There are members on this board who love to drive truck, love their truck, and don't care what it costs them to own and operate it.  More power to them.  My dad fought/put off owning trucks for may years and we didn't have any until harvest demand required it.  For a number of years we ran two small straight trucks and my great uncle drove his tail off and still couldn't keep up with the combine.  Plus they were difficult to dump in our situation.  We now own two 12 year old semi tractors and inexpensive trailers.  There is no such thing as a cheap truck.  You either pay when you buy or pay when you fix.  Sometimes you pay all the time.

After you've resigned yourself to owning a semi and trailer you will probably enjoy it.  Having two trucks has allowed my dad and I to harvest all our bean acres ourselves and need only one extra person for corn harvest.  We run a CIH 7120 with a 30' draper and 8/30 corn head.  Right now we are in the "pay to fix" camp and it really hurts because our trucks are mostly seasonal use.  Radiators, turbos, u-joints, steering shafts, injectors, jake brakes.  I laugh when people say truck parts are cheap.