How to do 'truck stuff' without a pickup truck?

I find myself almost weekly seeing something and only wishing I had a truck. Things on the side of the road, bulk material that would fit in a bed, all sorts of things!

Obviously you do not need to own a truck in order to do everything you need on a homestead but it sure would simplify things.

The back seat of my car is still covered in straw from the two bales that I shoved in it from a couple months back.

How do you do it?  What's the secret?

I bought a truck.
Before I bought the truck I got my car stuck in the mud and did some very scary things with a tiny utility trailer towed by my boyfriend’s rav4 and rented trucks from U-Haul and hardware stores (permies won’t let me make fun of the hardware store’s name so I won’t call them out, but the big ones have truck rentals), and eventually got annoyed and bought a truck.
It was 6000 dollars, but I’ve seen some for 3000, especially if you’re willing to start with a project instead of a truck.

I have access to a pickup truck but rarely use it. I truck a ridiculous amount of stuff in my "mini cargo van" (13 yr. old Kia Soul, 2.0L, 5 speed manual).

I removed the folding part of the back seat to increase cargo space. Last week I came home from the recycling run with an empty 55 gal oil drum back there -- and lots of room to spare!

Carry rope, bunjy cords, ratchet straps, a few old blankets, and stout bags that lay flat (woven dog food bags), and a crud tarp you can lay down to corral the mess. I also carry basic tools including a folding saw so I can make big items smaller. Also a shovel/spade with a short handle.

I have never really used the cargo rails on the roof; I should add a few 1x4 or 2x2 pieces for bulky items.

Never drive empty! When I bring in a load of recycling, give-away and trash, I return stuffed with compost, wood chips and useful scrounged materials. That's where the folding bags (which contained recycling) get reused on the trip home.

Put a trailer hitch on your vehicle. Mine connects to an old boat trailer that's lightweight and only cost me $100.

Know a few "back door" access roads where you can drive slow with an odd load sticking out the back (and nobody will flip you the bird).

There's add-ons to a smaller vehicle. Trailers, roof racks. A tarp to drag things around or keep them off your car's soft inner surfaces. If you go with a roof solution, keep in mind weight limits, accidental convertibles aren't much fun.

There's part-time trucks. Rentals, maybe borrowing one belonging to a friend. Burns up your cash or social capital, you have to weigh in each time you'd use one whether it's worth the expense.

Me, I got a truck.

I find a truck is great if I *know* I'm going to have a full load. That justifies the fuel. A lot of stuff comes my way by serendipity (and a watchful eye), and I can move a lot with my fuel-sipping little runabout.

My lifestyle has had a truck of some sorts ever since leaving college.  Earlier, it was those formerly fuel efficient offerings from Toyota/Nissan, but these became gas guzzlers in later model years. Since then, larger versions of those.  Although all were bought used, the used market for trucks just now is not cheap.  Hence, for rote hauling, I second Douglas A's recommendation of a (mini)-van, many of which will come in AWD have removable accessories for gaining more space...and are more affordable on the used market.  (Wife has moved a LOT of small livestock in rented panel vans that are easy to clean up before returning to the rental service.)  We just end up using a truck too much (just not as a grocery getter) to go without one, so the economics favor having one around.

We have a 20 year old Pontiac Vibe (Toyota Matrix clone). We wish such a practical car was still available for purchase, but we keep hoping this one will keep on truckin'. (Couldn't resist!) With the rear seats down, it's a big flat area that's easy to load. It currently  has 2 pallets in it, and it will hold 3 or possibly 4 if you're careful. It's carried a lot of useful stuff over the years.

Hubby did eventually buy a truck, but it mostly sits. If we need to pick up a large load of chicken feed in inclement weather, it can do the job as it's got a cap. But if the weather's nice, we can do the same with the Vibe pulling our utility trailer for less gas.

Hubby's very good at the mental math thing, so he keeps a close 'guestimation' of what the load is and what's the legal load for both vehicles. We've seen people not keep an eye on that. (Don't forget to include the weight of the driver +/- a passenger - there's a big difference between my weight and a 6' friend of mine.) Just because it's a "truck" doesn't mean it's actually rated for 80 bags of chicken feed.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote: Know a few "back door" access roads where you can drive slow with an odd load sticking out the back (and nobody will flip you the bird).

The last comment is not my concern. With a heavy load, stopping distance changes. With a trailer, jack-knifing is a thing. Knowing what your load is and what the risks are, and choosing an appropriate route home are all important regarding keeping yourself and others safe. A bad decision which turns out fatal to someone, will get you in a pile of trouble. A weird looking load being driven cautiously by an alert driver who pulls over to "let the parade pass", might get you funny looks, but I'm not personally aware of anyone who's died from being looked at funny!

I also made a couple of "orange flags" with rope attached for tying onto weird loads. I'm not sure that was mentioned in the "pile of things to have to make it easy to grab useful stuff.

I had a full size truck for several years, and got rid of it because I just didn't drive it enough. I do have a mini-van, though, and if I take the seats out, it makes a really good truck.

We have a truck.  If we did not have a truck, I would find someone to friend who had a truck.

If that didn't work some big box stores deliver or have vehicles to rent.

Jay Angler wrote:

Douglas Alpenstock wrote: Know a few "back door" access roads where you can drive slow with an odd load sticking out the back (and nobody will flip you the bird).

The last comment is not my concern. With a heavy load, stopping distance changes. With a trailer, jack-knifing is a thing. Knowing what your load is and what the risks are, and choosing an appropriate route home are all important regarding keeping yourself and others safe. A bad decision which turns out fatal to someone, will get you in a pile of trouble. A weird looking load being driven cautiously by an alert driver who pulls over to "let the parade pass", might get you funny looks, but I'm not personally aware of anyone who's died from being looked at funny!

I also made a couple of "orange flags" with rope attached for tying onto weird loads. I'm not sure that was mentioned in the "pile of things to have to make it easy to grab useful stuff.

Good comment about the orange flags.

Occasionally I have a load sticking out the back of the Kia with the hatch up. The weight isn't the issue, it's the fact that it's strapped down in all sorts of weird ways and the wind is whistling around inside. A nice quiet side road is easier to deal with than a major highway with aggressive truck traffic blasting along at 130 kph.

I'd question how bad you need the back seat, pulling it out gives you more room.
Tarps are your friend for corralling mess, get bigger than you think you need so you can pull the sides up when you need to.
I agree with tools to cut things down, take them apart etc, that helps a lot.
Flags were mentioned, red flags are more usual than orange.

Putting a roof rack on your car that's USEFUL may be a good option for you. I put an old army cot bedframe with springs on the roof of one of my cars, if it could be gotten onto the roof, the rack would carry it. The weird little two rails on the roof things on most newer cars are not often useful. You want something that supports a large area and spreads the weight properly depending on how the roof structure is made.

Love the idea of the ball hitch, small trailers are VERY useful.

I have had small cars, large trucks, vans, and everything in between and have always managed to haul whatever I wanted moved. And as a dumpster diver and creative sort, what I want moved can get very complex.

:D

I find this conversation amusing, in a pleasant way.
Because of my activities nearly all my life I have always had a group of vehicles to do whatever I need, starting from motorcycles,
sedans, 2 door utes , 7 ft x 5ft tray and a Flat bed truck 10 x 8 ft tray for bigger stuff.
I have them all registered and just use what I need when its needed.
I found borrowing had its issues .
I added a few useless vehicles such as a sportscar with no doors, just step over, a couple of vintage vehicles .
Yes the rego etc builds up but I have settled for it anyway.
As an aside, I had to pickup a stolen car trailer once that had been dumped in Queensland, about 1500 Km from home,
I wanted something fast, so I paid $50 for a 1985 Ford Falcon
sedan and drove the 3000km without a problem much to the amazement off everybody.
It took 4 days from memory and I still use that car roday!

John C Daley wrote: I have them all registered and just use what I need when its needed.

That would make it easy. We have compulsory insurance that is tied to the vehicle and paying for anything less than a full year costs a big premium. Where we used to live, we could swap insurance from one vehicle to another, simply adding a premium if the current one had a higher rate than the base vehicle. Some places adjust the insurance cost based on mileage - but not ours!

Easily, for our truck, insurance is the single largest expense. Makes it an unjustifiable luxury, so when the insurance ran out the last time, we decided not to re-insure until we figure we really need it.

In comparison, license and insurance for our small utility trailer is cheap!

Jay Angler wrote:...... With a heavy load, stopping distance changes. With a trailer, jack-knifing is a thing. Knowing what your load is and what the risks are, and choosing an appropriate route home are all important regarding keeping yourself and others safe. ....

I can't second this enough.  In our more "newbie" days, wife was trailering home a Ford 8n tractor on a flatbed trailer using a Jeep Cherokee for the towing.  To this day, I kinda fault the guy who loaded it onto the trailer for her because the weight was centered just a hair to the rear of the trailer axle...which is all it needed to nearly throw trailer, tractor, and Jeep into the ditch on the way home.  Fortunately, a guy pulled over after seeing her predicament and knew not only the problem, but helped get it re-centered.  He even swapped vehicles with her....him driving the Jeep/trailer/tractor to our home while she followed in his pickup.  It's one aspect of the local culture that I still find quite laudable.

i would for sure switch to a donkey and wagon if I could get around safely on the roads around here.   Our ancestors must have had to work so hard to get stuff done without even a truck.

If you really mean "weekly" get a truck... if you have another vehicle and get a truck you can sell the other vehicle. if you find yourself finding/hauling things that often - NOTHING beats jumping out of the truck, biffing whatever into the bed and them jumping back in and off you go.. safely

i moved to rural cape breton in 2010 and bought  a used 2006 f150 then bought a new 2017 when i was coupled and we had 2 incomes and the interest rate was zero... i knew the dealer and we had a couple of good sessions making sure i got everything i needed . i did take the extra step asking him about a suv and trailer option (my parents did years with a rav 4 and trailer).

he told me that everyone who had come to him and traded their truck for an suv told him later on they wished they had kept the truck.. he emphasized "everyone"... it's something i don't forget

The Plymouth/Dodge minivans with fold flat or removable seats are pretty good.  I managed to haul a David Bradley walk behind tractor and a Troy-Bilt Horse tiller in my dad's with the back seats out of it.  My nephew has one now, for hauling stuff to the farmer's market or dragging supplies home.  With a hitch package and a small utility trailer, this is a fairly handy setup.  Not a truck, but handy.

One of the local market gardener couples has a full size panel van, which they use for similar purposes as my nephew (but they are a bigger operation, and better established, having started several years ago).  Older Ford E vans can be had fairly reasonably, use common truck parts for most of the driveline, and can be converted to 4WD, if that's necessary.  For example, this outfit:
https://www.ujointoffroad.com/products/e-series-4x4-conversion/
used to sell a set of welded brackets for about $400.  Then, you could procure the front axle, transfer case, springs and whatnot from your local pull-n-pay salvage yard.  I don't see that option, now, just complete kits (which seem a bit steep to me).  The $400 option was more in line with my beer and pretzels budget, whereas the current offerings from them are much more champagne and caviar.

E-chassis box trucks and shuttle buses also show up.  Some have diesels in them, but most near me seem to be gasoline powered.  You can make a poor-man's cab over with one of those.  Especially if the box is separate from the cab.  Though if the back of the cab is open, then you can make a small sleeper box with bunk, to catch 40 winks and for a bit of dry storage when making long runs.  Used steel or aluminum flat beds are findable if you haunt CL, FB Marketplace or your local equivalent, or you can make a wooden one.  There are quite a few around my neck of the woods made from green treated lumber or rough sawn local red oak.  Remove the box, and bolt up a flat bed with stake pockets, and voila.  Only drill the web, not the flange, of your frame rails.  Welding to frame rails is usually only permissible behind the rear spring shackle mounts (though people get away with all kinds of stuff).  Use good hardware - cadmium plated grade 8, with Nord-Lock washers, isn't overkill.  Most factory metal flatbeds come with an integral gooseneck ball, or at least a mount for one, but if you go with a homemade wooden flatbed on the van chassis, you can buy a goose plate from one of the usual suspects (I picked up a Buyers brand, rated for 25,000 lbs [!], at Tractor Supply on a "scratch and dent" sale for $75 - I thought "I can scratch and dent it better than that myself!" - so keep your eyes peeled).  You could still mug up a means of securing the old cargo box on the new flat bed (chain binders, pins in the stake pockets, etc.) so that you could have a dry compartment (or camper), if needed.  Unless the box already turned into your goat shed, of course.

Other box truck chassis brands may also pop up on the cheap.  One of the rental outfits (Ryder, perhaps) used Chevy van chassis for a while.  Something like a Mitsubishi Fuso, again with cab over engine, will maximize cargo space for the wheel base, and may be easier to maneuver in tight quarters, since you can see where your front corners are.  Mitsubishi Fusos can be had in 4WD variants in much of the world, but apparently not in the USA.  I don't know what would be involved in retrofitting that conversion, but I suspect that some of the people who the overlanding/van life thing have sorted it out.

If you decide you really do need a truck, sometimes there are crazy good deals on medium duty trucks versus pickup truck prices, as well, especially if a bit of a project doesn't spook you.  Registration and insurance may be more problematic for you with any of these bigger rigs, depending on your local rules.  Paradoxically, my heavy 1-ton (12k gross, I don't remember the combined, i.e. with trailer, nominal weight rating) is actually cheaper to insure as a commercial vehicle (and I can still keep it registered as a personal vehicle) than it would be to insure it as a personal rig - go figure.

A roof rack and a bag of rope and ratcheting straps means I have moved many large and heavy things on top of my small car.  Everything from mattresses to fence posts.  About the only thing I could not move, given enough trips, are very large appliances like a refrigerator.  The next step is the hitch and trailer, although this will void the car's warranty, and it's still fairly new.  

Sometimes even I just pay the delivery fee for fridges etc, I have found it good value to have it lifted up the stairs and moved around the house.

Depends on the type of "truck stuff" that needs doing, there are some different options:

Mini vans, station wagons, and hatchbacks can swallow a lot of stuff with seats folded down, with the benefit of lighter items not blowing out on the highway. Tarping may still be needed: I moved hay bales in my Vibe one time, and was still finding pieces up until I sold it close to 10 years later.

I put hitches on both that Vibe and the Corolla that replaced it, each was rated to tow 2000lb. I've moved a lot of furniture and other large items with those cars and a harbor freight 4x8 trailer.

A larger truck based SUV will have a larger towing rating, allowing for larger sized trailers.

I now have a mini van and so rarely use my trailer; adding a trailer covers 95%+ of my need, so the few occasions I need something larger (I.E. moving house) I rent a U-Haul. If I needed something larger more often, depending on the frequency and size of what I'm hauling I'd probably get an SUV and a larger trailer.

That being said, I don't have any land, so I don't have livestock or tractors to haul.

Kevin Olson wrote:If you decide you really do need a truck, sometimes there are crazy good deals on medium duty trucks versus pickup truck prices, as well, especially if a bit of a project doesn't spook you.

Especially after driving semi-trucks for a few years, I've thought if I needed to do some regular hauling, I'd rather get a medium or heavy duty truck (and trailer), for both the lower cost, and the higher weight capacity: 80K of semi felt much less sketchy then maybe 10K of pickup.

Timothy, maybe consider a trailer.

Almost 25 years ago, my wife and I were buying our first new vehicle as a newlywed couple.  I wanted a truck (Ford Ranger with extended cab).  She wanted a minivan (I had a hard time with that one).  I pleaded my case but when I looked at the price, the truck was $24,000 and the van was $23,000 with four more seats!  My wife won with the proviso that we could get an 8' trailer and a trailer hitch for the van.  I hauled all sorts of stuff with that trailer.

Eric

Yep, 6 cylinder diesel SUV (VW/Audi - used around $10k now) that gets ~35mpg is sporty, comfy, safe, capable, good internal capacity and can tow a larger load when needed (and still get 30+ mpg!) is the ticket for me. Only downside is somewhat less off-road ability than a true 4wd rig.

Cost of operation is a big part of my calculation. What is my cost per mile? What is the most efficient option?

The larger the vehicle, the greater the operating cost. More gas, more expensive tires, more wear on road surfaces, bigger overall footprint.

Obviously a truck makes sense if you drive on challenging back roads, or carry substantial loads most of the time, or need it for work.

Too many in my area drive a truck as a fashion accessory, not for hauling, not out of necessity. My Kia setup gets the job done at 1/3 the cost per mile.

If you’re stuck with a car (or just rather have one) you can do quite a bit if it's a hatch back. If you don’t want a trailer you can get roof racks, and there are those cargo carriers that attached to the hitch. (There’s even ones that fold, or you can get a folding attachment) if you have a hatch back and a hitch you can even use a ‘bed extension’ for long stuff. Look at videos from other countries for inspiration, they do all sorts of things with cars most people wouldn’t even think of. I personally use an older Honda ridgeline (technically not a truck but has a bed) and I have done more truck stuff with it than most people with a ford raptor or gmc sierra ever have.

We call those honda ridgeline vehicles double cab utes.

I love watching YouTube videos of less developed areas around the world who do much with less. I watch SE Asians extract timber from the woods with tiny motorbikes or haul massive volumes of goods around urban environments on these same 200cc motorbikes. But Americans “have” to have a truck to do anything, yet 99.5% of trucks I see are hauling nothing but the driver. Since the early 90s I've owned a series of small economy cars with 1.5 liter motors with a 5 speed. I put on sturdy roof racks with tie points on all of them and trailer hitches for my small utility trailer. Do this to your existing car, then use it for one year before you decide you “need” a truck.

If you are part of a group, community or some trusting social environment then collaborate on co-ownership/sharing of a “real” truck. I suggest buying an old van cab RV Built on a heavy-duty truck frame dual wheeled heavy axles and brakes. These typically can be found for very little money because the RV section of it is trashed, often because of roof leaks. They typically have very low miles because they sit most of the time. But because of their age they leak and need seals. Strip the RV section and install a nice flat bed with stake pockets, a solid headache rack, maybe with a small crane attached, and a winch with some ramps. Most of these RVs would allow a 14-18-foot-long flat bed and can haul some serious loads and tow even more loads. Like in its former life as an RV, it should just sit most of the time and only be called upon for big jobs while small 1.5 liter economy cars with roof racks and trailers do most of the day-to-day movement of stuff. Just my opinion- small cars or Kei trucks, people carrying vans and “real” trucks best satisfy transport needs. Using a modern truck as a daily driver and with extra seats as an occasional people carrier with a tiny cargo capacity which is usually empty, Is impractical.