Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Cost-Increasting Bells and Whistles

Find a used fleet truck. That is what I drive. About a third of F-150s are made this way.

BMT

Truck locks me out - by itself. Sucks when you're feeding off the back by yourself, go to re-enter the cab, can't get in, and realize the truck is pointed at a bluff, river, tree, big rock, whatever.
I don't mind replacing parts, just hate having to buy "The Assembly"
$13 for a rubber tailgate bumper? REALLY? It's the size of a nickle!
Bed light needs to be separate from dome light - can't see the gooseneck ball with the cab light on.
Pull the air cleaner box to change a headlight bulb - REALLY?
Pulled that stupid little beeper out of one truck - Aahhh, peace and quiet - the headlights wouldn't work!
I fully believe any new design engineer for an auto maker should spend 1-2 years in a repair bay before they give him a pencil, and another 2 years before they put him behind a computer. Hopefully, his hands are extra-large like mine, so he can bleed from anything he has to do.
I also hope he needs to hike out of the boonies (no cell service) because a $14 sensor failed - causing the computer to shut down.
This list is almost endless.

The only feature I really like in the fords WS the keyless pushbutton entry.
I detest having keys in my pocket and it allowed me to leave them in the vehicle.

Me too! I keep getting my left leg tangled in the steering wheel when turning on and off my brights.

These two things drive me crazy.

Yeah, but I never want anything as light as a 150 ever again. I'll just drive a car instead... fleet 250 or better yet 350 sure.

Ya know how old that is? Our ambulances have a safety button to help keep from being stolen on calls. Not that it would happen here, but did in Dallas or some such and someone was killed by the theif/driver... and guess who got sued... the crew.... ugh..

But try to tell the younger folks that need to drive it from our fire dept, hey, you gotta hit the safety button before it will go in gear, on the floor like the old dimmers... WHAT? Where? LOL.

I too liked the old floor dimmer, but with a stick you would sometimes blind someone if you were in the middle of shifting, but only for a second.

Now the blinding is taken care of by those "screw you" headlights mounted at the "screw you" height.

OK, what really gripes me is when the bells and whistles, however attractive they may be, are added at the expense of solid basic functionality, and just to hold the price down. Using cheap materials being one example.

Don't cut corners on the basics, says I.

Paul

What happened to wheel lockouts on FWD trucks.No wonder they get chitty mileage when you are always turning everything in there ,even in two wheel drive.Cruise and air and Power steering are the only things I got to have.

All you have to do is order from Dealer as you want the truck to be or buy used fleet if you want used.
Things today come in packages. So if you want auto door locks you will get more than just that.
One of my sons company know the model, style that they want before they call a dealer. They just say I want this model at this price. They get it too. Small co. with maybe 10 diesel trucks and a few Toyotas 1/2 ton.
Owner likes to get 400,000 out of the diesels and locals want to sell and not repair. So owner got a dealership 200 miles away to come and pick up the trucks, haul back to dealership, repair then return to west Texas. That's a deal.
So what's the answer, research what you really want with whatever package, get that model number, then let your fingers do the walking in your state and start dialing.

Was looking for a commuter car a couple years ago. Wanted am fm, manual windows, manual transmission, and I couldnt care less about AC. Every freakin place trying to upsell me. Bottom line, they dont carry them.

So yeah. its called marketing.

But those type are made, all you have to do is order what you want.

Even though I am a power supply, battery charger EMC guy, I got involved in designing "bells and whistles" on the Eclipse Jet and the composite Lear Jet.

e.g. The battery drain should be less than a micro Amp, but when the door is opened, a lighted path should lead them into the air craft. When they leave, the lights should wait, fade, and shut down. This low leakage circuits should be able to withstand a lightning strike.

On the F-16 radar warning 56C system, the built in test for the power supply systems had more parts than the power supplies. That is 1,000 components into bells and whistles.

The parts to build the hardware may be cheap, but the non recurring engineering effort to design, develop, get production units, write tests, qualify that it meets spec [long costly tests] really adds up to time and money.