Loading the truck is a synch since the floor of the workshop is about
waste height. I can lower the gate to the ground and roll a lumber
cart right up to the floor of the workshop for easy loading and I can
stack smaller, heavier items on the lift gate so as to raise them up
and slide them in. Unloading the truck was even easier and no more
breaking my back!
I
have found many creative uses for the lift-gate itself. Everything
from portable platform for painting off of to sawhorse for holding
wood I am cutting. I have even used it to bend small metal rods in a
pinch. I have left the tailgate down and level to the workshop floor
when hauling 16-foot cattle panels, which made these odd items a dream
to move.
The
workshop on wheels has become a home away from home more than once.
The large floor space makes easy set up for a makeshift bunk to sleep
in on overnight jobs. I even took this truck camping and propped the
door open a couple of inches and slept through one heck of a
rainstorm. The drumming of rain on the metal roof was loud at first
but the warm, dry workshop turned cabin made for peaceful sleep (and
no there wasn’t any lighting in the area that night).
While I did not want to spend $18,000 on a truck, I knew that I would
make such great and varied use of it that I would quickly recoup my
investment. Many of my friends and family have paid far more than
this for their large pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles, driving
them mostly to and from work without doing any real work out of them.
A
good friend of mine did me one better by buying the exact same truck
as mine off of eBay for $13,000 cash (over $5,000 less than I paid)
and had it delivered to him from out-of-state. Because this was such
a large cash transaction with an
out-of-state
seller it was a bit nerve racking until delivery was actually made. I
may have overpaid a bit for my truck but I was able to finance it at
the dealership and later pay it off ahead of time because of the work
it allowed me to do. These trucks are still available online as well
as at used truck lots like the one I bought from but now the prices
have dropped quite a bit, making them even more of a bargain.
