Daily driver?

[houdel]

Re: RE: Daily driver?

Wow! I've only had mine for a month or so. As a daily driver, I'd have to say its awfully big to run to the grocery store or bumper to bumper traffic. I enjoy running mine, but not sure I would want to do it everyday.

No... to a daily driver.......Expensive on fuel....and Dangerous in a crash to the occupants and other drivers...
They are what they are A GREAT BUNCH OF FUN FOR THE $$$$ and the MV Hobby!!! or Work or Farm...Some might disagree and get Tee'd off but thats my two cents...I owned and duece and loved it, Drove it to work maybe once a week and enjoyed it on weekends but never as a daily driver.

Pretty much agree with the above - they are BIG and cumbersome, especially for city traffic. However, if your driving is mostly rural or light city traffic and you add air assisted steering and front locking hubs (and maybe a double splined axle shaft and one locking hub to the front rear axle) it is doable.

Fuel mileage? With front locking hubs, you can do about as good as an older 4WD , 3/4 ton gas engine pickup truck. Dangerous in a crash? To the occupants of the other vehicle yes, unless you collide with a semi truck. You are running 13,000+ lbs, 3-4 times the weight of a typical passenger vehicle, twice the weight of a one ton dually pickup. Hitting a Focus or similar vehicle will be about as bad as hitting a deep pothole in the family minivan. Yeh, a Deuce doesn't have airbags but if you are REALLY worried, retrofit a 3 point (seat/shoulder belt) harness system, or even a 5 point system as used in race cars. The Deuce has plenty of steel for attaching points, but that is an issue I don't even think about.

I drive my Deuce every few days into town. I live in a rural area with a 10+ mile ride to the nearest city (2 stop lights, population 2400+). Other than getting only 10-12 mpg without locking hubs, and it is a bit of a bear to maneuver in the grocery store and drug store parking lots without power steering, I don't have a problem. Wal*Mart, Lowes and Menard's parking lots are big enough that I never have a problem there. The Deuce is really not that much bigger than my full size Ford van (maybe 8" wider, 24"-30" longer, but a LOT taller) and gets close to the same mileage.

With locking hubs and air assisted power steering, the Deuce would make a usable daily driver for me. Well, except for the wintertime. My soft top and glass leak air like a sieve, and my personnel heater can barely keep up at 40F, let alone the 0F I often face, although I do infrequently drive it in extreme cold. But that is a whole different issue, unless you face driving a lot in real cold weather.

 

[WillWagner]

RE: Re: RE: Daily driver?

I try to send mine to work once a week, 40 Miles round trip, stop and go on the streets, once a week to a car show, depending on where, it's a 10 to 50 mile round trip. Most every weekend to the Home Defect and a few times a week after work to make me not be a stressball.

 

[ARMYMAN30YearsPlus]

I have to chime in here, the duece is not dangerous, it is a big truck and needs to be driven as such. I have had my CDL since they started issuing them and my Class A truck before that and each large truck must be treated with respect by the driver. I have seen my share of bottom of the mountain crashes and jack knifed rigs due to excessive speed for the conditions.

My only concern would be the parking at work and the wear and tear on me driving my duece every day. I would buy the duece and drive the CJ5. When you want to go to the field load the CJ in the duece and go. My duece starts easier than any of my other vehicles and if I had to drive it everyday for reasons that would justify it's capability then I would. As far as the clutch is concerned mine has hauled logs, household goods, and even a dolly with a semi trailer and it still is strong. Driving it does make me tend to try and make the green lights by slowing early for a red which sometimes upsets four wheelers behind me.

I had people complain about my trucks but once I showed the inspector they are all registered, insured, and running he said he would ignore any further complaints. Since the house is being built have them put in a 6" fiber reinforced slab big enough to park the duece on and if they get rude build a barn over the truck on the slab.

 

[SasquatchSanta]

I would think the main issue would be parking.

Since my bobbed deuce is shorter, I don't experience parking problens and it is indeed a daily driver.

It be fair, I live in a rural area and work out of my house so I don't have to battle city traffic.

For me, the big issue is the Northern Minnesota cold weather but I'm getting on top of that with things like an electric fan, battery, oil and block heaters.

Someone in a earlier thread commented that Deuces are dangerous because they don't start well and don't stop well. I disagree! My brakes will put your pet rottweiler through the windshield. There is NO EXCUSE for driving one of these trucks with substandard brakes. Doing so is the fault of the driver and not the way the trucks are engineered.

If you're going to drive a lot, a good seat and air/power steering is needed.

 

[Big Mike's Motor Pool]

i love drivin my truck, but its one of those things that is great when you dont have to drive it. if you have to drive it cause its your only transportation its a bit rough. i did this for 2 weeks one february. i hated it. i work 3 miles from my house and even on days i plan on drivin my deuce to work, sometimes i look at it and cringe and get in my pickup truck. i like takin it shoppin when im not in a hurry and takin out to the woods to the party spot is great. i guess you could call them a novelty peice.

 

[vbrescueman]

I have pause with a few of the remarks lol... i have a '67 Deuce that I drove as a daily driver 50+ miles each way for bout 9 months. She LOVED being driven daily!! lol. My brakes worked great- she would smoke all 10 if you locked them up - and i usually drove WITH the headlights ON for safety. Its a BIG GREEN MACHINE but ppl still dont see it from time to time. I did not have heat which def would have been nice thru the winter... but with the soft top off the spring and summer weather was AWESOME!! GREAT VIEWS from way up there- Just realize its not a lil ford... it takes a bit to get her going and to stop her and you'll do just fine. Enjoy your Deuce and the Green Sickness

 

[Stan Leschert]

Get a M-35-A3. Put a muffler on it and have a back up parking place if the locals are not into big green things.

 

[GoHot229]

I'd have to ask if you thought that one out any.......... HOA's are pricks period, who'd want to surrender therir freedoms to a bunch of totalitarian dinks........well now that I'v totally p'd you off, (not ententional mind you, sorry) its apples and loquats or grease and Chanell#5. Home owner ass ociations are notorious for making life misserable. And no it's not a good daily driver. You will do it none the less, but with less and less frquency untill you come back down to earth, we all do......I did.... but at ten miles a gallon, dirty looks from tree huggers and the like it'll become less and less fun and novel. and parking is an exersize in patience to boot, unless it's just Wallmart your going to. so .....no its not a daily driver, still some will, for a while... but just the same enjoy yourself with it, and good luck with the turds at the HOA.

 

[buddy_holly]

It's true. This can be called a sickness. Or an addiction. For now, I've got it bad. My poor camaros been in the shop for a few weeks now so the deuce has been taking me everywhere. And I don't mind. I guess I'm used to having to take it easy with my vehicles. I don't drive throw-away focuses or whatever crap they're churning out these days. I couldn't care less if every tree-hugger on earth glared at me. I'm glad it's bobbed so it isn't too much of a pita to park/drive. And I find it amusing that I drive my beast better and can park her in one single parking spot better than most of these jackasses in their little plastic matchbox cars. I love taking it through downtown cuz everyone stares slack-jawed like the commies are invading. They wonder what that glorious whistle is. Haha. So, to tarp? Or not to tarp?

 

[saddamsnightmare]

May 1st, 2010.

J2H:

A CUCV would likely do better and not land you in a problem with your HOA. I use a Unimog and a deuce as daily working trucks, but they aren't expected to run more the 15 miles a day, and the bumper to bumper traffic can be tedious in either one, but more certainly in a deuce, as it takes about three (3) gearshifts to get across an intersection. IF it were me, I'd hunt up a nicely restored M38A1 or M170, as they are easier to maneuver and to maintain, and not so likely to get the neighbor's knickers in a twist! Here in Texas, though, you could own a tank and the neighbors would only want a ride now and then.....

N.B. If your distance is not too great, and the need for speed is not terminal, my S404.114 Unimog gets about 18 MPG on the road at around 40 MPH, and she has not been too demanding on the repairs save for those caused by bad gas.... and unlike a deuce, the cab heater is stock and will work much like a conventional PU, except you cannot control floor or defrost, it always on and only has one fan speed "ON". Otherwise an excellent truck.

DIRTYFINGERNAILS: The only danger in a deuce is when they are improperly maintained and driven. Most people forget that they are a 13,5000 Lb. TRUCK designed around 1948, and they must be treated like a large, sometimes potentially dangerous, antique machine. No one has stated it here yet, yes the dangers very great to those fools in the pop cans that take chances around a deuce or a Unimog by their driving (or lack of any commonsense), but short of flipping the deuce over (really a fatal occurance when and if it occurs), I'll take my chances in a deuce with seatbelts any day against anything smaller then a Mack truck, and maybe against those too what with all the fibreglass and aluminum used in their front clips...... My insurance company, like most folks on here, KNOW that the deuces and Unimogs are not be accident problems and rarely ever suffer major damage, so our rates reflect those facts... It's the pop cans of today that get crushed by a deuce that takes most all the damages...... Just food for thought. If you need an air bag and a ROPS, you might not what any M series vehicle in your fleet.
Good luck in your search,

 

[rattlecan6104]

for me (and I am not what you would call a "normal" person) along side my deuce, I have an old lifted chevy 4x4 with a high compression v-8. They both get about the same mileage, but the chevy needs premium, and my local offroad shop gives me used motor oil to run in the deuce...

I guess you could call me an impractical person as my deuce is driven nearly every day to everywhere I go, managed to take it through a couple drive thru's as well.

 

[tm america]

great daily drivers free fuel cheap insureance and plates. if you live in a subdivision you probably will need to move cuz they suck anyway. they probably cry if you fart outside cuz there is a smell ordinence.if you cant park it you shouldnt be driving it anywhere.i try yo drive mine at least once a week. i drive 26 miles each way to work and love it i drive it for free .it gets better mpg than my dodge truck and i run it on waist oil i get for free from work

 

[markmontana]

So, to tarp? Or not to tarp?

Tarp only when mission dictates...

 

[strycnine]

Tarp only when mission dictates...

Do want

 

[tclemens]

mine is my DD if it is raining really cold or i gotta haul the kids otherwise i ride this