Rescue of an Ignorant Driver Rant

I just need to get something off my chest that happened today. I don't drive "the Argo" (my 1996 F-150 4x4 Inline 6) to work every day anymore because gas is too expensive. However, due to the weather and my unwillingness to allow my 1992 Caprice Wagon to be bathed in rust cocktail (Calcium Chloride brine mixed with rock salt) I took the old girl to work this morning. On my way to work, I happened upon a guy in a new "King Ranch" F-350 Powerstroke nearly turned over in a ditch. The front end of the truck is all busted to hell and the driver was as ignorant as Archie Bunker after downing a fifth of Jack. I asked if he could use a hand and he replied that my "little half ton" didn't have enough "donkey" to pull his big man truck out of the ditch. I got pissed off at the arrogance but kept it in check and got sarcastic. I made a big show of looking around and said "I don't see anything bigger and with more "donkey" available to help so I'm your best shot." He replied that he "just didn't want me to break anything" while trying to tow him out. I said "She won't break, I've pulled bigger". He harrumphed and then asked me "That got a 351?" "No, it's got a straight six." I said, and he harrumphed again, saying that we "might as well push by hand." I really wanted to show him up at that point so I hooked up the tow strap, dropped the transfer case into 4 low and walked his beached whale back on to the road. He then seemed genuinely shocked that my "little 6 cylinder half ton" was able to rescue his colossal behemoth. I then asked him "You ever heard of UPS?" He replied "Yeah", and then I said "I have the same engine as the big brown trucks." He just stood there with a dumbfounded look on his face as I drove off. So I realize that many would have just laughed when he got mouthy and just drove off leaving him to his own devices, and believe me I was tempted. However, in part because I was concerned for his well being due to the brutal cold and the wind chill, and partly because I wanted to make him feel like an imbecile, I stuck around and helped anyway. I won't lie, my motives at that point were not pure, because I was equally motivated by the imbecile angle as I was by my concern. I just don't understand where this mentality that an older truck, a half ton truck, a six cylinder truck, a gas truck can't do any real work comes from. Sure, I love diesels, but are people really such slaves to advertising mind games that they believe that they need an $80,000 9,000 LB 450 HP truck to haul a bag of mulch or tow their bass boat? Don't they realize that these trucks (and not just Fords, but Chevy and Dodge half tons with sixes and small V8s) have been and still are the backbone of farms, ranches, delivery services, tradesmen, and a whole host of other applications where the truck is a tool for getting work done? Where does that attitude come from? This "my truck is bigger than yours so I am more of a man than you" swagger that "Captain Ignorant" displayed is in no way an isolated incident. Oh, for the record, he had a bumper sticker that said "real trucks don't have spark plugs". I think that today I proved that real trucks DO have vent windows.

OK, rant over. I just wanted to get that off my chest and see if anyone else has had experiences like this, or am I just being a nut job with male PMS because the cold is getting to me?

 

Nope you're not alone. I grew up in the country. Back woods, dirt roads, out houses and where running water meant it was either raining or we had to make a trip to the creak because it was bath time. Not all my childhood was like this but the fact remains that I did experience, not briefly either, this lifestyle. My dad had a couple of Dodge Rams, both 1980. My Grandpa had Ford F-150 and his brother, my great Uncle had an old Ford Ranger Pickup. All of these trucks were used as trucks... Then there was a family friend who had a truck... I can't remember what it was. Only that he lived in town, never hauled anything heavier than groceries in it, and he made you clean your shoes off before getting into it. The bed didn't have a scratch or scuff one, and he never drove it on anything but pavement. However, he would swear up an down that it was the best, toughest, strongest truck on the road, but don't you dare scratch it... My Dad told me one day that that guy was wasting a perfectly good machine by not using it for what it was meant for.

 

Neat stories, you guys.

Amazing how the car corporations know how to play the male ego and female vanity. Can't take more than 2 minutes with losers like that. Argo, you're pushing for sainthood when you keep it in check like that. Glad you went ahead and killed him with kindness.

 

I just being a nut job with male PMS because the cold is getting to me?

Uh! Yes!
But you did way better than most of us would have. I don't swear often, but I'm sure I'd said......And I really don't think I'd pulled his out of the ditch.
I can still remember while driving big rigs in Illinois and Iowa watching all of those four wheel drive trucks and cars ending up in the mediun and the ditches when they first came out. They seemed to believe that four wheel drive vehicles could go anywhere anytime, ice or snow.

 

Swallowing your pride and rescuing him anyway added insult to his injury. Good job.
Don't forget what these big bro trucks tend to be compensation for. Sorry about your p**** dude.

 

That's why I drive a wee little Fairmont! How'd you guess?

 

I've made people stand and gape having used a 79 Thunderbird to push a loaded E-450 cube van out of a snow bank.

 

Sorry, but I couldn't have the helped the guy after his comments. I would have said, "You're right, I'm just going to get in my little half ton and let you and your real truck sit sideways in the ditch. Adios."

 

Good on ya Argo for keeping your cool, showing this Abag that you're the bigger man with a smaller truck than his oversized man mobile. Here in Utah these behemoths are everywhere and I meet their arrogant owners many many times a day. Working at Napa I have seen and heard it all from these testosterone engorged gas bags, many times having them "clown" me for having a little Toyota Tacoma, and the words "that ain't a real truck" coming from their toothless gob. I just shake my head as they pay $115.00 for an oil change and boil on about the $1500.00 they just spent on new suspension parts to accomodate the 8" lift they had to put on it. As they leave I mention that I've had my little truck for 4 years now and have done nothing but routine maintenance on it...Have a nice day sir.



Frankly I love my little truck!

 

Mine could....it had to. Too many people depended on it being able to do its job. It never let me down.

I did get humbled once though. A tradesman with a one ton van was backing out of my driveway which had 6" of snow on it. He got off the drive and into my yard and proceeded to slide all over the place. I ran a chain to his vehicle, put my truck in 4 wheel low lock and tried to ease him out.....but just ended up spinning all 4 wheels. A guy in a CJ happened to be driving by and offered to try. My ego said, "Hell, give it a shot" knowing full well he couldn't do it with that little toy. Bad mistake!! He backed up to it and hooked up a nylon tow strap to the van and pulled it back onto the driveway.

Now the difference wasn't in the vehicles, it was the tow strap. My chain had no give. His tow strap stretched to its limit and as it recoiled, it got the van moving. Needless to say, I got rid of the chain and started carrying a tow strap as standard equipment.

 

They seemed to believe that four wheel drive vehicles could go anywhere anytime, ice or snow.

What I meant was that no matter how many tires you have on the ground it's possible to slide off the road. Especially those drivers new to four wheel drive. They were traveling on glare ice usually with no care in the world about the road conditions.

When I was young and foolish I often rode my Harley to work and back in snow. But not on ice.

 

Something I always keep in mind in my 4x4 truck is that my brakes work exactly the same as any other vehicles brakes...therefore I drive accordingly.

 

i used my 2.9 v6 bronco II to pull out what a massey tractor could not move
that made some heads turn

 

Dude! Tacos are the baddest ass small trucks ever except for the HiLux that came before them! They are compact trucks that can put many full sized trucks to shame and are some of the toughest and most reliable vehicles in the world. I have nothing but respect for them. This just shows what they (don't) know as they spew their sewage from their "toothless gobs". Toothless gob. That is freaking awesome! I need to remember that one!

 

Thanks Argo! I have to agree about the Tacoma it's been the most reliable vehicle I have ever owned. At 175,000 miles on the clock it has no squeaks, rattles or malfunctioning items. It runs like a dream and gets decent gas mileage for a 3.4 liter V6 and you're very right about the power and torque, I pulled a 18" tree stump out a couple years back and it hardly snorted. I bought it from a local dealership (owned by a close friend) about 4 years ago, about a year after I got it he tried to by it back and give me a grand more for my trouble I said "not a chance bro, I love this truck!"

Apparently he couldn't find one or keep one on the lot for more than a few days.