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I Bought A Firetruck

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Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#111

Post by X-Istence »

alan_cx wrote: post #72
Swizec wrote: post #48

Earlier 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.

Im a European, well British anyway.... Something occurred to me today regarding Americans and big huge stupid cars... I was watching the NASCAR earlier and there was a throwaway comment about some driver's sponsors being "local". By local they mean 60 miles away. Now to a Brit, maybe other Europeans, 60 miles feels like anything but "local". So, I get the impression that we don't understand the sort of scale of trave…

I drive a 2012 Subaru Impreza. Before that I drove a 2001 Hyundai Accent and before that a 1997 Kia Sephia. All of those are small cars, maybe it is because I am from The Netherlands but I never considered a large car, they slurp gas like it is going out of style and I want something compact that I can park almost anywhere.

What I do like is that even with a small circle of friends it is almost guaranteed that you know someone with a large truck that can help you move large things, such as couches =).

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#112

Post by X-Istence »

JamisonM wrote: post #78
thezach wrote: post #66

Earlier 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.

Then make sure your kids are responsible and know that if they hear a big hearty diesel fire up in the fire truck that they should GTFO ...

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#113

Post by lsc »

AlexMuir wrote: post #104

I 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…

man, I want a warehouse, too. A buddy just bought one and is renting some space in it to me for ventures and my workshop, and we're doing a joint business venture in another part of it, but it's not the same as owning the place. (That, and he'd not like it if I started sleeping here.)

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#114

Post by X-Istence »

fnordfnordfnord wrote: post #85
carlob wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always wondered: why aren't there more diesel cars in the US?

Early on they earned a reputation for being expensive, slow, powerless, dirty, junk; thanks mostly to GM. GM for whatever reason, didn't want to invest much in a diesel engine, so they cobbled one together from gasoline engine plans, with different heads, crank, cams, etc. The engines were terrible, and it was a well known failure. Maybe it will be forgotten with the death or dementia of the last baby-boomer. https:/…

Doubtful, even today's kids are wary of diesels, and I say that as a 24 year old...

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#115

Post by Gravityloss »

newbie12 wrote: post #41
gph wrote: post #32

That'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.

I'd be glad, wouldn't it be cool? Probably he also shows it to neighbours. And you could tell everyone "I live two houses from the firetruck".

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#117

Post by maxerickson »

hariananth wrote: post #42
jlgaddis wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> do firetrucks really need to be that huge? How many thousands of gallons of water can a Prius hold? =)

Don't fire hydrants solve that problem?

In somewhat rural areas, you see standpipes sticking out of plenty of bodies of water (generally if they are big enough and near the right road).

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#118

Post by [deleted] »

carlob wrote: post #21

Is there some sort of crazy game of one-upmanship in the USA as to who can drive the most impractical gas guzzler? First it was stretch limos, then Hummers, then Hummer stretch limos. I wonder if we're gonna see stretch limo fire trucks… Edit (since I'm being downvoted): The story is cool, I just find the fact that he's driving it daily to work completely retarded. What the hell I consider driving a car to work to be…

[deleted]

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#119

Post by Retric »

fnordfnordfnord wrote: post #68
ChuckMcM wrote: post #13

I've always thought that an old firetruck would make a much better RV conversion platform than an old bus. The reasoning is that a firetruck (especially a pumper truck) has a suspension that is designed to carry much more weight than a bus so you would not be as constrained in what you could build on top of it. Jay Leno did an excellent column about how amazing fire trucks are in terms of durability. The OP said that…

My bus/RV conversion weighs about 18 tons. It has 6 ton front axle and in the rear it has an 11 ton and an additional 6 or 8 ton axle. While a fire truck has a ridiculously strong suspension, if you used that for an RV, you would get a punishing amount of vibration and shaking. I guess you could ballast it, but you'll waste a lot of fuel hauling ballast around, in addition to being dangerously underpowered in some si…

If you significantly increase the bus's weight your going to want to change the suspension anyway. So, really it's just a question of how much of a conversion are you doing. With a bus you can just rip out the seats add a bed and a fridge and call it done as you keep the weight about the same. However if you going wild and thinking about adding your hot-tub then I think a firetruck may be a good option.

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#120

Post by sliverstorm »

Swizec wrote: post #91
sliverstorm wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no complicated fascination . It is simple. People like big cars because they are spacious, feel safer, provide a higher vantage point, and a host of other reasons. Your hatchback is perfectly fine around town, but it can't tow a boat, and most people don't like to have multiple cars. So, what winds up happening is people buy the most car they think they will need. It's totally overkill driving to work, and pl…

"but it can't tow a boat" It probably could and where the hell would I even put a boat. Silly americans :D

Depends on the boat. I want to buy a 13ft one-man sailboat that weights 130lbs. Any car can tow that. Some people have boats that weight two tons. Good luck towing that in a Fiat 500.
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