Grandpa Advice

[Porpoise Hork]

After 4 old Toyota trucks I bought my, then, brand new Ranger in 2019. Being a proud owner of a fancy new pickup I had to show my Grandpa.
He shared a piece of advice with me I'd like to share with this community. He told me, "When you get your new pick up home the first thing you gotta do is take a 2x4 and hit the side of it real hard." I laughed and ask why? He said, "Because if you don't you'll never be able to enjoy the truck and you'll spend too much time worrying about keeping it nice."
He was right! I never did the 2x4 trick, but after a few dents in the bed from loading and unloading I found that I'm more carefree and simply enjoy the truck for what it is.

This reminds me of a time back when I was in high school I worked in Make-Ready at a Ford dealership of all places. Well one afternoon this older gentleman in his late 60's came in and bought a fully loaded '94 F-350 Crew Cab 4X4 7.3 turbo diesel. Sticker on that beast was like 25K or something close to it so not cheap by today's standards. He didn't haggle or anything just walked the lot found the truck he wanted and wrote a check for it paying in full. We prepped the truck and pulled it out front. He walked out took a slow lap around it inspecting it said looks good taking the keys from the sales guy, and I shit you not proceeds to gouge the paint to bare metal on the driver's door. We all just stood there in shocked amazement no one saying a word just staring at the foot long scrape in the door. The sales manager comes sprinting out and nearly screams at the man "Sir, what are you doing?!?! This is your brand new truck!!" He just turns and looks at the sales manager over his shoulder while opening the door and calmly says "This thing's gonna eventually get beat all to hell, I may as well get the first one in." climbs in starts the truck and drives off. The sales manager just stood there slack-jawed watching the man pull away...

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[dr3w_mac]

my grandpas advice was not to get married.
he said he regretted it now, but is too old to hide a body.

Know what? he was right.....

I wish my old boy gave me that advice too ?‍?

 

[NickTheEnforcer]

I refuse to use my truck as a job site trash can. I'm pretty much done with the hands-on work [did it for years] then went on to manage sites and bought a nicer truck, then spent 50/50% in the field/office..downsized to the Ranger in 2019 from a Ram 1500 crew I bought new. Ranger is a garage-princess. For me its a car with a big trunk. I will pick up spools of wire, water meters and other misc 'smalls' for the site BUT any 2x material, rolls of house wrap, generators, trash yada-yada we pay my son his laborer's rate to use the Ram [now his] or I pick up one of our company vehicles. In a couple of years I'm probably gonna be ready for a Volvo xc 60...at that point I will be 90% in the office.

 

[NickTheEnforcer]

 

[Tom_C]

Ranger is a garage-princess. For me its a car with a big trunk.

I agree. I can also see why things are progressing as they are. Like, the f150, to me, seems like a luxury car with a box on the back, if you pay top end. When I bought the ranger that was basically where I was going. I was paying top end for a nice vehicle that happened to be a truck. I didn't need/want a land boat like the f150, too big for me, and certainly wasn't paying 60 grand.

I completely understand having a work truck, and I've said before the ranger will be great in any trim level. I think the platform is pretty strong.

 

[Spiritrider1]

I bring my truck to a local paintless dent repair facility once a year and have him repair all my door dings and dents. Cost me about $200 annually to keep the truck looking new.

 

[JohnnyO]

Mine has been to the paintless dent guy twice already. I hit a turkey the second week I owned it and dented the hood, then over the winter someone hit the drivers door with a shopping cart.

 

[Cmar]

Because of the sub tropical climate here pretty much all trails are overgrown with lantana, it's a major pest, I wish I could go back in time and shoot the person who introduced it into this country before the event.
My 4x4 friends use to laugh at me for polishing my old Bronco before going out on a run but believe me it works, you still hear the screeches and scrapes but come home , wash the car, and nary a pinstripe to be seen!
I still do the same thing with the Ranger but don't really do trails much these days, mostly just dirt roads. Makes the dirt wash off easier too.

 

[Dunneldeen]

It is possible to treat your truck as both a valuable tool that needs to be taken care of, while also not obsessing about every scratch and dent. Just because one no longer obsesses about dents and scratches doesn't mean that they don't care or won't do anything about them. The first scratch hurt; now I look at new ones and my only real irritation is about the work ahead to touch it up later.

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