Hacker News

points by anticorporate 1 day ago | 0 comments

> Anybody who knows how people that actually need trucks use trucks saw this coming

I'm a current truck driver and very excited to swap out my ICE truck for a Slate next year. I need something that can haul my trash to the dump, grab a load of wood chips for the garden, and bring home the occasional sheet good from the home store.

I agree with your assessment as it applies to the Cybertruck or F150, but not the idea of an electric truck. Some people buy trucks because they need a light-duty hauling solution; unfortunately, the market seems to only want to sell luxury SUVs that happen to have truck beds.

[–] mindslight 1 day ago

cough small dump trailer (<3000 GVWR). Can be pulled by a light SUV. No shoveling those wood chips. Depending on where the trash is going, no having to lift that a second time either. I've carried 25 sheets of 3/4 ply in mine (and unloaded them by myself, as the tilting bed meant I could tilt up a bit and easily slide them off)

[–] anticorporate 1 day ago

I have a hitch for my current truck and honestly a dump trailer wouldn't be a bad idea anyway for some use cases, but even if I had one I'd probably only use it when I had to. The convenience factor just being able to hop in and drive, or having the truck bed with you when you didn't plan on moving something just wins out.

[–] mindslight 1 day ago

I think the conveniences are still tradeoffs though. A separate vehicle is handy for being able to slowly collect things to get rid of in one later trip, or to store something you just got until you're ready to put it somewhere else (I've currently got what remains of a 1/2 yard of sand sitting in mine). And being able to just dump something and drive away is quite nice (especially when you've loaded it into the trailer using equipment to begin with).

On the other hand, I've never experienced being able to just haul something without a little planning first, so I don't miss it.

[–] cucumber3732842 1 day ago

Trailers aren't a silver bullet. I own multiple trailers (one even has a crane on it) and will still use anything else given the chance because it's just such a hassle once the empty weight of your trailer gets above what's convenient to move around by hand (which it will if you want to beat what a half ton truck can do, not what's within the rating, but what it can do).

[–] mindslight 1 day ago

The thing about equipment is no matter what you've got, you're always going to want something bigger.

You just need to cover the bulk of uses, not every last thing you might need to do. I think the light SUV + utility trailer is a pretty good sweet spot, even better for many things than a pickup truck on its own. Like have fun lifting 20 sheets of plywood up onto a pickup truck and back down, assuming you've even got one with a long enough bed to support that whole pile.

And sure I'd imagine larger trailers get to be a hassle to move empty by hand, but isn't that what having more equipment is for? And isn't that well into the tier where you need a truck for a tow vehicle regardless?

[–] cucumber3732842 1 day ago

Unless it's so small it roughly equals the utility capacity of a half ton truck a trailer is a big hassle. People choose to pay more for a truck because it "just works" with "no thinking" for a wide variety of stuff.

[–] mindslight 1 day ago

Man, you love needlessly combative framings. Being able to dump sure eliminates a different "big hassle". Personally I'd rather have to do some "thinking" than be manually lifting things unnecessarily (often twice). There are always tradeoffs, and I was merely mentioning a different option for people who are doing the occasional homeowner dump and mulch runs.

[–] DubiousPusher 1 day ago

Not wrong. I combined my truck and SUV budget and bought a used X7 m50i and a small utility trailer. No joke it's the best pulling vehicle I have ever owned. Super heavy, super grippy, in trailer mode the torque comes on fast. It's brilliant. My old 03 Silverado sits even more now.