The Hunt for Our First Food Truck

The search started slowly. Just exploring the market, seeing what was out there. In all honesty, we'd only seen a few food trucks up close and needed to learn a lot more before committing to this new venture.

We'd been to a few food truck rallies and chatted up the owners, but they were usually too busy for much more than a short exchange. None of them had invited us inside for a look. 

We had decided that a trailer would work best for us. We already had a good towing vehicle in my F-350, and the thought of buying someone else's truck mechanical problems was not appealing. 

So, we started looking at online classified ads and regularly checked in with Craigslist. What we found was not encouraging. 

We found lots of old, really beat or empty shells of food trucks/trailers priced at about what we had hoped to spend for a turnkey rig. Most of the ones that looked good enough to consider were in the $75k and up range. Time for an expectational adjustment.

We found an ad for a local food trailer for sale, contacted the owner and made an appointment to see it. He said it was a 16-footer, which was in the size range we were looking, and that he wanted $45k, also in our range. We were excited!

Unfortunately, the trailer was cramped and in rough shape (service window falling out, plumbing not working) and had limited equipment included in the price. He also said that it was his partner who wanted to sell (he was reluctant) so maybe they wouldn't sell.  Fine by us as we could avoid telling him we really weren't interested, anyway.

Then there was a 21' trailer in Chandler with some equipment (already sold), and another 14' one that was basically the shell of a food trailer ($21k), no thank-you!

The next opportunity came in a Craigslist post. A newer (5 years old) 20' trailer, bright yellow and nicely outfitted, asking: $65,000. It was in Las Vegas, but we could travel for the right deal. Unfortunately, it had also been sold when I called.

The hunt continues...