>Guys, I understand wanting to maximize your load-carrying efficiency, but decommissioned naval vessels and military aircraft are not the way to do it.
I disagree. I understand the limitations of land-based military vehicles, but tmoertel has it right. Oceangoing vessels make for quite practical daily drivers. If you can afford it I would highly recommend a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. I take it as a point of pride and efficiency that I only need to refuel it once every two decades, though I admit that sourcing a sufficient quantity of reactor grade fissile material for two separate reactors may be a bit of a hassle for the average commuter.
However, the advantages clearly outweigh the disadvantages. The 260,000 horsepower provided by the reactors supply plenty of energy to operate an on-site synthetic biofuel manufacturing facility to provide liquid fuel for the fleet of light aircraft in case I want to go to Costco or anywhere else not equipped with large enough pier to dock the carrier, and you can get a pretty good deal on decommissioned F-14 Tomcats these days. Plus, flying over all the traffic at Mach 2 is really satisfying.
And as time passes and technology improves the operating costs continue to fall. I've joined up with a pilot project in a joint venture between Google and Cyberdyne Systems to develop a self-driving carrier, and so far they've been able to reduce the required crew complement by more than 30% in just two years. I estimate that before the end of the decade we'll have it fully automated and then every American family will be able to operate their own carrier and fleet of fighter aircraft.