CC Lifestyle: Who Says You Need A Pickup Truck?

Benzamino

Sometimes it feels like I am the last person left in Alberta without ownership of at least one pickup. Full size trucks are definitely the go to vehicle in these parts with SUVs running close behind them. You’d think a full size truck for the husband and SUV for his lady is mandated by how many families follow this pattern. Our fellow citizens out east will often refer to Alberta as the Texas of Canada due to our oil industry and our seemly undying love for the pickup. As often seems to be the case I’m going against the grain and have no pickup or even *gasp* a SUV. We still have the occasional need to haul a load but our driveway only contains a fairly new compact hatchback and an elderly Mercedes sedan. I’ve been attempting to use to the Mercedes to its fullest potential so it has been my (slow) daily driver, cruiser, race car and now my pickup replacement.

Cardboard

First up is some light duty hauling of cardboard and paper to the recycling depot. For those of you not as familiar with the W114/W115 chassis cars they have an absolutely massive trunk that extends well past the lid right to the back of the seat.

atthescales

After replacing three leaky toilets I had to dispose of the remains. While they would have physically fit into our hatchback Mazda there was no way I wanted to make the twenty kilometer or so drive sharing the same compartment with that smelly load. The big and rubber mat lined Benz trunk came to the rescue again as three toilets fit back there with ease. I won’t say the trip was completely odor free but it wasn’t too bad. The scales operator did mention that I was driving the classiest hauler he’d seen so far that day. A dubious achievement no doubt but I’ll take it.

unloading

Three toilets in and it didn’t even require the removal of the spare tire. Plenty of room back there. If I’d been a little more organized I could have filled the empty space.

atthedump

Enjoy the scenery!

afterweight

Sans toilets the scale weight corresponds pretty closely to the published numbers. For those who are metric challenged 1450kg is 3197lbs.

thedrive

A little taste of rural Alberta on the drive home. I’m guessing those cows would be unimpressed with my “truck”.

scrap metal

The next task was clearing out the little pile scrap metal that had been cluttering up the garage. That blue bit of sheet metal was the remains of the 220D’s original and very rusty front fender. Thanks to the rust I was able to fold it quite flat. The bottle jack came with a car (’62 Beetle maybe) that I’d bought years ago and looked brand new but I had recently discovered didn’t work. Just over two hundred pounds of assorted crap that earned me something like six dollars. At least with a diesel that more than covers my fuel costs.

metalrecycling

Since I gave the Mercedes a glamor shot at the dump I better do another one at the metal yard. As I was leaving a folk lift driving employee asked me if I felt like Scrooge McDuck driving it.

So while I didn’t create my own Benzamino car/truck hybrid I did get a few chores done that many around here would claim requires at least a half ton truck. All I need now is a set of big rig style exhaust stacks and a rear window sticker of Calvin peeing on a BMW symbol.