Yes! Length, With the tail gate down the Sheet extends 12". The beds are only 12" shorter than my Tundra. As long as the lumber is mostly supported by the bed and open tail gate you can easily haul lumber up to
12 feet with out much thought. Even easier if you have a sheet of plywood under the lumber, all but 4 feet of a 12 footer is supported.
And you can haul a sheet of plywood in a Honda Ridgeline with the tail gate down. IIRC about 18" extends past the end of the tailgate.
I worked for a GM dealer and if you had vehicles that did not require much work you were lucky. My first GMC High Siera, a 79 350 long bed was basic. It had AC, AT,PB's and PS. I do not recall haveing much work done to it but 10 mpg on the highway was staggering. And most of my driving was in the city, much worse. I could go about 300 miles, in town on 2, 20 gallon tanks.
My 97 Silverado had all of the above, 305 engine, plus PW, and PDL's and extended cab, short bed.
I had the heater hose, the one with the special fitting on the end replaced 3 times, intake manifold gasket replaced 2 times, and 2 alternators.
Not too bad but that is the way GM opperates dont improve the part next year just keep using the same part that goes bad.
I had a 72 Vega, what can I say? Got rid of it at about 50K.
I had a 75 Olds Starfire. replaced clutch 23 times, replaced clutch cable 1 time, replaced ignition/distributor/coil one time, replaced heater core 1 time. And that was one of my best. got rid of it at about 97K.
83 Cutlass Ciera, replaced engine one time, steering rack & pinion 1 time, heater core 1 time. Got rid of it at about 49K.I mentioned the 2 GM trucks.
Tried VW 2 times and got rid of both, one had 17K the other had about 46K
After that I went Japanese.
89 Acura Integra, 1 Heater Core and only Maintenance First vehicle to go well past 100K.87 Isuzu Trooper, Only maintenance.
04 Accord. Only maintenance.07 Tundra, Maintenance and a brake light switch and water pump while still under warranty. Recently the serpentine belt and belt tensioner.
202 Camry SE V6. First car ever that I never had any warranty work done. Only maintenance.IMHO Ford is still doing well but the new RAM is out selling the NEW Silverado and the new Silverado has not done much different with the recent rebuild except finally centering the steering wheel with the drivers seat and now offer a 4 cyl engine.
GM seems to be copying Toyota's philosophy, don't make any changes that might appeal to the majority. The interiors of their NEW trucks still suck.
You may have the podium. ;~)
On 6/2/2019 1:48 PM, Leon wrote: ...
Used the '28 regularly until the '60s...it's what I learned to drive in. Unfortunately, while my brother and I were away at college Dad sold it to a restorer so don't still have it. :(
Ones I can remember and name included '39, '48, '57, '58, '59, '79(?), '88 grain trucks from 1-1/2T to the tandem. Of course, now everything has shifted to much larger capacity and using semis rather than bobtails for serious hauling.
First PU was '58 Fleetside w/ manual 4 on floor (wish still had it, too)...altho I can't name all of them specifically as at one time were as many as 4-5 on the place at once...the '86 "town truck" Silverado still had only 38K on it when we came back in 2000. I gave my '72 C10 Fleetside (mutard yellow/white) had in VA/TN to pipefitter/plumber friend when we came back...I did put new rings in it at about 250K was only thing ever had to do to it. AFAIK he's still got it altho haven't asked for a while...there was on mid-70s that I recall that was just too ugly a tan/brown color that is probably reason it didn't have the heart to last. :) It was the one that body rusted out on in just a few years that is the only one of the whole lot I'd say was a "lemon". And, all of them with the exception of just the one or two that were dad's "town" trucks were "rode hard and put up wet" in not being coddled and used roughly for farm.
Still use the '58 C60 regularly as seed tender and for cleanup work around the place. Only work ever done on it is brakes. The odometer did fail around 130K years ago so have no idea how many miles it actually has...doesn't go a long way at a time any more, but I'd have no qualms going anywhere in it this afternoon (if I changed oil first, etc., ...).
'84 Delta 88 did throw rod bearing but I blame that totally on QS oil after I pulled intake and saw what sludge it had done...rebuilt it (350 Chevy engine) and it went to 300K last I knew...donated it eventually to some returning friends who had been on mission trip and needed something when came back to States.
The '88 88 also had almost 300K on it with no mechanical issues (did have to have AC compressor replaced under warranty when was new--a machine cutting got left in during manufacture). The headliner had finally fallen in it, though, so it wasn't still perfect when daughter decided to not pay to have the interior redone. :) A friend of hers used it w/o for quite a number of years altho I suppose by now it has probably been retired...
I've had almost universal good service from GM -- altho folks had a bug-eye 60 Buick when was a kid that never failed us on a trip but several times threw a water pump not long after returning from a long trip. Dad got fed up and traded it off -- the mechanic at the dealership bought it, put one more water pump on it and drove it for another 10-15 years without another failure. I _think_ it's still in town altho it has been in storage for last 10 year or so--I don't believe they've yet had the estate sale of his collection.
Just may have been lucky, but I certainly have no complaints as a whole against GM...
Garage Man's Companion That's what GMC stands for. Kept bread on the table of many a mechanic - and the new pnes are not much if any better than the older ones. From the late seventies on they have declined significantly in build quality - anf the "financial engineers" have gotten more input then the "automotive engineers"
Did you own it long enough for the cam to go flat? pr the valve guides to waller out?
You got away lucky
About 20K too late? The fact that GM managed to sell the second Vega to many owners says a lot about "blind brand Loyalty"
Fancied up Chevy Monza - which was a recycled Vega.
Mainstream GM product - par for the course. Basically a fancied up X-car -like the Citation. The joke at the time was "how can the call it an ex-car when it never was a car?" It was a bold move by GM into the front wheel drive "common man's car" - but after 3 years of production of the "X" the "A" didn't fix any of the problems.
Then there was the "T" - the Chevette "world car". The joke was GM only made one mistake on the chevette - it needed dual exhaust - because it's hard to push a wheelbarrow with only one handle.- Nickname? The "shovette"
I don't think I've sold a vehicle with less than 100000 miles (160,000km)
call that an improvement? Their 5 cyl would likely have been better.
But at least the rest of the Toyota has something going for it.
And the 6.0 / 6.2 engines are timebombs. The 5.3 wasn't much better with cyl heads that may as well have been made of glass for as often and easily as they cracked. My brother hates them, but up around Huntsville Ont they are pretty common and they pay the bills.
If you can keet the body on them and don't twist the frame to a pretzel the cummins Ram is pretty much bulletproof - and the hemiis not far behind. They had some front end problems on the 4X4 2500 and
3500 but the aftermarket solved that very effectively (death wobble issues)
Other than rust problems the 58 Apache was a solid truck
Mid seventies saw the quality decline something awfull Neighbors 74? you could watch rust away as it sat on the driveway. He got a lot of highway miles on it - but it spent a lot of shop time - and at about
600000 he finaly let it lie down - it had basically died long before -- - Not sure what year it;s replacement was but it died at about 6 years or so - the engine and body both let go about the same time
The end of an era -
He likely got smart and put a new fan on it - or mabee he finally HAD to. Not an uncommon problem
Personall I've had a few - a '28 National sedan, a 35 Master, a '72 (Vauxhall) firenza, and a 95 Pontiac Trans Sport. oh - and a '57 210 and a 67 chevy 2 and a 61 buick Invicta that I only owned for about a week each - - - The Firenza wa likey the best of the lot which is not saying much. Didn't put many miles on the 28 or the 35 but the TransSport nickeled and dimed me to death $50 and $100 dollars at a time. Of all the vehicles I've ever owned that one irritated me the most. I REALLY TRIED to like that van - - - -but it just wouldn't let me. Likely more issues with that vehicle than with all 10 of my Chrysler products combined. Or my 6 fords. Heck, my PEUGEOT gve me less trouble.
Fixing or listenning to my friends' issues with their GMs makes me happy I haven't owned more of them.
Having ate, breathed, and you know what, I though GM was pretty goo too. And no complaints. I thought what had gone wrong with them was just normal for any vehicle. Our family, aunts and uncles only drove GM products. And I was the service sales manager for the dealership, my vehicles were not neglected. I actually retired from the automotive industry.
My really biggest complaint against GM was that the dealer had to eat a big portion of warranty parts and labor. The parts were indeed defective, but the factory only paid for a percentage of the same repairs. Why only a percentage? Because we were replacing more than the average for our zone. Why were we replacing more than our zone? Because the factory was sending the upset customers to us, from other dealers in the zone.
My salary was also based on gross profit for the service department. Every time the factory rejected a repair the parts and labor that the dealer ate also came out of my paycheck.
Preaching to the choir brother.
Well actually the Cutlass Ciera was an A Body. The full sized Cutlass was the A body and changed to the G body when the Cutlass Ciera came out. IDIOTS!!!! why did they not simply leave the RWD Cutlass an A body and call the FWD Cutlass a G body. Classic example of the stupidity that GM spewed. GM parts catalogs were hard enough to read as it was but that just complicated matters worse.
I don't call that improvement but they do, I think.
Absolutely, GM does not realize that they have to build in quality.
I suspect the new 1500 Rams have addressed the death wobble. I never was a Chrysler product enthusiast but now that Ram is it's own division I suspect things will change with their quality and sales.
While I don't need 4WD I will likely get it for emergencies. I understand that you pretty much get that investment back when selling the vehicle.
1500 didn't have the problem to the extent the bigger ones did - particularly the 4X4
It had no rust when Dad traded it...of course, W KS is relatively dry but it ran through all the mud and lots with manure and all for 10+ years.
I really do miss it, specifically...
...
We never had significant mechanical issues and that one butt-ugly-brown one is the only one I recall that had such terrible rust issues...but, I also know that dad avoided any more new pickups until they changed that body style so the rust problems went away...that's a case where I'll grant GM had a problem for a while that we avoided other than getting bit once simply by not having another of the particular ilk.
But, I remember the neighbors with all Fords that had far worse issues, too... :)
Close...I've been intending to repaint it as the paint has baked down to the bare metal on the hood and cab tops owing to so much time sitting in the wheat fields during harvest during the baking summer heat...I hauled a lot of loads to town in "Ol' Blue" back then and then others followed for 30 more years before it got demoted to second string with the tandem and a 40-ft Freuhoff trailer...but, it's perfect size for seed tender and for trash pickup around the place because it's not so tall but what can reach over the bed rails (w/o the high tops, anyways).
...
We had Chrysler products for cars early on; dad followed the salesman when he moved to the Buicks from the '53 New Yorker to the '60 LeSabre. The '64 LeSabre was the best sedan I've ever seen/had/driven other than Lexus or the like. I'd take a new one of them tomorrow.
Bought '99 300M when moved to farm as a road car while making the transition to KS from TN and knew would make many trips...new, it was the quietest touring sedan I could find w/o spending twice the money and was excellent for what got it for. _TERRIBLE_ mud car on dirt roads, however, shifter linkage always dragging and no traction. I kept it for about 5 year but by then the interior dash had cracked and we had pretty much got resettled. Got '10 Enclave w/ AWD that has better road clearance that Lynda uses as the mud car when gets bad. We upgraded the folks' last LeSabre at 200K to the last year of the full-size Lucerne...it's been reliable but not as fuel efficient with the 3.5 as was the old 3.8 as it's geared lower--altho I suppose one could have had options there if bought new instead of finding the last low-mileage one could find in the area.
Not sure what will do next -- there's nothing of decent size being made any longer by anybody. :(
Good grief! The "Platinum edition" is "silly money on not much more than paint". Are you really that dumb?
Agreed and that was my point, more or less. There isn't a $15K difference between the two trucks. More like $4000, with another $11,000 "ego option".
I never understood that one. I'd rather have an Expedition (same chassis, SUV). I do have a soft tonneau cover for mine. It keeps things dry and out of sight, at least, but doesn't get in the way of actually using the truck.
I guess you are.
Wasn't my point. My point was that you can't pile every wizbang on one vehicle and compare it to another vehicle that's stripped. Compare apples with apples. The difference between a Ranger and a SIMILARLY EQUIPPED F150 is not all that large.
I *think* I could have done it with my truck. I have one of these for it:
That gets me 12' from the front of the bed to the support. Another 4' is do-able but I'd be nervous.
LOL!
I asked the question to figure out the width of the Ranger. It can't be all that much narrower than the F150 if you there is >48" between the wheel wells. Sounds like it's about the same size.
OK, it's like a short-bed F150? Don't like that a bit.
I do the reverse. I put lumber under the ply to make it easier to offload and weight down longer lumber. An 8' sheet doesn't extend past the end of my tail gate.
Ah yes the insulting is your go to move, you are regressing into a petulant child.
I just have them deliver
No, though perhaps stating the obvious.
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