Last year, at the beginning of September, I wrote the post “The Cheapest Way to Pave a Driveway.” It quickly became the most successful post on this blog. I didn’t realize at that time that I am touching a subject that many look for a solution to. There are millions of gravel driveways in America, and those driveways cost thousands that many don’t have or don’t want to spend.
What happened since that driveway post is kinda funny. Unless you know us personally, then, it just makes sense.
Well, we ended up buying a dump truck. Ain’t she beautiful?
Before I tell you about our yellow dump truck, let me just say that we are still looking for truck drivers who would like to dump their crushed asphalt or concrete on our land, like I suggested in my driveway post.
Someone who works for an asphalt company commented that my post is funny. Why would you pay a driver anything, even a small amount of money, to dump on your land? THEY usually pay the dump site, not the other way around.
I agree. It is funny. And we know that the asphalt companies pay a dump site to take their loads of crushed asphalt, this is why we posted an ad on Craigslist for a free dump site. Since we posted it a few months ago, we didn’t have one person contact us. Maybe it’s because our land is in the country, kinda far, and out of their way. Maybe it’s because they don’t want to bother with it. I am not sure.
Anyway, I am more than happy to pay a truck driver a little bit of money if he/she saves me thousands.
I confess, I have a soft spot for truck drivers. I used to be one. People don’t realize how hard of a job it is, not to mention a business, if you own the truck. Once you sit behind the wheel, you are pretty much a killing machine rolling down the road. And it is up to you to finish the day without killing anyone or yourself. People will cut you and break surprisingly in front of you, not realizing that a 40 ton truck with air breaks don’t break as easy as a four-door sedan. You can’t travel on most roads. You can’t pass under many bridges since they are too low. You can’t park almost anywhere, and you have to pay constant attention to signs a regular driver don’t even know exists.
And almost all truckers are underpaid. UNDERPAID. As in, making a ridiculously low income for the risk and lifestyle.
So I have no problem paying them a little extra for their load, and instead of it becoming a pile of waste, we recycle it into a driveway and put it to good us.
Another person who read my driveway post told me he is moving to a large piece of land. He asked if it’s not going to be cheaper to buy an old dump truck and haul the material himself.
I was happy to find someone who thinks the way we do. I told him that this is exactly what we ended up doing.
You see, we have a 2000 feet driveway to pave on the farm. We couldn’t find a trucker that has a regular supply. We left our number with many road construction companies, but they don’t really do much over the Winter. Since we wanted the driveway to be ready for the builder to start building a house for us on the farm asap, we had to come up with another plan.
Also, with the vegetable farm starting to come together, we realized that there are other things we need to haul, like compost or horse manure, for example. Many farms in our area are giving it for free, but we could never find a way to haul it.
So we decided to purchase a dump truck.
We found this yellow 2001 Chevy C-7500 for sale on Craigslist and purchased it for $8900.
We took a loan on it, and we pay about $360 a month for the truck. In order to cover this expense, we posted a ad on Craigslist, and now my husband delivers gravel and other material for others. He only needs to do 3 or 4 jobs a month to cover the expense of the truck (loan payment and insurance). We have our own business for years, so it was pretty easy to add the truck to it, and since we bought it a couple of months ago, we have more work than we can take. Knock on wood.
On the weekends, we work on the farm. We found a concrete plant that is preparing for Spring cleaning and will be happy for us to take their waste. We called road construction companies and asked them to call us when they have a project going so we can come to the job site and pick up crushed asphalt.
If we can’t find material for free, we pick up crushed asphalt from a road constriction company for a fraction of the cost of crusher run gravel. It’s not free, but still much cheaper than the gravel. And we really love it. It packs very well and easy to work with.
Because of all the rain and snow we had here lately, the driveway is nowhere near being done, but it’s coming along a little bit at a time.
If you consider buying a dump truck, there are few things you should know and consider.
It is an expensive vehicle to maintain. Every visit to the shop cost a few hundreds of dollars. Make sure to find a few heavy truck mechanics, and maybe a mobile mechanic as well.
Make sure you can afford the monthly expense of insurance, which is a lot more than a regular vehicle.
Research your tag options. You might need a Commercial Weighted Tag or a For Hire tag, depending on what you are going to do with the truck. Those cost close to a $1000 (in NC). If you are going to use it for farm use alone and your land has a farm number, you might be able to get a farm tag that is much cheaper than the others.
If your truck’s gross vehicle weight (GVW) is over 26,000, you’ll need a CDL (commercial driver license).
You can’t drive a dump truck on any road. Make sure to check the routs you are going to travel. If your land sits on a road that has a weight limit, you might need a special permit from your local DOT office to drive on it.
We love our yellow truck. It’s new to us, we just got it a couple of months age, but we did so much with it already. I think that once it’s paid off, it’s going to be a valuable piece of equipment for the farm and for our family since it gives a little bit of a sense of security. Now we know that if our locksmith business has a slow month, we have something else we can do to keep the bills paid.
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Your driveway is huge project! But you two seem to be people who start and finish a project, no matter how hard it is. Congrats on your truck, love the color ;).
Question: how far are you from Chesapeake, VA I am looking to get a running track done on my property
Too far unfortunately. About 3.5 hours. Good luck with this project, sounds interesting.
In Phoenix AZ asphalt companies sell their asphalt millings in the area where they are working, thought you might like to see the ad, as of 4-23-16 on CL https://phoenix.craigslist.org/nph/grd/5525066370.html
I used to haul a lot of stuff in my pickup for my small farm, so I can relate to your article. My Mom always did say I would be dangerous if I would have had my own dump truck, I had sides built on the sides of my pickup, hauled mostly mulch from the county.
Wow! $160 for 20-25 tons plus delivery is cheap. You can find ads like this one in craigslist all the time. I would think that asphalt millings will be too heavy for a pickup, wouldn’t it? I guess it depends what kind of pickup and how much millings.
We are going to finish the driveway on our farm, hopefully this summer and then put the truck for sale. It proved to be a very expensive vehicle to maintain and the tag, insurance, registration… all this cost a lot of money. We might get a pickup instead.
how far are you from Boone NC? Got some property that a driveway is needed and it is way too long! What a great idea!
Too far, I am afraid. About 3.5 hours. Good luck with your driveway.
I appreciate you sharing your experience with a dump truck, especially since you said you had been a driver before. I think that, depending on your situation and the length of your project, you may just benefit from hiring a dump truck service. Of course, you should research the dump truck services out there in order to find the one that offers the best services that you need.
Definitely! Just the registration is $1000 for our truck, this and insurance is something you have to take into consideration when you purchase a piece of equipment like that. Also, every visit to the shop is at least $700. What you can also do is buy the truck for the project and once it is completed, turn around and sell it. If you do that, just make sure the project is ready to go before you buy the truck. You don’t want it to just sit there.
Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment!
I guess I don’t get it. You were worried about the cost of gravel to build your driveway, but you bought a newer dump truck and a new 4×4 tractor? I mean, that’s cool you guys are able to do that, but it doesn’t make sense to me. Are you pulling jobs with the new equipment to help pay for them?
We knew that in order to turn 20 acres of overgrown farmland into a vegetable farm we are going to need a tractor. We also knew that on our land we are going to need a system of driveways since we want it to be a working farm. We also are planning to build our own house. So basically we needed this equipment anyway and our thought was that if we are getting it we might as well find affordable material for the driveway and do the work ourselves.
We take about two jobs a month to cover the cost of the truck and the tractor. The truck already paid for itself probably 3 times or so and we can sell it any time we want. The tractor is very expensive, but it’s mostly because of the million farming attachments we bought with it but it is covering its expense on a monthly basis and we couldn’t farm without it anyway.
Good Morning Lee, I stumbled upon your blog this morning. I found it interesting as we make
a product for rejuvenating old asphalt millings to make what we call “poor mans blacktop”.
Hawk Seal Millings Blend is easy to apply with a low pressure sprayer; Once applied allow HSBlend about 45 minutes for it soften and rejuvenate the asphalt, then roll the road with a heavy roller or heavy rubber tired truck.
It will make a very durable road that will prevent water from penetrating through the millings and damaging your road base, preventing potholes and soft spots.
You can visit our website for more information and we entreprenuers like you and are looking for dealer/applicators in your area, so again you could do a little business to pay for yours.
Have a great day.
Thank you, Kermit.
I am afraid I can’t fit one more business into my life at the moment, but I will definitely look you up online. Sounds like a very interesting product.
Thanks again for stopping by.
I am looking to do a driveway like that. Do you do this? I will need 1 or 2 loads. Can you send me information on doing this and the price to do it.
Sorry Denise, my husband is back to concentrating on his other business and is not taking driveway jobs at the moment.