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A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

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1321 points kwindla | 2 comments | 25 Apr 25 15:01 UTC | HN request time: 0.399s | source
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ty6853 ◴[25 Apr 25 15:24 UTC] No.43794560[source]▶
I love it.

However I wonder about the overlap between people that need a truck and this particular truck. I have only owned trucks when I needed to go out in the middle of bumfuck nowhere with a payload, in places with poor access to electricity. If I need to go in bumfuck nowhere without payload then there is no need for the truck, and if I need a payload in the city it's just way way cheaper to have it delivered when you factor in depreciation of even a cheap truck.

Would really love to see something like this with a simple 4 cylinder motor. Like the old s-10 / ranger. Until then the solution I have found is to just tag a trailer on small passenger vehicle, since it is now impossible to find a compact gas truck.

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bryanlarsen ◴[25 Apr 25 15:42 UTC] No.43794805[source]▶
In my experience "bumfuck nowhere" has better access to electricity than the city. Every farmer has a welder plugged into a handy accessible high amperage socket.
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vid ◴[25 Apr 25 16:16 UTC] No.43795336[source]▶
My experience of rural areas is that few are actual farmers. After all, farming has largely consolidated and become automated. Most country people just don't want a city lifestyle. They might have some of the accoutrements of a farmer and have added lifestyle (enjoyable/fulfilling) overhead and significant attitude (independence & sometimes xenophobia) for themselves, but it's a lifestyle choice. Therefore most don't have a welder (though they probably know someone who has one).
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bryanlarsen ◴[25 Apr 25 16:26 UTC] No.43795503[source]▶
That's rural but not "bumfuck nowhere". Within ~100 miles of a city there are a lot of rural non-farmers, but only farmers will live 200 miles away from the closest city.
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1. aidenn0 ◴[25 Apr 25 17:20 UTC] No.43796218[source]▶
Very few people live over 200 miles from a city in the lower-48 states of the US.

To give you an idea: It's 413 miles between Colorado Springs and Wichita[1], leaving a very narrow area to be over 200 miles from either. Grand Island, Nebraska is 402 miles from Denver.

Pretty much all the land is over 200 miles away from a city of at least 50k population is in the great basin. To give you an idea, there are 3 cities in North Dakota (a 200x200 mile rectangle) that have a population of at least 50k, and with Bismarck relatively near the center, that rules out much of the state alone.

1: Dodge City is technically a city, but at much less than 50k population I'll omit it. If you allow anything called a city to count you could probably fit the list of people on a single piece of paper. Using the 50k cutoff you still have 3 cities in North Dakota, a 300x200 mile rectangle.

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2. bryanlarsen ◴[25 Apr 25 20:10 UTC] No.43798048[source]▶
My definition of bumfuck nowhere is where I grew up. almost 200 miles to each of Regina Saskatchewan, Brandon Manitoba and Minot North Dakota.