[tjr225]

> Also, Home Depot rents trucks/vans for $30 for 75 minutes; U-Haul is better if you need them for the whole day.

I had a good friend argue that this was too inconvenient. My response was that I believe the amount of effort put into affording a new truck far outweighs the inconvenience of filling out a form or two at home depot.

> I sometimes wish I had a small dumpy pickup so I could put bulk stuff in (and full 4x8 sheets), but mostly it's fine without.

Unfortunately even these are pretty sought after! I have a '94 Toyota Pickup(right before they rebranded them to the Tacoma) that I bought off of my father in law for pennies. In many places in the world these are cult trucks.

[myself248]

What caught me completely off-guard when I went to rent from the Depot was needing my insurance paperwork. Okay, that's out in my car's glovebox halfway across the parking lot, kindly serve another customer while I hike out there and get it...

It's doubly weird because I rent cars from Enterprise and Budget all the time and they've never asked me for it.

But anyway, once that was done with, yeah the 75-minute truck rental was just what the doctor ordered. I picked up a bunch of industrial auction items, dropped them at my friend's place and my place, and had the truck fueled and returned with several minutes to spare.

Everything I've ever bought from HD itself, including 10' pieces of conduit and Unistrut, 8' pipe and lumber, numerous bags of cement and aggregate and mulch, has fit just fine in my Prius.

I wouldn't mind owning a pickup for full sheets, but in practice everything I've made has tesselated just fine into 32x48 one-third-sheets so I just have 'em ripped on the panel saw in-store.

[tjr225]

> What caught me completely off-guard when I went to rent from the Depot was needing my insurance paperwork. Okay, that's out in my car's glovebox halfway across the parking lot, kindly serve another customer while I hike out there and get it...

That caught me off guard the one time I did this as well. However, it is a small lesson to learn compared to financing and insuring even a cheap truck such as an f-150 IMO.

[DrScump]

Your insurer doesn't give you online access to your proof of insurance?

[gamegoblin]

A few years ago I was in the market for a small beater pickup. I was looking for a late 90s Tacoma (before they started making larger models to compete with F150), but was surprised that those still regularly go for $12-14K in good condition. I wound up getting a Japanese kei truck (I describe in another comment in this thread).

[Kluny]

Depending where you are, carshare is a great way to go. I can book a pickup truck using an app and go get the vehicle, use it as long as needed, and return it without ever interacting with a person. The co-op charges my card automatically and gas is included in the hourly rate, which is $7 for a pickup.

[DrScump]

  I have a '94 Toyota Pickup(right before they rebranded them to the Tacoma) 

I have a '93 SR5 pickup with the single cam V6, bought brand new in '94 (only difference from the '94 is the third brake light, AFAIK). I still get people asking about buying it all the time.

[megablast]

>'94 Toyota Pickup

You think that is a small pickup? WOW.

[DrScump]

The compact pickup, yes. It's no wider than, say a Camry.

I have the '93 club cab, so it's a touch longer, but it's dwarfed by an F-150, let alone anything larger.

[tjr225]

I’m not sure what you mean- it’s probably one of the smallest pickups I have seen in the US in my 30 years on this planet.

[DrScump]

It had peers in the compact pickup category then, e.g. Datsun/Nissan, Isuzu, Chevy LUV. My 80s roommate's LUV was a rebadged Isuzu.