S-179

[Bees Knees]

It would not kill it because no doubt, in most states, it is illegal to ride in the pickup bed, so the function of an open window to talk to illegal riders is not a legit function, therefore, the illegal activity defeats the limitation and you can deduct the whole 108K in one year.

Unless you make the riders in the pickup bed wear seat belts...

[Black Bart]

Illegal?

It would not kill it because no doubt, in most states, it is illegal to ride in the pickup bed, so the function of an open window to talk to illegal riders is not a legit function, therefore, the illegal activity defeats the limitation and you can deduct the whole 108K in one year.

Unless you make the riders in the pickup bed wear seat belts...

It's against the law to ride in the back of a pickup truck up there? Good heavens! No wonder Yankees pay so much attention to rules and regulations (it's not like you were robbin' a train or anything).

Veritas had a good point about "Oregon Trail independence." That "truck law" is a good example of government making us do what it thinks best -- I'll bet those enacting it had never ridden in the back of a truck (I, and probably some of you, have) and hadn't the slightest idea why one would occasionally need to do so on a farm. Sure, it's safer for dopes who drive like maniacs with kids in the back, but for normal and ordinary people, it can simply mean they have to go to the house and get the car or take two trucks if they need to go to town (although the "quadcab" models are eliminating this). Basically it translates to this: the majority of people have to do unnecessary and simplistic things in order to prevent the worst case behavior of the worst ignoramus in the state.

[Black Bart]

I'm behind the times

as usual. Bees' memo prompted me to go look it up and, sure enough, our state (Arkansas) does have a law about "no riding in pickup beds," although there's an exemption for employees on duty. I went on to read about it and, apparently, stuff is flying out of trucks right and left. There were many related horror stories about people and objects being blown/thrown: a man killed by furniture falling from truck onto roadway / wind blew plywood out of truck--knocked out the windshield of a lady following and blinded her / four people thrown on the highway and killed when truck was hit by another / and many other chain-reaction wrecks and so forth. Anyhow, I'm converted -- it's worth the extra trip or a quad cab.

One of the many pitfalls to getting older is that it's easy to sort of stay "stuck" in the past with attitudes that were formed many years prior and, given today's conditions and attitudes, are irrelevant and no longer apply. It's been over 25 years since I lived on a farm (I didn't farm, but my wife's dad had one), and we occasionally rode in the truck bed on slow-moving traffic gravel roads--no 70 MPH freeways. Too (and this is surely the attitude of an old-timer), drivers seemed more responsible and not so inclined to "show-off" or drive like maniacs (anybody noticed how many girls do that now?--unknown in my day). We had several "wild and crazy guys" then, but you generally knew who to not ride with, and there were no drugs here then (meth is now rampant). All you had to watch out for was the occasional known drunk.

Sorry, Bees. I guess it's not just a Yankee thing.

[Bees Knees]

As a kid, I rode around in the back of pick up trucks all the time out on my grandma's farm. Today, we have seat belt laws. It wouldn't make any sense to say it is illegal to ride in a car seat without wearing a seat belt, but then say it is OK to ride in the back of a pick up truck without one.