Parts truck vs. buying individual parts

[SGT LongT]

Now that I have begun to troll the internet and salvage yards for parts, mods, upgrades, etc I am beginning to wonder if it is cheaper in the long run to buy another M1009 solely for parts. I am really interested to hear from the guys with multiple MVs. That being said I love M1009 and wish I had more money to spend on her

 

[combat32]

Don't do it! Next thing you know your back pasture is full of parts trucks, then you discover all your parts trucks are too nice to scrap so you fix them up and buy more parts trucks, never ending cycle

 

[Terracoma]

My truck was missing a lot of parts, courtesy of one of the previous owners (a member here on the forum).....

So it made sense for me to buy another truck to get what I needed.

 

[FrankUSMC]

One of my vehicles is a 1943 Ford GPW jeep. I had at one time about 8 parts jeeps to complete her. I have been collecting military vehicles sence about 1977, I have always told my friends that an extra parts truck has a habit of paying for itself.
Fast war story, around 1985, I bought a rough, but complete WWII jeep for $100. I took alot of parts off it for a WWII jeep I had at the time. Later I had orders, so I sold it to another collector. He bought it from me for $100, because it still had some good parts on it. Years later I saw him again and asked him about the jeep. He told me he stripped it down to the frame and used all the parts. The frame?, you guessed it, he sold it for $100.
One of the few, Frank USMC RET

 

[hotdogs151a2]

I agree with Mr. combst32, thats how I ended up with all of this OD stuff. One day I called my wife and told her I needed $2500 dollars when she asked why, I told her I needed her help driving two 2 1/2 ton's home.
I do have a M1008 parts truck. If I take a bad part off to put on one of the other trucks, I put the bad part on the parts truck. You will find yourself looking at the parts truck and thinking......... well it wouldn't take that much to fix the parts truck up. Then you need another parts truck. Yes it is a never ending cycle.
Thanks, Pvt, Hotdog

 

[flyxpl]

If you have the room to keep a parts truck and the will power to keep it a parts truck it will probally pay for itself , maybe even make money by selling off parts you don't need .

 

[davidkroberts]

..... i agree with the above post, parts will nickle and dime you to death. just the replacement cost of a new door and transfer case will pay for a GL parts special M1009

 

[rnd-motorsports]

You can never get to many spare parts! also remember they have not built these for awhile, Parts are not always going to be available and those with parts trucks will be the only source!!

 

[overkill375]

the flip side to a parts truck is that high wear/breakable items you might need are often bad on the next truck as well.

 

[boondock]

It is true that the high wear/breakable items tend to be the same from one truck to the next, but overall the sum of the individual parts bought separately exceeds the cost of an entire parts vehicle. But as has been mentioned, you need to have room for the parts truck.

 

[Terracoma]

the flip side to a parts truck is that high wear/breakable items you might need are often bad on the next truck as well.

Preview, preview, preview...

The good news is that at bare minimum you'll have rebuildable cores for the big-ticket items.

 

[Hooty481]

i went with the parts truck. its made me money. of course it all depends on what the price of the truck is too...

 

[Barrman]

Parts trucks that became projects that needed other parts trucks. Yep, Green Iron Disease is very harsh.

Most of the high ware items are also ones that should be replaced new for safety reasons. I am thinking brakes, suspension and steering parts here. If you are looking at using used parts for those areas, you really need to find another hobby because you will end up killing yourself or others sooner or later.

 

[RAYZER]

I bought a m35a2 parts truch awhile back for cheap,real cheap! it was missing the axels and transfer case and the body was shot,however, it had a trans and unmolested motor that ran when parked complete with turbo,starter,gen,ect. within two weeks the starter on my good truck died,had an extra!! and sold some body parts and such,made my money back and then some, and still have a motor and trans!