Useful applications for a pickup truck

[ctdahle]

This isn't strictly a modelling topic, but since it made me points at home, and scoring points gives me extra flexibility to go flying, I thought I'd pass it on.

Our refrigerator was getting pretty gross inside so I decided to take out all of the racks and shelves and scrub them down with soap, water and a scrub brush. The problem was they are too big to fit in the kitchen sink, and really, too big to fit in the bath tub too. But I still wanted to give them a good dunking.

So I grabbed a cheap plastic drop cloth that was left over from a painting project and I laid it out in the bed of my pickup truck. Then I filled the bed with the garden hose and shortly I had a nice big "sink" full of water. The sun pretty quickly brought the water temperature up to a nice, effectively cleaning warm, and I was able to pretty easily scrub up the racks, drawers, front panel and other parts of the fridge without making a big mess in the kitchen.

That done, I started looking around for other things that I could scrub up in this big tub of water. We cleaned the panels from the baseboard radiators, the baby's high chair, and a bunch of other miscellaneous junk that normally would get hosed off in the driveway with an accompanying waste of lots of water.

[Grug - American Neanderthal]

You know what I am thinking...Poor mans portable hot tub! ;D

I have a neighbor that does that to haul water to cows once in a while.

[jetmex]

When we used to go out boonie chukking in the desert (a lot longer ago than I care to admit), someone would lay a tarp in the bed of a pickup and fill it full of ice and cold sodas, beer and miscellaneous munchies. That person usually was the hero for the night and generally got his gas paid for... ;D

I've taken a bunch of camping trips, truck might make a good bathtub, too!

Just out of curiousity, what kind of truck do you all drive? Mine's an '03 Ford Ranger Edge. I can just get a pair of 80 inch big birds into it.

[ctdahle]

Mine is a 1991 Ford Ranger. I bought it new with minor hail damage and paid less than $7000 for it. When I was still building houses it was a great little "office".

I just hit 190,000 miles on it this week and it still cleans up nice, runs great and, surprisingly, has enough room for 2 car seats.

My Super Kaos fits in the back, fully assembled, which means I can do all the set up at home in the comfort of my garage, and then I can take it home and hose it off in the driveway rather than mess with a greasy grubby model out at the field.

[Grug - American Neanderthal]

We have an '01' ranger supercab (what is this a convention? ) We are trying to sell it though, its just a little tight for 2 people and my gunter daughter in the back seat.

I also have a '93' Ranger flat bed that is the go-fer truck, and a '96' F-250 powerstroke for trailer hauling.

If I have to haul a plane very far though I use my wifes Taurus wagon, it works pretty slick.

[ctdahle]

Eric said:

...Poor mans portable hot tub! ;D

Now you've got me thinking "how can I rig up a heater and a circulating pump"

Hmmm, one of those "Insta-Hot" on demand hot water heaters, a Little Giant pump, a thermostat of some kind, a bit of sprinkler pipe...

Or maybe a take off from the heater core of the truck...

[jetmex]

Hmmm--a rolling hot tub. Who's going to drive?? ;D

For what it's worth, a friend sent this link for a really neat bed extender. Unlike stock units, this one folds flat against the tailgate when not being used and can be removed by pulling a few pins. It would be great for someone with a short bed pickup who has to haul bigger airplanes:

www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/horizontal-item.jhtml?id=0025778521466a&navAction=jump&navCount=2&indexId=cat20143&podId=0025778&catalogCode=IE&parentId=cat20143&parentType=index&rid=&cmCat=MainCatcat21412&hasJS=true


The price isn't too bad either....