Help me with the math guys. I know some of yall haul heavy stuff a lot and probably know what hauling extra weight costs or at least has a rule of thumb way to figuring it. I might be able to figure it out but I bet somebody knows first hand.
Im trying to figure out how much cheaper corn has to be to make it cost effective to haul it a long ways.
Use what example you want but lets say you need 3 tons of corn. You can buy it at the lease very conveniently for $9 a bag or $1080.
Or you can pull a 18' to 20' trailer and buy it at home and haul it 180 miles.
The truck is going anyway but hauling the corn means the trailer makes the round trip also.
The assumption is worse gas mileage pulling the trailer and corn and a certain amount of wear and tear of vehicle and trailer.
You can factor in that this trip is made 7 times a year.
Basically, what does it costs extra to haul a trailer and 3 tons for 180 miles and then a little extra to bring the trailer back instead of just the truck.

Unless you find a place that’s gonna drop the at least 1.50 per bag I don’t see it being worth the hassle.

If I'm buying 3 tons at a time, the trailer is going with me anyway. Doing the math is pretty easy from there if I know what my MPG is under a 6k load vs empty. Savings would need to be pretty significant for me to not just buy local. God forbid I have truck issues and have to deal with a 6k pound load to boot.

I haul corn/protein and yes it is usually 1.50-2.00$ a bag cheaper. When you are buying a half ton or more it is worth it. Factor in that feed stores run out of corn, are closed on sundays, etc. I always haul now. Saves another trip to town and a headache later. Do I save a ton of money? Sometimes. If nothing else my gas is usually paid for by the offset in feed costs.

Not me. Don't want the wear and tear. Buy it close by as I can if at all possible.

Mummies in Cotulla?

If you're going out there 7x a year, why can't you just put 850# (17 bags) in the truck each time you go out? - no trailer needed.

You might think about getting a corn cart from a local feed store and blow them full. The one we’ve gotten can run right under 7k lbs. They will normally hit a smaller number if need be but might be hard to get the cart if you’re not going to get a fuller load. It’s normally .50 a bag or so cheaper and you don’t have bags to deal with. My only complaint, it’s not been quite as clean and I went to soybean and corn mix, so I’m back on the bags but the corn it’s definitely cleaner.

We take 120 bags each of the 7 times. None of this is a life an death question—I’m just curious how much extra it costs to haul 6000#s on a 18’ flatbed trailer. I rarely haul heavy loads so I don’t know the difference in gas mileage etc. I just assumed guys that haul heavy equipment and such would know real easy. I’ve gotten good feedback that’s appreciated but no one is doing the math for me. Not breaking the bank either way, but thought someone knowledgeable would be happy to share their knowledge.

Just in costs, using the gas mileage for 180 round trip figuring 10 mpg pulling that much (probably not too far off for most trucks) vs 15-20 mpg not hauling....

360 miles at 10mpg = 36 gallons

360 miles at 15 mpg = 24 gallons = 12 gallons savings @ 2.80/gal = a little over 30 bucks

360 miles at 20 mpg = 18 gallons = 18 gallons savings & 2.80/gal = a little less than 50 bucks

For 6000# of corn in 50# bags (120 bags), you are looking at a cost of 30cents a bag to 40 cents a bag depending on mpg towing vs non-towing.

To think it is that little, is a little alarming. At the same time, the cost can go up with less corn. Only 4000# wpuld make ot another half as much, but even a load of 2000# is still only a cost of a buck extra per bag, but my truck can move 3000# of feed in my bed without a penalty in mpg so theres that too.

Oil chamges and wear and tear: my truck has an oil change around 100 bucks every 10,000 miles, so about 10 bucks a hundred or about 3 bucks for 300 miles. That adds an offset cost of an additional 3 cents a bag. Not sognificant


Long story short, you would have to have a huge toll of wear and tear on the truck to make up the difference in cost if the difference is a couple bucks (9 dollars at the lease vs 7.50 at bucees) when buying that volume.

Of course no one can claim the extra cost in time and effort for a bad trailer or something like that. Hard to argue for a bad trailer but hard to argue against a good trailer too.

Does that make sense?

Way too many factors to make a good argument for either side. Just buy it where you want to buy it for whichever suits you’re fancy.

Buy a flatbed truck and your problems solved no trailer required.

They have Mummes in Pearsall, but pretty sure nothing in Cotulla save for the Ace Hardware. Since 97 got fixed, we take 37 to Pleasanton and stop at Primos. It's right on 97 and has a driving through loading station. That leaves about a 40 minute drive into camp. Extremely convenient and especially when hauling a trailer.

Pretty easy math with just figuring fuel cost if I'm using my 1/2 ton and 16' lowboy
360 round trip (not hauling corn) / 20mpg = 18 gallons at $2.5/gal ---- total fuel $45
Pulling 16' or 20' LB trailer with 3 tons feed = 180 / 12mpg = 15 gal + 180 with empty trailer is 180/15mpg = 12 gal & 27 gallons total = $67.50 fuel or $22.50 more than not pulling the trailer. That comes out to $.19 per bag of feed in fuel or there about.

You are going to have the same wear on your truck tires whether pulling or not so I don't see any additional costs there but if you figure that 4 trailer tires are $400 and you get say 20k miles from those tires then the tires are costing you another $.02/mile or about $7.00.

Sometimes gotta take a trailer. Sometimes, things just work out. Forty bags is about the most I can get into my F250. Sure makes it easier to drive to the feed store, let someone else load the P/U and then drive straight into the pasture without having to transfer it from a trailer to a P/U. Handling the bags as lil' as possible is the key here and especially so when it gets hot. We don't mess with corn much during the off season and are two hours away which makes it easy enuff for us to maintain the protein feeders and plus, I really enjoy getting down there.

This weekend, Klappenbach and myself are listening to STX and TLK. Headed to Poth to purchase 60 bags of that there wormer feed for a "trial run". Gonna exchange some gold for it. We'll leave at about lunch in separate trucks. He'll put thirty in his and I will put thirty in mine.

The whole loading thing is a big issue for me and worth the extra cost. Our Buccees is so crowded with idgit tourists from Hosetown and DFW (Texas Lite), it's hard to park close. Ain't happening in my world. At the ripe age of 61, I think I have gotten a lil' wiser. Wouldn't want to work myself in such a manner that i would have to have a rotator cuff repaired.

You are correct, Pearsall. Got my small STX towns mixed up. I also go through Pleasanton to 97.

I'm thinking anything approaching a $1 a bag makes sense to haul, for 120 bags. You either pay for convenience (buying near your lease) or get paid for your hassle (hauling but saving $).

Completely makes sense financially if you're saving a couple hundred dollars each trip. And like you said, feed stores often close early afternoon on Saturdays and all day Sunday.

Thanks a lot guys. TxBuc and ILuv really got into the math which is what I wanted. I understand all the intangibles and I can factor all that it. I mostly just needed the difference in mpg when hauling that much cause I rarely haul and dont pay attention to the change in mpg. We always buy locally when dealing with that much corn but the price has gone up so much it had just got me thinking.

Hud(and others), Bucees will load with forklift if you get a pallet and up to 3 pallets. And, yes, unloading or transferring at the other end is a factor as well as getting rained on and various differences in truck and trailer etc, etc but I(and others) just has to factor in for their particular situation.
My smaller lease I go right by Bucees and we only get a pallet or maybe two at a time and its only 1.5 hours to lease from Bucees so it works great. This past weekend I came from a different direction so no Bucees and thats what got me thinking about all this cause I called all over and got 9 to $10 corn prices(see my post in the "corn prices" subforum.)

very well laid out ...

also, how far is the ranch from the "local" feedstore? another option might be to run empty without trailer, pick up 1.5 ton, go to ranch and fill feeders, run back to town and get another 1.5 ton, back to ranch to fill remaining feeders and get 20 mpg going and coming other than the transition from store to ranch 2x. So now that brings up the question of how far is the store from the ranch to calculate plus the extra time to make another trip to town and back.

We haul ours. Usually there is something else on the trailer also.

If we buy feed at the ranch we have to make a 40 mile round trip to town and back which we do not normally do. We never are traveling through at a convenient time that feed stores are open on the way down that we could get it on the way down. We get to the ranch with the feed and it is either ready to put out when we arrive, sometimes we do it late at night when we get there or first thing the next morning etc.

I suppose if we were retired and traveled at other times it would make a difference.

Once again, tons of variables and everyone is different, but its nice to have some baseline math figure to start with and apply to everyones situation.
PMK, in our situation the local store is very close. We fill 25 feeders all at the same time and know in advance when going and have a good relationship with store and always know availability.

If the store is very close, I would opt to not drag a trailer 180 miles (full or empty) and make a run back to town.

I spent several hours cutting 16' hog panels into 8' hog panels so they would fit in the bed of my truck instead of dragging a trailer the 280 miles one way to carry the full length

Seven trips of three tons is 21 tons which is basically a full semi load. If you have some place to store it why not buy a semi load and have it delivered to the ranch. You could probably get a significant discount that way.

You better consider the weather also, unless your trailer is enclosed. Rain can ruin a load of corn rather quickly.