Ranger carrying the mail

[Joeiconic]

Saw this today. It’s a right hand drive Ranger used by a mail carrier. It’s a STX 4x4. They picked a great color! Sorry for the blurry pic, it was an “action shot”.

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[D Fresh]

Back in the day Subaru would sell RHD vehicles here for rural mail carriers. Jeep still does. Looks like there are a few companies importing for rural carriers.

Did you get a look at the front? Was it an ROTW model? Or a converted US model?

 

[Langwilliams]

There was a post on Facebook about a guy delivering out of his ranger. He rigged it up with a right hand steering wheel an pedals.

 

[Joeiconic]

Back in the day Subaru would sell RHD vehicles here for rural mail carriers. Jeep still does. Looks like there are a few companies importing for rural carriers.

Did you get a look at the front? Was it an ROTW model? Or a converted US model?

yes, I’ve seen it several times in the area. It’s a converted US model. It’s a lady driving it and its always very clean. She has some sort of protector hanging out of the drivers side door to protect the paint from scatches.

 

[D Fresh]

yes, I’ve seen it several times in the area. It’s a converted US model. It’s a lady driving it and its always very clean. She has some sort of protector hanging out of the drivers side door to protect the paint from scatches.

Dual control like this?


Or full on conversion?

Many of the rural carriers around here have resorted to older sedans with bench seats as it appears RHD units are hard to come by.

 

[Joeiconic]

I grew up in rural North Carolina in the 60’s - 80’s and the local mail carrier was a family frIend. For 30 years he drove whatever the family car was at the time and sat in the passenger seat and steered the traditional left hand drive car with his left hand and braked and gassed with his left foot. You actually saw that a lot in small town America. They probably don’t allow that anymore for liability reasons.

 

[Chris M]

I grew up in rural North Carolina in the 60’s - 80’s and the local mail carrier was a family frIend. For 30 years he drove whatever the family car was at the time and sat in the passenger seat and steered the traditional left hand drive car with his left hand and braked and gassed with his left foot. You actually saw that a lot in small town America. They probably don’t allow that anymore for liability reasons.

Yep! That's how our carrier used to do that when I was a kid in the 1960s and early 70s.

 

[ControlNode]

I grew up in rural North Carolina in the 60’s - 80’s and the local mail carrier was a family frIend. For 30 years he drove whatever the family car was at the time and sat in the passenger seat and steered the traditional left hand drive car with his left hand and braked and gassed with his left foot. You actually saw that a lot in small town America. They probably don’t allow that anymore for liability reasons.

My wife did that with a few cars before getting her Jeep RHD in 2016. The first was a 93 Olds Eighty-Eight with that 3800 engine that was bullet proof, too bad the car didn't handle stop and go without getting hot so well. I replaced the fans with better after market fans and added a manual switch so she could force them on as soon as she was off the highway. Front bench seat made this work for her. Then she started using her 04 Toyota, the center console never stood a chance. I've messaged Ford a few times from about 14-19 about brining a RHD to market, like the transit van that is already built in that configuration for other markets, just put US approved glass, lighting (doors and bumpers if needed for crash safety parts) from the US version on it and good to go. But now that USPS is getting their own Rural vehicles and carries will not really be needed to provide their own once that roll out is done that market is going away for the most part. If I was still delivering pizza I would like a RHD, exiting curb side is safer than traffic side.

 

[mustang marty]

In my carrier days I knew of guys just driving the wrong way in their left hand drive vehicles . Of course only on rarely driven streets in small neighborhoods . Tried it once then chickened out and just walked the street .

 

[Langwilliams]

In my carrier days I knew of guys just driving the wrong way in their left hand drive vehicles . Of course only on rarely driven streets in small neighborhoods . Tried it once then chickened out and just walked the street .

we had a "contract route" that was delivered by a private company. The ladies quite an the company sent 2 guys out to deliver it. They wanted to deliver it that way an the Post Master threw them out. I had to deliver it. It was a mess.

 

[Progeny2021]

There was a post on Facebook about a guy delivering out of his ranger. He rigged it up with a right hand steering wheel an pedals.

The 'rigged' postal vehicles I've seen still had LH drive but had full pedal controls on the right - just like the Driver's Ed cars of decades past (early '70s).

 

[MountainGoat]

Post office is always hiring here. Rural route though, gravel roads and byov(vehicle). From what I hear you need to buy tires every 3 months! They can't keep anybody.

 

[Langwilliams]

Post office is always hiring here. Rural route though, gravel roads and byov(vehicle). From what I hear you need to buy tires every 3 months! They can't keep anybody.

Rural routes are very rare here where I live. The few in my town use postal vehicles (old crappy ones).

 

[Progeny2021]

Rural routes are very rare here where I live. The few in my town use postal vehicles (old crappy ones).

Yeah, thinking the current vehicles with the iron duke Pontiac motors have been around since the early '80s...

 

[Langwilliams]

Yeah, thinking the current vehicles with the iron duke Pontiac motors have been around since the early '80s...

Those were built in the 80's and 90's. It's pretty much an 2.5 iron duke 3 speed auto chevy s-10 drivetrain and possibly frame. Grumman built the bodies an is on the ID tag as manufacturer. They have an open dif in back and of course the right tire is the drive wheel an it's off the road in the snow slush so you get stuck all the time. There was a tv special on the trucks for some reason an they built some in '95 or '96 but the post office didn't want them so they were sold to cities for municipal work. Selling to private individuals was illegal. I think the show was about people with weird cars/vehicles an somehow a guy ended up with one an he's the only guy with one. I know they hammered us for making sure the trucks were locked up an windows up. I think the fear was you can drive pretty much anywhere an park anywhere in one. People assume it's doing gov duties. If the bad guys got one an put a bomb in back they could drive it just about anywhere an park it an leave it an no one would be suspicious of it for a little while.

That guy should be written up...his mirror is folded in an he can't safely look for traffic when pulling away from the box!

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