Utility trailer. I remember ours groaning on its axles when we had a ton of recycled concrete aggregate dumped into it. Nowadays we're more likely to have that sort of thing delivered. OTOH, we're not contractors.
We had a pickup truck. Couldn't grocery shop in the rain. Couldn't carry passengers. Bed filled up with snow in the winter. Not much utility for us.
Cindy Hamilton
Sure it only cost $ 14 for gas. How much did it cost for the car, the insurance, license tag, up keep ?
I don't know what kind of car you got, but if one pays from $ 15,000 to $ 30,000 for a car that is about $ 200 to $ 350 a month for the payments for 5 to 7 years.
If you only take one or two trips with the Uber each week, the Uber seems less expensive. Not as convient , but less costly.
A fellow at work bought a used camper for about $ 25,000 that you drive (whatever those things are called, maybe a RV ) He uses it for a week 2 times a year. He said how much he saved on hotel bills. I told him he could stay in nice hotels for what that camper cost him. It took him about 10 years to finally admitt it costs too much and he sold it. I have nothing against people doing the camping thing if they enjoy it, no matter how much it cost, just don't say you are saving money unless you use it several times each month.
Someone else mentioned a trailer, as well, which we'd have to purchase and find a place to store that's still convenient for when we want to use it, and which would then be towed behind an empty truck. That doesn't make sense for us. We might as well use the truck itself, which we can park on the driveway. We can't park a trailer on the driveway (HOA), and even if we could, that would mean parking a vehicle on the street.
In the last 20 years or so it has become rare to find a truck that doesn't have room behind the front seats, usually containing a second row of seats. We have no problem grocery shopping in the rain and we could carry passengers back there, but I don't think we've ever had a need. We use the SUV for that. I had a truck for all of the years that I lived in Nebraska, Kansas, and Montana, never garaged, and I don't remember a single time that I worried about snow in the bed. We don't do big yard projects in the winter, and the snow will melt on its own.
The best advice I got when I was buying my first new truck was to get one with the space behind the seats. I was looking at the Toyota trucks. I do not need one to use like a truck very often and have a Camry car for the wife to drive or if we want to go somewhere in a car. I was told to get the truck with the space behind the seats. Forget what it is called. There are small bench seats that someone can sit on if the trip is very short like a mile or two and even has the 'clamps' for a baby seat and doors for the back if you open the main door first.
The extra space keeps the truck short while giving a full size bed unlike the ones that have a full back seat.
It gives room under the back 'seats' to store some small things like gloves and emergency tools. I did get one of the $ 30 Harbor Freight tool kits that is in a flat box that lays on the floor. While not very high quality tools, they may be enough to get you by. Like the time I went to a club meeting at night and a 'fan belt' had slipped off someones car . That kit had a 3/8 inch ratchet in it that was needed to put the belt back on.
For me, insurance is the only significant ongoing cost in there. I paid $13,000 cash for my Prelude in 2002 and I have spent about $4000 in maintenance since then, including tires and a paint job. If I round that up to $19,000 it is still only a grand a year.
BTW before Lurndal jumps in there, $340 is a typo, it was $240 for the Uber with the tip. (One way Ft Myers to Pompano Beach)
I agree RVs are a loser unless you are on the road a lot. My neighbor had a Type A pusher and I am a first class airfare, nice hotel kinda guy. We both went to Colorado at the same time. When we got home we compared bills. He sold the RV. It was more like $80k tho and he took a bath on the sale. He wouldn't say what he paid for it but he bragged it was his second home so he could write off the interest.
Fair enough. Everybody's different. If you start from the premise that we hate trucks (which we do), the natural progression is to buy a trailer.
We actually own two trailers. Plenty of room on our HOA-free two acres to park them. Both SUVs are parked in the garage anyway.
Cindy Hamilton
That's why mine has a full cap. Can't cary refrigerators either so I don't get asked toi help "friends" move.
Heh. I got a dishwasher into my 1984 Chevette.
A 4x8 sheet of plywood fit into my husband's 1984 Honda Civic hatchback. Hung out the back, but that's what red flags are for.
Cindy Hamilton
I picked up these "live edge" pieces from a sawmill and got them home with all the doors and hatches closed.
Hate trucks? That's anti-American! :-)
We've never parked a vehicle in our garage at this house. The single stall is for storage of 'garage stuff' while the double stall is my woodworking shop. The vehicles live on the driveway.
I watched a guy figure out how to haul about 20 20-ft sections of PVC pipe the other day at Home Depot. He slid the bundle under his pickup, tying one end to his rear hitch and the other end to his front bumper. The middle was lightly dragging the pavement, and that's before he even started moving. I wonder how things looked by the time he got home.
The only American brand we've owned since 1988 was the pickup truck. We got rid of it as soon as it was paid for (3-year loan). Part of the motivation was that there was something wrong with the transmission.
Different priorities. We have a two-car garage for the cars, a building twice that size for the shop, and a big shed for the mower. More outbuildings than house.
Cindy Hamilton
I guess his truck was too pretty to tie them over the roof. That is how I got the well pipe home.
Lowes used to, out in the garden center but the last time I looked they didn't. I ended up at a plumbing supply.
On Wed, 18 Aug 2021 16:57:43 -0400, Clare Snyder posted for all of us to digest...
You're right Clare, I just thought about the Volvo XC90 that's a station wagon.
On Wed, 18 Aug 2021 15:37:39 -0500, Jim Joyce posted for all of us to digest...
WAA, you can't put it on the roof? ;-)
On Wed, 18 Aug 2021 23:19:57 -0400, snipped-for-privacy@aol.com posted for all of us to digest...
So you walk? ;-)
On Thu, 19 Aug 2021 10:22:03 -0500, Jim Joyce posted for all of us to digest...
I had a truck that I used to carry bundled newspapers in the back. Rain or snow traction got better. Now I can't lift my legs high enough to even get on the running board.
On Thu, 19 Aug 2021 13:03:29 -0400, Clare Snyder posted for all of us to digest...
Cunning devil you...
On Fri, 20 Aug 2021 00:36:50 -0500, Jim Joyce posted for all of us to digest...
I believe there is some sites or on U tube that devote themselves to these 'ingenious minds'
Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.
Ask the community — no account required