Could you make it work for you?

https://youtu.be/7uWpzIa9aGE?si=8POqrU6I6mpQQhrG

I wonder if you can get a ladder rack?

I could make that work for everything but freeway driving, lol.

Absolutely, even on the interstate consider over half the time in Atlanta is sitting in traffic.

If they ever come up for sale in the US I think I’d have to really think hard about it! I bet they absolutely sip fuel!

We get screwed by all the rules here. I was in Mexico last November, they have lots of Nissan Frontiers in diesel. Can’t find them here. I used to see 4 door Toyotas long before they had them here in Mexico and Africa? US citizens can’t have the good stuff.

wws

Have you looked into the Slate? Seems like an interesting concept. 250 miles with the bigger battery. I'm skeptical if it would do well.

Briefly. I’m skeptical of EVs for the time being. I tow a trailer enough that I’m not sure if they have enough range. I’d hate to have to drop a trailer to go charge and then have to hook back up. I haven’t seen any pull through chargers yet.

To be fair, I have no idea if one of the Kei trucks can tow either.

I’ve got nothing against EVs, I think they’re a good option for those who want them. When we had 7 trucks on the road I looked at them as a way to limit downtime from oil changes and such. I decided against that. It was lack of chargers then too. Some of my employees lived in apartments. They didn’t have a good spot to charge.

Now I’m just getting irritated at technology and what I consider overcomplicated designs. I had the door lock button fail on my truck. It bricked it until I got it fixed. I couldn’t turn the truck on.

I’m real tempted to find and overpay for a nice 80s square body Chevy truck. There’s aftermarket support for things like body panels, dash boards, door latch mechanisms, etc. I can buy crate engines and new/rebuilt transmissions cheap. Things like the braking is modern with a booster and front disks. The body style would attract attention as advertisement. Eh, enough ranting by me, lol.

I hate all the extra stuff as well. I’d like a Manuel transmission, crank windows and am/fm radio. Too much other tech stuff to break. One reason I like the slate.

Heck yeah.

That silver flatbed in the background of the vehicle displayed would be perfect for my needs as far as local trapping, hunting and fishing goes

No,,,,,,I could not get used to right hand drive….
Have trouble enough with left…

What if they made them right hand drive?

I think they’re supposedly going to try to make them over here. It really wouldn’t be hard to put the pedals and steering wheel on the left hand side.

Jay Leno shows off the Slate truck

https://youtu.be/L6_9_HHLOSY?si=VcVKmpKP1QhrX84g

Right hand drive and Vinke would always get in on the wrong side. Funny story I was getting my CDL years ago, had to do a drive test and all the company had was 1 right hand drive tractor trailer. That was going to be my new job, hauling trash in this truck. Went to DMV to take the test, did pre trip test and the lady giving the test got in on the drivers side? I just kinda looked at her, then she figured it out. As we pulled out I told her she is going to be thinking I'm too close to the middle stripe, this truck has an arm that if I'm not careful will take out the light poles. Was not long and she said go back, I'll pass you.

wws

Any vehicle with a “frunk” has to be cool

With the higher gas prices I figure this might be a good time to bring this back to the surface. I just had a $91 fill up. That was uncomfortable . I’m thinking about bringing a new employee on. He’s going to be using a lot of gas. Is anybody out there running a Maverick? Can they support a 32ft ladder on a rack?

I'm seeing lots of kei trucks and kei cars here lately, including older models people import from Japan. Many people seem to prefer them to regular Japanese cars/trucks and to the bigger, generic-looking Chinese SUVs/crossovers that all look like a dead animal that's been in the sun for a few too many days and have tons of issues, including very low reliability and difficulties with repairs. We have a few modern American pickup trucks here but they look comically oversized compared to older models, plus they aren't really popular because of long winters, expensive repairs and low fuel efficiency.
An ex-classmate has something between a kei car and a kei van, and it seems to have surprisingly plenty of cross-country ability considering its tiny wheels and few hp's. She uses it to drive her elderly parents to their vegetable garden and the road there is pretty bad. Surprisingly LOTS of stuff fits inside, it's pretty amazing. And it's true that they only need a whiff of gas compared to pretty much anything else, they're extremely well-made and fuel-efficient.