Driving a pickup

2LaneCruzer · Sep 22, 2016

The biggest surprise in my life was flying into L.A. from OKC, renting a car, and driving to Searles Lake (Trona) California. I expected to be run over, run off the road, stalled in traffic, etc. To my great delight, they drove very fast, but I couldn't believe it when I signaled to change lanes, and they let me in! By and large, the worst part about driving in L.A., other than the congestion and fast drivers, was about passing out from the smog that night.

AGRIMAN · Sep 22, 2016

IslandTractor said:
I've seen a lot of crazy drivers in my world travels. Nothing compares to Russians. I had a Russian cab driver in Moscow get frustrated by traffic and 1) drive in the incoming lane while honking at cars coming towards us, then 2) go up on the sidewalk when the incoming lane clogged up and 3) finally just drive through the middle of a public park.

Made me realize how the Ruskies in T34s swarmed all over the Panthers and Tigers. Just nuts.

Have you ever been to India? That's the normal everyday New Delhi commute. It's like having a near death experience every 5 sec.

I have stared down on coming traffic many times. Once there was a guy driving a steam roller down the middle of the road. The road was not under construction, so I guess the guy was on his way to work. Our driver got fustrared and before we knew it, he jumped the curb and away we went. Cars swerving, horns blowning and Americans screaming. We nearly swapped paint several times before we jumped back on our side of the road.

Another time we were on our way back to the hotel one night and driving on the new flyover that was just completed (so we thought). Our driver got in the wrong lane and the next thing we knew we were airborne. The Duke boys would have been proud as we must have jumped that TATA 30 foot. We landed down is some sort of construction site in a cloud of dust and rocks. Our driver turned around drove back up on the road like nothing ever happen.

roadhunter · Sep 22, 2016

2LaneCruzer said:
The biggest surprise in my life was flying into L.A. from OKC, renting a car, and driving to Searles Lake (Trona) California. I expected to be run over, run off the road, stalled in traffic, etc. To my great delight, they drove very fast, but I couldn't believe it when I signaled to change lanes, and they let me in! By and large, the worst part about driving in L.A., other than the congestion and fast drivers, was about passing out from the smog that night.

Wow. California drivers must be really bad. OKC drivers are just a notch below Dallas drivers from my experience.

2LaneCruzer · Sep 23, 2016

roadhunter said:
Wow. California drivers must be really bad. OKC drivers are just a notch below Dallas drivers from my experience.

They drive pretty fast here, but if you stay off the Interstate (Texas drivers drive FAST and Kansas drivers drive SLOW) and out of the way of the semi's, it's tolerable.

dieselcrawler · Sep 23, 2016

Sigarms said:
Perhaps it's just me, but West Virginia spoiled me for small pick up trucks. Most of the places I use to go you could never get there in a full size truck unless you dented the heck out of it.

Yup, here in WV, we just run over cars when they get in the way.

Jokes aside, that's was just one of my 'play toys' from years ago, but I've often stuffed that K5 or my K30 down atv trails, and it might have gotten a few dents... on every body panel at some point!

However, I drive an F350 dually daily, no dents, and it seems to (mostly) first on our roads...

Heywood Jannockitov · Sep 23, 2016

AGRIMAN said:
Have you ever been to India? That's the normal everyday New Delhi commute. It's like having a near death experience every 5 sec.

I have stared down on coming traffic many times. Once there was a guy driving a steam roller down the middle of the road. The road was not under construction, so I guess the guy was on his way to work. Our driver got fustrared and before we knew it, he jumped the curb and away we went. Cars swerving, horns blowning and Americans screaming. We nearly swapped paint several times before we jumped back on our side of the road.

Another time we were on our way back to the hotel one night and driving on the new flyover that was just completed (so we thought). Our driver got in the wrong lane and the next thing we knew we were airborne. The Duke boys would have been proud as we must have jumped that TATA 30 foot. We landed down is some sort of construction site in a cloud of dust and rocks. Our driver turned around drove back up on the road like nothing ever happen.

LOL, yeah, been there, twice. Bangalore. I experienced pretty much bang-on what you did. No lane discipline. Occasionally you see a cop directing traffic at a major intersection. Vehicles just seem to ignore him. If there is no opposing traffic (or even if there is) traffic will fill opposing lanes.
You can sort of understand why they drive the way they do in these urban centers that have seen such a population explosion that the roads infrastructure so so totally overwhelmed that you do what you gotta do to avoid total gridlock. In the attached pic, this bus was trying to wend its way through wrong-way traffic.

dieselcrawler · Sep 23, 2016

I just realized how that "joke" was in such poor taste, considering that's exactly what happened to the poor people in the picture in post 1. My apologies.

IslandTractor · Sep 23, 2016

AGRIMAN said:
Have you ever been to India? That's the normal everyday New Delhi commute. It's like having a near death experience every 5 sec.

I have stared down on coming traffic many times. Once there was a guy driving a steam roller down the middle of the road. The road was not under construction, so I guess the guy was on his way to work. Our driver got fustrared and before we knew it, he jumped the curb and away we went. Cars swerving, horns blowning and Americans screaming. We nearly swapped paint several times before we jumped back on our side of the road.

Another time we were on our way back to the hotel one night and driving on the new flyover that was just completed (so we thought). Our driver got in the wrong lane and the next thing we knew we were airborne. The Duke boys would have been proud as we must have jumped that TATA 30 foot. We landed down is some sort of construction site in a cloud of dust and rocks. Our driver turned around drove back up on the road like nothing ever happen.

Yes. Been to India. Never saw cars move faster than thirty or forty mph due to traffic in Bangalore but that still led to the death of a pedestrian a few hundred yards in front of our vehicle. What was shocking was that nobody stopped they just went around the poor guy (who was clearly deceased). Apparently in India if you take someone to the hospital you are responsible for their bill. Great.

Pilot · Sep 23, 2016

I drive a Tacoma & I love that pickup. Had a Ranger before & at 90K it needed the front end rebuilt. Then at 100K it was the auto transmission. At 112K both heads were cracked. That's when I decided on a Toyota. 115K & no problems. It's an '05. The higher price of the Toyota, to me, offsets the repair cost of that Ranger. Talked to a guy the other day who had a Tundra with 450K on it. If I need a full size P/U I'll go for a Tundra.

Wish I had a backup camera. Costco had a deal on them, wireless for less than $100. It was a short term thing & they don't have them anymore.

mapper · Sep 23, 2016

When I was in high school a friend of mine was driving on the Mt. Baker highway near Deming. There were a couple of 90 degree corners then that were really short radius then, he got caught on the inside by a logging truck. It wadded up the little ford ranchero they were driving like an aluminum beer can, he ended up in the hospital for several months with a broken neck and spent the next six or so months in a halo. Looking at the remains of the ranchero he was lucky to have survived. The log truck got a big dent in the fuel tank. Moral of the story, if you are in a pickup or passenger car a tangle with a semi you will lose, and it doesn't matter who is right or wrong!