Bullshit by the numbers

Hmmm, can't help with the conundrum and who cares if it is misleading, a lot of ads are. You ever bought a hamburger that looks like the ones in the ad?

30,000# is only 7500# per wheel and a tire would probably managed to cope with that momentary load without bursting. Might rip some cords but hitting a deep pot hole at speed can momentary load up a tire as much or more than that.

"Gains energy," really? I suspect you mean the energy is converted from Potential to Kinetic! {grin}

Dave

Some of those Toyota ads during the Daytona 500 were amazing. I owned a Toyota SR5, and it was a good truck, but just a wannabe truck.

They say the PU will take 30,000 of energy, and drop an obviously empty box into the bed from a height, suspended from a helicopter.

Now, I know the box didn't weigh 30,000# or the tires would have burst. I know that an object gains energy as it falls.

Can anyone estimate what the box actually weighed?

I think the ad is misleading to the 99% of the people who don't understand what they are seeing.

Some of those other ads are very questionable to me, too. Show me real life situations, and not something that I'll never ever run into in driving.

Steve

"Dave, I can't do that" (clip) 30,000# is only 7500# per wheel and a tire would probably managed to

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I agree that the ad has no realistic meaning, so this is academic.

*Placing* 30,000 lb in the truck bed and *dropping* the same weight into the bed are not the same. If the springs and tires compress so the bed drops 1' (say). and the weight drops from a height of 10' (say), the deceleration is 10 G's. That's equivalent to *placing* a weight of 300,000# in the truck.

I think I saw that ad, but with the sound turned off. You mean you don't live in a place where helicopters routinely drop large crates into the backs of moving pickups? Here in Oregon City we have to keep an eye out for that all the time. We just listen for a helicopter and start swerving when we do (unless we drive Toyotas, in which case we know it'll turn out OK). However, just east of here in Estacada and Molalla it happens so often that truck owners openly display rifles in the back windows of their trucks, as a warning to the helicopter pilots that they may be shot down if they make the attempt.

Of course, these guys rarely try this trick if you have a canopy, a pipe rack or even a tonneau cover, so the country-boy wannabes who move to Estacada or Molalla for the cheap housing and proximity to hiking (at all times of the year but hunting season, where you may encounter men with Guns), will often have these mounted on their trucks as protection.

Did they really say "30,000 pounds of energy"? If so, they were emphatically stating that they don't know physics, or that in their considered opinion you don't, because a pound is not a measure of energy. To be excruciatingly technical, a pound is a measure of force, which makes a foot-pound a measure of energy (as well as of torque, it depends on what you do with it). Even if you take a pound as a measure of mass (it isn't, although engineers do use a "pound-mass" to mean approximately 1/32 of a slug) then it's still not a measure of energy unless you either (a) specify a velocity (squared) to multiply the mass by, or (b) assume that they meant the energy released by directly converting over 13000 kilograms of mass to energy, in which case the truck, the helicopter, and possibly the entire earth would have been blown up.

This is what happens when you let clueless marketing dweebs read and misinterpret technical literature and then have the ad copy run by equally clueless lawyers.

Yes, but equally stupid and directly attesting to the driveability of red-neck kiddie cars are the ones hat show them skidding around in all types of terrain and weather.

Bob Swinney

This is what happens when you let clueless marketing dweebs read and misinterpret technical literature and then have the ad copy run by equally clueless lawyers.

That's exactly why I moved from Oregon City. I own a Chevy, and with all the helicopters flying around (especially during the pre-Christmas tree harvest season), I was at my wit's end. Simply never knowing when or where a 30,000 # mystery box would land in the back of my pickup was more than I could bear. Been flying lately, or has the rain got all of you guys grounded? Paul

I've been too busy to build them faster than I can crash them, so I mostly go out to the field on Saturdays and visit with people.

I've been considering cutting out a paper airplane shape out of Depron, gluing a radio and motor on it, telling it that it's an airplane and flinging it into the air. I don't even have time for _that_, though.

Never even thought of the two cables, but in order to guide it into the bed, they would have to be somewhat taut, and that would take SOME of the load.

Steve

Gee, Dave. I don't know. You're so smart, you tell me what I meant.

Steve

What he said.

I'm surprised that they didn't have a buxom blonde with big hair in there running an OA torch (with acetylene valve only open) and wearing a tank top and a welding hood.

Steve

The whole idea of driving is to not run in to anything.

It maybe just a cultural mis-step, with Toyota top dogs in Japan giving the OK to the ad smug in the knowledge that NASCAR fans are ignorant rednecks who would fall for anything. On the other hand, the possibility of a big crate falling into your truck is about the same as needing 4 wheel drive going to and from Albertsons every day.

I guess some rednecks are stooping to driving Toyotas today. But the ones I have seen are wannabe rednecks driving wannabe trucks. But then, with the high price tag mentality, they think for some reason the truck is better than others.

BTW, have you tried getting into the Albertson's store in Cedar City, Utah through the snow drifts? 4wd works.

Steve

(snip)

I don't know about Steve, but I'd put it down as someone who lives a suburban life, but has some peculiar notions about the ease and joy of living in the country so they try to imitate the external signs of a country boy (or girl) without really having a clue of what is actually involved. Your average country life can be quite joyous, but it's only easy if you're filthy rich.

So, here some of the signs that I look for:

• Dressed like a cowboy going to a dance, but: * They do it every day, to go to the office; * they wouldn't know which end of a horse to put a halter on, much less how to do so without injury to themselves or the horse; * they think the question "do you prefer a snaffle or a curb?" is either about car racing or bizarre sexual practices.

• They drive a five year old "truck" which has no scratches on the bed.

• They have a big shiny 4WD rig that has never left dry pavement.

• They have shitkicker boots which have never, ever, touched _anything_ that came out of a horse.

(I'd put in a dig about always voting republican because Regan was a real cowboy, but I'll refrain in no small part because fools come in all political stripes).

I suppose if there were movies about heroic welders ("Return to Brokeback Shipyard"?) you'd see people wearing pristine welding caps, boots and shirts...

I don't think it's that so much as the desire to be seen as a MAN. Too many guys are in dorky office jobs and envy the guy who can use a chainsaw or other dangerous stuff, or even wrenches and hammers. Just look at the flyers from the hardware and tool shops: full of stuff aimed right at those office guys. Not much of it is really useful to the real outdoorsman or mechanic, but it sure looks good in the garage or yard. Impresses the other dorky guys in the neighborhood. Until the user cuts off a hand or something. Or gets his 4x4 stuck in a tiny puddle. Or rolls it into the ditch, a result of thinking that having 4WD makes him immune to the black ice. Lots of guys have grown up in homes where there was no chance of fooling with mechanical stuff, and they miss it. I made sure my son had access to lots of tools, power tools of his own when he was only

10 or so, things like a small drill press and scroll saw. Now he is admired for his abilities, while his friends are all going to college to try to learn something.

Dan

Boy, you hit it on the head. Only thing I'd add is that they would be wearing creased ironed starched Levis, and similarly treated Wrangler shirts. Plaid, pink, puce, or mauve, of course.

Steve

I think that early access to reality problem solving kickstarts something in the brain. That early start gives them a leg up that the others never catch up on. Just like a 20 year old will never catch up to the age of a 40 year old.

Steve