Boy toys! I want one. But this is a machine to be used by a whole Third World village.
I'm serious. Please don't buy one of these, even if you can, to stick in your garage and use for bragging. Use it to help a whole village, or just leave it alone. Greed is not cool. It's grotesque. It's disgusting. Don’t build a private car collection. Give the money to the food bank. Or use it to build an entire ecovillage, or at least the land for an entire, small-scale ecovillage.
But what a truck!
It's a 1942 Dodge Power Wagon, which did service in Europe as a WWII military personnel and cargo carrier, fighting the first wave of fascists, 75 years ago: with a Cummins 4L turbo diesel, single wire engine - no fucking circuit boards or fancy EFI that can break down in the middle of nowhere and leave you stranded, to freeze or starve to death.
And it’s a diesel, so you can run it on home-brewed bio-diesel. (The same way you can run any gasoline engine on home-brew grain alcohol, or alcohol made from corn stocks and other farm wastes, from a home-made still. Good points to know!)
And no, it doesn't fucking come in neon pink! Just kidding. Paint it any colour you like! Orange camo, if you prefer! Personally I think a zebra print might look cool. Or your classic suede black... But the anvil grey is great too, and it's closer to the original paint, when the truck was first built.
Six wheel drive, 37” tires, super-duty suspension, built like a tank, tandem axle, 450 ft lbs of torque, 20,000 lbs of towing, goes through or over almost anything, climbs just about anything - will virtually climb a skyscraper! Ok, maybe not a skyscraper, but almost any hill.
Pretty much the coolest, toughest, most versatile, bad ass truck I've ever seen.
Ya, it's a gas pig. It's not for commuting, or going to the mall. It's a work truck. Period. Ok, some occassional hill climbing too, while taking the villagers and hippie backpackers out for nature hikes.
It's the ultimate co-op farm/village/local transport/cargo/rescue/do anything truck.
Of course, an old Ford pickup truck would also do the job in most cases, but this is your ultimate, baaad-ass, back-up rig, when the job is big, or when the terrain is tough, or the roads are flooded, snowed in, or washed out.
And of course, the frame is so massively over-built, to handle virtually any situation or terrain, that it's massively thick, and after 80 years, it's still probably got another 120 years of life left in it! Compare that to the disposable vehicles of today, that are ready for recycling after 20 years, or less!
One of these, and an old flat bed 2 ton, or 5 ton, and your village is pretty much set for anything, transportation-wise. Throw in an old tractor and some bicycles, some hand tools and heritage seeds, and you’re golden.
What is truly worthy of our time, in this fleeting life? What is worth doing? Three things: seek the truth, heal the planet, and help people. And have fun doing it!
JTR,
January 19, 2022
P.S.: I’d consider getting one bumper sticker for it, with the caption that Woody Guthrie scrawled on his guitar: This machine kills fascists.
And it did.
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Woody and guitar photo is here:
http://greenandgold.uaa.alaska.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/20150128-guthrie-portrait.jpg
Bumper or laptop sticker is here:
https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/491253831/this-machine-kills-fascists-text?click_key=757bba10028f724934e7bf38f41f90e5011f93a0%3A491253831&click_sum=57291716&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=machine+kills+fascists&ref=sr_gallery-1-10&organic_search_click=1
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Here is another cool truck to go with the first. It’s the original SUV, designed for military use in WWII.
This one below is a bit of a sissy vehicle, but it’ll do. Obviously, I am joking. Here is a resto-mod Hummer H1, upgraded by a small, Detroit-based, three-man, entrepreneurial, automotive design team. These H1s are upgraded for improved quality, durability, ride, and fuel efficiency. The diesel engine can run on bio-diesel from farm waste, as well. Again, none of these trucks should be used to pick up groceries, cruise the town, or go to the gym. These are work trucks, in my view. And even for work vehicles, in most cases you should be driving a cargo van or pickup truck, which is half the weight of the Hummer and uses 30% less fuel, and gets 30mpg instead of 20. And that’s only if you are carrying big loads of work cargo. If you’re not, then drive a used Prius hybrid, that gets 50mpg, and put your tools in the hatchback; or better, drive a used electric Volt, that gets the equivalent of 152mpg! But if you do have to carry people or cargo across rugged, difficult terrain, or through extreme weather, the Hummer H1 is a solid choice.
This modified Jeep (below), I will include, just because it’s outrageous. I like it, but it’s not really my taste. It really must be such a gas pig, as well, that it should only be used in emergencies. Personally, fuel efficiency aside, I would take an electric Cybertruck over this Jeep - or even better, much better, I’d choose the truck I described in the article above (which will be the last truck shown here). Why? Because it is the simplest, which means there are fewer components that can break down. Durability, adaptability, all terrain capability, cargo and towing capacity (and no concerns about horsepower, because it’s all about torque): these are all, good traits; but to me, the most important trait in such a vehicle is reliability, above all. That means no electronics that the engine depends on to run. That eliminates the Jeep, the Cybertruck, and basically all vehicles made over the last 30-40 years. But, in any case, here is the outrageous custom Jeep, below:
And here is the original Jeep. It doesn’t have heated seats, GPS, Sat/Nav, or a state of the art stereo system. It’s just a rough and tough, no-nonsense vehicle, that will go almost anywhere. The 1944 Willys, general purpose military vehicle - tough, rugged, all-terrain, lots of character, and most importantly, reliable:
This next one is obviously not a truck, but I included it here just for the car freaks, because it’s just beautiful. Of course, you don’t have to run a 454 big block racing engine with 1,000 hp. You could build a version with a 2L turbo diesel, or a 2.5L Porsche engine if you want more pep, and have a gorgeous, fuel-efficient family car with oodles of character - something that very few cars built after 1970 have. But here it is in race mode: a 1941 Willys, retro-mod, street-legal (barely) drag-racer:
Again, this is also not a truck, but it’s such a quirky looking car, that I included it here, as well, for the car lovers. Interestingly, the car is designed to be modular and adaptable. The first one I saw had been turned into a camper van, with a canvass sleeper section on the back. It was super cool! Here is the VW Thing:
Ok, we’re definitely veering away from the truck theme here, but this is such an iconic, classic car, that I had to include it, as well, for the car enthusiasts. (Note here: horsepower isn’t everything. Power to weight ratio is more important. And furthermore, fun beats raw horsepower, any day.) And, if anyone wants to take seriously the suggestion to create an ecovillage, a community car co-op is a great addition to it - and naturally, you don’t want only trucks in your community car co-op. A half ton pickup truck, a two ton or five ton flatbed truck (with removeable sideboards and canopy), a minivan, and a claasic VW Bug, would make a great mini-fleet for a co-op farm, an ecovillage, or an urban, neighbourhood car co-op. And all you millionaires and billionaires out there, who aren’t sure what to do with your money, here are two suggestions: start an ecovillage, or a community car co-op, or both. Here is the classic Bug, or one of many versions of it:
Ok, just one more…. A VW Bug that blows the doors off Mustangs and Porsches? Yep. Power to weight ratio, baby. And it’s a sleeper, that looks like a stock VW!
And here is the beast that I described in the article above: