Buy or Build

Hi everyone, i see alot of people posting their build photo's and im wondering if it is that much more cost effective compared to just buying a good used food truck. what are your thoughts and opinions? ild love to hear from people that have built as to why they built instead of bought. have a great day!

If you have the necessary skill sets to do a professional level job, building is the only way to go (IMHO). Not only will you save a ton of money, but you get exactly what you want and will know the job was done right.  From the materials I've priced, a trailer that will cost you $10,000 to buy can be built for about $2,500.
 

IslandDogsInc.

If you have the necessary skill sets to do a professional level job, building is the only way to go (IMHO). Not only will you save a ton of money, but you get exactly what you want and will know the job was done right.  From the materials I've priced, a trailer that will cost you $10,000 to buy can be built for about $2,500.

The key phrase here is, "IF you have the necessary skill sets".
Add to that, the necessary tools and time.
Coupled with finding a decent truck to start with.

im pretty handy and have experience building out a brick and mortar restaurant from scratch, but not having any experience at building out a truck. i found a local guy with some experience at fitting out a truck and gonna meet him this weekend. in your opinions what are the best trucks to be shopping for? (i.e. which are the most condusive to this modification)

IslandDogsInc.

If you have the necessary skill sets to do a professional level job, building is the only way to go (IMHO). Not only will you save a ton of money, but you get exactly what you want and will know the job was done right.  From the materials I've priced, a trailer that will cost you $10,000 to buy can be built for about $2,500.

 
From the materials I've priced, a trailer that will cost you $10,000 to buy can be built for about $2,500.
 
WOW I'm ordering my equipment and materials through you from now on.

yshuman

Hi everyone, i see alot of people posting their build photo's and im wondering if it is that much more cost effective compared to just buying a good used food truck. what are your thoughts and opinions? ild love to hear from people that have built as to why they built instead of bought. have a great day!

 
That's a really good question. Here is what I know for sure. There is not a build on this site that the builder wouldn't change a half dozen things on it if they had to do it over. I promise you that is true.
 
Also any pro builder is going to change how they build a truck or trailer as they gain experience and with the good and bad feedback from customers. The common mistakes that I see over and over on builds are in menus, (way to many items), in storage (shelves that are open to the dust, grease, and impossible to keep clean. To much equipment shoved into a small space and you really have no room to work. Here are three pictures that show that perfectly. 

Truthfully who could work efficiently in this mess? And I promise you any good HD inspector is going to search for a long time trying to find a good reason to not approve this mess. On the other hand neat clean and orderly a HD employee will buzz through  an inspection and help you with any minor problems he or she may spot.
good luck
jack

What's a good window of time for a build to happen as far as a deadline?

Sometimes threads last for so long (years) that it is really educational for everyone else in many ways but some end up like wrecklamation projects. Money time time time (not making money) time more money.

Something to consider.

Sorry CC I don't think so for a couple of reasons. I think some delays are caused by short funds, others are do to lack of planing/ knowledge/experience.
 
Think about this for a moment. The two most expensive rooms in a house to build or remodel are the bathroom and kitchen. Ok no bathrooms in our builds.
 
But a professional kitchen.
 
But here we are a bunch of hard working wood be restauranteurs, many of which have never built anything in our lives are now the chef/contractor or the chef/engineer in motion. LMAO. I understand it.
 
When I built my trailer I thought how hard can it be? God it's a 16 foot BBQ trailer. I'll find a good plumber, a good electrician, a good sheet-metal worker, and I'll be the helper to them all.
 
My plumber friend was about to retire, so he had 30 years experience but truthfully he wasn't a good restaurant plumber and a terrible trailer plumber, but a very good beer drinker.  A bad judgement call on my part. Now that I have redone my plumbing several times I can do it myself. But the first time around hell i had no clue. So it cost more was poorly done and didn't work like it should.
 
I'm telling you if I could wave my magic wand everyone would have to work a street rig for at least six months before they started a build. Then you'd know what to do and what not to do.

I need help putting stamps on envelopes. So...you are right.

I do know that people who work in this field live and breathe food and the business of food. You can hardly contain the drive. Very often when someone wants to build a food truck we never hear a word about ANYTHING associated with food and the business of food. I can't tell if it's lack of funds experience etc. or just along the same lines as the folks who "want to own a restaurant"

At the finish line...it's about the food.

Some people just don't have all that it takes to build...
http://albuquerque.craigslist.org/bar/3106719390.html
 
 
 

Ready to fry!

@ barry that ad is hilarious. wtf is that supposed to be??? ild pray ild do a better job lol. im going out to checkout a p30 tomorrow  it has a new tranny and im having a deisel mech. check it mechanically tomorrow. still not sure if im gonna build or buy. but at that price i figured its worth a drive to check out.

Barry Digman


Some people just don't have all that it takes to build...
http://albuquerque.craigslist.org/bar/3106719390.html 

 
And Barry that was at first someones dream and they turned it into a nightmare. Great example.
You have to feel sorry for them and when they couldn't get it passed the HD Craigslist was the
answer. LOL
jack

my link didnt post :( ill try putting spaces
http ://cleveland. craigslist.org/cto/ 3071043026.html

The outside looks pretty good although the mileage is scary.
 
But the price is right.
 

 
http://cleveland.craigsli..org/cto/3071043026.html

1991 P30 step van - Great Condition - $2300 (Elyria)

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Date: 2012-06-23, 6:38PM EDT
Reply to: see below ^{[Errors when replying to ads?]}

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1991 P30 Grumman Step Van - 6.2 L Diesel, Automatic, 323,500 miles, runs great, shift great, very clean inside, only ever hauled potato chips. $2,300 OBO Call 440-225-7152

After two builds and many many remodels I have gotten quite good at it... But looking back, you couldn't pay me to build again. The amount of time it took -vs- someone who has everything at their fingertips, I could have been out selling and making money and offset the addition costs in several weeks. It just depends on your particular situation. If you decide to build, add up the costs every single lil item, and then add at least 25% to it, but more realistically add 50%.

It took three weeks to have my trailer built and delivered 1000 miles to my doorstep.

thankyou for your input guys, i apprecite it. now in my restaurant (brick and mortar fish and chip take away) i used to mark up double my cost of goods because fish prices rose and killed my margins. i know in our old family restauarant the markup was 3x c.o.g.s.
 
with most of your trucks whjat margins are you working on?