The thing with a older truck is that plowing snow really takes it's toll on a truck and reliability suffers. It doesn't matter how careful you are or how anal you are about maintance. After about 5 years ya have to just about rebuild them due to the wear and tear, salt, water and abuse.
We get calls all the time from customer's who have hired some guy who with a older truck that gave them a low price that didn't show up. Believe me it doesn't work out. Maybe a older truck used around your property and your neighbors but not in commercial operation.
sure -- i agree -- a point had come up about trying to make an all purpose work truck -- contracting vehicle expected to carry crew, tools, (install shelves and put a rack on top if you like) and expect it to plow as well, and it will not maneuver like a short box reg cab dodge 4x4 and the blind spots are much bigger.
i guess as some of you point out, climates are too diverse in n.am. -- i expect other ideas but... i think there is a market if the contractor-owner can only write off one truck or write off lease payments which is maybe where the marketers are going with it
but, imnsho, i agree that if the vehicle is expected to plow full time, you may want a different contracting truck -- even an unlicenced "wheelbarrow" for the property that may not even need brakes -- only hauls, turns, pulls, turns, pushes, turns there is no question about a short body, 4x4 and height to see.
i still think if you need something to carry tools and crew (and materials too) their i have had 3 long box cargo vans over the years and visibility is not bad -- my first vehicle i ever had was a '72 gmc long box ex-refrigeration van w. motor on its way out but still good for light work, $375 cdn + needed one tie rod for safety -- had those rear mirrors you see on fed-ex trucks on one so i could parallel park with about 5-6 extra feet -- awesome visibility -- long wheelbase so turning still poor of course -- of course if a van is not modified to 4x4 you do not want to go off the road unless snow is light and you have posi rear or crew that don't mind pushing -- good for clearing a straight road or light snow as you are driving it with crew and tools like small contractors might need in one all purpose truck
i think i would have at least two older trucks for the business and if i had the money for a brand new one i'd buy a toy -- forget the crew and the tools -- they could drive one of the beaters :-)
and if mom needs to drive the kids around she can throw a cap on the box and throw the kids in the box
I'm not even sure they were looking at the RV market with the MegaCab. It has a shortbed box on it, which means if you go with a full sized fiver, you'd have to spend the extra bux for a sliding fifth wheel hitch.
Nope, we have more than our share of idiots here. We have a certain percentage of idiots that think they know how to drive in snow, like doing
60 mph when you should be doing 30, and bitching all the time about how people "don't know how to drive". Seems to me like they are the ones who keep the body shop busy in the winter.
good point, greg, but most of the folks that I know with 5'ers have the short box and 4 doors... (a lot of f-250/350's) I was advised by a lot of people that if you're going to buy a 5th wheel hitch, spend the extra $100 for a slider as cheap insurance and hope that you never need it..
My buddy has been full time for a few years now with his f-250HD and whatever they call their 4 door cab... short bed, 5th wheel hitch and 36' 5'er... He says that he's used his slider twice so far, once at the dealer to make sure that it worked, once when he was coming out of a tight space and slid the hitch "just in case"...
my next door neighbor has a 35 foot fleetwood he pulls behind his crew cab short box f250 he has only slid the hitch forward once. most the time he pulls his with the slider slid back. says it does fine and makes him feel better as he worries about the cab interference if he should forget.
dont know if i would want to try pulling one that way though. i wonder about pin location and weight dist with it slid back.
Budd, by the dozen or so times I've been in Colorado, I gotta agree with a few of those. Especially about being long winded talking to strangers... Hell, It's taken me a half hour to get gas before.
I think the fact the poor girls did garner more than a bit of their looks from you might be pretty solid evidence that I am not responsible for those financial and physical conditions.
Now you know the real meaning behind an F& P report . . . . .
Wrong, wrong, wrong!! I met one of Denny's daughter's, she is a very pretty girl. Actually looked quite a bit like her mother. There is absolutley no way she resembled here father. How could you possibly say that?????
I guess that was my point. Why should I have to pay extra for a slider hitch and why should I have to worry about dinging the corner of the trailer against the back of the cab in a truck in a senile moment when I forget to slide the hitch back. They should offer a long box option, IMO.
As I said before, perhaps they will in the future but to do it now would be way too expensive and not worth the investment for a new model, especially since this new model would be just about impossible to park in a lot or garage.
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