I Need a Pick-up Truck...

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Just getting a vehicle dedicated to collecting wood is not very practical. Get a trailer with a ramp. Much more versatile and less expensive.
 
gzecc said:
Just getting a vehicle dedicated to collecting wood is not very practical. Get a trailer with a ramp. Much more versatile and less expensive.
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Well, a used pickup that looks ugly on the outside can be had for $500 or less, similar price range to a used trailer.

The pickup is a bit more flexible, though you have to lift a lot further up to get stuff into it. It will cost a little more per year in registration costs if you drive it on the road. Repair costs will never exceed $400 on it (If something expensive breaks, you can get $100 or so for it from a car scrapper, and buy a new $500 pickup on Craigslist). Both take up about the same amount of room parked. The pickup is more work for you to own, as the amount of things you'll be maintaining/fixing is much higher.

I actually wanted to just spend $1000 and get both, but my wife talked me out of it (as a Yankee, she fears my inner redneck and its love of having a few extra cars floating around...). Bah!
 
A lot of good ideas so far on this thread.

I have a Nissan Frontier that I use as a daily driver. It is a mid-size truck and will hold (comfortably and relatively legally) 1/4-1/3 cord of green wood in the bed. The key is the trailer. The vehicle has a 6500 pound tow capacity so I can load my trailer and truck with wood and comfortably transport a full cord at a time. Point being: a trailer is more important than a truck as long as your vehicle has the appropriate towing capabilities.
 
1000 tow cap. less the trailer weight, Also if going trailer check tongue weight, Don't know how tow package is set up on those , but I have seen some extremely light duty set ups on the smaller vehicles.
 
I don't know where you guys are finding these $500 trucks. I just spent a long time looking for a beater truck and anything under $1000 was a complete rust bucket. Most with bad frames. I ended up buying a truck for $600 and a parts truck with a dump mechanism for $700. Many hours later I have a 1 ton 4x4 dump truck. But total I have about $2600 in it. I did not find anything under $1500 that was 4wd and would pass inspection without some real work. Where I typically go for wood a trailer would be a pain and I need 4wd. But trailers do work well for many other people and many times you can get by without 4wd.
 
I have noticed recently , in my area, you can pick up a nice wood hauling pickup for 500$ every day. Not perfect but it doesn't have to be. Even better, I have scooped up a few 90's suburbans with under 140k for under 1800$ and that's a daily driver with that mileage. I use a 3 wheeler and a dump cart to get wood off my property. So I guess my opinion isn't valid ha


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Same with me, street legal that doesn't have the check engine light on is $2,000 plus. Only hope for a lower price is buy a 92 or earlier and register it as an antique.
 
bholler said:
I don't know where you guys are finding these $500 trucks. I just spent a long time looking for a beater truck and anything under $1000 was a complete rust bucket. Most with bad frames. I ended up buying a truck for $600 and a parts truck with a dump mechanism for $700. Many hours later I have a 1 ton 4x4 dump truck. But total I have about $2600 in it. I did not find anything under $1500 that was 4wd and would pass inspection without some real work. Where I typically go for wood a trailer would be a pain and I need 4wd. But trailers do work well for many other people and many times you can get by without 4wd.
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That is a cool project, sounds like a lot of welding.

Your profile says you're from central PA- there does not appear to be a $500 pickup truck shortage in that area! (Craigslist linky)

I know for my application, 'complete rust bucket' is perfectly OK as long as it goes and stops, and the axles and trailer hitch don't fall off. ;)
 
Lots pf good used truck here. Rust is not usually a problem unless it a toyota tacoma which were complete rust buckets up untill around 2000. I know cuz i had a 99 .
 
jetsam said:
Your profile says you're from central PA- there does not appear to be a $500 pickup truck shortage in that area!
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Yes and did you look at most of those adds? Most that are actually 500 or less say for parts only or does not run. And by complete rust bucket I mean holes in the floors bad cab corners and or rusty frame. Even if it is just a beater you still need a good frame to pass inspection. And from most I looked at a good solid frame was hard to come by. Hell our 2006 chevy 2500 work truck just needed the frame plated in 6 spots to pass inspection and it only has 60,000 miles on it.
 
I sure there's a lot of guys here with pick up's here. But as many have said a more practical tool is a trailer. Within reason almost any trailer will do. Get the jeep fixed, if it's no more than a dead battery or charging issue. Not hard to fix. Buy a nice chain saw and your off and going.
 
My 95 K2500 silverado has remarkably little rust. I have it for about 12 yrs. Frame is in excellent shape as well as 99% of the body. Only a small amount on the bottom of the doors that been there for years and has not progressed. Got a 91 C1500 GM too with almost no rust. They do salt the roads here in winter but thats about the extent of it. The 91 was just purchased for $450 about 2 month ago. standard shift v6 ,runs good.
 
Around here it seems all of the gm trucks have bad cab corners and rockers. The fords have bad floors and wheel wells. And the dodges are just rusty everywhere. And they can all have issues with the frames. I also just did allot of rust repair on my trailblazer and it's frame is going to need plated in spots soon to it is an 2005 with 98,000.
 
I am not sure I would want to live in the same state as that Truck Inspector. He sounds like a bit of a jerk.

I can honestly say that I've never inspected the frame on a beater that I've bought (other to drive it and feel if anything's grossly bent), and I've never had a beater die of frame failure.

I guess I bought the vast majority of my beaters in Georgia where salt isn't a thing on the roads, bit still.
 
Do note the OP is from NH. We have yearly state vehicle inspection and emissions testing and a state DOT that uses salt liberally.
 
bholler said:
Hell our 2006 chevy 2500 work truck just needed the frame plated in 6 spots to pass inspection and it only has 60,000 miles on it.
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Where in PA are you from lol, I have an 06 GMC and the frame is solid on it, and has 187K on it. I know because I spent many hours under it replacing the motor in it last month.

I am from NY land of the salted roads, where our cars tend to rot off the frames before anything else has a chance to go bad on them.

Granted my rockers are gone and my cab corners and wheel wells on the box are going to need to be replaced in the spring, but other than that surprisingly good.
 
Seasoned Oak said:
Lots pf good used truck here. Rust is not usually a problem unless it a toyota tacoma which were complete rust buckets up untill around 2000. I know cuz i had a 99 .
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They weren't much better after that...

My wife has an 05 Tacoma and it got a new frame last year.
 
I agree finding a usable truck for $500 sounds fairly difficult.

Some states don't have any inspections at all for anything. If you live in a state with no vehicle inspections you might have better luck finding a $500 truck that can be registered and driven. Other states not so easy to do.
 
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