Your work truck can be one of your highest-return investments if you know how to treat it right. Like any professional equipment you use daily, it’s going to take constant wear and tear. The key to keeping it ready for the next job is vigilant maintenance, and a steady schedule of parts upgrades that ensure you’re monitoring the condition of various systems and staying ahead of your risk of mechanical failure. This helps save you money by minimizing your unforeseen garage bills, but you still need to know how to control costs on this basic maintenance to put profits in your own pocket and to maximize your vehicle’s lifespan.
When To Check for a Used Part Market
There are a lot of parts you just don’t want to buy used unless there’s no other option. Brake lines, for example, are considered by many truck owners to be too crucial to settle for used with. You’re also not likely to find many built-to-wear parts on a used market. What you will find, though, are a lot of refurbished parts like starters that last for years. Even better, you can find components like mirrors and used pickup truck beds that let you replace the non-mechanical parts of your truck as they wear or take damage. This can even be a way to get upgraded and aftermarket parts if you shop carefully.
Consider Performance Upgrades on New Parts
There are a lot of performance parts out there that are built to have longer lifespans than the OEM alternative. Many of them use materials that were not available at the time of an older vehicle’s manufacture, and they’re also built to tighter specifications than the original equipment designs. In those cases, upgrading to a performance part often means being able to handle higher stresses, so you have less chance of failure when you push your limits and a longer average lifespan on parts that take wear from your day to day jobs. Over the life of the truck, this is often a less expensive choice than cheaper OEM replacements.