Not long to go till February's Truck Of The Month.

[silversurfer1947]

Difficult to say which came first as the decription is very similar everywhere I looked. however I have found this https://pdfhow.com/downloads/m38%201%20 ... e%20manual
and this
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=apw ... fspGFymc8y
Page 5 of the book gives the introduction.

[Son of a gun-ner]

Thank you Richard. I guess we learn something new every day

[Tiger6]

some modern SUV's were given truck status to get around the fact they gave truck fuel consumption when the green rules were getting stricter

Not sure this is entirely accurate, as US regs revolved around Corporate Average Fleet Economy (CAFE). The US manufacturers were always complaining they had to sell 'unprofitable' passenger cars to compensate for the gas guzzler trucks.

The half ton and above pick up trucks were given a tax break under the Bush Govt, as they were then classified as 'farm equipment', which is why you would see them being used around town as cheap family cars, but this had nothing to do with fuel economy. There may also have been some later tax breaks for E85 fuel compatibility, but that was all a load of bullshit as well...

At a technical level the truck = SUV thing has more to do with the fact that the manufacturers could cut costs by taking an existing pickup truck chassis and simply slapping a passenger box body on it, there by multiplying the number of vehicles it could sell on the same basic chassis - which is the expensive bit to engineer and tool up.

[Son of a gun-ner]

Oh contraire young man, I remember it happening and the news about it. It was at least 12 years ago. As I'm getting older, and time flies quicker, or seems to have, it was probably longer ago. Anyway, the change came in with domestic vehicle fuel consumption after SUV's were getting very trendy and car manufacturers had a ton of money invested in them.

I can't find the articles right this moment, but I just took this screen shot.

[Tiger6]

The whole SUV = Truck thing definitely pre-dates that particular little sop to the US motor industry

[General Jumbo01]

How can a jeep be considered a truck, anymore than a Land Rover. This is more a language problem. A truck in the UK is a lorry. In the US it was termed a truck, rig etc. As custom pickups became popular they became known as trucks. SUVs are little more than estate cars with more internal head room, or in the US, wagons?

Let's keep this as intended when suggested we covered a few different 'special' months. Next is military drones, then boats, then maybe a tank month, then rockets, trains etc etc.

And no milk floats!!

[Son of a gun-ner]

Well, in this instance, we can't really go against historical designations, therefore whatever we think should be right or wrong doesn't matter.

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It´s no joke, we need (for one time) a Truck of the Month...
I think there will be enough submissions.

How about we trial a round in February so we have a chance to prepare ourselves? We just need to make sure we don't lose the plot.

"Ourselves." Does that mean you would be entering the TOTM in February if I set it up?

For February, yes l'd be happy to.

So Mr Jumbo01, I hope you've had enough time to prepare

[General Jumbo01]

I have a number of them that l could enter, and proper trucks at that, but l still have trouble with posting photos since my hosting account screwed itself up. I'll try to sort that out, just for you sweetie

Unfortunately life is busy right now too so competing hobbies have to take a back seat now and again but that's just real life l guess. Give me a week and l'll try to put something up.

[Tiger6]

So if Jumbo01 can enter many, can I?
Most of my toys are equally half baked, but I guess the law of averages will dictate that one of us will win?

[General Jumbo01]

Right now l can't enter any! I used to use Tapatalk, which was simple, but it then started playing up and tonight l can confirm it won't even let me set new password so l may be only able to enter using another member to host the post for me. Tech is great when it's playing ball and real sh** when it's broke.