Transcription
A picture of a hand holding remote car keys pointed at a white pickup truck. Below that is the text:
In the US, 75% of truck owners tow only once a year or less. Nearly 70% of them go off-road once a year or less. Additionally, 35% of truck owners haul something in their truck beds once a year or less
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A guy at work has a massive truck, and once had a bunch of bags of wood pellets delivered to the office.
As he wrangled a bunch of low level employees to help him load it all up, he exclaimed “I can fit two tons in the back of this!”
“I can have things delivered to my house” I replied.
It’s $100 minimum to get anything delivered from the hardware store a mile from my house. It’s $20 rent a pickup from U-haul for their 4 hour minimum. I do that maybe 4X per year. I drive a little electric car now, but when I had a Prius V (station wagon one) with the seats folded down I could fit as much in there as a light duty pickup.
That sounds dumb. Lets instead expend $60k+maintenance and insurance in order to not have to pay $100 once every othe year or so.
I think there’s a significant part of American culture and mythology constructed around self-reliance. It is at the heart of the rage over socialism (that and anti-communist sentiment left-over from the Cold War), the hardcore prepper mindset, and pickup trucks.
When that is your identity logic doesn’t play into it, unfortunately.
Also, the prevalence of $100k+ vehicles is getting goddamn ridiculous.
the math makes more sense when the truck costs <$20,000 and only has colision insurance.
That’s exactly what I do with my Forester. I live in a regional area of Australia so for me it’s a daily driver and great for long trips, and if I need to pick shit up, fold the seats down and I effectively have my ute.
At least in Australia there’s the option to buy a small ute
Brumby 👌🏼
And it is because of these people that I have to custom order a poverty spec work truck, because manufacturers will only send dealers 100k “family trucks” with fancy nonsense
man I miss the s-10 form factor. now everything is absurdly huge.
Used to drive a five speed Ranger for work. I loved it.
The old Rangers were the epitome of trucks that get shit done.
I have a 3rd gen Tacoma and it is HUGE for a “small” truck. I miss actual small trucks (I also miss hoods that were lower and slanted forward in a way that you could actually kind of see over).
Horse shit, you want a base Colorado? I’ll get you one 8% off MSRP. I’ll only charge $1000.
I once sat behind a dude in line filling four propane tanks that he put in the back seat of his pickup truck.
Meanwhile I learned I could fit a 100lb propane tank in my sedan.
This is quite dangerous, though I admire the ingenuity.
Not dangerous. See Mythbusters on the topic of exploding LP tanks.
Any compressed gas can be dangerous.
I am a fleet manager for a company that solely delivers them. However we know people will do this. It’s your gas, but there is a reason there are many regulations for when gasses are transported. Things can get ugly really fast if anything is not right.
Plastic bags can be dangerous. Better not put them in your back seat.
/s
There was this incident in my town a long time ago. I believe the cause was leaking gas bottles and having them unsecured caused sparks, which then resulted in the explosion.
So, secure those gas bottles well!!
Definitely dangerous. May not explode, sure,
but could displace enough oxygen to cause hypoxia.
Could vent fast enough to cause dangerous overpressure.
Could slide out of the seatbelts not meant to hold that shape and become a wrecking ball in an accident.
Yes it’s dangerous, no it won’t kill you most times you do it.
If the steel bottle somehow instantaneously dissolved, then sure.
I will continue to fly in airplanes assuming that the laws of physics will continue to apply.
just don’t get in an accident. ez.
That’s what the seatbelts are for
Lucky me that propane tanks didn’t explode like in video games lol. (Also yes I anchored the tank properly after this photo)
This is quite dangerous
Not dangerous. Strapped in place. That ain’t goin’ nowhere.
I’m sure that guys a chump. But it might actually be better than having them roll around in the bed.
If you have a pickup you should have either bungee-straps, wratchet-straps or ideally, both.
For sure. You don’t load your truck without making sure things are down tight.
And you gotta gently smack the item and say “That’s not goin anywhere”
Nah. Smack that bitch hard. You gotta make sure it knows it’s not going anywhere.
Milk crates. I was trying to come up with some way using wood blocks to hold propane tanks in the truck bed, then I discovered the milk crates the previous owner of our house left. They work GREAT for 20 lb and 30 lb propane tanks. Easy to strap in, as well.
I don’t know why someone would want to carry a propane tank in the cab of their vehicle, unless they absolutely had to. I know I did it many time before getting a pickup, putting the tank in my car, and making the trip as short as possible.
Emotional Support Truck
Still only carries 1 person.
Shaq
Beautiful! Ford F550
Would love to haul my sleds in that
Meanwhile europe where you see people with renault twingos do more with their cars.
Heck people carry more on their bicycles that many ever carry on their trucks.
Actually true lol. I see people here with trailer thingies for their bicycles and they carry stuff with it. It probably has the same bed size as the newest “ford f-550 ultra extreme plus carbon dioxide poisoning engine from cruise ship edition”
Imagine riding your bike every day with the trailer attached just for the odd day every other month when you need to carry something. That’s truck brain logic.
okay but I actually do this with my panniers and those suckers add a lot of drag
I regurarly carry some tools and some small boxes strapped to the panier rack of my ebike. Lol.
I get timber/PIR/plasterboard from the builders merchant, and also take that plus garden waste to the tip, 10+ times per year, in a 4 seat car that weighs under 1 tonne.
Anything truly massive, they just deliver it to me.
The day I discovered that a 2.4m 6*2 would fit inside was a very good day.
As was the one I bought roof bars.
Yeah, your source is just a website and not the article/page related. Also, the website’s search bar is broken. I couldn’t find anything related, nor simple with it. Such as “car.”
This sub is weird…
In what way(s) do you find this
subredditcommunity weird?Its weird cus I dunno what the point of this place is at all or why people hate cars so much? Is it like a “Don’t drive cars! Bike instead!” kinda thing or what?
I believe it’s a collective of ideas and feelings.
The connecting bit is that people here are tired of how our nations have shaped and modeled modern life to be reliant on personal vehicles. Depending on who you would ask here, they might have varying perspectives.
I live in the US, and logically think that there should be at least a third less personal vehicles. As for trucks, I strongly believe that the trucks that have been coming out the last couple of years are just monstrosities that have no place on the public road systems. Unless you’re using your truck work or its utility features 3/5ths of the time in a year, you probably shouldn’t own a truck.
As for bikes, public buses, trams, and trains. Those are a lot better all around compared to the car/truck-centric transportation system we have now. Besides there being more deaths by conventional transportation, more injuries, parking issues, traffic jam issues, road system congestion, air quality issues, respiratory prone area issues, and the sure cost of maintaining such a car and truck-centric system in decent or better condition… just the space it takes to transport the same number of people down a road is far less with bikes or buses.
Does that answer your question?
This did, I thank you very much for your patience with me ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
Taking your golf bag to the course counts as hauling now?
I was about to say: if a trunk would fulfill the same purpose, the bed is not useful: then it’s just a less protected trunk.
So I assume correcting for that, this stat would also be >70%
Everytime someone tells me they need a pick up truck for work purposes, I always think no, 95% of the time you are far better of getting a van. Who wants their tools and materials getting rained on the back of a bed? Vans are also usually lower and easier to load. The fact you can’t see into the back of the van can also prevent theives.
In the rurals, we had need of a truck. Of course, it was an old beat up GM, and as a boy I got in trouble when I tossed a log of firewood into the bed of a shiny new ES truck (bigger than the GM) and missed, damaging its otherwise pristine body finish, which I’d later learn was costly to repair.
It informed how I would eventually compute I, a suburban kid, was too unfamiliar with strange rural conventions for heavy labor.
“No, not the nice pick 'em up truck! That’s the one I use to go line dancing and pick up cousin dates, dammit!”
Smart car will do the same and it doubles as a golf cart, why don’t we have more smart cars? Oh wait, lots of micro dicks…
My Mazda 3 is better built with lower maintenance and repair cost (and frequency) with similar mpg on cheaper fuel (if we’re talking similar year models and not electric). The smart cars aren’t smart for anyone that’s considering anything other than size.
Sorry ya missed the joke there…
While this sounds very believable, an actual source would be nice. I can’t find any such image on the website to view the sources they may or may not provide
Edit: the source doesn’t appear to include all of the statistics in the image, but the article lists it’s source is https://www.strategicvision.com/nves, which looks to be paywalled behind a subscription. It’s possible the data is from the survey data linked, but I can’t verify it
Primary sources? We don’t do that here 🛻🛻🛻
@Zagorath@aussie.zone please consider linking sources.
Not my OC. You’ve got all the information I do.
I Google-searched “site:unbelievablefactsblog.com truck”, which turned up the right page. It linked to this site, which in turn links to this very detailed page.
Pinging @marduk@lemmy.sdf.org and @toaster@slrpnk.net.
Thank you! Though I will say, not all of the statistics in the image are in the article. The article lists https://www.strategicvision.com/nves as their source for the survey data, but it looks like you have to subscribe to for access to their survey data, which I imagine is very expensive since it’s likely for automotive companies.
The source is this survey/article by axios: https://www.axios.com/ford-pickup-trucks-history
Thank you!
It appears not all of the statistics in the image are in the article. The article lists https://www.strategicvision.com/nves as their source for their survey data, but it looks like you have to subscribe for access
I haul, tow, go off road more frequently in my Yaris.
Yeah, but that’s a quality car, that doesn’t count.
Just an example of when folks think they need a truck, most often what they really need/want is a fucking trailer hitch.
Excluding childish hotwheel fantasies, of course.
Or a station wagon
Or if they’re a tradesman of some kind, a van
Would have loved one of those sprinter vans when I did field work, used our utility trailer a lot, but something with a small workbench, lighting and conveniently located inverters would have been amazing.
That does sound like an incredible alternative to drying herbarium vouchers in a hotel with a hair drier (my field work)
I own a station wagon, a suburban, and previously a truck. When I owned the truck it was full of shit or hauling stuff constantly. I sold it the moment I didn’t need it. The suburban replaced it because I refuse to put my dogs in the bed while towing the boat to go camping. The wagon is a people hauler because it’s payload is too low most of the time.
There are quite a few people in this world who actually use their trucks. I also completely hate seeing people who own trucks but don’t use them.
OK well we’re talking in generalities here. Most people who have a Truck (myself included) don’t need one. And I’d bet that a lot of those who do would be better served by a utility van or something similar.
Trucks aren’t even the only vehicle capable of hauling large loads (giggity).
Sure, some people legitimately need a truck. We’re not talking about them.
Absolutely zero people need the pedestrian slaughterer 2000, but these kinds of
truckskilling machines are more and more common on the road today.
The estate car is the ideal car for 80% of all drivers, a hatchback is ideal for 15% of all drivers.
I have a work truck that I beat the hell out of. Go off road and hit 4 wheel drive 3-4 times per week. I haul 1000-1,500 lbs of gear everywhere for around 4 months of the year. I tow daily for 2-3 months of the year and up 1-2 times per month the rest of the time. My cab is full of gear (it’s basically my mobile office).
Guess what I hop into and drive every chance I get? The small SUV I own. It is much easier to drive, park, go shopping in etc. It takes a lot more more effort to drive the larger vehicles.
If I could swing it I would turn my 1/2 ton work truck in for one of those new small trucks. Unfortunately the weight that I am moving is too much for them. So I am stuck with the large truck.
I used to have a Chevy Sonic and I hauled so much stuff in that car, full size fridges, front load washing machines, lumber, 14" canoe. Summer and winter offroading at a solar farm jobsite for the province of Ontario, prolly 2-4km deep
But you get to own the libs every day so it evens out.
Saw a truck the other day with Harris and Coexist stickers and was so confused.
Gender affirming truck. But seriously, I will never ask someone to haul stuff for me. It’s like you didn’t buy a truck to haul my shit around. There are also seasons of life where a truck would be super useful. What I’m saying is I need a fucking truck you bitches.
I just rent a pickup truck from U-Haul for $21 per day. I’m never gonna need it more than 1 day.
Less than the price for insuring a big ass truck for a year.
Or if you’re like my neighbor you live in a town house and never tow anything and never use the bed for anything.
I have 4 acres of land and I tow my mower down to my land every weekend to clean up. So I use my truck all the time for towing and I also haul things at least once a month. Not all truck owners do it just for the truck. If I didn’t need a truck I wouldn’t own one.
Which is why you aren’t the target of the meme. It’s the city dwellers who never leave the city but have a 2 ton pickup that barely fits in the narrower, low speed lanes in cities and take up 2-4 compact parking spots who are the target.
Then congratulations, this meme isn’t about you so maybe you don’t need to feel attacked yeh?
Are you the neighbor? Weird spot to defend yourself, here, unless you were the neighbor in question.
All while the US actively outlaws small cars.
I would say more like actively discourages small cars by encouraging large vehicles and allowing them lower standards (emissions etc)
But they don’t
But they do, a lot of Kei trucks and cars are banned because they can’t stand up to an accident with a 10,000lb (not an exaggeration) hummer.
deleted by creator
Kei cars have been banned in Massachusetts, Georgia, Maine and New York with restrictions in Alabama and Arkansas.
Not to mention the 25 year delay on new Kei cars
Ah! Well I stand corrected.
Edit: looks like they’ve rescinded the ban, at least in MA.
Yet that one time that you need it, it’s quite nice to have.
You know what you can do if you need to haul something and don’t have a truck?
Rent a trailer!
I like to think that people own trucks because they don’t know how to back a trailer. Or more humourously, because they don’t know trailers exist.
Over time that’s as expensive or more as getting a vehicle with more storage lol
Given the cost of a truck vs hiring a trailer, I have no idea how that can possibly be true.
How many rentals to hit 2-5k.
I doubt many people are driving around a $5k 2024 truck, but let’s say it’s reasonable or say that this is the difference between what you could otherwise have and what the truck costs. Let’s also say you own the truck 10 years.
I don’t know what your average trailer hire costs in the US. Maybe $20 for a few hours? Let’s assume $50. So you need to hire a trailer 100 times in those 10 years, or 10 times a year.
Though as someone who doesn’t own a truck but who hires a trailer once a year or so, if I have multiple things I save them up and do them together in one trailer hire, so a bit of planning makes it even less worth having a truck.
This doesn’t even include the extra gas a truck guzzles, the cost of bigger tires, the cost of maintaince (bigger parts are usually more expensive, bigger engine holds more fluids).
I went from driving a 4x4 jeep to driving a small hatchback and the amount of money I’m saving is astronomical.
Over time
Hey I think I found the issue, you rent a trailer when you need it, you don’t just rent it long term.
Also, even if you own a trailer, you don’t have to tow it all the time.
It’s even nicer to have that big item delivered and still come out on top in gas savings.
Here are a few options to remedy this rare problem.
- Uhaul truck rental.
- Ask a friend. family member or neighbor to help you out with their truck or ask to borrow their truck for the task at hand. (Fill the gas tank before returning it to ensure they’ll be willing to let you borrow their truck again, when you need it.)
The first option doesn’t act as a continued mode of transportation, and the second option still requires someone owning a truck lmao.
Yes, but it doesn’t require everyone owning a truck.
Everyone owns a truck? Where’s mine?
I didn’t say it did. I’m saying that when you need it, and you’re the guy that owns the truck, it’s nice. I’m not talking some lifted thing, but a midsize pickup is nice to have when you need it.
I think in his scenario, the friend who owns the truck is in the 15% who use the bed regularly
Yeah, my friends who still lend us their trucks are literally farmers, lol.
That’s a massive assumption and completely ignore that said family member may only use that bed once or twice a month to help others. And they would still be ridiculed by these people.
No I think you’re misunderstanding me. When he said “you should just borrow a truck from a friend”, he was describing what should be happening in an ideal situation. The ideal situation being that the only truck owners be people who legitimately need and use the truck for regular truck-related work. Thus whomever you borrow the truck from would be a person who actually uses the truck.
The whole purpose of this thread is calling out the problem of people who own a truck simply because “muh truck”. Even smaller ones have a different gear ratio than cars to favor torque instead of gas mileage, so I believe it is a fair complaint within the context of this community.
Those are both of the reasons why it works.
Rental.
Also your comment remind me of people having spare car.
A spare vehicle is legitimately useful if you have an actual use case and are fortunate enough to have the space for it. My winter car allows me to do all of my own maintenance without having to worry about stranding myself at home.
True, but most case i see is people spend more than necessary maintaining a vehicle they don’t have a place to store for an emergency that only came once every few years, which will end up selling it anyway. Just like truck, it only works for a minority of people.
I suspect for many it is just a convenient excuse to buy a new vehicle because they’re tired of their current one and need a way to justify the cost to themselves.
Really that summarizes this whole debate. There are absolutely people that don’t need it but buy one for a litany of bad reasons. Then, there are entire swaths of territory where having a pickup is just plain necessary. Live up north in a rural area? You probably have both a trailer and a PU to tow it because you need to be self sufficient, and have a lot of long distance hauling jobs.
I’d suggest though that the trend of absurdly high hood lines and everything being a monster truck aren’t helping those populations either.
International Harvester made some great trucks. Fuck, chevy s-10s were handy and capable when I was a kid. Now everything is ginormous and crew cabbed so one person can drive around in a combine level shitwagon
The clearance is a very important consideration though. Where I am the bush is life so you NEED clearance just to drive on many ‘roads’ to get over huge ruts, small fallen trees, or just general bushwacking. Trucks like these are more akin to work trucks and not everyday unless driven by owner necessity (can’t afford a 2nd car atm). Funny you should mention it, but my buddy is a mechanic and has a lifted S-10 that he’s used more than once to get us out of a jam. That is often the case: the one with lowest clearance needs the most help.
and yet the overwhelming majority of them are pavement princesses who never see work, much less work in the dirt.
yeah, i’ve seen lifted s10s, they’re still smaller than today’s jacked up shithaulers lol
Idk your life but I’ve yet to be in a situation where a minivan wasn’t good enough.
The other 99.9% of the time you get better efficiency, space for 8 people and a smaller car
Feeling good about my mid sized truck in the mountain west. Haul weekly, trailer monthly, off road monthly, at least (remote trailhead access)
I don’t know what I couldn’t do which would necessitate one of the huge new full sized trucks, aside from towing construction equipment or line a shit ton of welding gear or live stock. The number of people who do THAT must be microscopic
Towing really. Have more than one quad to transport? Full pickup, one quad in the box and the other in a trailer, or one bike and a camper etc…
