Part of the Green Green Owner/Builder series
by Jen Pennington

Since I’ve been writing about efficient alternative vehicles and recently with coverage of the November SEMA 2009 show, it’s probably only fair that I share some of our own auto choices. While purchasing a hybrid would surely be nice, it was not practical for us at the time nor affordable.

A few years ago before we started our house project, we asked ourselves, “do we need a pickup truck when we begin to build our house?” Seems like everyone we knew had one, but we just couldn’t afford it, and we needed a high mileage car for other reasons. Sure we could fit a lot more things in a pickup truck and get them to the job site easier, faster, and minimize the cost of having deliveries sent to the site, but where’s the fun in that?

Over the last few years I have come across a series of pictures of the strange things we have done to our poor 1998 Toyota Rav and 2005 Matrix. They have been filled with both the heaviest and lightest of items, carried bales of hay, stacks of cement blocks, bags of garbage and recyclables, been used as a short distance logging device and carrier for a few SIPS panels. There is even a platform set up on top of the Rav for Bob to photograph wildlife. The same rack was used to recreate a scene from an IKEA commercial by strapping large boxes to the top while listening to the straps whistle and thump for miles in the middle of a snowstorm in Utah. On one Whidbey trip, over twenty 3-inch pieces of electrical conduit were affixed on top and performed incredibly like a sinister organ as we traveled 45 mph down the road. More recently, I cinched a series of Styrofoam forms equaling a mass of 2’ x 4’ x 8’ ft. block and drove it from Seattle to Whidbey Island. I was convinced the car would lift off the ground and become a bad Disney Flying Nun/Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang moment. People tend to move out of your way, it’s amazing how that works.

So if you’re thinking about buying a big ass pickup truck before starting a big project, obviously it would be more helpful. But I say, cowboy-up, save some gas, look ridiculously like Jed Clampett from the Beverly Hillbillies and stuff that little vehicle to the max. Be safe, cover your load, cinch tight, and embrace the embarrassment.