What is it about landlords and their beat up old trucks? You all know the story of mine well. But I have something of a doppelganger in the neighborhood. He owns at least as many houses as I do; probably more. And a good number were also moved houses. And he lives just a few blocks away. He drives an old Toyota Prius about the same age as my xB. And this is his work truck, a worthy counterpart to my equally beat up F100.
And even more curious, he’s finally doing a bit of body work on his truck, and so am I (stay tuned). Oddly, we’ve never actually spoken to each other. But it seems we have a fair bit in common.
I’d seen this old green Suburban in the neighborhood for some years before I shot it in April of 2009, in front of a house that had been moved in a few months earlier, and he was now renovating. I wrote it up as a CC on the old site, and then here too. At the time I hadn’t yet quite figured out who he was or that he had several other properties, until I kept seeing the truck at the various houses and it became obvious. And what’s also obvious is that this fine old work horse, which had a half yard or more of compost or yard soil in its back that day, has weathered some, perhaps a bit more than my truck, actually.
But I’d seen it sitting at a little shop at one of his places, where it was getting a bit of attention to its body. Maybe a tenant trading work for rent? It’s been a slow work in progress, but actually, I just drove by it yesterday, and the roof has all been sanded and primered too. Looks like it’s going to get a paint job. I’m not quite ready to consider that yet, but then this guy is obviously a bit older than I am.
I wonder if it’ll get new upholstery? It could use a bit of work there. I’ve heard him driving it so I know it’s a six, from the unmistakable sound of its exhaust. One more similarity.
That shot is fuzzy.
I suppose there’s times when a Suburban would be handy compared to my pickup, but on the balance, there’s no question that I’ve been better served by my truck. When I think of all the endless loads of dirt, gravel, compost, garbage, tall appliances, windows, lumber, and so much more my truck has hauled, there’s no comparison.
I just noticed: his truck has a crude fabricated hunk of steel for a rear bumper, as do I. How many more similarities can there be?
The only similarities that could possibly remain is that he’s also originally from Austria but didn’t design the Volkswagen.
Touche!
Here in New England, most rental houses are done by property managers with nice new trucks but there are some exceptions. A couple blocks from my house there is a house converted to rental apartments and offices on the first floor, the fellow who owns it rents a number of townhouses around town. Behind the house he always has a full size SUV and a really beat utility trailer with tall sides. 20 years ago it was a mid 80’s Bronco, then a similar very early Tahoe 2 door, now a rather rusty mid 90’s 2500 suburban. Also unusual is he has a had a Fisher plow on each of them.
The other odd one (but not vintage) was a DR who owned several medical buildings in my town. He always had a new Wrangler with a plow for clearing snow (seemed to be replaced with a new one every 3-4 years) until he sold his main building a couple years ago.
I remember reading some landlording how-to book back in the ’80’s that advised property owners not to show up at tenants’ houses in new, shiny vehicles. The idea being that you didn’t want to appear to be made of money when negotiating, discussing repairs, improvements, or late rent.
Both wimpy 6 cylinder half tons. Must be a requirement to be a landlord. 🙂
I think it’s amazing that these could be powered by a 6. How could there possibly be enough power? High rear axle ratio?
Seriously? I hauled a full load and a loaded trailer from the Bay Area to Eugene numerous times when we moved up here. Lots of grades. Plenty of power. A 3.70 rear axle. I could roll along easily at 70-80 on the flats.
You do know that quite big medium-duty trucks were powered by these same gas sixes until not that long ago? And before that, even heavy duty trucks. Yes, they did have lower gearing.
But there has been a lot of discussion on this site about how underpowered full-sized cars with sixes were, when so equipped in the 70’s (admittedly not a common event). The effect of emissions controls I assume. And trucks nowadays have such powerful engines. Just seems like there has been a big change in expectations.
All engines lost power in the 70s and early 80s due to emission regs, and many of the cars and trucks got heavier. Plus they had an increasing number of power accessories (automatic, PS, AC, etc.). So yes, many of them become increasingly sluggish.
But these are from the ’60s, pre-smog controls. My 240 six was rated at 129 net hp; the 300 six at 150 net hp. By the ’80s, the 300 was down to just a bit over 100 hp.
These trucks have manual transmissions and zero power accessories. Makes a substantial difference.
When I saw that factory four speed shifter, 292ci six immediately came to mind. This is a ’69 or ’70 with minimal emission controls. 275ft-lb (gross) torque @ a diesel like 1600rpm is hardly wimpy for the day. 3.73 axle was standard, but that transmission has a “granny low”. Yes, the Suburban body is much heavier than a pickup, but it is a 2WD “half ton”. My ’71 C10 pickup was only 3500lb unladen, as I recall from the registration card.
I find the drip trail on the driver’s side nearly mimics the cutline had there been a four door variant. I am attracted to still hardworking old iron. I wonder if any of the new trucks and SUVs will still be servicing their owners in like fashion years from now.
But I’ll bet he doesn’t have overdrive!
Yes, these two old trucks make for great complements to one another. When someone says “Suburban” something like this still pops into my mind for half a second until I remember that a stripper, work-oriented Suburban has not been a thing for a very, very long time.
True that, about overdrive!
That’s the downside of a closed vehicle: shoveling landscape bark in and out of it. But my second gen Sienna is otherwise a competent landlord workhorse, with 12′ sticks of picture mold inside, one end on the dash, the hatch closed. 16′ pieces, though, have to ride sticking through the open sunroof.
Cool old truck, how funny that you have a semi-doppelganger there. I think as much as I hate trailering I’d hook one up for the bark or mulch or rock or whatever instead of scooping it in and out of this though. His has a hitch too, curious that he apparently doesn’t.
It’s interesting how the interior (fuzzy) shot of the backseat seems to show a doorpanel with metal door cutlines around the green surroundings even though there isn’t a door on that side. I get the doorpanel but curious about the metal around it, it vaguely looks like the whole thing is a door “plug” or something from the interior view. (Hard to describe, sorry).
I had a customer back in the day that had one of these. He kept it at his
“up north” hunting shack, brought it in once a year for an oil change and other service work. Doubtful any of the new stuff will survive like it did.