The hodgepodge, cheap, light, ecomodder pickup truck bench race thread!

Yup. Renting the truck from Home Depot is staggeringly cheap. Last time I had one for like 4 hours and it was ~$50 maybe (not counting gas). Even doing that monthly, which is way more often than I care to do anything that requires a truck, its only $600 a year, which is cheaper than just about any truck you are going to own.

http://seattle.craigslist.org/sno/cto/4718429292.html

slantvaliant wrote:

This. My folks had an 83 Isuzu P'up back in 1983. It was a42mpg truck around town, back roads etc. The instant it hit hte highway, it dropped to a measely 40mpg. This was during the 55mph speed limit days and the folks ran it at 62mph. I would imagine a taller tire, or a better rear end ratio would be able to help that out. This was the easy button back when.

Biggest issue with these were the frames. rusted in two right behind the cab and would drop the cab on the driveshaft. A former roommate at college and his dad were cutting railroad rails and welding them in the weak spot on these trucks for years.

Leafy wrote:

mtn wrote: The problem with this exercise is that it is great as an exercise, but once you move it into real life, it isn't as wonderful. Crunch the numbers. If the truck would only do about 2500 miles a year, and only HD/Lowes runs, then just find any 4 cylinder truck and call it a day.

Honestly if you're only doing a HD/Lowes run every month or two its cheaper to just rent the work truck from HD/Lowes or one of the F150s from uhaul.

I agree, but there I do like having an extra vehicle around as well. Different conversation though.

Wouldn't a 2wd 4 cyl Ranger pickup with some aeromods potentially hit near 30 mpg on the highway if driven sensibly?

92dxman wrote: Wouldn't a 2wd 4 cyl Ranger pickup with some aeromods potentially hit near 30 mpg on the highway if driven sensibly?

I had a '99 Ranger XLT 2wd extended cab with a 2.5L and 5 speed that I used as a DD to commute 45 mile from central MA to 128.

I would average 25 mpg without any aeromods or other tricks, so I wouldn't be surprised if it could get closer to 30 mpg with some effort.