New truck shopping

50% of the time they don't believe it.

 

I'm not too far from that. Add an additional cheap vehicle and another half acre and that is me.

 

almost funny, that is a 4R100 Ford transmission.

 

That it is not a 4r100. It maybe and Allison???

 

Definitely not a 4R100.

And here is the article the picture came from
gm allison - Google Search

 

My wife and I stopped at the ram dealer as we had 15 minutes to kill. They had a quadcaqu 2019 big Horn hemi in the showroom. She seems to like it, but then again she likes the Ford better, at least the looks from the outside.

Now it was super butt cold outside, so if I can show her a monochromatic north edition, she might like it even more. We'll see, maybe this weekend we'll go out.

 

still not a Dodge...............

 

Been commercial truck shopping for the last 4 months. Aggravated is an understatement. These salesman are the polar opposite of vehicle salesman. They couldnt give a chit.
I can barely get the door shut on my vehicle at a local lot before getting a sales pitch!

 

Does that model have independent heated and cooled seats?

 

Last new truck I bought was for my business.

I didn't even do the buying, sent my Secretary, told her what we wanted, heavy 3/4 ton, standard cab, 2wd and 8ft box. I emphasized I want ZERO options.
Price was the selling point, was not concerned with color. She was back in an hour, made a couple of calls in a total of 2-3 hours she had one on its way. This was back in the 2005 time frame, we end up paying somewhere around 18K.

I think that they when they understand it was for a business and we would not be messing round helped. The first dealer she went to tried selling her on 4wd but she was a bigger hardnose than me and she shut him down by saying "I told you what I want, if you can't give me what I want we are done."


All the "truck" guys at work were baffled that I didn't want 4wd. There is some brain disconnect when it comes to 4wd. The truck was driven on the road only. If the roads were real bad we didn't make deliveries and customers always were understanding about it. 4wd hurts gas mileage and at the time cost about a grand more if I recall correctly. I'd explain it and you could see they understood the logic but they had an emotional attachment of sorts to the idea of having 4wd. "yea, I get it, but still you don't have 4wd, you only have a 2wd pick up". Like 4wd is magical or something.

I guess I learned and grew up without things and made due with what we had.

My Dad had a Drywall business and every truck he bought was a plain jane back when you could still buy a plain jane. 1/2 ton, standard manual transmission which means a 3 on the tree as the 4 speed manual with the granny gear was an option, standard engine which was a straight 250cu in straight 6 from GM and the only option he would get was the optional AM Radio. There was no carpets, no intermittent wipers, no A/C, no cruise control, no power windows or door locks, and even no power brakes or power steering. As plain and basic as you could get.

Yet I drove many a mile in those things. We finally talked my Dad to upgrade on the last truck he bought. We got him to get the 4 speed instead of the three on the tree. Never wanted for anything else. Those simple trucks were dependable, decent on gas and did the job.

One of my early jobs was cleaning drywall scraps out of the houses after the rockers finished but before the taper came in. So the house was nice and clean and easy to work in for the next guy. Interestingly enough something that does not seem to be done in todays construction business. Anyways these new home construction sites were basically a muddy mess with a new house in the middle of it. Nice and loose, recently lifted and turned mud, not solid like a muddy field. I liked to get the truck right up to the house at one of the doors or a large window so I didn't have to walk outside with the scraps. This meant driving in the mud to within a foot or so of the house. The secret of not getting stuck is traction. I didn't have 4wd or even a posi, just a open rear end in a 2wd truck with no weight in the back. At this point I had the worse thing on the road for getting around. So I do a recon mission in the house , pick the best place to toss the stuff out then back to the truck. If it was really muddy or deep snow I put tire chains on the truck. Even with chains no weight in the back could make it challenging. I had my plan of where to go so I'd line up my path and go like there was no tomorrow. No slowing down, all the way from the road to the house in reverse going like crazy. I usually had to hit the brakes pretty hard so I didn't hit the house. At this point if I want to leave I'd be stuck but after you toss about 500-1000lbs of drywall scraps in the back you have decent traction and you can just chug out. Then I had to drive to a dump site which usually meant being careful cause I could get in easily enough but getting out with no weight was tricky. And these sites were usually remote. This is back in the days before cell phones. If you wanted to call for help it meant any where from a mile or more to find a phone. Something I never wanted to do especially if it meant calling my Dad and calling him to come pull me out. My Dad would make you sit until he finished his work for the day then he'd come and get you. So you might have to sit and wait for 4-8 hours.

At the construction sites there often would be other trades guys working too. Most of the other guys had 4wd trucks and their trucks usually had lots of weight in them with all the tools and equipment they carried. They were not as "frugal" as my Dad. But I'll bet I pulled at least a dozen of these guys out of the mud when they got stuck. Usually in the spring as the ground was frozen in the morning when they got there but during the day it would warm up and everything would turn back to mud. They'd get a couple of feet then they'd be stuck tight as could be. All I carried in the truck was a broom and grain shovel for sweeping out the house, tire chains, and a 50 ft chain. Sometime getting them out meant jacking up trucks , laying boards/drywall scraps under tires and yanking them out little by little. No one ever called a wrecker, that costed real money.

So I got a real education on getting stuck and unstuck. On judging what I could get away with. I can proudly say I never had to call anyone to get me unstuck. I was too bullheaded and proud to do that. I did get stuck but I knew how to get unstuck. After getting stuck a couple of times you learn. My brothers, thats another story.

I guess all the hours and experiences I had in those plain janes made me appreciate a simple vehicle and manual trans missions. There are things you can do with a manual trans that an automatic can't do when your stuck or have problems. And those things have saved me more than once. So I have been driving manuals for over 45 years will keep do so till I can't physically do it. I like simple utilitarian things.

Just a long rant/story cause I had the time.

 

It is...it cost an extra couple grand (at least, these days) but will bring just as much, and more, when you go to sell the truck later on. Kinda crazy, but true...you can hardly give a used 2wd truck away around here...but on the other hand, 4 wd is an easy sell.

Interesting read SL...

 

No just heated front seats and steering wheel. I think mirrors too.
I don't really need the cooled seats anyways. I don't have cooled seats in my leather seats in the Audi. The north edition has cloth seats iirc.
Now some of the Leather seat equipped Ford's have heated and cooled seats. But it's hard to find a ford with geared steering wheel. It's a $100 option on any ram, except for the tradesman model that I'm not even considering.

 

I probably wouldn't admit to having "filled seats" either...

 

Lol
Autocorrect. "Cooled" seats. Not on my Audi.

 

It's a supply/demand thing, its not needed but perceptions are what they are.
4wd is not the magic bullet for winter driving, tires are.
I'll take any drive set up with good tires over 4wd with the usual tires you see on them any time.
4wd does nothing to help stopping distances while good tires do even on ice.

I'd have no issue buying a 2wd truck, rather have one as a matter of fact if I had to own a truck. I have driven lots of miles in all sorts of conditions with them so I know what they can do and what to expect.

Thanks for the good words on my tirade.

 

True...with the exception of a truck with out of adjustment rear drum brakes (and there are a few of those around!) in that case you'd get some stoppage on the rear too...when in 4x4 of course...

 

I thought it was a good story Soggy Logs.. You should teach these flat landers something.. They drive up go go skiing on a snow mountain.. With 60k+ rigs and 3 year old all season tires and complain they get stuck on the roads and parking lots

 

Yes..."all season" actually means "no season"...well, maybe summer

 

All season really means 3 season.

That's why I just buy high performance all seasons for cars. That way, you get the most out of the non freezing cold seasons. For trucks the AT seem to work pretty well. Now yes, in snow and Ice, the winter tires are still better.

Soggy Logs , you are 100% right about rwd being all that's really necessary most of the time.

I learned on rwd cars. I went places a lot of pickups with 4wd had trouble. Ground clearance was my limitation. My father specifically wouldn't let me drive the 4wd bronco until I was about 20, when he knew that I knew how to drive properly with a rwd car.