Bicycle Rack Mishaps?

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

The most common bike rack mishap seems to be driving into the garage with bikes on the rack.
Almost every rider I know has a story of someone they know who has done this.

I had a friend who did this. He was upset because the insurance company found him 100% at fault. He
though that was unfair because "it was dark at the time"

:-)

On Mon, 24 Nov 2003 15:09:30 GMT, "Buck" <s c h w i n n _ f o r _ s a l e @ h o t m a i l . c

o m said:

"Rick Onanian" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

What bothers me is people with empty pickup trucks, vans, and full size SUVs, using trunk racks
or hitch racks. If they're not going to put stuff in there, they'd probably be better served by a
smaller vehicle.

Now that's a silly thing to be bothered by. I'm looking forward to getting a hitch rack for my
truck. Partly so I can keep the pedals and barends from rubbing on the truck bed, causing paint
loss on both the bed and the bike

Paint loss on the bed? It's a truck!! If you're worried about the bed's finish, you ought to have a
bedliner, anyway. Paint loss on the bike is easy -- just as I do with my road bike, stand it up and
strap it. Only takes 20 seconds once you've figured out the best way to do it.

Quoted message said:

parts. Partly so I can load up the bed of the truck with camping gear and not have to strap the
bikes on top. In an SUV, it's even harder to carry all of your gear and the bikes if you have to
load the bikes inside. Outside

You must have missed the key word I wrote: empty. I rarely see a stuffed truck/van/suv with bikes on
a rack. I commonly see empty ones; I just wonder why somebody would take the time and effort for
racking the bike when they can just throw it in or stand it and strap it.

You want to see a good use of racks for bikes? Take a gander at how I packed my truck for vacation:
Note: Between 350k and 400k each, high res, I'm too lazy to reduce them... Neatly packed before
leaving: members.cox.netP8240001.JPGOpen ↗ Mess after a week of vacation and too much
spent on souvenirs: members.cox.netP8310081.JPGOpen ↗
members.cox.netP8310083.JPGOpen ↗ members.cox.netP8310086.JPGOpen ↗

If I had to use a trunk rack, I may have seriously reconsidered bringing bikes at all. I put
the bikes on the ladder racks figuring I'd want to throw stuff in the bed during the vacation
(I was right).

Quoted message said:

racks also keep the inside of the SUV from being mucked up by the dirt from the trail. There are
lots of reasons to not put a bike into a truck or SUV.

I doubt it. Those that I've observed are never dirty. Further, when I go to the trail and see others
with their bikes that actually get dirty, they rarely have a rack, even if they have a compact car.

If you ride rough off-road (enough to get so dirty), you certainly aren't worried about the
aforementioned paint damage to the bike from laying it down in the pickup bed, either.

Quoted message said:

-Buck

--
Rick Onanian

David L. Johnson said:

I've puzzled about this, too. I've seen a number of big 'ol SUVs pulling a trailer, in which was
a small load of stuff -- which would easily have fit inside. I presume they don't want to scuff
the leather interior with their shingles or whatever. But then, why buy a truck if you aren't
going to use it?

Well, the point of an SUV was supposed to be off-road prowess with passenger capacity, and on-road
trailering (again with passenger capacity) -- for big trailers. However, there's not much excuse
about scuffing the interior; the seats fold down leaving a scuff-proof surface on almost all SUVs,
usually carpet or rubber.
--
Rick Onanian

Mon, 24 Nov 2003 14:38:03 -0500, <[email hidden]>, Rick Onanian

Quoted message said:

members.cox.netP8310086.JPGOpen ↗

"Catapult", is not a reassuring name for bike.
--
zk

Rick Onanian said:

Well, the point of an SUV was supposed to be off-road prowess with passenger capacity, and on-road
trailering (again with passenger capacity) -- for big trailers.

Nah. an SUV was the evolution of the pick-up, on which everyone would put a cap over the bed. On
the other side, it's a station wagon. In either view, that big area behind the seats was meant to
carry stuff.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | "Business!" cried the Ghost. "Mankind was my business. The _`\(,_ | common welfare was my
business; charity, mercy, forbearance, (_)/ (_) | and benevolence, were, all, my business. The
dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"
--Dickens, "A Christmas Carol"

Zoot Katz <[email hidden]> wrote:
: "Catapult", is not a reassuring name for bike.

lol. i prefer onager, trebuchet or ballista.
--
david reuteler [email hidden]

Zoot Katz said:

Mon, 24 Nov 2003 14:38:03 -0500, <[email hidden]>, Rick Onanian

Quoted message said:

members.cox.netP8310086.JPGOpen ↗

"Catapult", is not a reassuring name for bike.

I can't even begin to guess where it came from. It makes every Huffy and Kent seem like a great bike
-- in fact, that silly green Huffy next to it is actually a tolerable ride (since I've fixed it up).
What, you don't think I'd bring _nice_ bikes that I _paid_ for on a vacation on the exterior of a
pickup, do you? 😉

Anyway, the catapult is: -- Heaviest bike I've ever touched -- Mechanically unsound and quite
dangerous -- Unable to be adjusted to normal dimensions. I had to change out the seatpost to get it
to a reasonably ridable condition -- Operates terribly -- I can't seem to do such things as ride
uphill with it

The Huffy was a rescue from the trash. Nearly mint condition except a tacoed wheel, cheaply replaced
($10, IIRC) with a similar wheel from Benny's (local variety store chain that sells such bikes).
--
Rick Onanian

Buck said:

"Rick Onanian" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

What bothers me is people with empty pickup trucks, vans, and full size SUVs, using trunk racks or
hitch racks. If they're not going to put stuff in there, they'd probably be better served by a
smaller vehicle.

Now that's a silly thing to be bothered by. I'm looking forward to getting a hitch rack for my
truck. Partly so I can keep the pedals and barends from rubbing on the truck bed, causing paint
loss on both the bed and the bike parts. Partly so I can load up the bed of the truck with camping
gear and not have to strap the bikes on top. In an SUV, it's even harder to carry all of your gear
and the bikes if you have to load the bikes inside. Outside racks also keep the inside of the SUV
from being mucked up by the dirt from the trail. There are lots of reasons to not put a bike into
a truck or SUV.

-Buck

Not too mention how easy it is to lock up 4 bikes on my hitch rack instead of the back of my P/U.
Plus I can stop at the recycling center on the way, drop off a load of cardboard or bottles, carry
camping gear, tubes and rafts for an after ride river float ... I have my hitch rack on my truck
most of the year, and very often I'll use it instead of putting my single bike in the bed of the
truck, sometimes I do put it in the bed. Since I often haul rock, dirt or gravel, the bed is not a
pretty place to keep my road or even mountain bike. YMMV

--
Craig Brossman, Durango Colorado (remove ".nospam" to reply)

David L. Johnson said:

I've seen a number of big 'ol SUVs pulling a trailer, in which was a small load of stuff -- which
would easily have fit inside. I presume they don't want to scuff the leather interior with their
shingles or whatever. But then, why buy a truck if you aren't going to use it?

One of my students once gave me a lift in his pickup. _Very_ expensive, by the look of it; very
high-end stereo equipment, custom paint, absolutely pristine, and big enough to haul several head
of cattle.

Not that he'd ever do that, mind you. Their hooves might scratch the bed's wax job! I was afraid to
touch the door handle. You know - fingerprints!

But whatever the reason for driving an effete pickup, it probably has nothing to do with "reason."
For some, it's probably an image thing. It makes some guys feel big. Macho. They just don't let
anyone know how carefully they choose their loads.

"Yeah, me'n the truck hauled a big ol' load o'loose peat moss t'other day. [Chew. Spit!] Had to
re-buff the bed when I was done."

--
Frank Krygowski

"Rick Onanian" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Paint loss on the bed? It's a truck!! If you're worried about the bed's finish, you ought to have
a bedliner, anyway. Paint loss on the bike is easy -- just as I do with my road bike, stand it up
and strap it. Only takes 20 seconds once you've figured out the best way to do it.

Strapping is a pain - I normally toss my mountain bike in the back of my truck. It's when I'm
carrying more than two bikes, or a road bike that I don't want to give truck bed rash to that I take
that kind of time. Bedliners are nice, but I just haven't been able to justify the several hundred
dollars to have one sprayed in. The plastic ones rub the paint off and end up causing rust (happened
to my cousin's truck).

Quoted message said:

You must have missed the key word I wrote: empty. I rarely see a stuffed truck/van/suv with bikes
on a rack. I commonly see empty ones; I just wonder why somebody would take the time and effort
for racking the bike when they can just throw it in or stand it and strap it.

No, I didn't miss that. But if you have the hitch rack on for use when the truck is full, why not
go ahead and use it when the truck is empty? They are typically easier to use, faster than
strapping one into the bed, and prevent the aforementioned problems associated with laying them
down in the bed.

Quoted message said:

If I had to use a trunk rack, I may have seriously reconsidered bringing bikes at all. I put
the bikes on the ladder racks figuring I'd want to throw stuff in the bed during the vacation
(I was right).

And a hitch rack would have taken less loading time, put fewer scuffs on the frames of the bikes,
and left more room for your junk in the bed.

Buck said:

Quoted message said:

racks also keep the inside of the SUV from being mucked up by the dirt

from

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

the trail. There are lots of reasons to not put a bike into a truck or

SUV.

Quoted message said:

I doubt it. Those that I've observed are never dirty. Further, when I go to the trail and see
others with their bikes that actually get dirty, they rarely have a rack, even if they have a
compact car.

Which aren't dirty, the bikes or the SUVs? Mountain bikers in my experience have either a really
nice rig to ride and a really nice auto; a really nice rig to ride and a piece of junk to drive; or
both are junkers. I haven't been able to make any distinctions between filthy bikes and the type of
car. Everyone is filthy after riding off-road! But with paved roads to the trailheads, that doesn't
mean the autos have to be.

Quoted message said:

If you ride rough off-road (enough to get so dirty), you certainly aren't worried about the
aforementioned paint damage to the bike from laying it down in the pickup bed, either.

Bull. I don't mind a lot of dirt, but I certainly do care about scratches. Keep two wheels down and
out of the trees!

-Buck

Rick Onanian said:

Paint loss on the bed? It's a truck!! If you're worried about the bed's finish, you ought to have a
bedliner, anyway.

If you think a bedliner will prevent paint loss in the bed of a pickup truck, you are in for a major
disappointment when you lift the bedliner out looking for a pristine paint job to tempt the person
you're going to sell the used truck to.

Unless you get a sprayed-in liner, you're looking at what essentially will turn into a huge power
sander, as pieces of grit work their way between the bed and the liner, and the latter vibrates,
taking the paint off the former.

Craig Brossman said:

Quoted message said:

"Rick Onanian" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

What bothers me is people with empty pickup trucks, vans, and full size SUVs, using trunk racks
or hitch racks. If they're not going to put stuff in there, they'd probably be better served by a
smaller vehicle.

Not too mention how easy it is to lock up 4 bikes on my hitch rack

How easy is it? I know some racks have built-in locking mechanisms, useful if the rack is locked to
the hitch too.

Quoted message said:

instead of the back of my P/U. Plus I can stop at the recycling center on the way, drop off a load
of cardboard or bottles, carry camping gear, tubes and rafts for an after ride river float ...

That's no empty truck with a bike on a rack, then. That's a full truck with a bike on a rack;
totally different animal.

Quoted message said:

I have my hitch rack on my truck most of the year, and very often I'll use it instead of putting my
single bike in the bed of the truck, sometimes I do put it in the bed. Since I often haul rock,
dirt or gravel, the bed is not a pretty place to keep my road or even mountain bike.

Unless the bed is full of rock, dirt, or gravel, I can't see why a dirty bed is a bad place for a
bike. A mountain bike, obviously, is going to be very dirty anyway; and a road bike rides on a road
covered in dirt, dust, pebbles, and broken glass...and on the rack, they're subject to crud kicked
up off the road while you drive.

Quoted message said:

YMMV

Indeed. It just seems ludicrous to me to see a pickup or SUV completely empty with a bike dangling
off a wobbly rack -- an all too common sight.
--
Rick Onanian

frkrygowHALTSPAM' 'frkrygowHALTSPAM'@cc.ysu.edu said:

One of my students once gave me a lift in his pickup. _Very_ expensive, by the look of it; very
high-end stereo equipment, custom paint, absolutely pristine, and big enough to haul several head
of cattle.

But whatever the reason for driving an effete pickup, it probably has nothing to do with "reason."

I suspect his wasn't a work truck, just as a similarly spit-polished Corvette isn't a race car. They
are show toys. They exist solely to impress.

Quoted message said:

For some, it's probably an image thing. It makes some guys feel big. Macho. They just don't let
anyone know how carefully they choose their loads.

I don't buy it. I rarely see full size trucks that aren't working trucks...except play trucks that
actually do go off-road. Even most of those plow in the winter.

Quoted message said:

"Yeah, me'n the truck hauled a big ol' load o'loose peat moss t'other day. [Chew. Spit!] Had to
re-buff the bed when I was done."

Your student wouldn't haul peat moss unless it was properly packaged in plastic bags -- and then
he'd put a blanket down first. 😉
--
Rick Onanian

David L. Johnson said:

Rick Onanian said:

Well, the point of an SUV was supposed to be off-road prowess with passenger capacity, and
on-road trailering (again with passenger capacity) -- for big trailers.

Nah. an SUV was the evolution of the pick-up, on which everyone would put a cap over the bed. On
the other side, it's a station wagon. In either view, that big area behind the seats was meant to
carry stuff.

I suppose, but the difference between a pickup with a cap and a SUV was the seating. A station wagon
seats as many as an SUV and has the same square footage for cargo (taller, though, for more cubic
feet). This is all, of course, in the context of when these covered-pickup SUVs first came out and
station wagons were made from full size, RWD cars.

But again, somebody who was looking to carry stuff bought a wagon or pickup; somebody who wanted to
take his buddies into the woods for a deer hunt bought those first SUVs.
--
Rick Onanian

On Mon, 24 Nov 2003 22:38:38 GMT, "Buck" <s c h w i n n _ f o r _ s a l e @ h o t m a i l . c

o m said:

"Rick Onanian" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

strap it. Only takes 20 seconds once you've figured out the best way to do it.

Strapping is a pain - I normally toss my mountain bike in the back of my

Same here.

Quoted message said:

truck. It's when I'm carrying more than two bikes, or a road bike that I don't want to give truck
bed rash to that I take that kind of time.

Only takes me 10 to 20 seconds. I stand the bike up across the bed near the front, and strap from
the stem (or seatpost or seat rail) to my ladder rack. Else, I stand it up along the side (such that
the pedals and seatpost and tires are the only parts contacting anything), and run one long strap
from the strap-hook at the front to the strap-hook at the rear.

Quoted message said:

Bedliners are nice, but I just haven't been able to justify the several hundred dollars to have
one sprayed in. The plastic ones rub the paint off and end up causing rust (happened to my
cousin's truck).

It takes longer to get rust from the plastic bedliner than from scratches caused by loads.
However, a $2 can of any nearly-matching spraypaint will suffice for inside the bed. Like I said,
it's a truck.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

You must have missed the key word I wrote: empty. I rarely see a

No, I didn't miss that. But if you have the hitch rack on for use when the truck is full, why not
go ahead and use it when the truck is empty? They are

Er, it's on all the time? No thanks. Whether the truck is empty or full, your bike is still dangling
precariously from a rack that stands precariously 3 or 4 feet above a 2" square hole; and it's still
exposed to road spray (in wet or semi-wet conditions), road debris, and rear-end accidents. What do
you need a truck for if you're going to hang everything off of exterior racks?

Quoted message said:

And a hitch rack would have taken less loading time, put fewer scuffs on the frames of the bikes,
and left more room for your junk in the bed.

No frame scuffs. I positioned the racks (they slide 🙂 such that the tires, seatposts, and crankarms
were the contact points. However, the bikes in that picture, for all I care, could lose all their
paint, so I could just as well have carelessly stuck 'em on there.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I doubt it. Those that I've observed are never dirty. Further, when I go to the trail and see
others with their bikes that actually get dirty, they rarely have a rack, even if they have a
compact car.

Which aren't dirty, the bikes or the SUVs? Mountain bikers in my experience

The bikes on the racks attached to the SUVs and trucks. The dirty ones are owned by people who, as I
say there, don't bother with a rack. This is not a generalization but an observation. I pull up to
the trail and there's 8 trucks/SUVs, and one might have a rack. Even cars at trailheads rarely have
racks, and if they do, they're roof racks. At MUPs, it's a different story; parking is loaded with
SUVs with racks -- but those bikes don't get dirty.

Quoted message said:

have either a really nice rig to ride and a really nice auto; a really nice rig to ride and a piece
of junk to drive; or both are junkers. I haven't been able to make any distinctions between filthy
bikes and the type of car.

Nearly all rack-loaded bikes I see are clean, and never ridden off road (many are not even off-road
bikes). They would not make the truck bed or the SUV cargo area dirty.

In fact, the SUV's carpeted cargo area won't even scuff the bike's paint, so you can lay it down on
it's left side and keep both the bike and the SUV clean and undamaged.

Quoted message said:

Everyone is filthy after riding off-road! But with paved roads to the trailheads, that doesn't mean
the autos have to be.

Not everyone rides off-road; see above.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

If you ride rough off-road (enough to get so dirty), you certainly aren't worried about the
aforementioned paint damage to the bike from laying it down in the pickup bed, either.

Bull. I don't mind a lot of dirt, but I certainly do care about scratches. Keep two wheels down and
out of the trees!

You never crash off-road? You must ride like me, then (too carefully). Many off-road riders revel in
the danger and don't consider it a good ride if they're not bleeding and repairing the bike. I've
never seen somebody go off-road with a bike whose paint they worry about; but here, there's always
all sorts of [censored] around to damage the paint -- narrow trail sections with bushes, pebbles flying up
from another rider's tires, etc.

Quoted message said:

-Buck

--
Rick Onanian

Mon, 24 Nov 2003 17:15:36 -0500, <[email hidden]>, Rick Onanian

Quoted message said:

Anyway, the catapult is: -- Heaviest bike I've ever touched

Ah hah, the name must then refer to its role as ammunition. Lace the spokes with rabid squirrels and
assail the bastion walls.
--
zk

24 Nov 2003 21:27:05 GMT, <[email hidden]>, David Reuteler

Quoted message said:

Zoot Katz <[email hidden]> wrote:
: "Catapult", is not a reassuring name for bike.

lol. i prefer onager, trebuchet or ballista.

Scratch off the decals until it's 'caput'.
--
zk

Rick Onanian said:

I don't buy it. I rarely see full size trucks that aren't working trucks...except play trucks that
actually do go off-road. Even most of those plow in the winter.

C'mon. Most of these big trucks, be they humongo-SUVs or 4-door pickups, never see either real
hauling or mud. The whole point is to have this bigger-than-a-semi grill, which is used to
intimidate traffic while commuting. I'm surprised they don't come with chrome teeth on the grill, to
complete the image.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | Let's not escape into mathematics. Let's stay with reality. -- _`\(,_ | Michael Crichton
(_)/ (_) |

"Rick Onanian" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Bedliners are nice, but I just haven't been able to justify the several hundred dollars to have
one sprayed in. The plastic ones rub the paint

off

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

and end up causing rust (happened to my cousin's truck).

It takes longer to get rust from the plastic bedliner than from scratches caused by loads.
However, a $2 can of any nearly-matching spraypaint will suffice for inside the bed. Like I said,
it's a truck.

Not here in Texas. My cousin bought his truck new and added a factory bedliner before taking
delivery. Six months later they had to remove the bedliner to do some work on the truck (I can't
remember what was going on that required the removal of the bedliner) and discovered the center of
the bed had been sanded down to bare metal. Not just one spot - the entire center ot he bed. The
dealer repainted it under warrantee and my cousin sold the bedliner to some other sap.

Personally, I like the look of a well-used spray-in bedliner better than a combo of paints and rust.
I've read some good reviews of the Herculiner roll-on version for do-it-yourselfers. I may give that
one a shot if I still have the same truck in the spring (it rolled 176,000 miles the other day and
the engine is starting to show signs of wear).

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

You must have missed the key word I wrote: empty. I rarely see a

No, I didn't miss that. But if you have the hitch rack on for use when

the

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

truck is full, why not go ahead and use it when the truck is empty? They

are

Quoted message said:

Er, it's on all the time? No thanks. Whether the truck is empty or full, your bike is still
dangling precariously from a rack that stands precariously 3 or 4 feet above a 2" square hole; and
it's still exposed to road spray (in wet or semi-wet conditions), road debris, and rear-end
accidents. What do you need a truck for if you're going to hang everything off of exterior racks?

Accidents are rare and not a problem. Road spray shouldn't matter if you are hauling mountain bikes,
remember? As for it being precarious, I don't think so. It takes quite a bit of ooomph to bend a
receiver hitch. As long as the bikes are attached properly, what's to worry about? Also, at the back
of the truck, road debris isn't a factor. A roof rack on a car or SUV is a concern, but primarily
due to bugs.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

And a hitch rack would have taken less loading time, put fewer scuffs on

the

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

frames of the bikes, and left more room for your junk in the bed.

No frame scuffs. I positioned the racks (they slide 🙂 such that the tires, seatposts, and
crankarms were the contact points. However, the bikes in that picture, for all I care, could lose
all their paint, so I could just as well have carelessly stuck 'em on there.

Yeah, but you are using a rack anyway!

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I doubt it. Those that I've observed are never dirty. Further, when I go to the trail and see
others with their bikes that actually get dirty, they rarely have a rack, even if they have a
compact car.

Which aren't dirty, the bikes or the SUVs? Mountain bikers in my

experience

Quoted message said:

The bikes on the racks attached to the SUVs and trucks. The dirty ones are owned by people who, as
I say there, don't bother with a rack. This is not a generalization but an observation. I pull up
to the trail and there's 8 trucks/SUVs, and one might have a rack. Even cars at trailheads rarely
have racks, and if they do, they're roof racks. At MUPs, it's a different story; parking is loaded
with SUVs with racks -- but those bikes don't get dirty.

We obviously don't ride in the same places.... I avoid MUPs as much as possible and all of the bikes
at the trails return muddied.

Quoted message said:

In fact, the SUV's carpeted cargo area won't even scuff the bike's paint, so you can lay it down
on it's left side and keep both the bike and the SUV clean and undamaged.

The tight quarters of my Subaru wagon would hold a couple of bikes back in the day, but they really
scuffed everything up pretty bad. The one time I tried to load a muddy mountain bike, I ended up
spending a ridiculous amount of time trying to get the mud off the inside of the rear doors. It was
so much better when I bought a rack for that car.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

If you ride rough off-road (enough to get so dirty), you certainly aren't worried about the
aforementioned paint damage to the bike from laying it down in the pickup bed, either.

Bull. I don't mind a lot of dirt, but I certainly do care about

scratches.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Keep two wheels down and out of the trees!

You never crash off-road? You must ride like me, then (too carefully). Many off-road riders revel
in the danger and don't consider it a good ride if they're not bleeding and repairing the bike.
I've never seen somebody go off-road with a bike whose paint they worry about; but here, there's
always all sorts of [censored] around to damage the paint -- narrow trail sections with bushes, pebbles
flying up from another rider's tires, etc.

HAH! I wish I never crashed. But I do treat my bike with respect. As I said, keep it rubber side
down and out of the trees and there aren't any problems. Mesquite can do a real number on your bike,
so keeping it out of the trees has special meaning around here. It helps that most of the trails are
well maintained. There isn't much rock to deal with either.

It's funny how everyone's experience can be so different while doing the same activity!

-Buck

David L. Johnson said:

Rick Onanian said:

I don't buy it. I rarely see full size trucks that aren't working trucks...except play trucks
that actually do go off-road. Even most of those plow in the winter.

C'mon. Most of these big trucks, be they humongo-SUVs or 4-door pickups,

I will not have the word "truck" sullied with SUVs and 4-door extra-short-bed "pickups"! I will haul
a bunch of wrecking equipment around and destroy any one I see that somebody claims is a "truck".

Quoted message said:

never see either real hauling or mud. The whole point is to have this

I see the problem now...I'm offended by calling anything that isn't good for work a truck, so I
naturally only think of work-able vehicles when somebody says truck. Then, when somebody says trucks
aren't doing work, I can't believe it because I forget that they are referring to SUVs as trucks.

Quoted message said:

bigger-than-a-semi grill, which is used to intimidate traffic while commuting. I'm surprised they
don't come with chrome teeth on the grill, to complete the image.

Whoa...chrome teeth. I want them!!! There's no such thing as too much chrome, even on a dirty
work truck.

They make chrome grill overlays for my truck, but I don't recall if there's one with teeth. Here's
some nice flames, though: customiz-it.comgrillsGMCfordFLAMED.jpgOpen ↗
--
Rick Onanian