Oh, that’s nice. Well done.

It being 3D printed is the least relevant part of this. But it has to be in the headline to get clicks. But it apparently also has to be the lead? "Molecule based “suicide pod’…”, “Carbon neutral ‘suicide pod’…”, “Self actualized ‘suicide pod’…”, “Corporate sponsored ‘suicide pod’…”

There aren’t many things you could put in front of the real story here that change the story without creating an even bigger story. And 3D printed is definitely not one of them.

Gotta kill the dog.

Good news everyone!

Do you know what the delivery fees are on a ton of gravel or topsoil? It costs more than the topsoil or gravel and the quantity is so small that some companies will refuse to deliver it. I literally live a kilometer from a place that sells topsoil, gravel, mulch etc. They refuse to deliver such a small quantity to me. Even though it’s seven driveways away.

…:

“No, but wouldn’t call delivering gravel high skill labor that couldn’t do.”

I do work that others can’t because they lack the time, tools or experience to do themselves. Gravel isn’t high skill. Prepping an area for gravel takes a little more skill. But being able to shovel a ton of it in 100°f temperatures is beyond the ability of most people.

I’m glad you know enough people to make uninformed opinions about my professional needs. Are you going to recommend, like another poster here, that I buy a second dedicated vehicle that costs more than I make in a year for the occasions where I need to transport stuff that you can’t load in a van? AC? You think I could afford to run the AC?

By the way is my 2005 Ranger with 200k+ miles that is worth less than $4k a pavement princess? Am I an idiot for owning one general purpose vehicle that covers all my personal and professional needs?

As a jack of all trades, I can’t afford a dedicated piece of machinery like that. 60,000 on the low end for a dump truck plus the insurance and a place to park it. That’s not a reasonable expense. I need general purpose, vehicles and tools.

I don’t like any of the new trucks. A 20-year-old small truck like a ranger or S series is a better choice.

I need someone to sell a 1-ton capacity truck with an 8-ft bed where the top of the bed is no more than 3 and 1/2 ft tall. The truck needs to exist but the understanding that it will be abused and so a lot of fancy features that will break won’t be included. Stereo and HVAC should basically be the only internal features. They keep cramming more and more features into trucks to sell them for more and more money instead of building trucks that are built for actual work.

The bed height is too tall to be comfortable. One of the other things happening on larger trucks is the bed length keeps getting shorter. A standard 8-ft. Long boards stick too far out the back end and we’ve reduced overall carrying capacity over previous generation small trucks. And by sticks too far out I mean way outside the bed. Drywall will break under those conditions. Do an image search for “Ford Maverick plywood” And you will see the potential danger here.

Edit, pretty much had to retype the whole thing because voice to text had badly messed it up and I didn’t realize that at the time of posting

But what would I care if gravel gets wet?

I know you tried with the whole empathy thing but since the subject here is my needs for a truck saying I lack empathy for myself kinda falls flat.

Really, you are coming off as a sociopath that thinks they know better than everyone what is good for them. I know my needs better than you. For some trades a van is perfect. But for my jack of all trades a truck is a better choice. A small truck. Literally the kind of small truck that doesn’t get made in America anymore. Modern trucks are too big to actually be useful.

But it’s got a roof which makes placing 20 foot ladders or a ton of gravel in it very awkward. The fixed volume natural of it isn’t compatible with the kind of work I do. But maybe you, a person that doesn’t do my job, knows more about my situation than I do.

Or they just get some storage bins. I find them to be highly effective. Allows me to load just the tools I need for a job so unloading and loading is very fast.

Well then I guess I need a new vehicle because I’m a handyman and I use a truck. Dealing with a van full of stuff and trying to slide drywall in is kind of difficult. However, I can easily snap them on top of the bed of my truck and get moving. And it cost me a whole lot less to maintain this truck than it would to maintain a van. You ever tried carrying a ton of gravel in a van? I wouldn’t. Takes much longer to load and unload that way.

And that doesn’t invalidate my statement.

Trucks are for every tradesperson that does the things you lack the time, training or tools to do when something breaks at your residence. Trucks help you move.

People that don’t want their location triangulated from cell phone towers.

One got transferred to a hospital last winter and eventually got into some kind of housing situation.

One tends to hang out at the Walmart.

Others are frequently in and out of one of the two hotels in town. We had three but they tore one down.

My place isn’t paid off but it is cheap enough that I can say what would change and, importantly, what wouldn’t.

My monthly payment is just under $700 a month. About $400 of that is the actual mortgage. The rest is basically property taxes and insurance. I’d save $400 a month but would still have to pay $300. Assuming I didn’t decide to just earn $400 less a month then that $400 would have to go back into the property. I need a new roof. I need a new HVAC (AC died three years ago). A new roof and AC would cost almost a quarter of my original mortgage. So in the end not much would change financially.

An important thing to remember about home ownership is that on average you are going to spend about 1% to 3% or a dollar a square foot on home maintenance each year. I had to replace my septic system months after buying the place, 7.6% of the home price. I had to replace my water heater a few years ago. Fortunately it’s located outside the building so no water damage and I was able to do that replacement myself so instead of spending $1800 for someone else to do it I did it for $450.

Once I have even a little spare money I need to do some roof repairs, not pay someone else to do it.

What he is admitting is that there isn’t enough real material to concern the base so he has to make stuff up.