About The Upfit Insider

Why This Exists

The work truck industry clears snow, powers cities, digs fiber, and hauls debris. It keeps everything moving.

But online? It’s shadows and guesswork.

Try Googling how to spec a chipper body. Or whether your DPW should order a scissor hoist or a telescopic hoist.

You’ll get fluff, not answers.

And yet the stakes are massive.

• A brand-new hydrovac truck costs $600,000+.

• A dump body with the wrong hoist will bleed $20,000+ in repairs over its life.

• Miss one spec on a plow truck, and your whole snow budget blows up in the first storm.

Municipalities drop $2M+ every single year on their fleets. One fleet manager I know in Missouri? He spends $4–$6 million annually just on trucks — everything from pickups to heavy-duty mechanic crane rigs.

That’s the scale we’re talking about.

Now tell me — what’s $15/month compared to that?

Pennies. And yet it’s the one investment most managers won’t make. They’ll gamble millions but won’t put a few bucks into the only tool built to save them.

That’s why I built The Upfit Insider.

My Story

I started in 2019 as an inside sales rep with zero knowledge.

Didn’t know what a PTO was. Thought “cab chassis” was a taxi model.

I learned the hard way: walkarounds gone sideways, botched quotes, installs that failed in the field.

But I stuck around. Learned from mentors. Took the calls from angry buyers. Watched specs go wrong, then fixed them.

And then — I started posting.

Not because I had a content plan. Not because I thought I’d build an audience.
I just thought it would be fun to show the trucks I was quoting or helping an outside rep spec and sell.

Nobody else in the industry was posting that kind of stuff. So I did.

At first? Zero likes. Zero followers.

But little by little, it caught. People were curious. They hadn’t seen behind-the-scenes of dump bodies, hooklifts, or plow setups on their feed before.

Fast forward: today we’ve built a LinkedIn community of 17,000+. The Upfit Insider newsletter is read by fleet managers, OEM reps, and work truck pros across North America. Featured Author on Comvoy.

And it all started because I just wanted to showcase the trucks — and no one else was doing it.

Who We’re For

The Upfit Insider was built for the people who actually live this every day:

• Fleet managers & mechanics sick of fighting bad specs.

• Municipal buyers & DPWs who spend millions and get blamed when trucks fail.

• Landscapers, builders, and snow pros who can’t afford downtime.

• Dealers & upfitters trying to win bids without torching their reputation.

• Body manufacturers, tool brands, and OEM reps who need to stay ahead.

• The lone operator staring at his broken dump truck wondering, “What went wrong this time?”

If you spec, sell, build, or buy work trucks — this is built for you.

What You’ll Find Here

Everything we publish has one mission:
Help you avoid five-figure mistakes in the upfit process.

But not all access is equal.

Here’s how it works:

✅ Free Subscribers

• Read every published article (forever free).

• Access to weekly insights, trends, and breakdowns.

• Learn from stories, mistakes, and field-tested lessons.

That’s it. No calculators, no guides, no extras. Just the raw articles.

🔥 Paid Members ($15/month)

• Everything free subscribers get, plus:

• ROI Calculator – run your numbers in 5 minutes and see true TCO, break-even, and profit.

• Snowplow Mastery Guide – spec it right, stop costly failures mid-storm.

• Digital assets + checklists – torque specs, install sheets, upfit guides.

• Sales + quoting playbooks – sharpen your pitch and protect your margins.

• Premium tactical deep dives not available free.

This is where fleets stop guessing and start saving real money.

⚡ Founding Members ($5/month – only 100 seats)

• Everything Paid Members get, plus:

• 1 collab article per quarter with me (your name + expertise featured).

• Vote on topics — decide what we publish next.

• Exclusive community + events (coming soon).

• Direct influence on the only independent media voice in upfits.

Once the 100 seats are gone, the price locks at $15 and the collab + vote perks disappear forever.

Why It’s Paid

Here’s the math.

The average work truck costs $150,000+.
A hydrovac? $600,000+.
A fleet budget? $2M–$6M every single year.

One wrong spec can:

• Tank resale value.

• Trigger a recall.

• Kill uptime for weeks.

• Put your operators at risk.

And all of that costs way more than $15/month.

If you’re spending millions on trucks but won’t invest the price of a gas station sandwich to stop losing money — you’re playing yourself.

This isn’t about content. It’s about protecting capital budgets and keeping uptime where it belongs: in the field, not the shop.

Why You Should Care

Think about it:

• That Missouri fleet manager who spends $4–$6M a year? He told me flat out: one wrong spec costs him six figures.

• Your DPW? They’ve got $2M in budget and no margin for error. One wrong plow install could wipe out 10% of it.

• Hydrovac buyers? They’re gambling $600,000 every order. One mistake can sideline the most expensive asset in the fleet.

And you’re hesitating over $15/month?

If you’re in this industry, the ROI isn’t hypothetical. It’s immediate.

A Note From Me

I didn’t build The Upfit Insider for myself.
I built it because no one else was.

Too many veterans are clocking out with decades of knowledge.
Too many fleets are still spec’d wrong.
Too many buyers are left guessing.

If even one shop, one town, one operator gets it right because of this… that’s enough.

But I didn’t build it for one.
I built it for all of us.

👉 Subscribe free today if you just want to learn and read.
👉 Upgrade to Member for the calculators, guides, and assets.
👉 Or lock your Founding Member seat ($5/mo, only 100 available) before the door closes.

— Leyhan
Founder, The Upfit Insider