work to go out on my own. It was my time if it ever was going to be, because the dirt industry was far from recovering from the crash at that point and good jobs weren't out there. I had nothing but a prayer. No money. No credit. No help. I'd say nothing to loose, but it's everything to me. My Dad never gave us a thing, and when he passed it all went to the Cancer Society. I think tough love pays off really, and can only thank him for that. I have friends that still receive way too much help from their parents, and 90% of the grading outfits I worked for started from land and family money or the company was passed down. Not to be bitter, but that's my experiences and it can be discouraging at times.
So, I landed three days of work. I was actually on the dozer working at D-tt-n Grading and calling rental companies for machines. I was gonna pawn my truck title to get money. After a bunch of hassle from the corporate rental places I resorted to Nasser Heavy Equipment. They have a yard full of machines and only half actually run, but they have a can do attitude and treat people like people. I went in there all cleaned up after a few phone inquiries and pleaded for them to rent me a machine. I offered my truck title. Which to me was everything. After connecting really well with Joe the salesman we went to the big guy's office. Well long story short they saw it in my eyes and heard it in my voice. I made a promise to myself I would stick that no pay job out for 90 days and something good would come my way, because the job before that I didn't last a week because I was hired to finish grade and they had me dig probe holes by hand. So, I walked mid day. This blessing happened right at the 90 day mark of me sticking that job out.
They gave me a hardly used Hyundai 140 for a week. After thanking them both I had to ask for transport. They hooked me up with a local lowboy guy they use and Joe told him I would be good for it. In the end the jobs kept coming and I had rented from them for an entire year for the price of what I could have bought a decent machine for. Not that that was my goal at the time.
After a few months of maintaining business. I got this jewel from their yard that nobody had even looked at during the down economy. A 94 Ford L9000 8spd w/a L10 Cummins genuine dump truck. The repossessed L9000 belonged to an equipment leasing guy that they do business with. Joe the salesman contacted him and vouched for my history. They had a 2000 Eager Beaver 20XPT across town at another yard that really needed a good home. Joe my new friend the salesman talked to the leasing guy and vouched for me. I got approved for this work horse truck and trailer combo.
It was a wet Saturday when I picked it up. The trailer didn't have deck boards and upon further inspections the trailer didn't even have any brake pads and was missing several vital brake parts. Didn't matter to me, it was coming home with me...even on wet streets at 30 mph.
Getting home with my first piece of equipment. That was a great day. She did something funky to this picture, but it's from that day.
This is after I did all the brakes, bearings, seals, sanding, priming, painting ,lights, deck boards, and DOT inspection on the trailer. I had also painted the L9000 it's original color. It took a long time to get the L9000 DOT ready. You can imagine the leaks that surfaced after sitting for so long, but it had a reman. Cummins from '06 and didn't get used much after that. I had to replace the windshield, several axle seals, motor seals, and a lot of other things I can't remember but it finally passed the DOT inspection with flying colors and has been a great, dependable, hard working truck.
This is right after getting the L9000 the way I wanted it.