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I see so many new $80k trucks in my area that people can’t possibly afford. They’re the last people that would ride a bike or vote to improve infrastructure lik

I see so many new $80k trucks in my area that people can’t possibly afford. They’re the last people that would ride a bike or vote to improve infrastructure like that, unfortunately.

ChainOfFools 3y ago
As if by magic, right around 2 years ago almost everywhere up and down the residential area where I live a bunch of brand new F-150s and the like all showed up almoat simultaneously in the driveways of every two-bit small trade business that could possibly somehow qualify as supporting "critical infrastructure" , like... junk hauling and muffler repair and driveway paving contractors, always LLCs and typically operated by Guy in a Punisher Shirt and his sole employee/cousin/wife/son. How many of these PPP loans got forgiven is apparently close to 100%, as it is evident a lot of these clowns had plenty of spare money to modify whats supposed to be their work truck into a lane swallowing, coal rolling, baby-on-board family car crushing, eye-level LED light bar festooned rolling death threat / mid life crisis costume accessory.
- hnreport 3y ago
  Reminds me of people in housing projects maxing out their AC all year because electricity was free (and having big screen tvs and shit). Humans will take advantage.
  - ChainOfFools 3y ago
    I know of at least one operation that happened in SW DC where some small-time Bitcoin mining hucksters managed to set up a bunch of rigs in a handful of low-income-area apartment blocks (Syphax Gardens area). not sure if the units rhemselves were low income or not but the entire building group was set up to meter electricity and cooling as a whole rather than by unit. So they paid (possibly subsidized) rent for a cheap, fire hazard "data center" space and got free electricity and cooling out of it for at least a year before people figured out what they were up to. How on earth the neighbors ignored the maddening fan noise of those things ( there are a couple in the data center space I lease from, and you can hear the single rack that they occupy from several aisles away, far louder than all of the industrial grade servers and hardware installed all around them) I cannot imagine, but the miners probably couldn't run that many rigs given the perhaps 50A or 100A total available to each unit.
    - quickthrowman 3y ago
      > I cannot imagine, but the miners probably couldn't run that many rigs given the perhaps 50A or 100A total available to each unit. 60A @ 240v is a common residential load center size, 14.4kW is max load it’s a main lug only panel fed by a disconnect fused at 60A, and 11.5kW if the panel has a 60A main circuit breaker. Upping that to 100A yields 24kW and 19.2kW, respectively. I’m not sure what a miner uses for energy, but assuming 500w, you could get 13 on a 60A panel without any other loads present.
- imtringued 3y ago
  How long until people drive semi trucks and are too lazy to not bring the trailer to work?
  - FooBarBizBazz 3y ago
    In fairness, they do live in that trailer. Unlike houses, roads are free.
- RiOuseR 3y ago
  [dead]
- not_really 3y ago
  [flagged]
- hattmall 3y ago
  [flagged]
Enginerrrd 3y ago
As much as I think it's futile to argue with people willing to make such sweeping generalizations, I exist, and I drive a large, relatively new, high trim half-ton truck and I LOVE well thought-out bike infrastructure. I am however frequently opposed to the sort of half-assed, dangerous, bikes-as-an-afterthought band-aid ideas that I've seen coming out of my city. (The ideas from the county and surrounding cities are much better.) They're almost worse than nothing because they let the people in charge pat themselves on the back for being so pro-bike while doing almost nothing to improve bike safety.
- oooyay 3y ago
  Seconding this. My truck isn't half ton, it's a Tacoma, but I live in the PNW where having a truck is pretty invaluable. I also ride my bike around my city, ride the bus, and ride the train. In fact, not that long ago I did a two week train ride to Chicago; somewhat ironically most of the people willing to make pithy statements about trucks won't ride a long haul train. They fly in planes.
  - addicted 3y ago
    Long haul trains in the U.S. are awful. If you’re riding it it’s for an experience. Not as a practical realistic alternative to traveling instead of flying. So yeah, people who believe train infrastructure should be high quality enough that they’re a real alternative to flying for the right distances will not be keen on traveling on the terrible sight seeing focused (I’m being generous here) long haul trains in the U.S.
    - oooyay 3y ago
      I agree that train infrastructure isn't good, much less good enough. I was merely making some commentary along the lines of "put your money where your mouth is."
  - sokoloff 3y ago
    > a two week train ride to Chicago That about sums up the utility of long-distance train travel in the US.
SkyPuncher 3y ago
I’m seeing the same thing in my area. I’m a software engineer. I make good money. Well above my areas income. I’m considering buying a truck (to put a small truck camper in), but cannot get over the price. Dozens and dozens of used trucks that cost obscene amounts of money. Lift kits, custom rims, tints, etc. I just cannot imagine how people are affording these things.
- randomdata 3y ago
  I thought about upgrading my farm truck and the sticker shock got me too. I'll stick with my old truck for a while longer. On the other hand, the amortized yearly cost of the truck I have is basically nothing. It is not surprising that there was room for the price to go up.
- ChainOfFools 3y ago
  > Lift kits, custom rims, tints, etc. I just cannot imagine how people are affording these things. Much of this crap is what also makes them completely unsuitable if not outright useless for genuine truck utility purposes, which reveals that the motivation of those buying these trucks was never to do anything practical with them in the first place, but just to project large menacing presence to other people who have to share the road with rhem.
  - dude187 3y ago
    None of that listed makes them somehow "useless" and many are useful upgrades
    - SkyPuncher 3y ago
      In this case, he’s correct. These are often excessive lift kits paired with low profile tires. You lose a good portion of your towing capacity, while basically killing all of your offloading ability. These aren’t people improving capabilities. They’re only going for a look.
smileysteve 3y ago
Part of the 2018 Tax cuts were for "work trucks" with a depreciation bonus > For tax purposes, heavy SUVs, pickup trucks and vans are treated as transportation equipment, meaning they qualify for 100% first year bonus depreciation. Note that they must have a manufacturer’s gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) above 6,000 lbs.
bdcravens 3y ago
My boss/company owner, who is relatively frugal (he tends to prefer putting his money into property and his business rather than things like vehicles and the new tech etc), relayed being quoted $70k for a relatively basic pickup (F150 4x4 with a V8).

I see so many new $80k trucks in my area that people can’t possibly afford. They’re the last people that would ride a bike or vote to improve infrastructure like that, unfortunately.

ChainOfFools 3y ago

As if by magic, right around 2 years ago almost everywhere up and down the residential area where I live a bunch of brand new F-150s and the like all showed up almoat simultaneously in the driveways of every two-bit small trade business that could possibly somehow qualify as supporting "critical infrastructure" , like... junk hauling and muffler repair and driveway paving contractors, always LLCs and typically operated by Guy in a Punisher Shirt and his sole employee/cousin/wife/son. How many of these PPP loans got forgiven is apparently close to 100%, as it is evident a lot of these clowns had plenty of spare money to modify whats supposed to be their work truck into a lane swallowing, coal rolling, baby-on-board family car crushing, eye-level LED light bar festooned rolling death threat / mid life crisis costume accessory.

hnreport 3y ago
Reminds me of people in housing projects maxing out their AC all year because electricity was free (and having big screen tvs and shit). Humans will take advantage.
- ChainOfFools 3y ago
  I know of at least one operation that happened in SW DC where some small-time Bitcoin mining hucksters managed to set up a bunch of rigs in a handful of low-income-area apartment blocks (Syphax Gardens area). not sure if the units rhemselves were low income or not but the entire building group was set up to meter electricity and cooling as a whole rather than by unit. So they paid (possibly subsidized) rent for a cheap, fire hazard "data center" space and got free electricity and cooling out of it for at least a year before people figured out what they were up to. How on earth the neighbors ignored the maddening fan noise of those things ( there are a couple in the data center space I lease from, and you can hear the single rack that they occupy from several aisles away, far louder than all of the industrial grade servers and hardware installed all around them) I cannot imagine, but the miners probably couldn't run that many rigs given the perhaps 50A or 100A total available to each unit.
  - quickthrowman 3y ago
    > I cannot imagine, but the miners probably couldn't run that many rigs given the perhaps 50A or 100A total available to each unit. 60A @ 240v is a common residential load center size, 14.4kW is max load it’s a main lug only panel fed by a disconnect fused at 60A, and 11.5kW if the panel has a 60A main circuit breaker. Upping that to 100A yields 24kW and 19.2kW, respectively. I’m not sure what a miner uses for energy, but assuming 500w, you could get 13 on a 60A panel without any other loads present.
imtringued 3y ago
How long until people drive semi trucks and are too lazy to not bring the trailer to work?
- FooBarBizBazz 3y ago
  In fairness, they do live in that trailer. Unlike houses, roads are free.
RiOuseR 3y ago
[dead]
not_really 3y ago
[flagged]
hattmall 3y ago
[flagged]

Enginerrrd 3y ago

As much as I think it's futile to argue with people willing to make such sweeping generalizations, I exist, and I drive a large, relatively new, high trim half-ton truck and I LOVE well thought-out bike infrastructure. I am however frequently opposed to the sort of half-assed, dangerous, bikes-as-an-afterthought band-aid ideas that I've seen coming out of my city. (The ideas from the county and surrounding cities are much better.) They're almost worse than nothing because they let the people in charge pat themselves on the back for being so pro-bike while doing almost nothing to improve bike safety.

oooyay 3y ago
Seconding this. My truck isn't half ton, it's a Tacoma, but I live in the PNW where having a truck is pretty invaluable. I also ride my bike around my city, ride the bus, and ride the train. In fact, not that long ago I did a two week train ride to Chicago; somewhat ironically most of the people willing to make pithy statements about trucks won't ride a long haul train. They fly in planes.
- addicted 3y ago
  Long haul trains in the U.S. are awful. If you’re riding it it’s for an experience. Not as a practical realistic alternative to traveling instead of flying. So yeah, people who believe train infrastructure should be high quality enough that they’re a real alternative to flying for the right distances will not be keen on traveling on the terrible sight seeing focused (I’m being generous here) long haul trains in the U.S.
  - oooyay 3y ago
    I agree that train infrastructure isn't good, much less good enough. I was merely making some commentary along the lines of "put your money where your mouth is."
- sokoloff 3y ago
  > a two week train ride to Chicago That about sums up the utility of long-distance train travel in the US.

SkyPuncher 3y ago

I’m seeing the same thing in my area. I’m a software engineer. I make good money. Well above my areas income. I’m considering buying a truck (to put a small truck camper in), but cannot get over the price. Dozens and dozens of used trucks that cost obscene amounts of money. Lift kits, custom rims, tints, etc. I just cannot imagine how people are affording these things.

randomdata 3y ago
I thought about upgrading my farm truck and the sticker shock got me too. I'll stick with my old truck for a while longer. On the other hand, the amortized yearly cost of the truck I have is basically nothing. It is not surprising that there was room for the price to go up.
ChainOfFools 3y ago
> Lift kits, custom rims, tints, etc. I just cannot imagine how people are affording these things. Much of this crap is what also makes them completely unsuitable if not outright useless for genuine truck utility purposes, which reveals that the motivation of those buying these trucks was never to do anything practical with them in the first place, but just to project large menacing presence to other people who have to share the road with rhem.
- dude187 3y ago
  None of that listed makes them somehow "useless" and many are useful upgrades
  - SkyPuncher 3y ago
    In this case, he’s correct. These are often excessive lift kits paired with low profile tires. You lose a good portion of your towing capacity, while basically killing all of your offloading ability. These aren’t people improving capabilities. They’re only going for a look.

smileysteve 3y ago

Part of the 2018 Tax cuts were for "work trucks" with a depreciation bonus > For tax purposes, heavy SUVs, pickup trucks and vans are treated as transportation equipment, meaning they qualify for 100% first year bonus depreciation. Note that they must have a manufacturer’s gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) above 6,000 lbs.

bdcravens 3y ago

My boss/company owner, who is relatively frugal (he tends to prefer putting his money into property and his business rather than things like vehicles and the new tech etc), relayed being quoted $70k for a relatively basic pickup (F150 4x4 with a V8).