CLICK & CLACK’S CAR TALK

By TOM & RAY MAGLIOZZI

LITTLE ROCK — Click & Clack (Tom and Ray Magliozzi) dispense advice about cars in Car Talk every Saturday. Email Click & Clack by visiting the Car Talk section of

cartalk.com

DEAR TOM AND RAY:

My husband inherited a 1974 Ford F-100 from his father, and I would like to use it to pick up a load of rocks for landscaping. My husband says it can’t handle this, and so I ask the question: Can the truck handle it? The drive is about 19 miles from the house, and I’m only talking about a scoop of rocks from a cement company. They basically scoop the rocks and dump them on the truck. I’m not sure about the weight of the rocks. Hope you can help ... I have an acre and would like to landscape part of my yard to avoid mowing a large area. My husband could just be making an excuse.

- Judy

TOM:

It can’t handle it, Judy. First we’ll give you the technical explanation, then we’ll give you the marital explanation.

RAY:

We haven’t seen a ’74 F-100 in ages. But the “100” designation meant that it was designed to carry up to half a ton, or 1,000 pounds.

TOM:

Or two and a half mothers-in-law.

RAY:

So the question is, “What does a pickup-truckbed full of rocks weigh?” According to our rock insiders, dry gravel weighs around 100 pounds a cubic foot. That’s heavy.

TOM:

I don’t know if your F100 has a 6-foot bed or an 8-foot bed, but let’s say it has an 8-foot bed. That means the bed is approximately 4-by-8 feet, or 32 square feet. And if you pile the gravel 1 foot high, you have 32 cubic feet. That’s 3,200 pounds.

RAY:

Or four broken springs and two broken axles.

TOM:

Even with a 6-foot bed, it’s still more than twiceas much as the truck was rated to carry.

RAY:

And before you start wondering if you could load only 4 inches of gravel in there, and make three trips, we’ll give you the marital reason for not doing this: If you do, every time the slightest squeak or groan comes from the truck, your husband will forever blame it on “that time you hauled the rocks in it.” So it’s just not worth it, Judy.

TOM:

But there is good news. Almost every place that sells really heavy stuff delivers! And as an added bonus, they’ll dump it, so you don’t even have to unload it yourself. What could be better than that?

DEAR TOM AND RAY:

I notice that car businesses that lube and change oil for passenger cars are now charging for recycling oil filters. Is this a scam, since I never see “recycled” oil filters for sale? Personally, I think oil filters would be too expensive to recycle.

- Chuck

RAY:

You’re right, Chuck, that actually recycling old oil filters and turning them back into new oil filters would be very expensive. But the materials still get recycled.

TOM:

Just like when you recycle an empty Cheerios box, it doesn’t necessarily come back as a new Cheerios box. The material - the cardboard - gets recycled and reused for something else.

RAY:

Based on my most recent visit to a public restroom, I think those Cheerios boxes are coming back - basically unaltered - as toilet paper.

TOM:

When you have hazardous waste, like oil, it has to be disposed of properly. So the owner of the garage has to pay a licensed handler to come and take it away so the handler can dump it in our water supply in the middle of the night when no one’s looking.

RAY:

Now, I know your next question, Chuck: “Why are they charging me separately for that - why isn’t it just part of the price of the oil change, like it used to be?”

TOM:

Good question. The answer is advertising. If your local Pokey Lube wants to advertise an oil change for $19.95, but it can’t really make money doing oil changes for $19.95, then it adds fees.

RAY:

These could include a recycling fee, a waste-oildisposal fee, a fee for use of shop rags and lubricants, or a fee for the Cinemax the owner is showing in the waiting room. You have to read the fine print, Chuck.

TOM:

You’ve probably noticed that the airlines are doing this, too. The fare from here to East Armpit is only $59. But the airport departure fee is $47, the fuel surcharge is $82, the landing fee is $107, the Federal Aviation Administration’s “Oh, You Want Us to Pay Attention While You Land” fee is $68, the peanuts are $5, the blanket is $10, the aisle seat is $35 and checking two bags costs $50.

RAY:

There’s also a charge for supplementary oxygen, but only in the unlikely event that the cabin loses pressure. But bring a bunch of quarters just in case.

TOM:

Just like with your oil-filter recycling fee, all of these charges are based on real expenses. They’re just being separated out of the base price so you think the price of the service is lower than it actually is.

This article was published November 14, 2009 at 4:52 a.m.

HomeStyle, Pages 39 on 11/14/2009

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