Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd be pissed to be his neighbor. The firetruck spews dirty exhaust, is unsafe if there are kids running around, and definitely is an eyesore. Even though there's no HOA he is probably running afoul of city or county zoning rules...you shouldn't be able to park large work trucks in residential neighborhoods.
What makes the truck more unsafe around children than e.g. a Ford Explorer or similar?
I Bought A Firetruck
101–110 of 284 posts
Re: I Bought A Firetruck
#102And why is this on hackernews?
Re: I Bought A Firetruck
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've always wondered: why aren't there more diesel cars in the US?
From what I gathered from a quick look at Wikipedia, probably the biggest factor is that diesel engines are best used for high-torque, low-speed applications.
With, of course, the usual "exception that proves the rule":
Re: I Bought A Firetruck
#104I just bought a warehouse. Similar - I always wanted one. I'm going to turn it into a house and put a roof garden on it and put a sweet garage in to fiddle with cars and set up some office space and generally cause havoc in there.
I could drop dead tomorrow. It's nice to tick these ambitions off, although my ambitions always seem to make it more likely that I will drop dead tomorrow.
(It's in Manchester, UK if anyone wants to come and lug bricks around.)
Re: I Bought A Firetruck
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
then watch your kids like a parent should
I like living in a place where my kids can play in the front yard without non-stop surveillance. Every parent has had a kid run out of sight in the back yard, a store, or the mall. The idea that jerks like you say things like that every time something bad happens to someone's child really pisses me off.
I'll agree with you that "watch your kids 24/7" is unfeasible. But I did think of something that would get the same results in this case: teach your kids to respect the property of others. It always confused me that, for example, trampoline owners could get in trouble because local children, without the permission of the owner, came over to jump on it and fell off and broke a bone. The kids are at fault, and that reflects on their parents.
Re: I Bought A Firetruck
#106That's pretty cool, as a toy. Too bad he doesn't seem to have any use for it in that capacity. Don't know if I can agree with him driving it on routine trips around town. Not only because of the extra gas consumption and CO2, but it also takes up a lot more room on the road, and it's a lot slower on acceleration wasting everyone's time behind him. When someone has a purpose for having a huge truck on the road you tol…
I'd be pissed to be his neighbor. The firetruck spews dirty exhaust, is unsafe if there are kids running around, and definitely is an eyesore. Even though there's no HOA he is probably running afoul of city or county zoning rules...you shouldn't be able to park large work trucks in residential neighborhoods.
>Even though there's no HOA he is probably running afoul of city or county zoning rules...
Many days I can't find a good reason to appreciate living in the US. I'm glad that there are places to live where a guy can buy an old fire truck if it tickles his fancy. I'm also glad that there are ticky-tacky neighborhoods with HOA's in towns with strict zoning, so you and I won't have to be neighbors.
I also can't think of a reason why I should fear for my children's safety if my neighbor had one of these in his driveway.
Re: I Bought A Firetruck
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a European I don't understand the american fascination with impractically fhuge cars for every day commuting. Okay I get it, you want a big car for that roadtrip or vacation. Understandable, I do too. But for everyday stuff? My hatchback does perfectly fine around town ... hell, it does perfectly well on most vacations and long drives too.
I've got a Toyota 4Runner, perfectly capable of moving people and towing a trailer on rare occasions. It also comes in really handy when we do our Costco grocery shopping. For the "everyday" commute, I'm proudly on the bus and noticing as of late that this is getting more and more common with younger age groups who want to live in urban areas, where mass transit is most convenient. I would bet this trend continues fo…
Agreed. I do most of my commuting by bus, and mostly drive my car nights and weekends, when the bus doesn't run as often, or my few trips out of town - most months I only fill up once. That said, I wouldn't get rid of my car: I live in one of about 15 cities in Canada large enough to have a decent bus system [1, >300,000 people], and when I make the 15 hour drive a quarter of the way across the country to visit my family, I need the car to get around, because they live 10 kilometres from the nearest town large enough to have a supermarket. Public transit is awesome, but most of my country simply doesn't have the population density to support it (the distances and travel times are similar in the US, though there are more cities, so I understand the car culture)
[1] http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/d...
Re: I Bought A Firetruck
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
then watch your kids like a parent should
I like living in a place where my kids can play in the front yard without non-stop surveillance. Every parent has had a kid run out of sight in the back yard, a store, or the mall. The idea that jerks like you say things like that every time something bad happens to someone's child really pisses me off.
While thezach's comment does come across as being from a jerk, keep in mind too the same reaction applies to "every parent" who expects the rest of society to curtail every possible activity that might hurt their unsupervised child.
Does anybody really think it's a rational argument to make, that this guy _shouldn't_ buy and drive his own fire truck because it's a risk to "the children"?
Re: I Bought A Firetruck
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
What makes the truck more unsafe around children than e.g. a Ford Explorer or similar?
A ford explorer can stop on a dime. A fire truck cannot. A fire truck also has a blind spot equivalent to 3 ford explorers.
If the blind spot were really a child safety factor, then the sight of a UPS or FedEx truck would terrorize parents across the world.
I'll also bet that his fire truck can stop better than you think, especially if he has left the ~500 gallon water tank empty.
Re: I Bought A Firetruck
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can take steps to reduce carbon emissions in cars (smaller car, drive more efficiently, etc), but you can't with planes other than not flying. Luckily, it's in the best interest of airlines to reduce emissions since that means less jet fuel and more profits.
Indeed, this is true. Thanks for this. The realization that it is also in the best interest of an airline to reduce emissions, especially as the price of oil increases, really helps make me feel better. Not flying doesn't really reduce emissions though... Those planes are going to fly whether or not you are on it.
Of course it does reduce emissions. Increasing demand for flights means the airlines fly more planes.