5 ms·

At $20/hour for a new F-250 rental, Home Depot has better options available. If people wanted to haul lumber, they probably wouldn't show up with a trailer atta

At $20/hour for a new F-250 rental, Home Depot has better options available. If people wanted to haul lumber, they probably wouldn't show up with a trailer attached, they would buy a truck with a 8 foot box.

xwdv 5y ago
Oh great. Then you return your rental and come back home and realize you need to buy more of some heavy large item. Fantastic.
- GavinMcG 5y ago
  A truck costs tens of thousands of dollars. Even assuming half the cost would otherwise be put towards an alternative vehicle, you'd still need to move stuff uniquely suited to a truck literally hundreds of times to make it worthwhile.
  - codyswann 5y ago
    Like a boat?
    - GavinMcG 5y ago
      Sure. That's a reasonable use case. Needing to get lumber home from Home Depot isn't, for most people, because of low frequency.
      - codyswann 5y ago
        Meh. I'd argue more people need to tow their boat than haul lumber, but I live in Florida where that's visually true.
        GavinMcG 5y ago
        I think people are taking my comment to read "don't get a truck" when it was really just responding to the suggestion that "return your rental and come back home and realize you need to buy more of some heavy large item" would be such a common occurrence that ownership makes more sense than renting even without some other use.
  - orthecreedence 5y ago
    You can get a truck, in CA, for less then $10K (including initial repairs). Why does everything need to be new? The truck I got about 9 months ago has already paid for itself by saving me from having to hire people to do things that I could have done myself if only I had a truck. Renting is fine once in a while, but if you're hauling base rock or lumber every few weekends, I cannot imaging having to deal with rentals every time. It doesn't make sense, and would be such an enormous waste of time.
    - GavinMcG 5y ago
      > if you're hauling base rock or lumber every few weekends Yes, exactly. If you've actually got a use for it, great! The comment I was replying to was suggesting that realizing you need to get one more bulky item would happen frequently enough to make up the difference for someone who would otherwise rent, which is ridiculous. Even used, the marginal cost of a truck in maintenance and higher gas bills really adds up. Comparing a used F-150 to a used Prius, mile-per-mile, the truck is going to be more than twice as expensive.
      - orthecreedence 5y ago
        Yes, it does all depend. I guess where I'm coming from is people have skewed ideas of the thresholds that define "need" here, and often say "why do you even need a truck??" in an almost shaming way, and ignore your reasons when you list them off (you're not doing that here, but in general I'm sensing an ideological stigma against trucks). > Even used, the marginal cost of a truck in maintenance and higher gas bills really adds up. Comparing a used F-150 to a used Prius, mile-per-mile, the truck is going to be more than twice as expensive. Again, depends! For me, the cost of a truck in maintenance and gas is much cheaper than a Prius, because the Prius can't do most of the things I'd want a truck for to begin with. Gas included: I don't take the truck on long road trips. But I'm lucky and have a honda and a truck. If you only have budget for once vehicle, then yes, weigh the pros and cons much more carefully. If you have a used car and a used truck though, you can pay about as much as you'd pay new for either of them (less, even), and have much more utility. Lastly, I'd wager that an F150 from the 90s is going to be a lot cheaper to maintain than a Prius in the long run due to the Prius' overall complexity. I wouldn't make that same bet on any truck built after 2005, though.
  - frumper 5y ago
    I'm not sure why you'd assume if I can afford and am willing to buy a $50k truck that I wouldn't buy a $50k car or SUV. So now renting is in addition to that, and it's not as convenient.
  - jjav 5y ago
    > A truck costs tens of thousands of dollars. Only if you insist on buying new, you'll pay a lot. My pickup is about as big as it gets (4 door, 8ft bed, diesel dually) and it didn't cost tens of thousands since I bought an older one. Diesels don't depreciate that much, so I'll probably get most of it back whenever I sell.
- jacurtis 5y ago
  Large items are pretty easy to predict. You aren't going to buy a bathroom vanity, then rent a truck to take it home and then realize you needed two vanities. If you are buying wood you can measure the size of the wall. Estimate the studs you need based on 16" gaps. Buy that much plus a few extras. The constant trips back and forth to home depot is generally smaller items that you forget. You need a special socket size, you need a different type of nail, etc.
codyswann 5y ago
You go rent an F-250 from Home Depot and let me know how that goes.
- kesslern 5y ago
  It's the smoothest car rental experience I've ever had. I checked the nearby Home Depots and one had a truck. I was in and out with the keys in 10 minutes. Drove to pick up a couch, delivered it, and brought the truck back. Parked it in the parking lot and walked in with the keys. It was about $30 and painless. What do you think is so bad about the process?
  - bluGill 5y ago
    You must have missed the fine print that said it was only to haul lumber from that Home Depot to your house. As long as nothing goes wrong they don't care, but if something does go wrong the lawyers will jump on that.
  - codyswann 5y ago
    1) There are three Home Depots near me. None of them offer diesels for rent 2) The $20 is for the first 75 minutes. I guess I'm wrong, but I couldn't imagine a use-case where you're only going to need the truck for 75 minutes. 3) Use restrictions. Home Depot greatly restricts what you can use the truck for, including no towing. 4) Availability. At the three HD's near me, good luck getting any rental truck let a lone a diesel (mentioned above). They're always checked out, sometimes weeks in advance.
    - jacurtis 5y ago
      > The $20 is for the first 75 minutes. I guess I'm wrong, but I couldn't imagine a use-case where you're only going to need the truck for 75 minutes. The idea is that you drive the truck home, unload it, then drive the truck back to the store and return it. If you live less than 30 minutes away from the Home Depot then it is completely reasonable amount of time. Example: 30 mins driving home + 15 mins unloading + 30 mins driving back = 75 minute rental. It seems very practical to me. Most people live less than 30 mins from a Home Depot. In fact Home Depot has an internal goal that they want 95% of Americans to live 15 mins or less from a Home Depot store. So if you fall into 95% of Americans, then you can rent a truck for 75 mins, spend 15 mins each way driving and have 45 minutes to unload or mess around before returning the car. Home Depot really rents the trucks with the idea that you drive to the store in your car, buy something at the store, use the truck to take it home, drive back to return the truck, and then drive your car home.
dboreham 5y ago
I _think_ you mean they wouldn't attach a trailer to their Camray? I was confused initially by your post because a trailer behind a pickup I find is a great combination. You can load stuff much more easily on the trailer but the pickup bed is there for any overflow. But I think you mean 10' box, no?

xwdv 5y ago

Oh great. Then you return your rental and come back home and realize you need to buy more of some heavy large item. Fantastic.

GavinMcG 5y ago
A truck costs tens of thousands of dollars. Even assuming half the cost would otherwise be put towards an alternative vehicle, you'd still need to move stuff uniquely suited to a truck literally hundreds of times to make it worthwhile.
- codyswann 5y ago
  Like a boat?
  - GavinMcG 5y ago
    Sure. That's a reasonable use case. Needing to get lumber home from Home Depot isn't, for most people, because of low frequency.
    - codyswann 5y ago
      Meh. I'd argue more people need to tow their boat than haul lumber, but I live in Florida where that's visually true.
      - GavinMcG 5y ago
        I think people are taking my comment to read "don't get a truck" when it was really just responding to the suggestion that "return your rental and come back home and realize you need to buy more of some heavy large item" would be such a common occurrence that ownership makes more sense than renting even without some other use.
- orthecreedence 5y ago
  You can get a truck, in CA, for less then $10K (including initial repairs). Why does everything need to be new? The truck I got about 9 months ago has already paid for itself by saving me from having to hire people to do things that I could have done myself if only I had a truck. Renting is fine once in a while, but if you're hauling base rock or lumber every few weekends, I cannot imaging having to deal with rentals every time. It doesn't make sense, and would be such an enormous waste of time.
  - GavinMcG 5y ago
    > if you're hauling base rock or lumber every few weekends Yes, exactly. If you've actually got a use for it, great! The comment I was replying to was suggesting that realizing you need to get one more bulky item would happen frequently enough to make up the difference for someone who would otherwise rent, which is ridiculous. Even used, the marginal cost of a truck in maintenance and higher gas bills really adds up. Comparing a used F-150 to a used Prius, mile-per-mile, the truck is going to be more than twice as expensive.
    - orthecreedence 5y ago
      Yes, it does all depend. I guess where I'm coming from is people have skewed ideas of the thresholds that define "need" here, and often say "why do you even need a truck??" in an almost shaming way, and ignore your reasons when you list them off (you're not doing that here, but in general I'm sensing an ideological stigma against trucks). > Even used, the marginal cost of a truck in maintenance and higher gas bills really adds up. Comparing a used F-150 to a used Prius, mile-per-mile, the truck is going to be more than twice as expensive. Again, depends! For me, the cost of a truck in maintenance and gas is much cheaper than a Prius, because the Prius can't do most of the things I'd want a truck for to begin with. Gas included: I don't take the truck on long road trips. But I'm lucky and have a honda and a truck. If you only have budget for once vehicle, then yes, weigh the pros and cons much more carefully. If you have a used car and a used truck though, you can pay about as much as you'd pay new for either of them (less, even), and have much more utility. Lastly, I'd wager that an F150 from the 90s is going to be a lot cheaper to maintain than a Prius in the long run due to the Prius' overall complexity. I wouldn't make that same bet on any truck built after 2005, though.
- frumper 5y ago
  I'm not sure why you'd assume if I can afford and am willing to buy a $50k truck that I wouldn't buy a $50k car or SUV. So now renting is in addition to that, and it's not as convenient.
- jjav 5y ago
  > A truck costs tens of thousands of dollars. Only if you insist on buying new, you'll pay a lot. My pickup is about as big as it gets (4 door, 8ft bed, diesel dually) and it didn't cost tens of thousands since I bought an older one. Diesels don't depreciate that much, so I'll probably get most of it back whenever I sell.
jacurtis 5y ago
Large items are pretty easy to predict. You aren't going to buy a bathroom vanity, then rent a truck to take it home and then realize you needed two vanities. If you are buying wood you can measure the size of the wall. Estimate the studs you need based on 16" gaps. Buy that much plus a few extras. The constant trips back and forth to home depot is generally smaller items that you forget. You need a special socket size, you need a different type of nail, etc.

codyswann 5y ago

You go rent an F-250 from Home Depot and let me know how that goes.

kesslern 5y ago
It's the smoothest car rental experience I've ever had. I checked the nearby Home Depots and one had a truck. I was in and out with the keys in 10 minutes. Drove to pick up a couch, delivered it, and brought the truck back. Parked it in the parking lot and walked in with the keys. It was about $30 and painless. What do you think is so bad about the process?
- bluGill 5y ago
  You must have missed the fine print that said it was only to haul lumber from that Home Depot to your house. As long as nothing goes wrong they don't care, but if something does go wrong the lawyers will jump on that.
- codyswann 5y ago
  1) There are three Home Depots near me. None of them offer diesels for rent 2) The $20 is for the first 75 minutes. I guess I'm wrong, but I couldn't imagine a use-case where you're only going to need the truck for 75 minutes. 3) Use restrictions. Home Depot greatly restricts what you can use the truck for, including no towing. 4) Availability. At the three HD's near me, good luck getting any rental truck let a lone a diesel (mentioned above). They're always checked out, sometimes weeks in advance.
  - jacurtis 5y ago
    > The $20 is for the first 75 minutes. I guess I'm wrong, but I couldn't imagine a use-case where you're only going to need the truck for 75 minutes. The idea is that you drive the truck home, unload it, then drive the truck back to the store and return it. If you live less than 30 minutes away from the Home Depot then it is completely reasonable amount of time. Example: 30 mins driving home + 15 mins unloading + 30 mins driving back = 75 minute rental. It seems very practical to me. Most people live less than 30 mins from a Home Depot. In fact Home Depot has an internal goal that they want 95% of Americans to live 15 mins or less from a Home Depot store. So if you fall into 95% of Americans, then you can rent a truck for 75 mins, spend 15 mins each way driving and have 45 minutes to unload or mess around before returning the car. Home Depot really rents the trucks with the idea that you drive to the store in your car, buy something at the store, use the truck to take it home, drive back to return the truck, and then drive your car home.

dboreham 5y ago

I _think_ you mean they wouldn't attach a trailer to their Camray? I was confused initially by your post because a trailer behind a pickup I find is a great combination. You can load stuff much more easily on the trailer but the pickup bed is there for any overflow. But I think you mean 10' box, no?