jamesqf, I stated in my post what my loads were: "motorcycles, furniture, appliances, etc". When I say "800-900 load", I mean the "load", not including trailer. For me, in my life situation, it works fine, and I don't have to worry about maintaining a truck for occasional use, and I have no heavy loads anyway.
I think we are misunderstanding each other. The whole point of this thread was for an "average" joe living in the suburbs (close to a Home Depot) and thinking that he "needs" a pick-up truck for minor tasks. So he runs a couple trash cans down to the town dump once a week and hauls a few loads per year of firewood, furniture, whatever. THEN he commutes to work everyday in that same gas hog truck!
If someone needs to haul farm equipment, heavy stuff, etc. then of course they need a truck, this thread doesn't apply to them!
If someone (like you) lives in a more rural area and has the mechanical skills, time, need, to have two vehicles, then great, this thread does not apply to you. It's great that you have a fuel efficient second car, some people don't want or can't have a second vehicle.
For someone who only has one vehicle and only has "average & occasional" household loads to haul, the theme of this thread is: if you have only one vehicle, drive a car and have a trailer instead of a gas-hog pick-up truck.
Does that make sense?
Rich
Quote:
Originally Posted by jamesqf
What exactly is load here? Is it the weight of the cargo, or of trailer plus cargo? (And in the tent trailer case, I would dispense with the trailer part, and use my under 5 lbs tent :-))
Sure, one size doesn't fit all. In my case, both vehicles are fully depreciated, reg & insurance for the second vehicle is maybe an extra $150/yr, and I have a second vehicle available if the first isn't usable for some reason. (Or in case we have over 6" of snow on the roads: despite the Insight's many good qualities, it really sucks as a snowplow :-)) I live some distance from town, so renting a truck for occasional loads would involve quite a bit of extra time & cost.
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