Lil4X
Elio Addict
If you walk through a grocery or big box store parking lot, even on weekends, take a look at the bed of the pickups you'll see, with few exceptions, except for commercial trucks, hardly see a scratch in the bed. I live in the Republic of Texas, and here, where the pickup was born and raised on our farms and ranches, it's a little disconcerting to see some one-ton diesel dually with a pristine bed. It's an image thing for a lot of our "urban" cowboys and wannabe big-rig drivers. Once in a while you'll see a pickup doing yeoman duty in the 'burbs - hauling bags of mulch and fertilizer, a few sheets of plywood, or more often transporting a 4-wheeler to a woodland trail. But I'm still amazed at people like the rather large woman who pulled her bright red Ram 1500 Hemi Crew Cab into the parking stall next to me. She exited the grocery store several minutes later carrying two bags which she deposited in the bed and drove away. The mind boggles at the ton-mile cost of that trip.
But that's what most of our suburban "big rigs" do for a living - and that's perfectly legitimate. What floors me is to see the "monster truck" howling by in the passing lane with a lift kit, four "mud grip" tires, and a determination to consume a large part of our fossil fuel supply hauling one fantasy-camper to work in a downtown office building. OK, the suit's acceptable, but there needs to be a law somewhere he has to at least wear either Lucchases or Tony Lamas with it if he's going to drive that cowboy Cadillac.
Now don't get me wrong - I love old pickup trucks. In fact I'd like an old postwar Chevy to either preserve or restore. I've owned a Travelall and Suburbans - primarily as tow vehicles, but found them useful in my work as well, hauling loads of photo gear on highways and trails all over this part of the world. Pickups definitely have their place . . . but as a daily driver - a commuter vehicle - they are incredibly expensive to feed. 8 MPG doesn't get it on the daily slog. Carrying room for nine adults and a gross capacity over 14K lbs is sorta overkill just to get my little pink body to the office every day.
Thus Elio.
But that's what most of our suburban "big rigs" do for a living - and that's perfectly legitimate. What floors me is to see the "monster truck" howling by in the passing lane with a lift kit, four "mud grip" tires, and a determination to consume a large part of our fossil fuel supply hauling one fantasy-camper to work in a downtown office building. OK, the suit's acceptable, but there needs to be a law somewhere he has to at least wear either Lucchases or Tony Lamas with it if he's going to drive that cowboy Cadillac.
Now don't get me wrong - I love old pickup trucks. In fact I'd like an old postwar Chevy to either preserve or restore. I've owned a Travelall and Suburbans - primarily as tow vehicles, but found them useful in my work as well, hauling loads of photo gear on highways and trails all over this part of the world. Pickups definitely have their place . . . but as a daily driver - a commuter vehicle - they are incredibly expensive to feed. 8 MPG doesn't get it on the daily slog. Carrying room for nine adults and a gross capacity over 14K lbs is sorta overkill just to get my little pink body to the office every day.
Thus Elio.
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