Why does "size matter" in N.America???
- Thread starter 4Rescue
- Start date
ok.
Stumpalump
Expedition Leader
78Bronco
Explorer
Yuuuuuup!
scrubber3
Not really here
True.... I just cringe when I think of all of the resources that are wasted on useless things. This includes gumball machines filled with plastic "punji sticks". Of course I say that cause of the damage they cause to your feet. Anyways, the point was well put.
BurbanAZ
Explorer
yea i agree that some of the diesels are over the top for no reason except that the owner can. My 92 suburban 3/4 ton is fullsize though and i love it, yea the mileage kind of sucks (even though i have no lift and normal size tires) but i can load all my gear inside and no need to pull a trailer, drives great on the highway and does great offroad, and i can sleep in it comfortably. Also if i need to pull the horse trailer it does that just fine also. Yea sometimes their just a waste but there are some good reasons for full size vehicles also
jimny
Observer
north America? thats include Mexico?
USA and Canada like the big trucks for obvious reason:
1 cant pay and have cheap gas
2 are big countries only new York live like Europeans, the rest have garages and big backyard, in Europe you can have a bike a car or a boat but never the tree things, then why have a truck to move all that? in japan don't have space, and the rest of the world we are poor jajaja.
yea are fat! but in German are many big guy and drive small cars
USA and Canada like the big trucks for obvious reason:
1 cant pay and have cheap gas
2 are big countries only new York live like Europeans, the rest have garages and big backyard, in Europe you can have a bike a car or a boat but never the tree things, then why have a truck to move all that? in japan don't have space, and the rest of the world we are poor jajaja.
yea are fat! but in German are many big guy and drive small cars
john101477
Photographer in the Wild
Blasphemy!!!
We do it because we NEED to...
very well said actually so glad I only read the first page and skipped ahead...
RMP&O
Expedition Leader
This thread brings up a lot of points. I just scanned over the whole thread, reading posts and comments here and there.
consumption and pollution: While I agree using a large gas guzzler to go buy groceries is a bit wasteful. I would ask any one of you this; how many time a day do you flush the toilet? How many rolls of toilet paper do you use a month? How many plastic garbage bags do you put out a week? And how many plastic products in general do you toss out, the food wrapping come to mind first. How much power does your home and family consume? Did you string up a bunch of lights on your house this holiday season? I am betting 9.9 out of 10 of you had a Christmas tree in your house this holiday season. How often do you mow and fertilze yuor lawn every summer? How often do you get a new cell phone? How much junk mail do you recieve?
So before you go and point the finger or act holier then thou....take a look in the mirror and make sure you are in a good position to point the finger. Chances are you are not in a position to point the finger about anything. Let alone some other persons consumption or carbon footprint.
freedom + good the USA has done for the rest of the world: We have shared our ideals with the world and really that is about all we have shared that is worth a damn. Capitalism has done much more harm for poor countries then it has good. We have performed illegal black ops in many countries, incited a cou many times, assassinated leaders who won't play our game and we do not practice what we preach. We have privatized utilites in poor countries which has denied that countries citizens the basic right to things like clean water, all in the name of profit. We have forced people in those poor countries to rape their own land if they want to live in the modern world and be our friends. Our forefathers enslaved millions due to their race and murdered nearly 10,000,000 indigenous people in the land we call home. We have also in our history pushed our religion on others at the expense of their lives, burn a witch lately anyone? Our largest export these days is garbage and really that is what we are giving to the rest of the world. We have imprisoned hundreds of thousands of our own citizens simply because they like to get high on drugs in their free time. We have killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians and Afghan civilians to pay them back for killing 3,000 of our people. We tell such and such country they can't have any nuclear bombs but we are the only country in history that has dropped one on other human beings. We raise our kids on television, video games (violence) , fast food and junk food. While these are pretty lame things in every way you can not deny them or get mad at me for pointing them out, these things are facts and they are our history.
Now having said that I am a patriot and love my country. I just want to remind you we are not the best country in the world if you really take a long hard look at our history and what we continue to do since the conception of this country. So please think about this before you go claiming we are the "best".
As far as freedom, I highly value it and will lay down my life to keep it. However, our freedoms are being lifted nearly every day, often without us even knowing it. Regardless, I value my freedom so much I am willing to die for it and as such I value your freedom that much too. So while I may think many things each of you do in your individual lives is not good for our planet and I do know simple easy ways to change your lives to better our planet, I believe in freedom above pushing my beliefs upon you. And so I believe it is your right to live your life the way you see fit because I believe in freedom even if I don't agree with you or how you might live your life. I may think driving that huge gas guzzle around town is kind of lame and not so great for the enviroment however because I hold freedom in such a high regard I feel it is your right to do what you want when you want.
In my town and county, large full sized trucks are the norm. These kinds of trucks outnumber small more eviromentally friendly cars at least 2 to 1. Seeing one person driving around in these kind of vehicles is normal here. Do I personally think it is kind of lame, yes. But again I believe in freedom.
Simply because you drive a Toyota with 33" tires hardly makes you any better then anybody else. This has been pointed out already in this thread. My post is simply meant to remind you we are not the best country in the world and if you value freedom of choice you should be A-Ok with whatever your neighbor drives. If style and trends were not as popular for you as that guy with 40" rubber on his mall crawler would you even be into overland trucks? Doesn't this fast growing industry that revolves around overlanding not also have a lot to do with style and trends? How is your style or trend any better or any worse then somebody else's? Sure we all have opinions but set those aside for a minute and think about all this. My posts is also not intended to insight arguements or cause problems on the forum. Rather, it is simply meant to remind you that those pointing the finger in any society are often as guilty as the poeple they are pointing at, sometimes more so.
Before you say or think somebody should have such and such things, do such and such things, act such and such way or think like you do. Take a good long hard look in the mirror at your own life. Are you really in a good position to be saying anything about what other people do with their lives, their money and their families?
my 2 & 1/2 cents
consumption and pollution: While I agree using a large gas guzzler to go buy groceries is a bit wasteful. I would ask any one of you this; how many time a day do you flush the toilet? How many rolls of toilet paper do you use a month? How many plastic garbage bags do you put out a week? And how many plastic products in general do you toss out, the food wrapping come to mind first. How much power does your home and family consume? Did you string up a bunch of lights on your house this holiday season? I am betting 9.9 out of 10 of you had a Christmas tree in your house this holiday season. How often do you mow and fertilze yuor lawn every summer? How often do you get a new cell phone? How much junk mail do you recieve?
So before you go and point the finger or act holier then thou....take a look in the mirror and make sure you are in a good position to point the finger. Chances are you are not in a position to point the finger about anything. Let alone some other persons consumption or carbon footprint.
freedom + good the USA has done for the rest of the world: We have shared our ideals with the world and really that is about all we have shared that is worth a damn. Capitalism has done much more harm for poor countries then it has good. We have performed illegal black ops in many countries, incited a cou many times, assassinated leaders who won't play our game and we do not practice what we preach. We have privatized utilites in poor countries which has denied that countries citizens the basic right to things like clean water, all in the name of profit. We have forced people in those poor countries to rape their own land if they want to live in the modern world and be our friends. Our forefathers enslaved millions due to their race and murdered nearly 10,000,000 indigenous people in the land we call home. We have also in our history pushed our religion on others at the expense of their lives, burn a witch lately anyone? Our largest export these days is garbage and really that is what we are giving to the rest of the world. We have imprisoned hundreds of thousands of our own citizens simply because they like to get high on drugs in their free time. We have killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians and Afghan civilians to pay them back for killing 3,000 of our people. We tell such and such country they can't have any nuclear bombs but we are the only country in history that has dropped one on other human beings. We raise our kids on television, video games (violence) , fast food and junk food. While these are pretty lame things in every way you can not deny them or get mad at me for pointing them out, these things are facts and they are our history.
Now having said that I am a patriot and love my country. I just want to remind you we are not the best country in the world if you really take a long hard look at our history and what we continue to do since the conception of this country. So please think about this before you go claiming we are the "best".
As far as freedom, I highly value it and will lay down my life to keep it. However, our freedoms are being lifted nearly every day, often without us even knowing it. Regardless, I value my freedom so much I am willing to die for it and as such I value your freedom that much too. So while I may think many things each of you do in your individual lives is not good for our planet and I do know simple easy ways to change your lives to better our planet, I believe in freedom above pushing my beliefs upon you. And so I believe it is your right to live your life the way you see fit because I believe in freedom even if I don't agree with you or how you might live your life. I may think driving that huge gas guzzle around town is kind of lame and not so great for the enviroment however because I hold freedom in such a high regard I feel it is your right to do what you want when you want.
In my town and county, large full sized trucks are the norm. These kinds of trucks outnumber small more eviromentally friendly cars at least 2 to 1. Seeing one person driving around in these kind of vehicles is normal here. Do I personally think it is kind of lame, yes. But again I believe in freedom.
Simply because you drive a Toyota with 33" tires hardly makes you any better then anybody else. This has been pointed out already in this thread. My post is simply meant to remind you we are not the best country in the world and if you value freedom of choice you should be A-Ok with whatever your neighbor drives. If style and trends were not as popular for you as that guy with 40" rubber on his mall crawler would you even be into overland trucks? Doesn't this fast growing industry that revolves around overlanding not also have a lot to do with style and trends? How is your style or trend any better or any worse then somebody else's? Sure we all have opinions but set those aside for a minute and think about all this. My posts is also not intended to insight arguements or cause problems on the forum. Rather, it is simply meant to remind you that those pointing the finger in any society are often as guilty as the poeple they are pointing at, sometimes more so.
Before you say or think somebody should have such and such things, do such and such things, act such and such way or think like you do. Take a good long hard look in the mirror at your own life. Are you really in a good position to be saying anything about what other people do with their lives, their money and their families?
my 2 & 1/2 cents
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charlieaarons
Explorer
Oh Mr Holier-than-thou,
I live in a 3500 sq ft house. But it has double pane wanidows, foam insulation, and we burn 6 cords wood/year so our gas bills actually drop in the winter. I put in flourescent screw-ins before they were "fashionable" - in 1980. Our daily drivers are an 01 BMW 325xi and a diesel BMW SUV (for a driver with ALS) that gets better mpg than a car 40% lighter. The military vehicle are driven rarely, if at all. Our only sin is the Unimog. I'm sure one could do carbon calculations re nonused hotel rooms, jet flights, rental cars, etc etc. But the shipping to Australia and back, the fuel down there - what else is one supposed to do with the money? Burn the Unimog and give it to charity?
Sincerely,
Not a very holy person.
I live in a 3500 sq ft house. But it has double pane wanidows, foam insulation, and we burn 6 cords wood/year so our gas bills actually drop in the winter. I put in flourescent screw-ins before they were "fashionable" - in 1980. Our daily drivers are an 01 BMW 325xi and a diesel BMW SUV (for a driver with ALS) that gets better mpg than a car 40% lighter. The military vehicle are driven rarely, if at all. Our only sin is the Unimog. I'm sure one could do carbon calculations re nonused hotel rooms, jet flights, rental cars, etc etc. But the shipping to Australia and back, the fuel down there - what else is one supposed to do with the money? Burn the Unimog and give it to charity?
Sincerely,
Not a very holy person.
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Buliwyf
Viking with a Hammer
This thread is just getting silly now. I'm all for cleaner and safer, but we have to be factual and scientific about this. No point in pushing people towards a product, when it just isn't needed.
A perfect example of idiot enviromentalist reasoning: Todays Tier 5 natural gas engines must have a closed loop fuel mixture control and a cat convertor. Two things that have greatly increased the cost and decreased the reliability of propane and natural gas engines. So now it's very hard to get a firepump or generator thats any good at a reasonable price. And some have had to upgrade to diesels after thier NG engines were found to be poor performers. NG is allready a super clean fuel source. These needless laws have really hurt.
The US is quickly becoming one of the cleanest nations to live in. Pollution has dropped here an enormous amount since 1970. Air pollution from automobiles is quickly becomeing a non-issue. Water quality, Chinese carp and other invasives species, and other forms of pollution are probally a better fight to pick.
And chances are that these huge trucks are polluting less than an older Toyota SUV anyways. Especially a lifted one on 33" tires.
A perfect example of idiot enviromentalist reasoning: Todays Tier 5 natural gas engines must have a closed loop fuel mixture control and a cat convertor. Two things that have greatly increased the cost and decreased the reliability of propane and natural gas engines. So now it's very hard to get a firepump or generator thats any good at a reasonable price. And some have had to upgrade to diesels after thier NG engines were found to be poor performers. NG is allready a super clean fuel source. These needless laws have really hurt.
The US is quickly becoming one of the cleanest nations to live in. Pollution has dropped here an enormous amount since 1970. Air pollution from automobiles is quickly becomeing a non-issue. Water quality, Chinese carp and other invasives species, and other forms of pollution are probally a better fight to pick.
And chances are that these huge trucks are polluting less than an older Toyota SUV anyways. Especially a lifted one on 33" tires.