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How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

danwilkerson.com

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Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#141

Post by amrocha »

rootusrootus wrote: post #134
throwaway72762 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno, sounds like your beef is with the folks who buy the same truck as you for no reason other than the look, not the folks who are seeing and mocking that trend.

The latter seem to exist in far greater quantity, however. I live in a suburban neighborhood with plenty of trucks, and I see them doing truck things all the time. Towing boats, travel trailers, fifth wheels, or hauling stuff. I can't think of a single example within a quarter of me where someone owns a truck for looks. These are all just garden variety F150s and similar, rarely the higher trim models, and not a one…

They are statistically not doing pickup truck things. Pickup truck owners haul stuff once per year on average. That's the difference that you're not seeing.

You think that the problem is those "bro-dozers", and everyone else just needs a truck. The reality is that most people don't need a truck, and by driving one everyone else's life gets worse.

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#142

Post by amrocha »

GuardianCaveman wrote: post #95
waiseristy wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Break the cycle how? Every time one of these threads come up I suggest buying a domestic full size 90’s truck instead and nobody gives a shit. The only things that gain traction in these threads is people shitting on their cultural enemies. Because Truck People bad!! Maybe you can help break the cycle by looking at the huge used truck market we already have

You too can be a proud owner of a beat up truck with 200k-300k miles for 10,000 dollars that needs another 5-10k of maintenance! Nobody says truck people bad, you're strawmanning all over this thread. I've owned two trucks, a full sized and a compact, I'm a republican and I believe that if I want to drive a 90s Kei truck and take the risk of dying in a car accident I should have the ability to assume that risk for my…

Funny how these supposedly unsafe vehicles come from a country with way less traffic deaths than the safer USA

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#143

Post by mindslight »

placesalt wrote: post #102
warmwaffles wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> nobody actually needs or uses them These make me chuckle. Those people have never done home improvement projects or just projects that require picking up 8ft sheets of plywood or 20 bags of mulch.

My corolla takes 10' long boards. Never maxed out the bags of mulch, but it's >10 for sure. Have been thinking about a roof rack for sheet goods. Can't see why it wouldn't work.

I moved a bunch of sheet goods with my Civic coupe, by which I mean I moved sheet goods on a bunch of occasions, one or two each time. The problem comes out to be weight, and ease of loading/driving.

The real solution for moving larger things is a trailer. UHaul rents trailers for the occasional use ~$20/day, no mileage charge. I say occasional use because it takes effort to go and get it, and UHaul builds them like brick shithouses. So you can get a lighter one that's nicer to tow if you buy one for a few kilobucks.

I inherited a light crossover SUV that's more than capable of towing a 5x10 trailer with a modest amount of weight around town. It does highways too, but keeping ~65 rather than ~80. If I were still limited to the Civic and needed to move stuff on the regular, I'd buy an even lighter trailer.

And a trailer has very little maintenance compared to getting another motor vehicle. I've started bringing a pallet or two and putting them down under whatever I get so I can just fork stuff off at home (and then in the case of stuff from big box stores, fork the rejects right back on to get returned).

These Kei trucks look neat, but I don't think they would actually solve many problems I have. A dump bed would be fantastic, but if I really needed that I could just bite the supply shortage bullet and get a dump trailer.

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#144

Post by ryandrake »

jeromegv wrote: post #129
inconceivable wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

lately i've seen a lot of people legitimately complaining that trucks look "too aggressive" and are "scary". it just makes me laugh.

Some of those trucks are quite high and will kill pedestrians and even destroy other cars more in higher number. It’s just physics. If you need it, fine, but seeing how much they are selling of those, a lot of us are starting to doubt how much of it is need vs want.

The ability to destroy other cars in an accident is a selling point in some… cultures. I remember sitting at the bar back in my very red state home town listening to a guy go on and on about how his new Dodge Ram would absolutely obliterate a “liberal’s Prius” if he crashed into it. He was not talking about the relative occupant safety difference between the two cars. He was specifically boasting about how he believed his truck can destroy other vehicles.

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#145

Post by Rebelgecko »

rootusrootus wrote: post #111
joeframbach wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here I thought the childmashers were best selling because there is literally no alternative, as is the topic of this entire thread we are in.

Childmashers? That's kind of ridiculous. There are much smaller pickups than an F150, for sure. Like a Maverick, to use an easy example. And it's a popular choice, too, though it's probably not going to unseat the F150 anytime soon.

I think most trucks nowadays (even "small" ones, which used to be considered "normal" sized) are big enough that you won't see an average sized 9 year old standing right in front of the hood.

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#146

Post by steele »

rootusrootus wrote: post #58
waiseristy wrote: post #24

These HN threads about trucks are amazing. It’s like watching the same movie over and over again * Kei trucks are the coolest. Big gubment is making it so we can’t register them due to protectionism! * Chicken tax chicken tax chicken tax * Big trucks cause more crashes because reasons! * Trucks are just lifestyle vehicles and nobody actually needs or uses them Over and over and over again

Don't forget the small penis accusation. I have an F250, which I drive about 2000 miles a year, almost 100% of the time it has a >30ft trailer behind it. But that one time that the stars align and I need it for a grocery trip, a bunch of people are thinking "see, that guy doesn't need a truck" and it reinforces whatever internal monologue they have going. Meanwhile, approximately everyone here routinely drives alone…

Thanks for confirming

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#147

Post by steele »

rootusrootus wrote: post #116
oblio wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious, what so you do for a living? Or what's your hobby? Isn't the F250 a huge vehicle and that trailer seems huge, is it a boat?

Software, just like so many others on HN. The trailer is an RV we take out every couple weeks during the nice weather season. It takes over 1300 pounds of payload capacity just for the trailer itself, which doesn't leave much for anything else (hitch, cargo, humans, canine). That's how I ended up trading the F150 we had for an F250. And yes, the F250 is pretty big. It's actually not a lot bigger dimensionally than an…

So your F250 is an accessory for your recreational vehicle.

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#148

Post by dangus »

I love everything about the idea except safety. You look like a frugal genius until a routine fender bender becomes fatal.

Unfortunately this isn’t Japan and you’ll be driving on stroads designed for high speed driving with too many conflict points, sharing the road with drunk drivers in their RAM 1500 who barely needed to have a pulse to qualify for a license.

Alternatives:

- Vans, commercial or just an old minivan, like OP’s dad bought. They don’t have the popularity tax of trucks. I also think that the closed cabin of a van is better than a truck bed 90% of the time.

- If you can handle the shorter bed, the Ford Maverick is priced very well with a high mpg hybrid powertrain, and you can use it as a comfortable daily family vehicle.

- Big box home improvement store rentals. These often beat U-Haul prices and convenience in my experience.

- Suck it up and buy a truck. While they cost a lot they’re also designed to be do-all family vehicles with good amenities, ride quality, and comfort.

- Haul less stuff. Do you need to haul things? If your job is hauling stuff you can probably justify the truck investment and deduct it from your taxes. If not then maybe you don’t need to haul things.

- Instacart? I’m pretty sure people with trucks will do Home Depot runs for you.

In my opinion, judging by OP’s other blog post about finance and debt, he’s letting an excessively frugal mentality get in the way of getting the right tool for the job. OP quipped that old trucks still have insanely high values, and that goes both ways: if he buys a $30k truck and sells it in 10 years it’s probably still going to be worth $15k. Spending $15k in 10 years is the same cost as a bus pass.

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#149

Post by kirse »

woodruffw wrote: post #23
coryrc wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So long as you never get in a car crash. That's what's holding me back.

Pure speculation on my part, but from having ridden in one of these Kei trucks (and lots of US trucks): I wouldn't be surprised if American-style trucks get in and cause more accidents per mile, both because of their lesser visibility and weaker cultural norms around speeding and rules of the road ("biggest car wins"). (This doesn't make Kei trucks safer, but it might have the same paradoxical effect as helmets on cy…

American-style trucks get in and cause more accidents per mile

They don't. I used to own an F-350 for a race team and when I sold it for a Corolla I had a long argument with my insurance agent as to why the Corolla was going to cost me more to insure.

Despite their outrageous cost to own (which you would think would primarily be the driver of insurance fees), apparently large trucks are both stolen much less and get in fewer accidents due to their size. Hard to argue with the insurance company on the stats there.

Re: How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

#150

Post by jdietrich »

avidiax wrote: post #12

The difficulties inherent in this and the simplicity of the product itself make me wonder if there's some car equivalent of the "80% lower" of the weapons industry. Some kind of partially assembled new Kei truck that counts as "car parts" during import, and can then be assembled to create a "kit car". The kit car process is almost equally onerous, but at least you could get a new car on the other end.

US restrictions on vehicle imports seem very odd from a British perspective.

Over here, we can freely import pretty much anything. If it's more than 10 years old, you just register it. If it's less than 10 years old, you can still bring it in as a personal import, but it'll need to pass a slightly enhanced version of the normal annual inspection. It's a point of principle that any vehicle that passes inspection should be road legal, hence oddities like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paIGBOlkQr0

Because we're a right-hand-drive country, Japanese imports are commonplace. If you want a Kei car or a JDM-only luxury minivan, you can just have one. That taken-for-granted freedom gives me a certain degree of empathy for the 2nd amendment lobby.

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