I see you're a business man George. Everyone seems to concentrate on how much they can make, but ignore how much they spend. The combination of both ends up being what you can take home. I take my Prius lots of days when I can schedule just trims. 150 miles takes 3 gallons of gas. I've thinking about dumping the GMC and fitting out a Ford Transit, but I'm not sure I can cost justify it. If gas gets to $5.00 per gallon, Transit here I come. Regards
Rick, one of my clients owns a Ford dealership and has been pushing the Transit to replace my Nissan. He and I took it for a test drive last summer, it was an impressive vehicle until I asked if I could put a load on it. We stopped at the elevator to pick up my 700 lb grain order and the 12 mile drive to my farm was squirrelly. The Transit was not up to the task; the front wheel drive didn't do so good. My Nissans have managed 980lbs (by the scale including the cap, full selection of inventory, tools and propane) without problems for decades. It was a very quiet ride back to the dealership and he hasn't brought up the subject since.
As some people who have been commenting on here know, I am not a farrier. But I may have something to bring to this conversation though. I would really recommend that you not give up on this if you have been doing this for 10 years. You don't want to later feel regret that you didn't hold out longer. It's also better to talk about how you made it through rough times than how they pushed you out of business. Now,businesses usually have certain percentage of clients that actually COST them money. Those are the ones you were talking about earlier that care more about price than quality of work. Those are the kind that COST you money in the long run. Now you can take this advise or not, and definetly research what i'm talking about before you do, but the best way to get rid of those customers (or not take them on) is to actually raise your prices. (may not be a good idea to do for your current customers) From what I gather you seem to be in the middle, not the cheapest, not the most expensive. Much of how people judge how good the quality is on something is by how much it costs. (if your at the store, and you have a $10 toaster, $20 toaster, and a $50 toaster you assume the best quality is the $50 toaster.) Thing is YOU are making yourself the $20 one. Why cant you be the $50 one? The #1 reason I think my family's business failed is because we tried to hang on to all our customers. Including those that didn't pay well, didn't pay on time, and even a couple that were simply to much work. We should have gotten rid of those and spent the time getting quality customers. I think that it is good advise to specialize more. And to expand the area that you travel. A word on gas expenses, CNG is under $2 a gallon equivalent and some states such as OK and KS are covering all or most of the costs of conversion.
KS pays most of the expense of conversion and OK will pay all of it. You have to have anywhere between $5000 to $10,000 up front but you will get it back on your taxes.
I run a transit and I'm sure all my stuff in it comes to around 700lbs. I certainly don't find it squirrelly and it'll rattle around our country lanes at 60 - 70 mph and average 30 mpg. It's a 2 litre turbo diesel. Did you have all the load concentrated at the back?
Thanks Brian. That's good to know. I think I carry between 6-700#. I wonder if they make a heavy duty version. They are supposed to be delivery trucks. I guess your dealer would have mentioned it if there was a heavier duty one, though, wouldn't he. Regards
That sounds better Gary. I guess my takeaway is if I'm thinking about getting one, I'll need to load it up for the test drive. Regards
Don't know what engines are available over there, but we get a 2.0 litre and a 2.4 litre turbo diesel. The 2.4 gives much better performance and similar economy.
Thanks for the advice raising my prices right now would help some but still wouldn't get me out of hot water. The clients I am serving right now are some of my oldest tried and true customers. Thhey have been with me through thick and thin. I could never give up shoeing even if I wanted too due to the aforementioned bunch of good clients who threatened me with bodily harm if I quit.
Gary, the vehicle I drove is called a Transit connect 2 liter eng only comes as an automatic trans. No turbo diesel available in the States. I put 14 50lb bags equally single layer from behind the seats to rear door. I think the European version is built heavy duty or is the full size van.
I've heard that the transit had a solid suspension - one of my clients is a senior mechanic for Federal Express - he likes the Transit a lot. OTOH, if the dealer had the tire pressure too low for your test drive (they have it set to car tire pressure on every Ford truck I ever bought) the thing would probably feel squirrely.
Gary, I would bet you a nickle, you aren't carring any where near 700lbs. You ought to put everything on a scale.
I love the transporter (VW) I got. In the States I believe it is called Eurovan. I can carry everything I need, frontwheel drive, gets around 12-14km per liter, and right now I got 365,000km on it. It starts every time and runs every day.
Ah yes... the connect is a much smaller van and would struggle with that load and with an auto transmission would probably be pretty horrible. Mine is a full size transit. http://www.automotex.co.uk/car-Ford...-Oxfordshire-df56a3eae296707ef989792566493dc7
Jesus!! 2,000 quid! Have a look at what we pay for similar http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Cat...Search_keypresses=0&sidebarSearch_suggested=0
