Two cab pickup trucks. Are they the rage in your area too?

[Baitball Blogger]

On my street I think we have more than our share of house, flip-it entrepreneurs, to the point that one or two homes are probably being used as a launching pad for personal businesses. It's all contrary to the homeowner rules, but when the president of the Association is personally invested in breaking the rules to justify his own breaches, that kind of thing seems to worry only the parents of small children who see the increase traffic on our narrow streets. This community was built without sidewalks, and good ole boys have gutted the rules, making it a prime metaphor for the kind of communities they will foster if Republicans have their way.

But I digress. Two cab pick up trucks. It seems like no one drives a regular p/u truck anymore. I was wondering if everyone else sees the same thing in their communities?

[MindPilot]

1. What is a "two-cab"? There are cabs, extended cabs, and crew cabs.

And they for tradesmen who need to carry a few pieces of plywood and enough people to do the work.

[Baitball Blogger]

7. I suspect you would refer to it as an extended cab.

[Skittles]

76. they've been the "rage" in Texas for decades

[snooper2]

2. Since around 1978

[Baitball Blogger]

6. No big wheels around here, thankfully.

Just too many, for the small development we have. It wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for all the coming and going of the same vehicles.

[valerief]

52. Moronmobile. nt

[ChairmanAgnostic]

66. Gee, thanks.

I carry heavy large things, and I use it to transport fiends and family. Sitting 5 adults comfortably is a charm, especially when I take mine Olde folks shopping

[cali]

3. do you mean extended cabs?

Nope, here in Vermont it's still mostly regular old pickups and a lot of them are held together with baling wire and duct tape.

[Baitball Blogger]

4. LOL!

I suspect that my street may have more than the usual because of the anarchistic leadership we have had in the past.

It's too late to make this a "normal" community experience, so I might as well write about it since I have every reason to believe that this is just a sneak peak of the future.

[disidoro01]

5. I have a quad cab

I haul things for work and on the homestead here and I have 4 people to fit. I don't see why that a problem.

[Baitball Blogger]

9. Not a problem at all.

They seem very practical. I was just commenting on the number of them on our small street. I was wondering if they had become a trend.

[disidoro01]

23. I see many more now than a decade ago

Kids are safer than in the old extended cabs with jump seats and the cost of two vehicles even with a car getting better mileage is too much for most families.

[canoeist52]

8. The extra cab gives us the best of both worlds.

We can load 2x4's, plywood, the kids and a dog at the same time. We do all our own home repair so it just makes sense.
The regular cab was sufficient 'til we had kids.

[Baitball Blogger]

10. Makes a lot of sense.

[truebluegreen]

80. I am informed that nobody who has ever owned a truck

will ever be content without a truck.

But sometimes you need to haul more people than that. Hence the four-door ("crew cab&quot pick-up.

We have only one vehicle. Much discussion went into its selection, and this is what we came up with: a 2002 Toyota Tacoma (much smaller than the current version) w/ 4 doors. It has more than 200,000 miles on it, many of them in adverse conditions (south of the border) and runs like a champ. I think I will be buried in it.

[bluedigger]

11. Extended cabs are declasse in my burb.

You've got to run a diesel duelie to get a second glance in these parts - the blacker the exhaust the better.

[Baitball Blogger]

15. The ones one my street look like they are in good condition.

Very well kept.

[CRK7376]

12. There are everywhere!

Personally, I drive an '06 Toyota Tacoma with the Access Cab. Enough room behind the the seats for small kids or one teenager to stretch out. Otherwise it gives me great, secured storage space. I love my truck but really need a full size pickup and with over 204,000 on the current truck it's about time to look at a new one. But first we have to finish paying for the kids college, my wife needs a new Toyota SUV more than I need the new truck, her '06 Toyota Sienna has 170,000 on it and I want her in a better vehicle than what I'm driving. Of course our daughter wants my truck, fortunately she turns 15 at the end of September and is basically a year and half out of getting her license. And with the stepped license process in NC it will be closer to two years before she will have free reign to drive without mom or dad or older brothers riding with her. But yes to answer your statement, the double cab trucks are everywhere.

[Baitball Blogger]

17. Thank you. That's very helpful.

[gollygee]

13. We have one

My husband has to haul things frequently, and we have kids so he can haul things and have the kids with him if need be. It's awkward if one of your vehicles doesn't accomodate your family. You end up having to take two vehicles places sometimes.

[Baitball Blogger]

20. Our children have grown and left the nest, but my hubby and I still

have a lot of use for a big car that can carry heavy loads. I very much understand.

[Historic NY]

14. Big year end sales on them.......

really lots of savings $10-12k. Most people with families want the convenience of a car and a truck. They come in cheaper than an suv too.

[Baitball Blogger]

21. That makes a lot of sense.

[LWolf]

16. Plenty of pickups of all kinds here.

It's rural. Farms, ranches, forests.

There are small towns and cities, all surrounded by those farms, ranches, forests, and resorts.

There are more trucks and SUVs on the road than there are cars.

I could use a full-sized truck. My '04 4 cylinder Tacoma won't pull a horse trailer full of horses. It's a compromise. When I need the horses hauled, I call someone with a full-sized truck. I haul what I can in the Tacoma.

I've fit, 8 different times, a full ton of hay on that truck. It takes a master hay stacker to fit it on there. I've hauled firewood, although it doesn't haul enough to be practical. I've hauled rocks and soil. My Tacoma has an extra cab; I can fit more stuff in that way, and squish a couple of extra people back there if necessary.

A friend has a full-sized truck with 4 doors and a full back seat. She's the one I'm most likely to call when I need a full-sized truck. When we're hauling horses somewhere, all of us with horses in the trailer can travel in the same vehicle. I once, several years back, traveled with her to another state to haul 2 horses and 2 tons of hay back. She wanted company on the trip. I was glad for the backseat, even with no passengers. It was a long, long trip and we sure couldn't have stuffed our supplies into the trailer.

I see a lot of 4-door pickups at work, dropping off my students and picking them up. When the family needs a truck for the ranch or farm, they want to fit the family into the truck just like they do a car.

I don't know about city folk and suburbanites. Their needs are different. Not as many people need trucks, unless they use them in their profession. Still, a back seat doesn't hurt. Most cars, outside of som pricey luxury sports models, have back seats, and many cars have 4 doors.

[Baitball Blogger]

25. I can certainly understand why they would be part of the landscape in a rural area.

My only concern is the potential commercial use *IN* the development. I already had a parent of small children ask me if I would support speed bumps in the community. That's when I began looking around to see why he would feel a need for them. Sure enough, I saw the signs of potential commercial business taking place on our street. It's really the increased traffic that's a problem. Not the vehicles themselves.

[hedgehog]

35. There are other methods of traffic calming besides speed bumps

that would be less annoying to people who live there:

http://www.trafficcalming.net/entryways.htm

http://www.cityofrochester.gov/trafficcalming/

Good luck!

[Baitball Blogger]

39. Thanks. All good information.

[Tikki]

18. Where I live in So Cal hybrids, most often Prius, are all the rage...

They are everywhere and all ages are driving them.

Quite a few Minis and Fiats are showing up. Not too may pickup trucks
or SUV's left on the road out here these days.


Tikki
ps I predict the day when an extended family or a neighborhood will
have a community truck for when a truck is needed.

[Baitball Blogger]

26. That's the kind of vehicles you would expect to find in a true bedroom community.

But, I still think that the real estate market is king around here. It is a real scavenger industry.

[Union Scribe]

32. Anyone driving anything American there? nt

[Tikki]

44. Yes, we are starting to see some Ford hybrids (all models) and actually half a dozen Teslas..

are in my area. Also, the Volt. I live off US 101 so when I'm out and about I see everything there is on that road.

Believe me, most here want to buy an American Hybrid..the American manufacturers have been late to the game..
but they are here now.


Tikki

[Union Scribe]

48. That's good, I don't get out that way much anymore

and was wondering if Detroit's hybrids could penetrate where hybrids like the Prius had been adopted early and built a following. Like you said it's hard when you're late to the party.

[AgingAmerican]

19. Global warming denial

My doctor once told me that some guys, when having a heart attack, will start doing push-ups to prove to themselves they aren't having one. In the end it makes the heart attack worse.

[MineralMan]

22. I never really wonder about what my neighbors drive, frankly.

That's up to them. As for doing business from home, I do that, too. Nobody would know it, though, since what I do involves only writing. Still, unless someone has construction supplies piled up around their house, I can't see how the type of truck they drive is pertinent to anyone but the person who owns it.

[Baitball Blogger]

28. Home offices are not a problem.

It's whatever brings in traffic that creates a hazard.

[MineralMan]

40. Hmm...Let's look at that.

Suppose a guy's business is in the construction business. Maybe he's an independent contractor or just a construction worker. I'm not sure how that brings traffic into the neighborhood. Unless that person is doing construction in the neighborhood, he's likely to get in his truck and drive somewhere else where the work is located.

If, on the other hand, he's rehabbing the house in your neighborhood, it doesn't really matter if he lives in it or not. Rehabbing brings workers into the neighborhood to do their jobs. Once the home has been rehabbed, its value goes up, and so do the values elsewhere in the neighborhood.

I'm not seeing how that kind of business necessarily increases traffic, really.

[Baitball Blogger]

60. Or, they use their home address to accept shipping materials.

And their trucks come to the house to collect those materials, as needed.

And, yes, there is a lot of rehabbing going on in this community. I have no problem with that. That's official business as long as they get permits, which, incidentally they don't always do.

[Travis_0004]

83. Why would you care if they get a permit

If somebody is rehabbing a house, which improves the neighboorhood, why would you care, or even know if they get a permit.

[Baitball Blogger]

90. You mean like, taking the chance that the air ducts they removed from the attic might pose a health

hazard because they might contain asbestos and they're not removed properly, though there are children living next door? You mean like that?

Or that they construct something with the cheap Chinese manufactured drywall that corrodes everything around it over time? So the people they sell it to walk into a ticking time bomb. Like that, you mean?

Or like they don't dig footers deep enough, creating a weak structure in sandy Florida soils?

Communities and cities get reputations. The last thing you want is to have a new family come into a development that has to deal with monumental maintenance problems which immediately put them under financial duress. If they can't pay their Association fees or mortgages, it eventually will become your problem. Especially in Florida where they're throwing all the negatives at homeowners, and homeowners just never seem to organize to fight off the onslaught. They're picking us off, one by one, as I see it.

I'm sure this chaos in our communities is someone's idea of Libertarian freedom.

[Agschmid]

24. I live in Mass.... are "boys and their trucks" everywhere.

They are usually cute too

[Baitball Blogger]

33. Rural Mass?

[Agschmid]

38. No its right outside Boston. (WARNING Graphic Image)

Pick up trucks are HUGE here and everyone has the biggest F-150 they can get their hands on. I don't often see Raptor's around but they always have the big cab and the 3 lines across the tailgate which is the high end version.

And don't forget Scott Brown...

[Baitball Blogger]

41. His truck looks tiny compared to the ones on my street.

[Agschmid]

43. A lot of things are tiny compared to what I've seen.

[lynne]

27. Yep, we have one -

- and love it. Many times we've got either our young adult children or our grandchildren with us when we need to use the pickup so it's very convenient.

We have the extended bed, too. Great for hauling stuff!

[Baitball Blogger]

31. I certainly understand its usefulness.

[mick063]

29. You need the biggest diesel truck you can find

So that you may squeeze your "home away from home" into the tightest space possible. Walking distance from the golf course, restaurant, and swimming pool.

They tell me it is camping, but I grew up here, and I will tell you that it is far different than the camping I know.

[Baitball Blogger]

34. We still haven't done the Chevy Chase American vacation, yet.

But hope to do it soon. Those piccies are inspiring.

[NutmegYankee]

30. Pretty common for families in my area.

You get the utility of a pickup truck with the ability to load four people in it like a regular car. But I do live in a more rural area.

As for the rest, I'll never live anyplace that has a homeowners association. You may call a couch on a porch of a neighbor an eyesore, but I call it freedom. And in general, people do try to keep their properties up. The only really ugly properties are ones the banks abandoned, but the town doesn't have a blight ordinance to handle them. For instance, there is no way to enforce cutting your lawn. Some people have planted wild lawns, filled with Queen Ann's Lace and so on (which actually look really nice) or they mow because they want their yard to look nice.

[Baitball Blogger]

36. I wonder if you can do away with mandatory Association fees, if you can prove

that the Association has shown no due diligence in enforcing its own covenants and restriction?

I suspect I am going to find out.

[NutmegYankee]

45. If written into your deed, basically no chance.

Courts love contracts, especially those that fuck over working class people.

[Baitball Blogger]

59. They have circumvented everything else that was written into the deed,

so where do they earn the right to collect fees?

Mind you, I'm in favor of enforcement. But weakening or ignoring the ARB rules is one of the prime ways that good ole boys cement their friendships. I'm referring to the officers of the board.

[nadinbrzezinski]

37. We looked at one

Covering fires we need a 4x4.

We settled on an agile jeep

[Baitball Blogger]

42. I would think that an agile jeep will get you out of tight spots faster.

[nadinbrzezinski]

46. That is why...would have preferred the extended

Version...better ride, a tad more stable...but we got what we could afford.

[Aerows]

47. If you live anywhere near the sticks

You are going to have access to a pickup of some sort, and for most people, it's practical to have one with more than just one bench seat. Even an old 6-cyl full sized pickup is a really useful thing to have around.

Ditching a pickup that's paid off and still runs well (has air conditioning, fully functional, etc.) is kind of silly. Liability is cheap.

[dembotoz]

49. gee how many feet per gallon do they get?

have enough trouble putting gas in my little chevy geo

[nadinbrzezinski]

54. 14-17 MpG depending on model

And fuel saving technology.

The scary part is they should be better. (So should your Geo). The 25 year old truck that got totaled had a 16 MpG on her. You'd think the technology would be better right.

We cover the auto show every year. So we get to see the new tech. With flex fuel and all that, we should hit 20 miles per gallon in five years, present trends

My little jeep gives us about 17 miles per gallon, trust me, my hybrid could not go where that jeep goes.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

67. My ram 1500 quad routinely hits 25 mpg on the hi! Way!

City is much lower, but I can average 19-20 overall.

[nadinbrzezinski]

70. Yeah, I forgot to mention that's city

Sorry.

[lumberjack_jeff]

74. If you're driving your crewcab pickup in the city, you're doing it wrong. n/t

[SamKnause]

50. Trucks

I have an extended cab, my only vehicle.

I live on a 12 acre farm.

I haul feed and supplies for my animals.

The extended cab is great for hauling groceries.

I have had two passengers in the extended cab on several occasions.

I can't say enough good things about my extended cab.

[HappyMe]

51. There are pick up trucks

of all sorts here, cars, suvs.

Parts of town don't have sidewalks. I hate walking in the damn road. It sounds to me like your hoa needs to be thinking about putting some sidewalks. It's safer for pedestrians and little kids that want to ride their bikes or just play.

Just here in the apartment complex, there are a couple of landscapers and a construction guy with trucks that have a full-sized back seat. I don't think that they are a problem. It's rural not that far from here, so we see trucks pulling horse trailers. We have a huge farmer's market on Saturday, so there are a lot of trucks then.

Flipping houses is not against the law.

[Baitball Blogger]

62. No one around here gives a damn thing about the kids.

Last edited Fri Aug 2, 2013, 06:41 PM - Edit history (1)

We have choice HOA property that we can develop for their needs, but one of the city's chief henchmen made sure to cause enough confusion for fifteen years to keep us off the property. (his house backs up to the property) In later years, in a private meeting with someone he was trying to woe in the development, he referred to himself as a land taker. This is the damage the city created for us when they bestowed favoritism on him. When you know that the city and local lawyers will do anything to make him happy to keep him quiet and protect their secrets, it denied us the right to our own Association grounds!

The current president seems to be following in his footsteps, playing dumb. Can you imagine that? A man who makes $200,000 a year of government money pretending not to know anything about Association property that could help to bring our community together.

This is what it's like to live in a good ole boy community. The sooner people understand the difficulties, the more urgent the need should become to frustrate Republican policies because they will destroy our neighborhoods. They abuse leadership in the same way that good ole boys do.

[Safetykitten]

53. Awesome for Costco trips, and they double as perfect Mexican labor pickups at Home Depot

when you are not getting your bargain from hiring people for decent wages.

[hunter]

77. My thought too...

... for sketchy contractors to pick up day laborers in front of Home Depot.

They used to tell the guys to jump in the back with the materials they just bought, but that's illegal now.

[spin]

55. They are very common in Florida. I own one and it's comfortable and handy. (n/t)

[DainBramaged]

56. The number one and two best selling vehicles in the ENTIRE world are Ford and Chevy pickups

And QUAD cabs allow you to take two more people OR your dog with you.


Is this going to be yet another bash the American way of life thread, or just complaining about peoples choices you don't like?

[Baitball Blogger]

63. You're reading too much into it.

I'm all for practical. And the truck sounds practical for standard family ventures.

[Arkansas Granny]

57. I see a lot of them in my area. I haven't really noticed the percentage of 4 door pickups

compared with standard pickups on the road, but among the 8 pickups that belong to coworkers, only two have standard cabs, the rest are extended or crew cabs. Big trucks seem to be in fashion around here these days.

[Baitball Blogger]

64. Thanks for answering the original question.

"Big trucks seem to be in fashion around here these days."

[lumberjack_jeff]

58. Yes. Especially in my *immediate* area.

The new chevy crew cab 1500 has 355 hp, will transport 6 people, will carry an actual ton, will tow an 11,000 lb load and gets 23mpg.

Would love to own a new one, but my 1994 model has 260,000 miles and shows no indications of imminent failure.

Given the utility of a crew cab truck, I don't understand why people buy SUV's.

[Baitball Blogger]

65. Unless you're parallel parking impaired, like me.

[hobbit709]

61. No different than all the minivans.

And thank dog I don't live anywhere with a HOA. There'd been trouble on day one.

[Baitball Blogger]

68. HOA's would work if homeowners had better access to ethical and affordable attorneys.

Around here, however, there is something funky going on. What I discovered through an historical research project that involved my city and community, is that strong bonds were developed in the late nineties between older residents of our community and the city. This has led to government sanctioned racketeering. Because of this relationship, the city is able to control the decision-makers in our HOA. Misinformation is constantly spread to the homeowners to hide the fact that the city co-opted our development and is responsible for the poor infra-structure that was engineered from the beginning. Yet, the homeowners are getting saddled with costly maintenance. OUr leaders can be as incompetent as they want to be because there is a number of local lawyers who will gladly misinterpret our HOA documents to give them the results they want to hear.

It's a sad situation, and it's what makes Florida suck.

[hobbit709]

69. As long as they're run by petty wannabe dictators.

trying to tell you what color you can paint your house, what you can park in your driveway and even leaving your garage door open while working around the house and yard I have no use for them.

[Baitball Blogger]

71. Our situation is the exact opposite.

Our board has been taken over by people who have a strong personal desire to break rules that were suppose to provide such things as viewing easements, or provide recreational property for the entire Association.

We have Libertarian style of governance. It all started with a land-taker who had no interest in a building a positive community atmosphere. He had a "we were here first," attitude and corrupted everyone else. Because he was a favorite of the city leaders, it was pretty impossible to fight against. But, they created a House of Cards for themselves. One goes down, and they all go down.

[RebelOne]

72. I live in Georgia and they are prevalent here.

My son even owns one. Actually, with all the two-cab pickups on the road, I am starting to wonder if the single-cab is still manufactured.

[Baitball Blogger]

73. That's my observation too.

Thanks.

[ceonupe]

81. Toyota just announced

They are stopping sales of their single can pickup in the USA. No one wants them

[B Calm]

75. I own a Chevy crew cab pickup and love it! I got the hybrid 350 V8 with 4 WD and

averaging 22 MPG.

[ceonupe]

78. You might note that

Toyota has cancled their single can small pickup in the USA. Only option is double can or extended cab.

So the market is adapting to what people want in there trucks.

Heck in the USA we can't even get the smaller more efficient fords, Chevys, doges and even forgiven brands the rest of the world gets. The reason is 2 fold demand just is not there for the small trucks and the profits on the bigger trucks they sell here are higher.

[MicaelS]

79. Crew cab pickups have been popular in Texas

For the last 30 years.

[benld74]

82. Oh yeah, big ass trucks with big ass tires and big ass side mirrors, BUT

when it comes to them pulling into a parking lot from the street

they go EVER SO SLOWLY thru the GUTTER which is around 3 inches deep!

DRIVES ME CRAZY!
I mean they could go off road in the things
but yet a GUTTER makes them C_R_A_W_L!!!!

[Liberal_in_LA]

84. i see them in los angeles

[ThoughtCriminal]

85. My 1995 extended cab Nissan

Has two small jump seats. Mostly, I liked it because the space behind is handy for luggage and the gap allows the seats to recline,

I think in the 18 years I've owned it, those jump seats were used for human transport maybe six or seven times. It's sort of like the "Saucer Separation" in Star Trek. It can be done, but it only happens as an emergency plot device.

[NoGOPZone]

86. A lot by me, including my single neighbor

he keeps it in the driveway because it's too tall for the garage. I've never seen anyone else or anything in it.

[udbcrzy2]

87. I have one - extended cab

We have however owned the regular cab pickup, but with the extended cab you can put a car seat in the back and other passengers. You can put your groceries in the back and not have to have a camper shell on in case you want to hall something else that is big (refrigerator). I like the extended cab better because it gives you many more options.

[laundry_queen]

88. Just looked out my window

and counted 10 pick ups down the street. All of them are extended/crew/quad cab. Super popular where I am. I think nearly everyone has one. Lots of work trucks around here too (very oilfield oriented). I'm in a suburb of a major city in Canada. Around here, nearly everyone has a trailer/5th wheel to haul for camping so that's a major reason there are so many trucks. Camping and going to the lake on the weekend is a big thing. Lord knows they don't always handle better in our really horrible winters so that's not why! But yeah, when you are going camping, with the laws requiring no passengers to be in the trailer while you are hauling it, people need more seating in their trucks for the kids. Not like when I was a kid and you got to sit in the camper during your trip. We didn't know how good we had it, lol.

[Blue_In_AK]

89. We have a crew cab truck,

2001 Ford Ranger. It's our only vehicle and is very handy for us. We can carry groceries and grandsons in the back seats (they're just little fold-down things) and our cargo in the bed. Am I supposed to feel guilty about this mode of transportation now?