A food truck loan for an established Mount Pleasant, SC restaurant can pay for the truck or trailer, the cooking equipment that goes inside it and the wrap, with the dining room’s sales history behind the request. The restaurant can weigh equipment financing against a term loan for this self-contained mobile kitchen. Windharbor takes the details and hands them to funding partners for review.
Adding a food truck to a Mount Pleasant, SC restaurant: what a loan covers, a catering month in numbers and two ways to finance the purchase.
A food truck loan for an established restaurant with a track record
A restaurant adding a truck brings what a first-time operator lacks: bank deposits, a kitchen manager and a menu that sells. The truck becomes an extension of a business a partner can look at, not a new venture with no history.
That kitchen sits among 657 full-service restaurants (NAICS 722511) with paid staff in Charleston County, SC, the 2023 County Business Patterns count, which reported 16,628 employees for the code in the March pay period. The count includes 128 establishments below five employees (19.5%); the remaining 529 have five or more. Counter-service places are a separate code (722513), with 414 in the county. ZIP Code Business Patterns listed 110 full-service restaurants with a physical location in ZIP 29464 for 2023.
For a request, the useful step is to treat the truck as its own cost center: its own line in the books, its own fuel and commissary costs, and its own catering calendar. The restaurants page covers movable dining-room equipment; this article stays with the self-contained truck kitchen.
Truck, trailer and kitchen equipment costs a loan can cover
Food truck financing can cover the vehicle and the cooking equipment that goes in it; hood and fire-suppression installation is outside this site. Permits, commissary rent, insurance and the first propane fill are operating costs that the restaurant pays from its own cash.
| Cost | Amount |
|---|---|
| Used step van, inspected | $58,000 |
| Onboard cooking equipment: flat-top, fryer and refrigeration | $71,500 |
| Generator and propane system | $8,200 |
| Exterior wrap | $5,800 |
| Card reader and point-of-sale hardware | $1,700 |
| Purchase total | $145,200 |
In that invented list, the van, cooking equipment and generator come to $137,700: hard assets a partner can hold as collateral. The wrap and the point-of-sale hardware, $7,500 together, are softer costs that some equipment agreements leave out. A trailer pulled by a vehicle the restaurant already owns is another route, with the tow vehicle outside the request.
A purchase quote gives a partner something to work with when it names the chassis (year, mileage and the VIN once known), the seller or fabricator, and each kitchen appliance by make and model. Outfitting time belongs in the plan as well. If the van is bought months before the cooking equipment arrives, payments can begin before the first event, so the forecast should carry a few months of payments with no truck sales at all.
Catering and event revenue in a food truck request
Catering is the reason a dining-room restaurant buys a truck, so the request rests on event revenue. Booked events with deposits, repeat corporate lunches and a price per head are stronger support than a hoped-for list of events.
Illustration only, invented figures: the truck works 6 catering events a month at an average of $2,400 each, $14,400 in sales. Food at 32% of sales is $4,608, crew labor is $3,100, and fuel, generator and commissary costs come to $1,250, which leaves $5,442 a month before any truck payment.
- Events per month: 6, booked with deposits where possible.
- Average invoice per event: $2,400, set by guest count and menu.
- Food cost: 32% of sales, or $4,608.
- Crew labor: $3,100 for drivers, cooks and a server.
- Fuel, generator and commissary: $1,250.
- Left before the payment: $5,442.
A partner can ask for the booked event calendar, past catering invoices from the dining room and the deposit policy. If the restaurant has never catered before, the first months of the forecast deserve the most cautious event count the owner can defend. Price the truck menu on its own, too: packaging, smaller portions and drive time move the food cost away from the dining-room figure.
Equipment loan or term loan for a mobile kitchen?
Two products can carry a mobile kitchen. Equipment financing secures the payment with the truck and its kitchen, so it covers the hard assets. A business term loan can take the whole purchase, soft costs included, at a different price and term.
Illustration only, invented figures: financing only the $137,700 of hard assets across five years at 10.25% a year sets the payment at $2,942.69, with $176,561.40 paid over 60 months. Putting the full $145,200 on a four-year term loan at an annual rate of 12% raises the payment to $3,823.67, $880.98 more a month, and the 48 payments total $183,536.16.
Against the $5,442 catering month above, the equipment route leaves $2,499.31 after the payment, and the term loan leaves $1,618.33. The equipment route also leaves the restaurant paying the $7,500 of wrap and hardware in cash. The choice comes down to whether the restaurant would rather keep that cash or keep the monthly figure lower.
By Windharbor Advances · Updated
