I love that era of Dodge Rams. I just wish they would have made them in a crew cab version. I'd have two...maybe three...
Loved my 94 Trooper. LOVE my 05 duramax. Would never have known the chassis, thanks In response to other things here, would be cool to have spending per generation against income per generation (ie: Genx spent more, was that financed or were incomes and employment higher?). Also, I worked with a girl in the early 90's, she lived in her parents basement with her boyfriend, too many things I did not respect about her......, but her and her boyfriend financed brand new at sticker price trucks every year and never paid for housing or food or childcare etc.
housing - most of my time with homes & family was during the 15-25% interest rates fuel jumping from $.027 ( which was already horrendously priced) to the off the wall $4.00/ gal a few years back, add in Food and Childcare- worked 2 full time jobs plus side work in related field and the Ex full or part time. 3 offspring - 2 doing very well - youngest ? Hopefully she gets it together pdq. Daycare- robs you blind-
Theres a good chance the truck could be rusted through before its paid for You'd want gap insurance for sure...
That’s a rare statement! I’ve spent some time with both the Trooper of that era and the Trooper II. Rust In Peace I say. (Literally!)
Ha! So right! I'm always reading/hearing about folks having to season for 1-3 years. Six months seems to work for me... Look on the bright side all of you non-PNWers: Out here, we aren't fortunate enough to experience that extreme cold (or hot) weather that you do! Oh wait...no, that's why I live here and not in MI anymore... Hope everyone takes all this as good-natured fun. I haven't been on the forum very long, and don't intend to make any enemies... One thing that I do miss about northern MI is the colors in autumn. Nowhere else that I've ever lived (WA, CA, VA) has had such vivid leaf colors. I miss those reds...
We have a lot of wood that seasons in under a year as well. Yeah, oak can and usually does take 2-3 yrs. Dead standing elm is ready the same day as it's cut. Ash, silver maple, box elder, soft maples even green are usually ready in a summer after split and stacked. We've got pine too. If you want that. I know some won't believe this, but I've got shagbark hickory, that I cut down last winter, that was ready this fall, no kiln to dry it either. It was living, but dormant. I've got the photographic and moisture meter reading proof to back that up as well. That's super high btu stuff. But yes, we need it here. Your winters are much more temperent.
No problem. It's all in good fun. My wife is from the bay area, then she moved up to Humboldt/ Chico, then after school went to Portland for over a decade. My oldest brother lives in Portland, my other brother lived in Portland until about 10 yrs until he moved to Florida. His wife was from Seattle. I nearly moved out to Portland OR after living in Maine in the early 2000's. So, I've got a bit of PNW experience. As much as I love my roaring fires in my stove here during blizzards ( like we have those ever, seems like it's been years) some of my favorite memories of wood burning were on the Pacific ocean coast ( pacific city iirc). We rented a beach house in a crazy winter storm with a stove full of Douglas Fir. Oh yeah, we got fresh dungeys and I shucked crab and my wife to be made an awesome crab morel risotto while we drink some Willamette valley wine. We need to get get back out there to visit. Plus, I need to drink some of FatBoy85 's fish house punch.
I've got fond memories of a trooper II of that time (86 I think). I leaned to drive stick in the snow in the neighbor's maroon and silver one.
When you make it up here for Xmas time!! damm you talkin about crab just makes me wanna make sure the boat is ready for July.
A co worker that's been driving an old Buick LeSabre is looking at getting a truck. He's looking at 14-17 model super crew f150s. I eat lunch with him pretty much every day. The prices he's seeing, I told him he can get a brand new one for essentially the same $. He's not as picky as I am about options. He wants an ecoboost, supercrew, 4wd. That's all he cares about. I told him to at least go to a new dealer and see what they will or won't do to get a sale. Our president/owner/boss is friends with one of the big dealerships here in DE Wisconsin. I told him he's out nothing if they say they won't do the deal he's looking for. He might be pleasantly surprised. We talked quite a bit about the used vehicle market, and how there's nearly no wiggle room on those vehicles, but there's a lot on new vehicles, especially trucks right now.
Almost all in the 17-20 mBTU range, just like the Douglas fir, bigleaf maple, and white birch I'm burning.
That's the truck market I see, only thing around 10 -15k are rusted enough to faill safety inspection. For 12 thousand
I have been going back and forth on the idea of buying my wife a crew cab 1/2 ton when her suv is due to be replaced. She is somewhat receptive to the idea, and it would be a way for me to justify the expense since my personal vehicles barely get used. Then I realized yesterday as I was navigating a tight parking garage at Children's Hospital in Boston what a bad idea this is. She isn't the best driver....and I can only imagine the carnage she would create in that situation.
