Diesels were much cheaper to run when they became popular in the 80s. Also diesel can be stored on farm and old diesel vehicles can be run on red for off road use only so many farm pickups end their life this way. I'm not sure that modern diesels with all the emissions crap are much cheaper to run than petrol now. My friend has a 1.1 turbo petrol in a Ford Focus and it goes as well as most 1.6/1.8 of the past. Our Dmax averages about 17mpg doing mostly short runs and mostly towing. How much worse would a petrol be?
Only in jerry cans I believe.
Yes and we're lucky here in that the village garage is only a mile away. We only store red in bulk, petrol we only buy 25 litres at a time and derv we buy from the garage as needed. It's not worth us buying derv in bulk. We'd have to pay for it before we'd used it and it could be sitting in the tank for weeks (waiting to be stolen) whereas buying from the garage on a monthly account helps keep the garage in business and fuel is paid for the month after its used.
Garages just 25 miles down the road from you stopped doing monthly accounts about 15 years ago.Yes and we're lucky here in that the village garage is only a mile away. We only store red in bulk, petrol we only buy 25 litres at a time and derv we buy from the garage as needed. It's not worth us buying derv in bulk. We'd have to pay for it before we'd used it and it could be sitting in the tank for weeks (waiting to be stolen) whereas buying from the garage on a monthly account helps keep the garage in business and fuel is paid for the month after its used.
Yes we can get the whole range from chassis-cabs up to full spec double cabs. My previous Ranger was a space cab but they are not popular new or used. I would have bought another but none in stock at the time. Like you I did consider that the tray in the double cab was a bit limiting but in practice this has not been the case, or very very seldom. I can't fit two 4ft round bales of hay or straw in the back of my current one.
Its a heck of a lot bigger than the local farmer's favourite, the Landrover Defender 90 van [hardtop] or pickup [truck cab].Haha - by the time I put my toolboxes & air compressor in the back I'd be lucky to have room for a lunch box
Most pickups you see here are double cabs. Personally I cannot see why you would have one, there is very little load space. Here is my current vehicle; ranger tipper, 10 years old and hopefully do another 10. I will not be buying anything with a DPF and all the regen crap. I have seen how much they really cost in the not so long term!
View attachment 556956
I did import a Landcruiser HJ75 pickup back in the 80's which was the best work vehicle I ever owned.
Should the Ford Ranger not last me out then maybe the only alternative would be to import a petrol pickup
with a sensible sized engine. The beauty of the above tipper is that you can load side or back with pallet forks.
The whole transport system needs changing; even if we cannot run diesel vehicles and replace them with petrol we still have far too many on the road. Still have all those rubber tyres to pollute and still have congested roads. How about de-materialising the goods in one place and re-materialising them in another?
We find a double cab very handy. There's often two or three of us plus spare coats, drenching guns etc etc and lunch boxes etc. We only put dogs in the back usually and the back of a double cab is plenty big enough. If we take the canopy off a one ton dumpy bag of feed or ballast fits in easily we can also put a ton of 25kg bags in so I'm not sure we'd need anything bigger.Most pickups you see here are double cabs. Personally I cannot see why you would have one, there is very little load space. Here is my current vehicle; ranger tipper, 10 years old and hopefully do another 10. I will not be buying anything with a DPF and all the regen crap. I have seen how much they really cost in the not so long term!
View attachment 556956
I did import a Landcruiser HJ75 pickup back in the 80's which was the best work vehicle I ever owned.
Should the Ford Ranger not last me out then maybe the only alternative would be to import a petrol pickup
with a sensible sized engine. The beauty of the above tipper is that you can load side or back with pallet forks.
The whole transport system needs changing; even if we cannot run diesel vehicles and replace them with petrol we still have far too many on the road. Still have all those rubber tyres to pollute and still have congested roads. How about de-materialising the goods in one place and re-materialising them in another?
Ours is like it's only the smell that tells you that you are regenerating if you have the display on a different reading If you know what I mean. The D max has many faults but that is not one worth losing sleep over.I know a guy with a Dmax, I asked him last weekend about the regen, he said he'd never ever noticed it doing a regen, if it wasn't for the smell, he'd never ever know! Amazing that two can be so different
