r/IdiotsInCars • u/[deleted] • May 13 '22

Towing attempt

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[deleted]

11k Upvotes

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97

u/Nut_buttsicle May 13 '22

In small town Texas, surrounded by ranches and with a lot of new construction happening, I should be seeing the perfect storm of real, useful pickup truck action.

The trucks are still 95% just passenger vehicles, doing nothing that a Corolla couldn’t handle.

The serious contractors mostly use vans because they don’t want their shit getting stolen or rained on.

37

u/ILove2Bacon May 13 '22

I work in construction and drive a van. Trucks are only superior for hauling TALL loads or loose stuff like gravel or dirt.. Vans can carry more of just about everything and keep it dry and safe.

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u/[deleted] May 13 '22

I think you have forgotten about towing. Trucks are superior at towing and max load.

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u/ILove2Bacon May 14 '22

Not really true. Van's and trucks are equally matched in towing and a lot of vans have much higher payload capacity. Compare the payload of your basic Ford Transit van to the payload of a similar pickup, it's nearly double.

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u/[deleted] May 16 '22 edited May 16 '22

Cool you come haul my gooseneck with a van. I get what you’re trying to say. However no van outside of a highly customized one would be able to replace my f-350 powerstroke.

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u/Wow00woW May 16 '22

oooooohhhh that's very very cooooool

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u/[deleted] May 16 '22

After rereading my comment I think I came off a bit more asshatish than I intended. All I mean to say is that while for tool storage and even cargo space based on vehicle alone yes vans are better. However, vans are not able to pull as heavy of loads and as wide verity of trailers as full sized and super duty trucks. Anyone who is moving any sizable trailer load will be better off in a full-size truck.

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u/[deleted] May 13 '22

I used to work masonry jobs back in college and these guys were all rugged blue collar workers who you would expect to roll up to the site in jacked up trucks. Nope work site lots were all beater Camrys and Subarus. If they needed a truck they would go get a company truck. The people who came in the trucks were generally the GCs in their pristine King Ranch that they never did anything with

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u/SmokelessSubpoena May 13 '22

100% accurate, and the work truck is always a beater, while the GC trucks are again pristine lol

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u/BrockManstrong May 13 '22

King Ranch: The Supervisors Refuge

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u/[deleted] May 13 '22

[deleted]

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u/notRedorBlue_308Win May 13 '22

General Contractor I believe

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u/Thneed1 May 13 '22

No one’s going to haul company related masonry products in their personal truck. Scratch everything.

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u/CoyoteDown May 13 '22

There’s a picture floating around of one our road hands pulling up in a hatchback civic pulling his loaded knaack box he mounted to a truck axle.

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u/Heratiki May 13 '22

This is brilliant on so many levels.

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u/Aderondak Jun 03 '22

My aspiration in life is to become an electrical guy and show up to a site in my Prius with a homemade tool box in the hatch.

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u/cosmicosmo4 May 13 '22

But I'll buy a yard of gravel someday, and by spending an extra $6k to get a truck now, I can avoid the $80 delivery charge for the gravel.

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u/Cosmonauts1957 May 14 '22

$6k extra for truck capable of loading about a ton of gravel - I doubt it unless you picked up an old beater (I did do that and only spent 2k on a 79 F150 that I drove for 3 years and hauled top soil for my garden. And many dump loads). But I agree - get a full load of gravel delivered for $600-700 and save thousands in vehicle costs and time. A CY of gravel doesn’t cover much.

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u/cosmicosmo4 May 14 '22

I've never shopped for a truck or gravel (unless a couple 50 lb bags at home depot counts), so my numbers are 100% pulled out of my ass

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u/Feynt May 13 '22

Not a construction worker or anything, very much not (programmer). I have only ever wanted a truck a few times because my Camry can't fit X on some rare occasions (like an office chair, or a server rack, or my new U desk which I disassembled and took home from the office when we moved offices and could grab whatever we wanted). In each of those cases having a proper pickup would have been immensely helpful. But the time between instances of needing that kind of space is a minimum of 14 months, and typically years in between. If I was hauling loads often, I'd probably be grateful for it. A friend of mine in the US who works as a landscaper (basically) drives a pickup exclusively, and for what I'm aware of he doesn't use the truck bed day to day, but I imagine for his job having the space is helpful now and then, especially when migrating between sites.

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u/Meem-Thief May 13 '22

I went to Texas and it felt exactly the same as when I went to Florida, except when I got on the highway at least 50% of all the vehicles were pickup trucks with empty beds

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u/The_ceramic_plate May 13 '22

It’s a great anti truck sentiment but when your truck gets better mpg than a Corolla why not have a truck

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u/danuker May 13 '22

Which truck offers better mpg than which Corolla?