Trucks...

[MJ5150]

That's no ordinary wagon, Mike. The Volvo DL wagons have so much room under the hood that a V8 swap is almost a given.

The ultimate sleeper and one of the cars on my bucket list.

Nope, it's just a wagon.
It's seldom I disagree with you on anything automotive related, but I need to stand my ground here for the sake of truck owners worldwide.

-Mike

 

[Mike N]

Nope, it's just a wagon.
It's seldom I disagree with you on anything automotive related, but I need to stand my ground here for the sake of truck owners worldwide.

-Mike

How about I put a front axle and a set of 38's under it??

 

[MJ5150]

How about we forget about the station wagons and talk about trucks?
Youn'z can start your own soccer mom and station wagon thread.

-Mike

 

[elgecko]

I just got back from a 5 day trip to the Eastern Sierra.

 

[mikeoso]

Been a truck guy (or Jeeps) most of my life. My current stable has two Rams; my personal ride is a '97 1500 standard cab 4x4 with a 5.9. If it were a bass we'd call it reliced...massive dents, rust, etc. The company car is an '06 1500 4x4 Bighorn quadcab with a hemi.

 

[Chad Michael]

Not 'anti - truck' but they really are not efficient or convenient daily - driven transportation. Price license tabs, brakes, shocks, tires, oil changes, air filters, fuel inefficiency, etc. compared to a car or SUV. But when you need to do work... I only have one to tow the pig sled barge. '08 Dodge 2500

 

[Chad Michael]

If you've ever owned a boat (especially a jet boat with a big block v-8) you would see the irony of me complaining about the cost of operating the truck.

 

[MJ5150]

I agree @Chad Michael about them not being all that convenient, but that's OK by me. It is what I like to drive.

-Mike

 

[GIBrat51]

View attachment 892038 My first truck was one of these - and one of only 2 trucks that I've ever owned. Mine had the GTI engine, close-ratio 5-speed, and 15" alloy wheels - and a white shell. If I could have gotten the seat back one more notch, I'd probably still have the thing. It was just about perfect for what I needed a truck for. Towed a one-rail motorcycle trailer just fine, too. When I sold it (with 93,000 miles on it), there was an actual knock-down, drag-out fist fight over it, between 4 guys who wanted it. I naturally sold it to the winner...
My only other truck was a silver '93 Ford F150 extended cab 4x4. A real Cowboy Cadillac, that my wife drove off into the sunset with, a couple days after the divorce. It was a nice truck - but I'd rather have the VW back...

Well, 6 months after I posted ^this^...

I traded in a 10 year old diesel VW Beetle for my 3rd truck; a 2016 Nissan Frontier Pro-4X. For me, it's practical enough - for something with 4 wheels. I ride one of my motorcycles about 98% of the time, anyway, so unless it's too cold and/or too rainy; I need groceries; or it's time for it's monthly trip down a dirt road in 4WD, it stays in the garage. It has 12,400 miles on it as of tonight, but if it hadn't made two meandering trips to Indiana to visit friends, I doubt it would have 4,000 miles on the clock. I bought it for when I retire and (probably) move to South Bend, IN. Might tow a small travel trailer with it; might not. I'll for sure pull a motorcycle trailer with it, though. But, the 4WD will come in handy in the snow, anyway...

 

[Joshua]

I've been a truck guy for a couple of decades now. We bought our first in early 1999, ordered new a F150XL that looked very close to:

Unfortunately we were not very diligent on washing the New England salt off the underside and in very late 2016 the bottom basically rusted out. Totally our fault and a real shame as it ran great and only had @ 125K miles. So we went and bought (again not my pic but it's pretty much an exact match):

We're @ 2 years in and loving it. My wife wanted the color and extended cab, I wanted the boring ol' 6 cylinder. I'm not a fan of turbos, at least in a truck. More stuff to go wrong, and I'm dragging garbage to the landfill not trying to shave three tenths of a second off my quarter mile time. And the 8 cylinder got substantially worse mileage, for HP and torque I'd never need (and substantially more cost).

 

[slobake]

I love trucks, always had one since I started driving in 1986. This is my 2002 Ram. I bought it in 2005. It has a 360 in it, so I get about 10MPG. The interior is more like a car with heated leather seats and power all around. I added the canopy and had the rims powdercoated right before we moved.

View attachment 2008127

Here's a link to the thread when I got the bumpers and rims powdercoated: Powdercoating?

This is my pops 1951 Chevy he restored. It looked decent when he got it from my uncle, but he replaced the cab, all the glass, put a new wood deck in the bed, did a bunch of bodywork, and fixed up the interior. I'm not much of a mechanic, so I helped with the interior upgrades like running cable for Bluetooth and USB and did some upholstery work.

View attachment 2008128

-Mike

Sure miss my 49 Chevy 1/2 ton. Put a 1952 straight six engine in the truck because the newer engines had an oil pump. Wasn't great on gas, had a top speed of 55-mph. No power steering and you needed to be Hercules to get into a tight parking spot plus it had leaf springs and rode the his chariot. I still loved the quirky truck. It was simple enough that almost anyone who knew which end of the wrench to hold could work on it.
It was geared so low that it almost felt like you could drive it up a cliff in first gear (well, almost anyway).
Mine was a Vista View the deluxe model in 49. This is not my old truck but mine did have the cool windows on the side. His name was Chuck.
Sold him when I moved from San Francisco to the East Coast, you wouldn't want to drive an old truck like this across the country. It was a fun truck but wasn't practical. More of a hobby than good transportation.

 

[fretter]

I "designed" a truck today. Man, the extras sure add up quick.

 

[Mike N]

View attachment 3200381 Not 'anti - truck' but they really are not efficient or convenient daily - driven transportation. Price license tabs, brakes, shocks, tires, oil changes, air filters, fuel inefficiency, etc. compared to a car or SUV. But when you need to do work... I only have one to tow the pig sled barge. '08 Dodge 2500

My 03 Duramax is getting nearly 20 mpg...... far better than any gas powered truck of the same size.

I drive it daily, it's comfortable, efficient and a fun ride. I drove it 300 miles last weekend for my son's wedding and used just over a 1/2 tank of fuel.

 

[Mike N]

I'm not a fan of turbos, at least in a truck. More stuff to go wrong, and I'm dragging garbage to the landfill not trying to shave three tenths of a second off my quarter mile time.

I wish I had a pic of the single turbo S-10 we screwed together in the mid 2000's. 406 cube small block and one hairdryer, the thing went 7.50's in the quarter on a simple tune up. We had more left, but the chassis was mild steel and wouldn't certify to anything quicker than 7.49

 

[Mike N]

If you've ever owned a boat (especially a jet boat with a big block v-8) you would see the irony of me complaining about the cost of operating the truck.

For years we stood around at the dragstrip complaining about the cost of fuel for the tow rigs....... meanwhile, race fuel is $10 a gallon.

 

[Chad Michael]

Mike N - you paid a hefty premium for that wonderful motor, and the diesel is more expensive per gallon than the gassssssss. Tell me when it pays for itself...

The "I'm saving money" argument doesn't work. Drive a truck if you like driving a truck. It's perfectly ok <c:

Diesel pickups only save $$ when they run all day every day. Commercial use.

 

[drummer5359]

My daily driver is a 2015 Ford Edge SEL, but I've owned a few nice pickups over the years. The end of August someone ran into my Edge in a forty space parking lot with only three vehicles in it. Sigh.

It took nearly two months to get a check from her insurance company and get an appointment to have it repaired. I dropped it off at the local Ford Dealership, an Enterprise car rental representative met me their with a 2018 Ford pickup to use for four days. I got in the truck and it smelled like someone had hauled a couple of bails of "Jazz Cabbage" in the back seat. It reeked.

I picked up my brother on our way to rehearsal that night, he laughed like hell when he got in the truck. If we had gotten pulled over they would have cuffed us and taken that truck apart.

I returned it four days later. The woman at the counter asked if everything went okay. "Honestly, I can't wait to get in my car again." She answered that a lot of people don't like driving unfamiliar vehicles. I replied, "I didn't have a problem with that, but the truck smelled like someone had hauled a couple of bails of weed in it." Everyone in the office broke up laughing. The gentleman who originally wrote me up for the repair asked, "So you are saying that you know what it smells like?" I said, "I'm a musician, of course I know what it smells like!"

 

[MJ5150]

My 03 Duramax is getting nearly 20 mpg...... far better than any gas powered truck of the same size.

I drive it daily, it's comfortable, efficient and a fun ride. I drove it 300 miles last weekend for my son's wedding and used just over a 1/2 tank of fuel.

I'm jealous of that 20 MPG.
I just took the Dodge to Portland and back, about 250 miles round trip. I used a full tank of gas and averaged 11.3 MPG.
I don't like being on the freeway with anything less than a quarter tank, so I filled up before I left Portland to head home.

-Mike

 

[Joshua]

I wish I had a pic of the single turbo S-10 we screwed together in the mid 2000's. 406 cube small block and one hairdryer, the thing went 7.50's in the quarter on a simple tune up. We had more left, but the chassis was mild steel and wouldn't certify to anything quicker than 7.49

Ha! Now that's what I'm talking about!

I "designed" a truck today. Man, the extras sure add up quick.

View attachment 3201259 View attachment 3201260

I actually would have opted for the regular cab myself, but my wife wanted the extended. And you ain't kidding about costs. We bought ours off the lot and haggled down hard to a price we were comfortable with, but that sticker had a ridiculous price on it!

 

[Mike N]

I'm jealous of that 20 MPG.
I just took the Dodge to Portland and back, about 250 miles round trip. I used a full tank of gas and averaged 11.3 MPG.
I don't like being on the freeway with anything less than a quarter tank, so I filled up before I left Portland to head home.

-Mike

I'm lovin' it. The best we ever got with our gas powered trucks was 14 mpg. Heck, even my 04 Subaru Forester (winter beater) is lucky to get 23-24 mpg and that's a 2.5 liter 4 cylinder.

For now the diesel is my DD.