1st Gen. Lunch Table - General Discussion

Virus + DC = winning

I have a Virus just like Noah's, but I call it the beater instead. So I'm pretty biased.

 

Somebody better start making room in the yard haha

 

Yea, the virus is full of win. Dont have to worry about the paint, parts are cheap, its good on gas, and i'd doubt anyone would ever try to break into it.

camper is full of win, too. Keep it, but start calling it your 'office'.

 

Can we get more details on this (besides how that sweet sequoia’s “rear ended” would match nicely)

 

just an internet pic, but a fairly cheap way to build a half decent camper. And i'd use a boat trailer chassis instead of using the sequoias frame & axle to keep it light. A minivan might even be a better starting point, but yea, matching tundra/sequoia combo would be slick.

 

I found the trailer for you....
The Tailfeather

 

$5300 aint bad. Mount it in my lowboy & have a porch. But i wanna do it for less than $1k.

 

Look, I don't know what I'm gonna do honestly, but I've gotta do something. I don't have many guns I can sell after the boating accident...

I literally liquidated most of the ones I had...

I am a fighter and I'll figure out the situation. The truck doesn't eat anything sitting at pops house. The virus just eats gas, oil, and tires at this point.

The subie... I don't even really want, but damn. The camper.... sheeeeesh. I was left with more problems than solutions after the last one and my willy got me in this but there's love, patience and understanding here. That's more than I ever thought I was worth and I'm chuffed about it.

 

Wait... It was you that had the boating accident? For some reason I thought it was @bmf4069

 

You've hear before, no doubt: 'we've all been in the same boat'. Well, now it makes sense .

 

When I buy a boat, it'll be a submersible

But someone else will captain it because I'm claustrophobic and have a fear of suffocating/drowning

 

apparently i remembered wrong, it was right next to the passenger airbag

 

No, I sold a bunch if guns this time last year so I could pay what I owed the federal goobernment. The rest of em... man I lost em at ky lake or maybe lake barkley

 

That the subie?

 

It "just" needs head gaskets right?

 

Can’t put a baby seat in Crackie.

 

You also dont have to put car seats on motorcycles.


but i dont think noah could survive on a motorcycle very long. Those deer hit back.

 

Around here, it's usually a cycle that repeats itself over and over too. Get in a bind, sell some asset for a loss. Months later, purchase the same or similar toy. Get in another bind and sell again for a loss. Guys I know that are constantly wheeling and dealing never seem to get ahead. There is always some new crisis that forces them to sell something.I think many of these are the people I'm dealing with on Facebook marketplace. Emergency fund does not exist.

 

I went back to check and couldn’t tell from the remnants. Apparently it was just firewood.

 

Thanks! I'll hunt for that when I do my bag replacement and maybe I can d/c the miserable T tap I used

 

Why not? It has a key to turn off the passenger airbag.

Not saying it's ideal or reasonable of course but is it safe? Compared to the back seat of a corolla? I wouldn't say it's so dangerous as to be irresponsible, but I'm sure conventional wisdom disagrees with me.

I sold my FGT RC when I thought I was done with home improvement and about to start a family (engaged at the time, fiance was into downsizing, house was mostly rehab'd minus a few things). I managed to get that truck back and it's been awesome to have with this latest house for dump runs at least.

Sure it's not economical to DIY 100% but having a work truck which can haul big/heavy can actually save on some easy cost stuff, especially by allowing you to buy used things off CL, FBMP, etc. And it's way more cost effective to keep an FGT already owned than purchase something new.

Having been through something pretty similar, I wouldn't say selling the RC is a solution to starting a family. It's a fantastic second vehicle if parking space isn't a concern. And it seems vehicle storage space is not a limited at present time.

Selling crap you own for cash is not how you get solid financial footing. The most dramatic example of this was an investment property I bought in 2005 and spent 10 years underwater on, most of it as a rental. Holding out on that became half the down on this current house. I'm not suggesting a Tundra is going to experience similar appreciation but if it can be used for side jobs to earn supplemental income via a divide and conquer strategy, and that supplemental income can feed into some form of investment, perhaps into a fund for a home purchase, well, that's definitely one option worth considering.

 

What I meant by that is having the baby in the center between two adults vs just baby and dad. Yea, the RC is a perfect vehicle to keep with the 8’ bed and high potential he’ll need it when they buy a home. He will have to think about a reliable, safe family vehicle to get around though. I’m not sure if the virus meets that with its current issues.

 

I will say, when you have 2 or 3 kids at an older age, there's more situations of everyone piling into one rig and going places as a family.

With one or two kids at the early age, it seems like it's easier to just stay home, so one parent with one kid or both parents and someone else watching the kid sleep or just one parent solo and the kid and other parent at home (most common). Taking kids from 9-24 months to social bs is not particularly fun.

TLDR: The rear seat phase is quick for the first kid, I wouldn't redefine life for it.

 

@Tundra2 I agree with Dave's long-ass post:

You'll never find another reliable truck for what you'd sell Crackie for;

Crackie can help with side hustles, or save on paying contractors because you don't have a truck;

If you use your mechanical skills for yard tree side hustles, you'll need a truck for picking up parts and what not;

Crackie holds your spot in the 1 gen tree house too. Good to stay active where you've got friends. First year with a baby can be rough. Forum buddies are good to have. Edit: this wasn't meant to sound like an ultimatum; our first year with a new baby was rough-- kid trained us to take turns carrying him around all night. I mean, you'll always be welcome here, and I don't want you creating reasons not to hang out when you get free minutes.

 

The feck?

Boating accident? The feck?

Not gonna dispute, this isn't such a bad idea, but only if you reckon you'll really be using the truck to drag around the kid. More on that in a min.

I like this idea even better. More on that in a min.

Again, loving parts of this.

Here's my unsolicited 2¢.

The reality is, if liquidation is the tactic to temporarily solve this problem, and you (@Tundra2) are dead-set on staying near the folks and/or keeping the job (versus moving somewhere you can potentially make more $$ but lose that family safety net), some assessment is required. If you have a job with medical benefits, your #1 priority is to keep that job, because the process on the horizon is gonna cost $$$ that will bankrupt anyone who doesn't have insurance. Medical bankruptcy is a huge risk in this country. You should have at least 2-3 paychecks worth of money in the bank you never touch, and insurance to CYOA in any event.

First, and most important, figure out your living arrangements next 3-5 years, having a base to sleep and shower is critical to your #1 priority above. I see a few basic options: (A) Stick with what you've got today, (B) you effectively have a mobile house right now you can live in with that camper, or (C) you could find a place somewhere else.

Whatever you do, don't rent, it puts money in someone else's pocket with no equity or other residual gain for yourself. You can get creative, like buy a cheap parcel of land nearby the folks (you'll thank yourself later when Tundra3 comes around) and drop the camper on it, get utilities installed, build up money towards getting a small slab poured, and throw money at it when you can until you have a tiny house or something. 3-5 year plan. You may have resources in your family/friend network that'll help you with framing, plumbing, electric. I have no doubt @bmf4069 would probably be willing to help with wiring and I would too. I wouldn't want to do the framing, but I'm totally cool w/plumbing, electric, etc. When I talk about land, I'm not talking about anything huge. I found this ~1/5 acre parcel for $5k, for example, and it looks like it's in an area you could get utilities, but I dunno if it's in city limits, where you'll be burdened by city code. I'd look for something outside the city limits, but still within utilities range.

On the vehicle front... to everyone's point I just quoted, some great ideas there. Think about practical and functional. What kind of MPG does Subie get? If it's not better than Crackie by more than 20%, and Crackie is more feasible function-wise for your 3-5 year plan (can't haul lumber in a Subie as easily, the answer is keep Crackie. While you could sell Crackie, Subie, and Virus to buy a DC, which effectively combines (Crackie+Virus) to functional perspective, knowing your work trek, you're making your #1 monthly budget allocation gasoline, is it really the wisest thing? Cost of gas isn't going down.

I hate to say this, but I seriously doubt the Subie gets great mpg, so selling it to source a cheap hybrid Toyota may be the way to go bs. selling Crackie. OR better yet, if you have no intent to follow a 3-5 year long plan that sees you buying land and using the camper as a home base as you build a small house, consider putting up the camper as tradebait for a hybrid and sell the Subie to tuck away $$. Hell, you may even find someone by listing it on here who'll do a trade if they know a brief snippet of your story (Upcoming dad, looking to rearrange current situation within my means, need to trade X Camper for Y Toyota vehicle that gets 30-40mpg+)

And if you don't know how to cook, learn. Fast food is a poverty health trap. Eating out non-fast-food every meal costs 3x-5x more than making your own.

Bottom line:

• Start thinking 3-5 years out.
• Don't sell with the intent to generate revenue, sell to streamline crap and support the 3-5 year vision. It's OK to tweak your 3-5 year plan slightly as you go (adapt), most important is to start today!
• Do everything you can to remove or reduce money leeches from your life equation: Gas hog vehicles. Eating out. Paying rent to other people. Just for 3-5 years, until you have a foundation.
• Avoid debt where possible - credit card, loan, etc.
• Also important: Make sure she's on-board. Like, legitimately, fully. This is a team effort, and treating it as a team effort strengthens bongs. If you don't co-plan, animosity will follow. Don't be a dick, listen, adjust where needed.
• Make goddamn to-do lists that let you snowball things sooner than later. Tackle the small, easy fish first.

 

Oh, and just a point to make about (B) above.

One of the guys I worked with who ended up being a VP started with (B). He's a gearhead too. More on that in a sec.

When I started working for the startup the dialup/webhosting company which landed me where I am today, he was just a manager over a small team of 4-5 guys. I didn't learn his story until I was a few months in, I just knew he drove a souped up P-911. I later learned after he graduated college, he bought a small chunk of land outside our small city (GNV, FL) outright for a few grand. He got utilities installed on the property, then financed a mobile home at the cost of a nice car to drop on it. He paid off the mobile home in the same timeframe as an auto loan. Within 4-5 years, his home was paid, his only bills were utilities and food.

Ultimately, everything was free and clear at that point, and he had a foundation to eat/shit/shave, only paying for water/electric/phone. This opened up his ability to dump virtually all of his money into investments etc. He kept climbing the ladder at work, salary kept growing, and all that money was redirected into investments that had some reasonable ROI, ranging from 3%-15% from short to long. He used that base to eventually buy some more land, then build his house and a killer garage that eventually ended up in a published globally in book as a 'dream garage'. Dude had several cars when we last talked, raced, and is living his best life.

Needless to say, being super frugal and humble to build a foundation, and being cool with living in an unflattering dwelling for a few years similar to what I described worked for him. May or may not work for you, but it's feasible.

I got lucky with my situation of both getting hired to work adjacent to the dude, because I used to use his 2-post lift in his awesome garage to work on my cars , and also that I found a trustworthy coworker that I could buy a home with. So I can't use my own example here

 

I could easily live in a s-box if I had a nice garage. Easily. Course a s box still costs 300k here.

I feel like the past 48 years I’ve been waiting for a chance to own a nice shop. Probably waiting another 10 at this rate.

I think the value of that new frame exceeds any sale price. Could easily swap out the body later in life once on solid financial footing. Tons of rust bucket frames ending truck life early. A new frame could appreciate substantially over the next 10 years as these trucks are great in so many other ways.

I’d caveat the no rent policy with try to avoid long term renting. Short term strategic renting can work well. Especially if used to gain leverage on salary based on location. Simple math on commute gas expense and maintenance with a little bit for cost in time vs a cheap rental super close to work.

 

As a kid I had a 1 hour commute to school. It sucked. And this was Oahu mind you. The cost wasn’t significant, gas was cheap then and the bus even cheaper, but the time lost was a toll. When my dad moved to town after I went away to college, everything got so much easier. Granted I love my hometown and every time I go back I want to move there forever. But 8 years of that commute taught me that time does have a monetary value.

 

The only reason I would support selling crackie is because he has 4 vehicles right now. He also said crackie needs both tires and wheel bearings which aren't cheap. Consolidating to two vehicles makes sense. Insuring 4 vehicles doesn't seem smart.