I agree with you mostly, and I absolutely hate these things as well. Here’s the 3 reasons someone might have one of these for personal use…
1.) Heavily vested in the culture war shit.
2.) Maybe they own a boat or something that needs to be hauled in a trailer and the engine on a standard size vehicle isn’t sufficient.
3.) They live somewhere really cold and remote and need to attach a plow to the front during the winter in order to leave home.
Frequently hauling items that won’t fit inside an enclosed vehicle
Frequently used over rough terrain where high ground clearance and 4WD is necessary.
I have regular need for a truck to carry lumber to and from home improvement box stores and lumber yards (it’s remarkably inconvenient to carry a 10’ 2x4 in anything that doesn’t have an open bed, and you can’t fit a 4x8 sheet of plywood inside anything smaller than a panel van). But even with that, it’s far, far cheaper for me to rent a truck for a few hours when I need one than it is to make payments on one, pay for insurance, gas, tires (!!!), repairs, etc. It would be nice to have one on the forest service roads around here–I broke 2 motor mounts on a Civic on a forest service road–but that’s uncommon enough that it’s not worth the purchase.
Those are three very good and valid reasons for ownership. I still think they should be closed to certain roads but it is what it is for now anyways. Thanks for the insightful heads up.
I agree with you mostly, and I absolutely hate these things as well. Here’s the 3 reasons someone might have one of these for personal use…
1.) Heavily vested in the culture war shit.
2.) Maybe they own a boat or something that needs to be hauled in a trailer and the engine on a standard size vehicle isn’t sufficient.
3.) They live somewhere really cold and remote and need to attach a plow to the front during the winter in order to leave home.
I have regular need for a truck to carry lumber to and from home improvement box stores and lumber yards (it’s remarkably inconvenient to carry a 10’ 2x4 in anything that doesn’t have an open bed, and you can’t fit a 4x8 sheet of plywood inside anything smaller than a panel van). But even with that, it’s far, far cheaper for me to rent a truck for a few hours when I need one than it is to make payments on one, pay for insurance, gas, tires (!!!), repairs, etc. It would be nice to have one on the forest service roads around here–I broke 2 motor mounts on a Civic on a forest service road–but that’s uncommon enough that it’s not worth the purchase.
That was why they specified good reason.
Those are three very good and valid reasons for ownership. I still think they should be closed to certain roads but it is what it is for now anyways. Thanks for the insightful heads up.