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Conservative Owns the Libs by Paying $4,000 a Month for His Ford F-350
(thehardtimes.net)
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this post was submitted on 22 May 2024
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Pickups for non construction purposes are the dumbest shit ever. You literarily have half the car that is useless for transporting people.
What if you have to help a friend move a couch once every 5 years? What then?
lol right? Surely you couldn't just rent one by the hour from Home Depot or some crazy shit like that... Oh wait, you can and it's like $20. There really is no justification for the vast majority of personal truck ownership. It's just a status symbol for trashy jerks. Although I suppose that technically counts as hauling a lot of trash.
If you actually need to haul stuff a van is vastly superior in most scenarios. The only use case that a pickup truck really makes sense for is for towing, but even then something like a range rover seems like a better option?
Hauling trash, debris, or brush works way better in a pickup. I want to be able to hose the shit off and not have it inside with me lol But i agree that a van is better than everything else
I have a 2015 Honda Pilot with a roof rack. Can seat 8 and tow 4400lbs (probably not both at the same time, lol). I can also throw full sheets of drywall or plywood on the top (within reason). I've hauled 1000lbs of stone in it. Has no problem with 10ft PVC pipe or lumber. Thing is a fucking swiss army knife of a vehicle.
Not really. You can haul things upright in a pickup, which you can't do in an SUV or van. If you're going to be hauling lots of sheet goods a van interior will get trashed immediately, and most will have to have the back doors open for full sized sheets. A truck bed will hold up quite well and you won't have to deal with tying back doors closed.
That's not my experience. I bought a rusty, old E350 cargo van for towing a boat, but it's useful for carrying materials. It'll fit 4'x8' sheets, and 10' boards diagonally. Most of the pickup trucks that I see around these days have 6.5' beds, and the suburban dad models have vestigial, 5.5' beds.
Ever heard of trailers? You can rent one of these for cheap and haul whatever crap without needing to worry about your car interior. And any old sedan can tow a trailer, not to mention vans.
Trailers work, but they're not easy to get in and out of wherever you're going. Most cars don't come with a hitch, so you'd have to add that as well. You don't just tow a trailer around for fun, so if you frequently find yourself needing to move something or buy something with little notice it's not a good solution. Then there's parking.
Listen, most people don't need a truck. Or an SUV. Or a trailer. And no one needs a truck with a hood that's 6 feet off the ground. Plenty of people use their pickup trucks a lot and the other options have massive tradeoffs.
I own a trailer because I didn't want to have to get a truck and I've found it inconvenient enough I'm looking at buying a truck in the next couple months.
Yeah that thing i need a license for and don't know how to back up because i was never taught. We should all do that.
Have you ever been in a high roof van in high wind? I like the idea of vans as I can load motorcycles and keep them hidden but almost coming off the road was terrifying.
I had an Isuzu pickup once. I bought it because it was the cheapest new car you could buy: $4995 MSRP if I recall. No power steering or power breaks. Manual transmission. I think it had AC and an FM radio. Its fine for transporting 2 people and I rarely ever had a need for more than that.
Well what if I need to prove my dick is tiny tho?
Dude real shit I work in construction and I can tell you that you don’t even really need a pickup for that either.
I mean it depends what you’re doing ofc but vans are what’s actually used as work vehicles for the most part. And those are generally company vehicles so for personal use you can drive whatever vehicle you want.
Yeah, trucks really were designed for hauling heavy trailers
Which even then a 350 transit can haul our tractor.
Really, the bed is only used for oddly shaped shit or stuff that is covered in mud. I was only in a work pickup truck as a new construction plumber, everything else has been a van.
Camping, hunting, dirt bike riding, moving, general utility and many other things done by most adults that don't like to rely on other people. I don't want to pay a moving company if I move, I don't want to ask someone else if I want to tow my trailer out to camp. I don't want to call some construction company everytime I need so much as a 2x4 to repair my home. Anyone who doesn't own a truck will at some point rely on someone who does. It is not dumb as shit to own a truck for everyone. Not everyone lives the same life you do. I live in a rural area, I spent 6 months at one point in my life without a truck, I will never do it again. Probably 95% of the time I don't need a truck, but when I need it, I need it. My daily driver is a beater car, most of the time, depending on logistics and weather. But if I had to only have one vehicle it would be a truck. A truck will haul 5 people, so will most cars but a truck can drive through weather and haul things when you need it. Although I am a middle aged dad in a rural area. 🤷♂️ I must be dumb.
"Probably 95% of the time I don't need a truck, but when I need it, I need it."
This was the exact rationale I used to justify not getting a truck. I liked the idea of having a truck and being able to use it to move etc. but the fact that a smaller more economical vehicle would suit my needs 95 percent (more like 98-99.5 for me realistically) of the time swayed me in the other direction. I paid a good 30 percent less for the vehicle I have now and it gets 40mpg so I'll save thousands in gas over the life of the vehicle.
You can rent a utility trailer for a day or weekend and tow quite a bit of weight with most vehicles. There's rental trucks for the rest. I have an F350 and it costs a fortune to keep up. $150 fills, 15L oil capacity, tires are 400 bucks a pop. It adds up quick. Gonna be replacing it with a micro car and some rentals here and there.
I ride a bicycle in a rural area and built a new office this spring. With a trailer, store delivery or a $20 rental I don't think I ever ran into any of the problems you describe. The bicycle has gone hunt camping rain or shine, I dirt bike, street bike and work a rugged job.
If I really needed it I have the wife's sedan which handles -40 winters and 50cm snow drifts just fine. Equipped with a roof rack and small trailer I can move myself just fine if the need is there.
Aside from hauling large trailers or campers I fail to see the utility of a pickup as described. Even when hauling plywood or construction supplies I've opted for the home depot van before even considering a pickup. If I wanted a 2*4 sticking out of the end I would have taken the Sedan anyway.
I think a lot of the truck owner mentality comes down to mental gymnastics or "What if?". Aside from rare use cases it just doesn't seem like the play. Even for yourself you mentioned the pickup is an edge case.
These are all things people consider when talking about truck owners. The rest of the world can see life without pickups, can justify life without pickups and even prefers life without pickups but for some reason... Pickup drivers can't stop talking about them as if they need to justify it to themselves more than to the world.
We'll see but I solved that with a crossover and a trailer. I can tow up to 3500 lbs which covers all of that and I'm more efficient literally any other time.
I did seriously consider a pickup but it just makes no sense day to day
I have a crew cab pickup (half ton), and yeah it has come in handy numerous times over the years. But I do agree those larger, “more rugged”, trucks are not for the people who own them.
What if I never transport people? WTF do I need all these extra seats for? A giant grocery cart in the back is much more useful.
Truck driver has no friends.
Forever alone.
The dream
A cart that's exposed to the weather and leafs and dust. Totally worth it.....
Someone smart should invent a cover!
Or you know... A car with a roof to begin with.....
Can I take the roof off to haul a fridge? Or my taxidermied camel?
A friend transported a pretty big fridge in a Hyundai Tucson the other day
Fucking get a van, then. You wouldn't believe how much shit you can fit into a Renault Master, one of the most popular vehicle in Europe for contractors and other people who need to haul actual stuff, not their inflated ego. And Mercedes V-class has a very nice interior while still being able to haul more than an average american pickup "truck". These vans can haul boats, too, easily.
If I could have bought a work van for around what I paid for my truck, I would have instantly. But around here there are too may idiots buying trucks they can't afford and dumping them later. Used market is way too good to pass up. Now it's paid off and I shouldn't have to worry about that choice for another 10-15 years.
Altho I don't really get why people are so militantly "Get a van! Fuck a truck!". Are you that concerned with other people's form factor choices? Because vans with similar load/tow capacities as trucks are going to be just as big and take up just as much space in traffic. With worse visibility around them; As a pedestrian, a van blocks more of my view of traffic than a pickup.
Get a Mercedes van, just not a truck?
And even for construction purposes, most trucks nowadays are kinda pointless. A 4ft bed is good for hauling like 1 bike placed diagonally, much less a typical sized piece of lumber or plywood.
Can't beg a place to sell you a 6ft bed unless you want to wait for it to come off the manufacturing line.
Don't forget you have to lift that bike like 4ft to get to the tailgate on newer trucks! Can't imagine trying to load a four wheeler on a newer truck without like folding ramps at least 2x the length of the bed so it's not a vertical fucking climb.
I believe it was in a not just bikes video, but he talked about how some large percentage of truck owners openly admitted they never use their beds for hauling.