PennSilverTaco's "Perfect 5-Lug Regular Cab" Build, Aspergers, and General BS MegaThread!

Thanks for the compliment! I weigh 250!

 

Too much leads to

 

That's never happened to me, and it's never going to happen because I'm reducing my alcohol consumption greatly.

 

Like Bill said, moderation is key. Don’t over think it, just enjoy life, live happy, drink a few, eat merry and be the best person you can be. If one of these things goes awry then you know what to correct to get back to living a good life.

 

Totally gonna hit 80K this week!

 

Jammin' to The King!

 

I've actually ridden in a Werner truck on two separate occasions!

My friend Dave got his Class A CDL in late 2009 or early 2010, and started driving for Werner in like March of 2010. He gave me and my best friend John (also his best friend) a ride in his '05 Freightliner in April 2010...

In January 2013, I did a video interview with Dave about the trucking industry for my journalism class in college...

Dave drove for Werner from 2010 until 2013, and then again from like 2014-2015. Now he drives for a local company in the interest of making more money and actually coming home every night.

At the time of the January 2013 interview, his rig was an International Prostar Eagle (2011 or 2012 I believe, but it already had well over 250K miles on it by then!)...

Here are some pictures Dave took of me in his truck that day...

 

More pictures of the 1st Gen RC PreRunner SR5 I spotted in Doylestown the other day!

 

Every time I see a shell I want one for my tundra

 

I'm more of a tonneau cover or BesTop kind of guy...

Back in 1992, my dad bought a brand new Dodge Dakota LE supercab, 3.9L Magnum V6/5-speed stick, 2WD with 3.42 open rear; Going through the 1993 Storm of the Century with no 4-wheel drive and an open rear are what prompted my dad to sell this truck just over a year after buying it! There was absolutely nothing wrong with the truck itself. 1992 was the first year for the Magnum 3.9L V6. 1987-1991 Dakotas had an underpowered variant of the 3.9L, making just 125 horsepower. The Magnum version made 180 horsepower, which was quite impressive at the time! My dad's not only had this engine, but was also a stick shift!

Anyway, going back to shells...

In 1992 my dad wasn't making anywhere near what he's making today, and sleeping in the bed of your pickup truck at rest stops and on military bases was much cheaper than staying in a hotel during business trips...

I actually remember when we drove the Dakota home. He'd sold his 1986 Mazda B2000 privately, and had never driven anything quite as big as the Dakota. I was only 3 years old, but I remember being in my carseat in the shotgun seat on the night we drove it home. My mom was behind us in her 1990 Camry, and my dad turned to me with a grin on his face and said "Do you think my new truck will fit in the garage? Let's see..."

My dad slowly pulled the Dakota into the garage, and it fit in our 2-car garage without even having to fold the mirrors in!

So, not long after my dad bought the truck, he custom-ordered a cap from a place called Bricks, on Route 309 in Quakertown (still there!). The cap was custom-matched to the truck using the factory paint code (the truck was dark green). I forget what brand the cap was (Jericho or Leer, maybe?), but I do remember that the cap had a liftup rear window that locked, no side windows, and a ceiling-mounted light inside that was tapped into the truck's electric system. The cap worked great for it's intended purposes. In addition to providing a warm and dry place for my dad to sleep on business trips, it also provided a dry and secure place for us to put luggage on long trips.

A lot of times we took the Camry, since it was a 4-door sedan, but we took the Dakota quite frequently as well, especially when we drove up to my Grandma's lake house in Maine. My dad put a trailer hitch on the Camry when he bought his 16-foot speedboat in 1990-91, and with the V6 engine it towed quite well, but he sold the 4-banger Mazda B-series and bought the Dakota, the Dakota became the primary tow vehicle. The only reason my dad put a trailer hitch on my mom's brand new Camry is because he thought attempting to tow with the Mazda would be pushing it. The Camry had a fuel-injected V6, whereas the Mazda had a carbureted 4-banger. The Mazda had no power steering, no power brakes, and of course no ABS. Towing a jet ski in such a vehicle would be tedious! On top of that, the Mazda did not have air-conditioning (the primary reason my dad sold it and bought the Dakota; The Dakota not only had A/C, but the A/C in that truck worked really good, quite possibly better than my Taco).

So, the point I was trying to make is that my dad put a cap on his Dakota for practical purposes and thought he'd like the way it looked, but ended up not liking the look of it. The cap stayed with the Dakota when he traded it for a new S-10 Blazer in June 1993. My dad doesn't like the way caps look, and also thinks they reduce visibility (though with backup cameras and collision sensors, this is a moot point nowadays). My dad thinks caps make pickups look more like SUVs, and I agree with him. I don't like caps because I like being able to haul refrigerators and large pieces of furniture in my truck!

 

If you're gonna put a shell on any truck, install a backup camera! Shells reduce visibility!

 

You should install a backup camera in your current truck. There's a TW member currently residing in Poland who installed a backup camera in his '95 Taco!

 

So can I, but the biggest problem I had was that I couldn't see my back bumper and hit the following between 2011 and 2016 (no damage to my Tacoma):

Two parked cars (no damage to the parked cars either)
A concrete wall in a parking garage
A cinderblock wall in the parking lot of my work
A stack of firewood
A metal outdoor patio chair
A fence
A brick building (no damage)
My parents' old house (no damage)

 

This is my backup camera...

 

Also, I don't know if you live in a subdivision or an area with lots of kids living nearby, but I do...

I have full confidence in my ability to back up without hitting shit, but nobody is perfect...

My neighbor is full of little kids whose parents haven't explained to them that the white lights built into the taillights of vehicles mean the vehicle is in reverse!

My dad has been driving for about 40 years and has only have one accident that was his fault. He was backing out of our driveway in his 2013 Pilot sometime last year, and this kid came out of nowhere, whizzing by on his motorized scooter. My dad had to abruptly slam on the brakes to avoid hitting the kid. I would like to point out that my dad's Honda Pilot has a factory backup camera, and my dad actually looking behind him too, and he still didn't see the damn kid!

 

What do you think of my backup camera? Also, I didn't pay for it. A drunk driver's court-ordered restitution money paid for it!

CLICK HERE

 

One time when I was 12, I was at a carnival with my mom and a late 80's Toyota Tercel backed into my as I was coming out of a port-a-potty!

It was at night, and I'd gone to use the bathroom while my mom was buying tickets. The left corner of the Tercel's rear bumper made contact with one of my ass cheeks. I didn't get hurt, and I don't even think the driver realized they'd hit a person. They stopped, knowing they'd hit something, but I just walked away and they drove off...

 

What do you think of my backup camera? Tacky? You can be honest...

 

@Iamraiderpower
@Plain Jane Taco
@LocoLocal

I had a much more scary experience in the summer of 2015. My boss (General Manager of the bar where I work) sent me to the local True Value hardware store to pick up some home improvement (bar improvement) supplies. I parked in the far section of the lot in the interest of idiots not opening their doors into my truck or hitting it with shopping carts.

I was walking towards the hardware store, looking at something on my iPhone...

There was a white 2007ish Honda Accord hidden between two larger vehicles. Like any well-maintained Honda product, the engine ran so quietly that you could not tell the car was actually running unless you stopped and really listened. As I walked directly behind the Accord, I could tell that there was somebody in the car and that it was running, but no indication that they were going to back up. All of a sudden, while my left thigh was roughly lined up with the license plate, the reverse lights came on and the Accord suddenly started backing up. It happened so fast that I couldn't even get out of the way in time, and I began screaming at the driver to stop. Before long, the back bumper actually made contact with my knees, and I started pounding on the trunk with my fists while screaming at them to stop. The driver, who turned out to be a gray-haired 60-something woman, slammed on the brakes and turned her head to look behind her (something she should have been doing before putting that fucking Accord into reverse). With a look on my face that probably bordered on homicidal, I glared at this woman and bellowed "Why don't you look where the fuck you're going?" I had not been injured, so I just stormed into the hardware store without another word. Ms. Accord was so traumatized that she put the car in park and stayed there, unable to move, for almost the entire time I was in the hardware store. I probably would have apologized for cussing at her if she was still there, but she left before I finished shopping. Let's just hope she learned to look behind her before backing up, because next time maybe it won't be a 250-pound, 6-foot tall man. Maybe it'll be a petite woman, a frail senior citizen, or a little kid...

 

Yeah, I believe in (and use) redneck ingenuity, but you've gotta draw the line somewhere!