How many really use their truck

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This topic was brought up in another topic. How many of you truck owners really use their truck bed? For work I use mine on a bi-weekly basis to haul fencing material, (rock lately), and a few otehr thing, tools, shovels and the dog. I use the 4x4 weekly though. I could get by in 2wd but i would have some deep ruts to deal with later. I tow a trailer every once in while, but lately I have not towed a thing do to being broke and cant rent the equipment.

I could get by with a compact pickup 4x4 but the gas mileage is about 16mpg for what ive read in the prices i can afford.Currently im getting 13mpg with a full size 3/4 ton.

Please dont turn this topic off into an enviroment issue.
 
I probably don't use my truck anywhere near as much as you, but it does get used. This is the reason I have a reg cab w/ an 8 ft bed, because I bought it to be used as a truck. I also use 4x4 in the winter because the city does'nt like to plow the roads between 10 pm and 6 am and we have alot of hills around here.

I also choose not to get a smaller pickup because of the fact that gas mileage was about even, the bed space is quite a bit smaller, and I am a bigger guy, 6'1" - 230 lbs. I just feel way to cramped in the smaller trucks.
 
I use my Dakota, but only about 1300 miles a year. The Rotella 5w40 in it now went in Oct 2003.
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Trash, firewood, lumber, sheetrock... it gets worked out.
 
I use my 1987 E150 every couple of months but it hasn't been off the property for about a year. I like to paint and do bodywork inside of it when it is cold out. It has a heater and hasn't run out of gas idleing on me yet!
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It only gets 8-10 mpg when I have her loaded to the gunnels. It can hold as much as 3 minivans and tow a big trailer so I like it. I have a Suzuki GS1100E bike and a diesel VW car to use for normal getting around.

Cheers, Steve
 
I don't particularly like pick-ups. I only have one because I need it. If I drive it, I'm loaded with garbage, lumber, pipe, etc. That's really why I have it, to use the open bed.
 
Since I have a hard tonneau cover on my Frontier, I keep golf clubs back there all the time. Never can tell when you are on the road, when the urge will hit you.
 
I don't know how I could own a home and not have a pickup. My truck bed gets used constantly. Either using it to haul landscape materials, brush, trash or other menial chores or getting loaded up with toys to go on a 4x4 fishing adventure. It''s also nice when Buying large items like deep freezers, and furniture.

I for one could not live without the utility of a pickup truck. When I was a young apartment dweller I made due with a subcompact car.
 
I use my car to haul things more then most people use their trucks. I've hauled, step bars, tents, transmissions, chairs, boxes, animals, exhaust systems, you name it.

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Ditto. With my 85 Omni I took out the back seat and hauled all kinds of stuff, including furniture, mattresses, roofing, firewood, etc.
 
I bought my truck for the volume and the diesel, so the load capacity was 'free'. As it turns out I do need the load capacity (Dodge 2500) for even hauling people, as we've had 7 people with camping gear on long trips and 9 people with coolers and camping food on short trips. The canopy, seats with custom 1/4in steel mounting brackets, tools, etc., that are always in the truck also eat some capacity. Even on day trips we often end up with 6 or 7 and a large dog, as we're a family of five and the kids bring a friend or two.

The last time that we pruned trees and shrubs I ended up with about 6 loads to take to the local recycler, and we get pressed into hauling larger loads for some events. It's handy for firewood too.
 
The Omni!!!

My first car was an 81 Dodge Omni. Total POS. Like some kind of crude Russian version of a VW Rabbit. Almost as though someone had given the Chrysler engineers a grainy satellite photo of a VW and told "Build us one"

But two great things. Boy could that thing haul. Not as in haul @**. Haul stuff. More than once I carried an entire band's gear. Drumkit, two Amps, and a couple of geeeetars. Rode so low I had sparks flying, but it took the gear.

Second great thing. It was so unbelievably terrible it really taught you how to drive. You had to pay 100% attention in snow or rain.

While the Omni was a terrible example of the breed, it did illustrate that even a terrible hatchback is useful. Why do North Americans seem to hate hatchbacks? At least, it seems by the shrinking range of chaoices available here that we do.

quote:

Originally posted by Kestas:
Ditto. With my 85 Omni I took out the back seat and hauled all kinds of stuff, including furniture, mattresses, roofing, firewood, etc.

 
quote:

Originally posted by goodoleboy:
This topic was brought up in another topic. How many of you truck owners really use their truck bed? For work I use mine on a bi-weekly basis to haul fencing material, (rock lately), and a few otehr thing, tools, shovels and the dog. snip....

My dogs ride in the cab. Peggy could nose print the top of the windshield sitting on the floor. Usually I make they ride there, but old, spoiled Aster gets to ride on the seat when I am in a good mood. She always the seat if I have another dog along.
 
I always do!!! The first things I do are put some scratchs in the bed adn then take it off road to get it as muddy as I can!

I will admit thought that I used a self applied polymer bed liner. Everyone that saw it thought that it was a spray on. The same day I but it on the box and rails I got it up on two wheel off roading.
 
The eight foot bed holds a slide-in camper about half the time. At other times has taken topsoil by the cubic yard, pine needles from yard cleanup, bagged cement, gravel, stucco, manure, plants, sod, lumber, you name it. Most people in the city keep trucks spotless and useless and hire illegals to do real hauling. I am a "hands-on" landlord right now.

The truck is not my daily driver due to poor gas mileage and only accumulates about 4000 miles a year. It gets one oil change a year, Chevron dino, of course.
 
I havent been driving my truck much lately. I think I have had 15000-15100 miles on it for the last 2 months. Consequently I drive it mostly on the highway, for a big, safe, smooth ride. I have hauled sofas, bedroom sets, etc., across the state a couple of times though. Been alternating between my two daily drivers (cars) in town.
 
I bought a used 2001 Dodge Ram this past fall and generally haul a few loads of odds and ends weekly working as a general contractor on house remodelling. I hire the contractors for their time and experience and keep them moving by being the guy who "goes and gets it".

That said, most miles are empty.

But a car (my real preference) wouldn't work at all without a trailer and health keeps me from doing any serious loading/unloading for which I hire day laborers.

A pickemup works out fine for now, espcially as a deductible business expense partially underwriting its cost.

I also loan it out to friends and family as they need it.
 
I used to own trucks when I lived way up in MI average snowfall up there is 180" so a 4X4 in the house just make sense especially since out of town plowing is done just ahead of the schoolbus and not much otherwise. I used the beds some but now have gotten by with large cars. Current daily driver is a 95 Roadmaster wagon 4X8 sheet goods fit with the gate closed I just have to move the front seats ahead a tad, 5000lbs. tow rating, 92 cubid feet of cargo room, seating and belts for 9
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, the LT1 provides adequate motivation
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and impressive milage for a 4700lbs. empty car, lowest recorded yet is a tad over 18mpg. I am thinking of getting a small utility trailer for yard waste and the like, but for the most part this thing serves pretty well as a truck. It also cost me a whole lot less than a truck would with heated leather and power everything. Before I go the wagon I was debating getting an S10 or the like because with a home a truck in the family makes sense, most of us will not use the bed even every week but when you need it you need it and there isn't always a relative or the like to help you out.
 
If I could get a full-size wagon again, with a mid-size block (383-400 cid) like the great Dodge/Chrylser/Plymouth wagons of the late 1960's and early 1970's I'd never have chosen a pickup.

The wagons were great and I got rid of my last one (less than full size, 1977 Chev Impala [it would have been the mid-size in above years]) in 1995.

Haul it all, do it all.

My 2001 Dodge truck has, essentially, the exact same brakes, rear axle, transmission and towing capacity. But it **** sure is slow compared to a B/RB Wedge-powered wagon . . and gets the same mileage. Nor does it handle as well, ride as well, etc.

Somehow, 5000-lbs got moved around a lot easier with 400+ ft/lbs torque; something this 318 couldn't even dream of.
 
"How many of you truck owners really use their truck bed?"

My observations would say less than 1%, other than the bubbas who use it as a self-cleaning trashcan.
 
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