Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I Bought A Firetruck

geckodesigns.kinja.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 284 posts

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#241

Post by AlexMuir »

KJBweb wrote: post #197
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…

I live about 20 minutes away from Manchester, would love to come down and lend a hand if beer is involved somehow?

Absolutely. I'd love to have you down, and will certainly keep you refreshed. Later down the line perhaps we can get a microbrewery going in a corner of the workshop!

My absolute dream would be to have a bit of an open workshop for people who like doing stuff.

Drop me an email - me@alexmuir.com

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#243

Post by steauengeglase »

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.

It probably worried the neighbors up to the point where they realized there wasn't a fire.

I can't imagine he'll end up driving it enough for that to be a problem. In 2 or 3 years (more like 6 months) he'll get tired of moving it around and paying for fuel. In the end the worst case scenario will end up being caught behind the guy as he heads out to some small town's Christmas parade so their real engines aren't being wasted driving Santa down Main St.

For $1,500 he got a deal. It is worth at least that much in scrap.

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#244

Post by arethuza »

dsfasfasf wrote: post #171
UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something tells me that if you got yourself a plane and then posted about it here, you'd get treated a lot more nicely than the OP. The world has become a cynical and mean place. The guy bought a freaking working fire engine, and all people can do is whine endlessly about how impractical and wasteful it is... But yet these same people wouldn't say the same about an aircraft, race car, or similar. Even though those ar…

I want a jet fighter. I wonder if I could get a relatively new one. All weapons would have to be removed of course. It would be the sports car of the air. I would need to get a billion dollars first though so that I could afford top notch maintenance. This would be my expensive toy. Instead of a yacht the new "in" thing could be buying a sport jet. In reality, I like the idea more then the reality of it. If I really…

"Ellison also owns at least two fighter jets: an SIAI-Marchetti S.211, used by the Italian Air Force, and a decommissioned MiG-29, for which the US Government has refused him permission to import"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Ellison

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#245

Post by moe »

mortenjorck wrote: post #240
THE_PUN_STOPS wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a similar experience buying a MiG-17 as my primary vehicle to commute to work 17 miles away. The DMV was initially not happy about my taking off and landing on quiet highways, but luckily they became more understanding after many letters. How much did you end up paying for your CVBG?

Guys, I understand wanting to maximize your load-carrying efficiency, but decommissioned naval vessels and military aircraft are not the way to do it. For my commute, I chose rail instead – Budd Pioneer III-series rolling stock go for surprisingly little on eBay these days, and at least where I live, it's not terribly expensive to file the paperwork for a zoning easement to add a 700v third rail to a local stretch of…

Sometimes I look at my bicycle and feel small and insignificant.

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#246

Post by radnor »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #218
nettdata wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whatever you do, don't Google "Unimog".

Oh, Gods, why did you have to say that ;-) I have fkn loved Unimogs for years. To make matters worse, I live near a dealer. Lucky for me I can't afford a new one and even the used ones command a pretty penny.

How about buying a LEGO Unimog for $200? :)

http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Mercedes-Benz-Unimog-U-400-8110

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#247

Post by pc86 »

LancerSykera wrote: post #189
zanny wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It kind of depends where you live in the US. I live in a rural PA town where they have built highways over dirt roads and the main state route into town is a two lane country street that carries 18 wheelers every hour of the day and has a never ending backup. Parking on main street, for example, is nigh impossible. Parts of it aren't wide enough for many cars to go past one another while the streetside parking is in…

Okay, I give up. It's either Kutztown or Lock Haven. I've been to Lock Haven, it's not an amusing place to navigate (especially the campus).

I've only ever been to Kutztown and didn't think it was too bad (granted, I was in a mid-size sedan and not an Escalade), so my money's on Lock Haven.

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#248

Post by adestefan »

nollidge wrote: post #216
ivix wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sense of scale is noticable even in this article. The author is parking a fire engine on his driveway . Here in Europe a driveway is one or two car lengths of gravel or paving blocks. In the US, everyone's driveway is more like something approaching a major civil engineering undertaking, being the size of a tennis court, consuming several cubic metres of concrete, steel reinforcing, etc.

They're really only that big out in the exurbs.

There are a lot more middle of nowhere locations than there are exurbs in the US.

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#250

Post by adestefan »

dcminter wrote: post #220
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…

What's the bureacracy like with that? Are you just keeping a low profile and doing it on the "beg forgiveness" principle or are you doing all the proper paperwork? Or is it actually less of a hassle in that respect than I imagine? I'd assumed that converting a business space into a residence within the UK would be like one of the more byzantine scenes from Brazil. I'd be very interested to hear more about it generall…

People make a big deal out of permits and the like, but as a one man show the local departments are usually very helpful and straight forward. There are also large swaths of the US where there isn't even any zoning or permits required.
Post reply on HN