Truck Respect

So as I’ve already mentioned, my husband’s truck is a beast of a truck. It has a 3-inch lift kit, and is a Dodge Ram 3500. It’s a big truck.

A dark picture, but you can see how little it makes the Charger look.

Last night as we were driving home from the restaurant (my sister’s birthday and my dad was in town), we were on a road where I had to move across four lanes, merging as I went (nothing immediately causing me to cross all four at once).

Of course some lanes were empty, some were not. I was consistently checking my mirrors and shoulder checking to see when it would be clear. But to my surprise, as I was merging into one lane, a car had sped up and either merged right behind me or simply just came up quickly behind me. Either way, it honestly looked like a close call.

I was already in an emotional state after saying good-bye to Jewel, and then already having survived a few accidents myself, something that looked so close put me in a bit of alarm. But it was at that moment that I noticed something.

My husband, who was following me in his truck, immediately put on his signal to turn into my lane. He was up beside the car that had almost rear-ended me. And you know what happened? The car backed off and let him in.

Wow!

There were a couple other incidents on my drive that I just watched and noticed how if I did something, the other vehicles didn’t notice and/or didn’t care. But if my husband did it in his big truck right behind me, they all of a sudden seemed to care and get out of his way. Amazing how that works!

And so I have termed this incidence: truck respect. Seriously, the city people are either afraid of the big trucks or something. But without a doubt, there is some major road respect which I admit was pretty awesome. I felt safer knowing I had my guardian husband and his guardian truck at my back the whole way. And as God was with the both of us, we travelled safely.

What do you think? Have you noticed any “truck respect” on the roads? What are your thoughts about big trucks in the city? (Hint: I used to not like them, they do seem to take up too much room. But when it comes to safety, I have an all new respect!)

We Finally Got It… And He’s Happy!

I never knew looking for a truck could be so stressful. It’s been 3 weeks. Two down payments and cancellations. And endless online and offline searching. I cannot even begin to tell you the amount of sleep we’ve lost and the amount of frustration we’ve endured. Truly endless. Or so it seemed.

One thing about trucks is they cost a lot, especially where we live. So the decision either came to 0% interest on a new truck that cost much more money, or be charged some interest on a used vehicle that may not cost as much money, but usually had a fair amount of mileage on it.

To add to the frustration, my husband has owned 3 trucks before and therefore was not willing to settle for something ridiculous. We also deal with a mad amount of winter (snowed the first week of September…) so having 4WD and other features was important. He also wanted a diesel which automatically lifts the price. Oh boy…

Slowly throughout the weeks, we whittled down a few things. One, that he didn’t want brand new because the price was so high. Two, that we were sticking with lower kms on a used truck. Three, that it had to be diesel. Four and almost decided from the beginning, it had to be a Dodge.

The problem came that we had to find a Dodge with low kms that was a diesel and not out of our price range and that was the true struggle. Prices for trucks are simply outrageous. And then one caught his eye online.

There was a silver Dodge, lifted (he likes lifted), rugged brand new tires, nice looking wheels, diesel, 15 000 km, only 2 years old, still covered by all the factory warranties, some cool features, and a very fraction of the price it would have been new. It’s still at the high end of our price range, but doable.

So we went to look at it to make sure it wasn’t just one of those circumstances where the vehicle looks awesome online, but there are tonnes of things wrong with it when we get there. Truth be told, it was exactly as it looked.

The dealer man met us, was incredibly nice, gave us the keys, told us to have fun, and was very friendly and easy to sit with to discuss the truck. It was a small used dealership, very family friendly. I mean seriously, the men were sitting around chewing Double Bubble. Not much more friendly than that!

The truck was great, and made my husband feel so happy. I of course venture on the thoughts of pricing and what it means to dedicate our finances to this vehicle for the next several years, but again, it is doable, and most importantly, it made him happy.

Don’t get me wrong, the truck is nice. Aside from a couple dings in the bed, and the absolutely tiniest bump in the door (the dealership agreed to pay for this), the truck is incredibly unused. My assumption would be that the person who previously owned it could no longer afford it. I mean this truck probably cost upwards of $60000-70000 brand new. But it runs nicely, it looks nice, and it’s huge. Oh my word is it huge! The thing’s a beast! But at least I know my husband will be safe driving around this soon-to-be-frozen-place we call home. It’s his new baby and he loves it and that’s what makes me happy.

Not the best picture, but it was taken late at night when we finally took it home. Makes the Challenger look tiny!

Have you ever experienced extreme stress trying to find a new vehicle? What obstacles did you face?