Farmer Wannabees

I always get a kick out of phonys and the Hollwood or Yuppie (including many new age so called "Country" performers) crowds who want to pretend to be country folk at various occassions.

For example, one can easily spot the Realtors or Politicians at our local county fair, they are the ones that show up wearing "brand new" denims or have a piece of straw in their mouth. You ever see those pickup truck commercials where someone is ALWAYS throwing a few bales of hay or straw into the back lol. Or the Yuppie who drives into the local Co Op in his brand new Diesel Dually $50, 000 truck to get a bale of straw for his kids dog house and he has towells or blankets in the bed so he dont scratch his shiny new truck. Rememebr when regular folk or middle class or low income persons went on Trail Rides?? When you go to the local State Park horse camp nowadays, they wont let you in the gate UNLESS you have a Diesel Dually all wheel drive truck and about a $30,000 aluminum horse trailer. If a local young redneck showed up in a rusty old Ford and a 2 horse bumper hitch trailer the rich snobs would insist he be thrown out lol. Remember when we as kids got a cane pole, dug our own worms and went fishing?? Nowadays its the Diesel Dually truck pulling a $30,000 Ranger Bass Boat and a tackle box packed with expensive lures ya gotta have to fish.

Oh well, thats progress I reckon, I just never had to pay for those things to have fun or feel good about myself or impress the neighbors I guess. HOWEVER its good for the economy cuz if people were like me the Country would surely go broke.

Ol John T (Old fashioned conservative fuddy duddy)

They say "imitation is the sincerest
form of flattery". WPT

You can actually buy a full size International or Freightliner with 20" wheels, 15,500# rear and 6,000# front axle, 5 speed transmission and one of the many inline 6 cylinder diesels, for less money than the dually. For only a few more dollars than the diesel dually you can actually buy a truck with 18,500# rear, 6,000# front, 20"wheels, air brakes, 10 speed and DT 466. These heavy trucks will give you a far more efficient hauler.

Problem I have with the auto industry is pricing, leasing versus owning. If you check out the lease price, then you know very well investors in the auto industry are still wanting double digit return on their investment. Then look at the total lease payments for the proposed term, plus the residual value at end of term. Having said that a cash sale price for the particular auto should be about 50% of list price. You try for anywhere near that at any auto dealer and they will show you the door. 30 years ago cash talked, not anymore.

Now the way I look at these full size diesel pickups. 75% of the folks that have them, do 90% of driving them with less than a half ton on board. I used to pull trailers on the farm with my 3/4 ton pickups, busted a lot of truck, got many a thrill from overloads and lack of brakes. Then I bought a used single axle highway tractor with air brakes to haul those pickup overloads. My total cost of operation on trucks actually went down. Today the heaviest thing I haul is my SA or 130. I would like to buy a 3/4 ton diesel pickup with an inline 6 geared to turn about 1650 rpm at 100 KPH or 60 MPH. No reason why such a vehicle shouldn't hit 40 miles per IMP gallon. A friend of mine did it 20 years ago with new 1 ton Chevy dually, specifically ordered rear end, 5 speed standard and a Deere 404 cubic inch diesel from a 4000 Deere tractor. The problem he said was without mass production the investment he had in engine, transmission and rear end, Chevy would have to build that cab and chassis for 30 years as he would need 3 of them to get his money back. That was in 1985, and you know how long GM continued that cab and chassis.

I reckon the yuppie crowd would probably drop their glasses of chablis if they saw the old "Gee Vee TV" van coming their way these days.

the same horse was put on a pooltable at the local drinking establishment to win a $5 bet..hehe