Why I Don't Own a Truck

[Fred588]

Over the years I've had a number of people, mostly from the southern USA, try to tell me I needed a truck instead of a car. I just the following computation, which pretty clearly answers why they were wrong.

My current car, which has served me very well, cost roughly 15000.00. The lowest price I can find, for an F-150 - stripped, is about 26000.00 or $11000.00 more than the car. Let's round that down to 10k. Last year I moved the contents of a 2200 square foot house to a new one 265 miles away. That move involved about 20 trips using a trailer that has about the same volume capacity as would a pickup, more or less. The trailer cost me $600.00. Prior to last year I did not have a trailer and had never needed one. The per trip cost for the purchase of the trail computes to 600/20, or 30.00 a trip. The trip cost of the additional cost of the truck would have been 10000/20, or 500.00 PER TRIP.

Now if I suppose that I make 20 such trips every year, albeit shorter ones, and do that for ten years, the per trip cost for the truck drops to 10000/200, or $50.00 per trip. but then the cost for the trailer is 600/200, or $3.00 a trip.

[Chimerix]

Owning a truck has nothing to do with practicality. In fact, the most dreaded question a truck owner hears is "what are you doing this weekend?" The truck owner has to think fast, for a friend is about to move and has designs upon the truck owner's wheels.

Owning a truck is about saying "fuck you" to the the low ground clearance of compacts. About saying "fuck you" to the smug fuel efficiency of hybrids and electrics. About saying "fuck you" to the roomy passenger cabins of mini vans and SUVs. It's about having the ability to take you, your stuff, and only one other person to places other people can't go. It's about jumping over curbs to get to choice parking spaces. It's about staking a claim as a rugged individualist in a society of socialist sheep. It's about not slowing down over speed bumps or potholes. It's about sticking your face into someone else's personal space and watching them flinch.

Trucks are not for the timid.

[Duncan Edwards]

If any automobile was about cost of operation then car salesman would be in a world of hurt. Few Americans actually require a 4WD vehicle suitable for military use to navigate the suburban asphalt of their homes but as Chimerix correctly points out that has nothing to do with it. My "compromise truck" is regularly surrounded by rigs that run from $40-$60K but carry their owners to work every day no better than mine. In 1992 I traded my very comfortable Thunderbird for the most basic Toyota pickup. Seeking a little more comfort I upgraded to a 1998 Ford Ranger with a stretch cab. Nothing fancy at all and still a very basic truck. As fuel prices moved toward $4.00 a gallon in 2010 I was going to buy a 40 mpg Ford Fiesta just to drive back and forth to work and my wife disapproved mightily. Basic transportation was my goal although having an automatic transmission and a new sound system would be nice too. My wife had a fit. She believed it was a kids car and very unmanly for me not to be driving at least some kind of truck. In the end we compromised and I bought a new 2010 Ford Ranger with the largest V-6 available after selling the old one to a friend. All of my trucks have seen a lot of action both off-road and for the endless trips to Home Depot that owning an older home requires. They have all been very basic and practical but the point is that my wife and a great many women around here have been sold the belief that not having a truck/SUV of some kind means you have no manhood. Not many guys are going to let that happen.

[Chimerix]

Now, in the spirit of full disclosure, I drive a 1999 4WD Ford Ranger. We bought it secondhand for $8,000 and it has served us well. But we use it. We regularly camp up in the mountains where high ground clearance and 4WD are the price of admission. And we regularly stop to pick up other people's trash from the side of the road on bulky item pickup day.

Personally, I'd love to own a second car, a little two door speck, just for the daily commute. My truck is very truckly, usually covered with mud and dropping clumps of grass from the undercarriage, but it's a bit difficult to maneuver in the congested parking lot that is Honolulu. A two door speck for going out in public would be nice.

[QuicksandMania]

Last year I moved the contents of a 2200 square foot house to a new one 265 miles away. That move involved about 20 trips using a trailer that has about the same volume capacity as would a pickup, more or less.

Could you have just rented a much larger U-Haul truck and moved the contents in far fewer trips for a marginal extra cost?

I remember helping my brother move contents between his house trailer and his in-laws' house in our father's cattle farm pickup truck. It was painful compared to my later use of a U-Haul truck to move my wife's belongings from her aunt's house into my house. Pickup trucks suck for moving households!

Either way, the "practical" math works against pickup trucks for most people most of the time.

[Fred588]

Last year I moved the contents of a 2200 square foot house to a new one 265 miles away. That move involved about 20 trips using a trailer that has about the same volume capacity as would a pickup, more or less.

Could you have just rented a much larger U-Haul truck and moved the contents in far fewer trips for a marginal extra cost?

I remember helping my brother move contents between his house trailer and his in-laws' house in our father's cattle farm pickup truck. It was painful compared to my later use of a U-Haul truck to move my wife's belongings from her aunt's house into my house. Pickup trucks suck for moving households!

Either way, the "practical" math works against pickup trucks for most people most of the time.

They don't make rentable trucks that large. As it was I did rent a 24 foot truck for an additional trip near the end of the move, and it went up full. Besides, I did the move over a six-month period while I was also winding up my career job into retirement - which meant I had to keep the old house livable until the last. In the end, the day my professional duties finally ended and I made what should have been the final trip, I could not quite fit everything in and had to make one more trip two weeks later.

I had, and still have, too much stuff. I left behind a washer, dryer, and two refrigerators (one of which has since been sold) and here I have a stove and a washer-dryer combo sitting on the front porches for sale.

[Mynock]

I use mine.

Hazleton_2.jpg

[Fred588]

I use mine.

I'm not against trucks, per se. If I had a use for one that made sense I'd buy a bull dozer. Or a combine. I buy a vehicle to do a job, such as to get me from point A to point B reliably and safely. So long as it does that I really don't care about anything else. Well, as long as its red.

[Duncan Edwards]

I use mine.

I'm not against trucks, per se. If I had a use for one that made sense I'd buy a bull dozer. Or a combine. I buy a vehicle to do a job, such as to get me from point A to point B reliably and safely. So long as it does that I really don't care about anything else. Well, as long as its red.

.

I feel much the same way. I buy a truck for the required task. As long as it's okay with my wife. Actually this wouldn't be okay with my wife. Never mind.

[Mynock]

I love the Wrangler and will be buying another one (hopefully one of the turbo-diesels) Great for everything from playing in the dirt to getting to work in a blizzard to just cruising around with the doors and the top off. Eats a lot of gas and chews up tires but worth the fun factor.