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I disliked pickup trucks for their size and fuel consumption until I owned a house and got heavily into gardening. Home maintenance and significant garden acti

I disliked pickup trucks for their size and fuel consumption until I owned a house and got heavily into gardening. Home maintenance and significant garden activity are made waaaaay easier by having a truck [or big van, I guess] available. That said, I still don't personally own a truck, borrowing them as needed. An all-electric model of good quality would be pretty tempting to me.

xyzzyz 8y ago
I rent trailers from U-Haul for that, it's only $15/day.
- secabeen 8y ago
  Plus however long it takes to drive to u-haul, wait for them to check-out the trailer, hook it up, use it, then drive back to u-haul, return it, etc. Time is money.
  - Scoundreller 8y ago
    Trailers should lend themselves well to the sharing economy, no? Minimal maintenance, largely stored sitting idle, no cleaning required. You don't even need to unethically deem your workers as contractors.
    - tlb 8y ago
      Untrained people pulling poorly maintained trailers with under-sized vehicles and without the brake lights hooked up properly because there are several connector standards will cause a lot of wrecks.
      - Scoundreller 8y ago
        Isn’t that what U-Haul does? Possibly behind a 28’ truck driven by a driver that’s never driven anything more than a Civic?
    - darkpuma 8y ago
      Trailers are a huge pain in the ass, have you ever backed up with one? I've done my fair share of trailer towing and given the choice between a trailer and a pickup, I chose the pickup every time. Trailers have a capacity advantage though. Sometimes the shit you're moving simply won't fit in a large pickup truck. In those cases though, having a truck with sufficient power to tow that trailer is still handy...
      - jessaustin 8y ago
        This is an advantage of driving tractors as a child. Backing up a trailer is second nature for me. I can back around corners, between obstacles, whatever needs to be done, often without taking a hitch. One time I was driving a U-haul pulling a car on a dolly, so there wasn't one but two pivot points. I stupidly pulled into a gas station that didn't have a way to pull through, but I was still able to back out of it rather than suffering the ignominy of unloading the car. My grandfather scoffed when he heard about it; apparently county fairs used to have contests in backing up "four-wheeled wagons" which had similar configurations. The only thing you need is practice. The next time you use a trailer, take it to a big WalMart parking lot during a slow time and play around with it a little bit. You'll get a feel for where the "fulcrum" is, and start using your mirrors to steer. This isn't an impossible task. All the semi truck drivers you see on the road have to get really good at this in order to pass their CDL, and lots of them never backed up a trailer before they took the course.
        darkpuma 8y ago
        Every year when I was a kid I got the 'privilege' of driving around a leaf vacuum (https://woodgears.ca/misc/with_trailer.jpg https://woodgears.ca/misc/with_trailer.jpg) Unloading it always meant backing it up down a path in the woods to the leaf pile. I can back up a regular two-wheel trailer without jack-knifing it, but even with experience it still takes my full concentration. I'm sure it becomes like riding a bike eventually, but it's annoying enough that I don't really care to attempt it frequently. My main point though is mass market trailer rental to the general public will probably never be very popular. Most people have never attempted to back up a trailer before and at least the first few times they attempt it the chance they'll jackknife it is pretty high.
    - fuzzybeard 8y ago
      One would think so, yes. But in practice people can be utter assholes when borrowing a neighbor's power tool. Now imagine with a trailer.
    - awful 8y ago
      Yes; people on lakes already share pontoon trailers. And yes they can be difficult at first to back up, but like everything a little bit of practice and you have a new life skill.
    - jessaustin 8y ago
      A trailer to haul building materials from the home store could be really cheap. Consider one of these: https://www.harborfreight.com/1195-lbs-capacity-48-in-x-96-in-heavy-duty-folding-trailer-62648.html https://www.harborfreight.com/1195-lbs-capacity-48-in-x-96-i... At $350, not having to share a utility trailer with careless drivers seems quite attainable.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- bluedino 8y ago
  You can rent a truck from any of the big home improvement store chains fairly cheap as well.
fpoling 8y ago
In Norway even in countryside people do not get pickups. It could be that trucks are just not very good in winter with snow and ice on mountain roads. Or people are not going to pay for extra fuel consumption with prices like 7 usd/gal. But trailers are widespread and gardening/furniture shops provide them either for free or for a very low price.
- richjdsmith 8y ago
  >trucks are just not very good in winter with snow and ice on mountain roads Canadian here who drives a truck in the snowy mountain roads, I'm pretty confused by this. Why do you say they are not good? There is nothing I'd rather be in than an F350 with studded tires and four-wheel drive on the highway when the road conditions go bad.
  - fpoling 8y ago
    I meant a typical truck without 4-wheel drive. 4-wheels are much more expensive in Norway due to taxes. But there is another problem with trucks. It rains a lot in Norway especially on the west coast and in mountains. And it really sucks to load-transport-unload without the roof under the rain. Most trailers here are with the roof for this reason.
    - bluedino 8y ago
      In Canada you would be silly if you only bought a 2WD truck. You can also get a 'topper' for the bed to enclose the area. Vans are also popular for transport as well.
    - richjdsmith 8y ago
      Interesting that 4WD is taxed differently. Is this due to fuel consumption reasons? On your last point, are truck canopies not common in Norway? Something like this: https://canopy-world.com/ https://canopy-world.com/
      - fpoling 8y ago

xyzzyz 8y ago

I rent trailers from U-Haul for that, it's only $15/day.

secabeen 8y ago
Plus however long it takes to drive to u-haul, wait for them to check-out the trailer, hook it up, use it, then drive back to u-haul, return it, etc. Time is money.
- Scoundreller 8y ago
  Trailers should lend themselves well to the sharing economy, no? Minimal maintenance, largely stored sitting idle, no cleaning required. You don't even need to unethically deem your workers as contractors.
  - tlb 8y ago
    Untrained people pulling poorly maintained trailers with under-sized vehicles and without the brake lights hooked up properly because there are several connector standards will cause a lot of wrecks.
    - Scoundreller 8y ago
      Isn’t that what U-Haul does? Possibly behind a 28’ truck driven by a driver that’s never driven anything more than a Civic?
  - darkpuma 8y ago
    Trailers are a huge pain in the ass, have you ever backed up with one? I've done my fair share of trailer towing and given the choice between a trailer and a pickup, I chose the pickup every time. Trailers have a capacity advantage though. Sometimes the shit you're moving simply won't fit in a large pickup truck. In those cases though, having a truck with sufficient power to tow that trailer is still handy...
    - jessaustin 8y ago
      This is an advantage of driving tractors as a child. Backing up a trailer is second nature for me. I can back around corners, between obstacles, whatever needs to be done, often without taking a hitch. One time I was driving a U-haul pulling a car on a dolly, so there wasn't one but two pivot points. I stupidly pulled into a gas station that didn't have a way to pull through, but I was still able to back out of it rather than suffering the ignominy of unloading the car. My grandfather scoffed when he heard about it; apparently county fairs used to have contests in backing up "four-wheeled wagons" which had similar configurations. The only thing you need is practice. The next time you use a trailer, take it to a big WalMart parking lot during a slow time and play around with it a little bit. You'll get a feel for where the "fulcrum" is, and start using your mirrors to steer. This isn't an impossible task. All the semi truck drivers you see on the road have to get really good at this in order to pass their CDL, and lots of them never backed up a trailer before they took the course.
      - darkpuma 8y ago
        Every year when I was a kid I got the 'privilege' of driving around a leaf vacuum (https://woodgears.ca/misc/with_trailer.jpg https://woodgears.ca/misc/with_trailer.jpg) Unloading it always meant backing it up down a path in the woods to the leaf pile. I can back up a regular two-wheel trailer without jack-knifing it, but even with experience it still takes my full concentration. I'm sure it becomes like riding a bike eventually, but it's annoying enough that I don't really care to attempt it frequently. My main point though is mass market trailer rental to the general public will probably never be very popular. Most people have never attempted to back up a trailer before and at least the first few times they attempt it the chance they'll jackknife it is pretty high.
  - fuzzybeard 8y ago
    One would think so, yes. But in practice people can be utter assholes when borrowing a neighbor's power tool. Now imagine with a trailer.
  - awful 8y ago
    Yes; people on lakes already share pontoon trailers. And yes they can be difficult at first to back up, but like everything a little bit of practice and you have a new life skill.
  - jessaustin 8y ago
    A trailer to haul building materials from the home store could be really cheap. Consider one of these: https://www.harborfreight.com/1195-lbs-capacity-48-in-x-96-in-heavy-duty-folding-trailer-62648.html https://www.harborfreight.com/1195-lbs-capacity-48-in-x-96-i... At $350, not having to share a utility trailer with careless drivers seems quite attainable.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
bluedino 8y ago
You can rent a truck from any of the big home improvement store chains fairly cheap as well.

fpoling 8y ago

In Norway even in countryside people do not get pickups. It could be that trucks are just not very good in winter with snow and ice on mountain roads. Or people are not going to pay for extra fuel consumption with prices like 7 usd/gal. But trailers are widespread and gardening/furniture shops provide them either for free or for a very low price.

richjdsmith 8y ago
>trucks are just not very good in winter with snow and ice on mountain roads Canadian here who drives a truck in the snowy mountain roads, I'm pretty confused by this. Why do you say they are not good? There is nothing I'd rather be in than an F350 with studded tires and four-wheel drive on the highway when the road conditions go bad.
- fpoling 8y ago
  I meant a typical truck without 4-wheel drive. 4-wheels are much more expensive in Norway due to taxes. But there is another problem with trucks. It rains a lot in Norway especially on the west coast and in mountains. And it really sucks to load-transport-unload without the roof under the rain. Most trailers here are with the roof for this reason.
  - bluedino 8y ago
    In Canada you would be silly if you only bought a 2WD truck. You can also get a 'topper' for the bed to enclose the area. Vans are also popular for transport as well.
  - richjdsmith 8y ago
    Interesting that 4WD is taxed differently. Is this due to fuel consumption reasons? On your last point, are truck canopies not common in Norway? Something like this: https://canopy-world.com/ https://canopy-world.com/
    - fpoling 8y ago