Ride in the box....

I did it many times as a kid too but we did stupid things too. My wife's first husband fell out of one in Vegas and was killed some years back.

A couple years ago I rode in the back of one in Wyoming mule deer hunting. It got rather cold on the road between ranches we hunted on. Second day the guide got a couple hay bales to sit on and was better.
There were just too many of us to ride in the single cab and nobody available to drive a second truck.
 
My father had a 7 acre peach orchard. He bought a 1958 Studebaker 1/2 ton pickup to move the peaches to market in. We used to ride around the orchard sitting on the tail gate. One time my brother and two of his friends were sitting on the tail gate when the chain broke and dumped them on the ground. No one was hurt as you never drove fast in the orchard as the dust would stick to the peaches.

I remember our first trip to Yosemite my sister and I rode in the back of the truck while my Mother and Father rode in the front.

He sold the orchard and the truck became our hunting truck. I remember many a predawn cold ride in the back of that truck in the mountains on the headwaters of the Sacramento river to go deer hunting. It was not much warmer in the cab as it did not have a heater. It did not take long to discover that the best spot to sit was directly over the muffler for the heat it put out. That truck is currently parked in my driveway.
 
start of summer vacation from school my grandfather,my dad and i took off to see the west,we had a new 69 GMC pickup,2 big coolers of food and softdrinks.went from central ky to montana and back,and i road in the bed of the truck the whole way,best vacation ever
 
Are we all talking about the same thing, here?

The original post said the kid was in a box, in the back of the truck.

Many of the responses are about how "I rode in the box all the time", and y'all are talking about the bed.

As I read that original post, the kid was in a box, that was in the bed.

I rode in the bed of a pickup, in high school. Didn't hurt me.

I carried my kids in the bed of my pickup for years.

I see nothing wrong with riding in the bed - sitting on the deck, or on the wheel-well.

But, several years back there was a local story. Little kid. She was in a plastic wading pool, in the bed of the pickup. And somehow that plastic wading pool took flight. Pool, and little girl, landed in the highway, where she was killed by another car.

I don't think there would have been a problem, if she had just been "in the bed". But being in that pool, with all that solid surface area to catch wind. Hell, maybe his tailgate was down (story did not say whether it was up or down) and the pool bounced out. Would not have happened if it was just the kid on the bed floor.

So - if it's some little kid, in a BIG box (like, maybe, an appliance box - washer, refrigerator) - that BIG box could leave the truck bed much easier than just the kid would.
 
Not a pick-up truck story but in '83, post-separation/pre-divorce and with a brand new job with lots of OT, I bought myself a brand new 300ZX coupe to replace the family car which had left with the wife. Too bad it had only two bucket seats and I had two very young kids. :eek:

Anyway, to make a long story short, the kids and I... and lots of neighbor kids... had more fun zooming around town and going places and getting ice cream cones with as many as 5 or 6 kids stuffed into the "wayback." :D

We laugh out loud about it today, 30-odd years later. :p My, how things have changed! ;) The "PC police" would be horrified and I'd be in jail for sure for child endangerment or something even worse. :D But we all survived and had a great time in the old Z-car. :) Those were the days! :D
 
It said something about the box......

Alpo said:
Are we all talking about the same thing, here?

The original post said the kid was in a box, in the back of the truck.

Many of the responses are about how "I rode in the box all the time", and y'all are talking about the bed.

As I read that original post, the kid was in a box, that was in the bed.

I rode in the bed of a pickup, in high school. Didn't hurt me.

I carried my kids in the bed of my pickup for years.

I see nothing wrong with riding in the bed - sitting on the deck, or on the wheel-well.

But, several years back there was a local story. Little kid. She was in a plastic wading pool, in the bed of the pickup. And somehow that plastic wading pool took flight. Pool, and little girl, landed in the highway, where she was killed by another car.

I don't think there would have been a problem, if she had just been "in the bed". But being in that pool, with all that solid surface area to catch wind. Hell, maybe his tailgate was down (story did not say whether it was up or down) and the pool bounced out. Would not have happened if it was just the kid on the bed floor.

So - if it's some little kid, in a BIG box (like, maybe, an appliance box - washer, refrigerator) - that BIG box could leave the truck bed much easier than just the kid would.
Click to expand...

It also said something about a fiber glass 'lid'. I don't have any Idea what composed this 'box', just pointing out the difference between then and now. We would have thought it was an adventure and if the car didn't go too fast it wouldn't blow out or toss us around. There were three kids in there so I figure it was a rather large whatever they were talking about. One of them was probably smart enough to open the lid when it got warm and stuffy.

I never liked riding on top of the wheel well if conditions were good. The ideal was to side with your back against the cab.

This is a good feeling:

Riding down a dirt road at 40-50 mph in an old F-150 trailing clouds of dust in its wake (before they put A/C in trucks (and nobody thought that it SHOULD have an A/C) between fields (watermelons on one side and corn on the other) on a hot summer day with at least three people in the car. The bench seat is obligatory, they didn't put 'bucket' seats in trucks and nobody had ever heard of a 'captain's chair' except on a ship. Both windows would be all the way down and the side vent windows turned backwards in order to funnel the hot air straight into the cab and all over you. It would be an extra if the radio was real loud on a country or pop station, preferable AM). Loud because the road and the wind are so noisy that it has to be turned up in order not to miss a beat. Add an ice cold soda and a moon pie or bag of peanuts. This has to be what heaven is like. If everybody in the world did this a couple of times a year, there wouldn't be any more wars.
 
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Besides the pick up bed we also sat on the tailgate of my Dad's station wagon while on fire trails by my cousin's cabin. I also remember riding on the truck of my cousin's car on those same trails. Sometimes we fell off rounding a curve but nobody ever got hurt. I don't believe though we were going very fast either.
I used to put my English Setter in the bed of my truck when the cab was full. I did have concern about her falling out so made a vee with a rope to each side of the bed. She could move around some but not get too near the side or fall out. I believe it illegal now to let a dog ride in the bed.
 
My Beagle was riding in the back of my pickup one day when he spied a Jack Rabbit. He jumped out and rolled a couple of times and took off after the rabbit. Had a heck of a time getting him back in the truck. He got to ride in the cab after that. My Uncle and I were out in his boat in Suisun Slough with the Beagle along for the ride. He was sitting on the bow and smelled something he wanted to investigate and it was dog overboard.
 
rwsmith said:
It also said something about a fiber glass 'lid'. I don't have any Idea what composed this 'box', just pointing out the difference between then and now. We would have thought it was an adventure and if the car didn't go too fast it wouldn't blow out or toss us around. There were three kids in there so I figure it was a rather large whatever they were talking about. One of them was probably smart enough to open the lid when it got warm and stuffy.

I never liked riding on top of the wheel well if conditions were good. The ideal was to side with your back against the cab.

This is a good feeling:

Riding down a dirt road at 40-50 mph in an old F-150 trailing clouds of dust in its wake (before they put A/C in trucks (and nobody thought that it SHOULD have an A/C) between fields (watermelons on one side and corn on the other) on a hot summer day with at least three people in the car. The bench seat is obligatory, they didn't put 'bucket' seats in trucks and nobody had ever heard of a 'captain's chair' except on a ship. Both windows would be all the way down and the side vent windows turned backwards in order to funnel the hot air straight into the cab and all over you. It would be an extra if the radio was real loud on a country or pop station, preferable AM). Loud because the road and the wind are so noisy that it has to be turned up in order not to miss a beat. Add an ice cold soda and a moon pie or bag of peanuts. This has to be what heaven is like. If everybody in the world did this a couple of times a year, there wouldn't be any more wars.
Click to expand...

1968 White Chevrolet C10 pickup truck. no headliner, black rubber mats on the floor, red vinyl seat (bench) three on the tree AM radio-no ac straight six under the hood. Three in the cab-the rest of us in the back with an ice chest full of beer, .22's and a bull light. Yep-don't get no better than that :D Don't get no more illegal than that either ;)
 
Absalom said:
It's like it is with all stupid things we used to do.

The ones who made it without getting killed are here to brag about it and make light of it.

The ones who didn't, aren't.

I don't believe it's the law's job to protect grown-up idiots from themselves (an unfortunate trend today), but adults putting kids at risk who don't know any better is a different thing.
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Ain't that the truth. I rode for untold miles in the bed of my Dad's pickup as a kid, and I'm sure I never wore a seatbelt on the rare times I got to sit in front.

But I also had to try to interview a grandpa a couple of years ago who ran over and killed his 3 year old grandson. Gramps let the little guy climb around on the front seat with him while they took the dirt road to the highway, then would buckle him up. Worked great until the truck took a hard bounce at about 15 mph and the kid went out the window and under the back wheels.
 
One of the most thrilling (and few) memories from when I was a little one was standing on my fathers lap with my hands on the steering wheel driving down the road. Man I was driving! Vivid today as it was when I was 2. Today the safety know-it-alls have banned such things. Stealing the fun and memories out of life with their superior wisdom. :rolleyes:

We're all going to die. I don't need anyone telling me how not to live.
 
I rode in the back of many pickups when I was a kid. Most of the time I'd rather be in the back than in the front. That was 50 years ago, in a different world. We lived out in the sticks and the risk was low. But times have changed. Even 25 years ago I wouldn't put my kids back there at highway speeds. It is just too hazardous. These days with all the inattentive driving by cell phone weilding idiots, it is even worse. One hard swerve or brake application to avoid one of them and you have a tragedy that didn't have to happen. Should the government pass laws to protect children from their parent's poor decisions? A lot if people will say yes and a lot of people will say no.
 
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yeah, if you live away.....

Yeah, if you live out in the sticks you could get by with some of that but in general roads are too dangerous now even if you are buckled in the cab. I just feel for my son. I think he has SOME concept of what a clean, good time it, but mostly it's the opposite.
 
Now that's sad.....

Brian41 said:
I believe it illegal now to let a dog ride in the bed.
Click to expand...

Now that's sad. I wonder what they would say about the guy that rides his dog on his motorcycle.

I was heading home after shopping and my dog was in the back seat. When I got home I opened the hatch and SHE WASN'T THERE. I had sliding windows on the side and she must have seen something she liked, slid the window open and jumped out. To make a long story short I finally got her back.
 
After reading about parents being charged for allowing their 10 year to - gasp - walk to school the whole quarter mile by herself, I stopped keeping track. I walked 1.5 miles each way every day (not uphill each way although if it snowed or was very cold, I still walked) when I was six. In the summer, I disappeared at dawn and did not return to parental supervision until the streetlights were on (except for meals sometimes). I do not think we know how much harm (sissification?) that we are doing to kids these days with all our over protective rules.
 
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rwsmith said:
Most dogs seem to REALLY enjoy going for a ride, unless it's to the vet or the kennel.
Click to expand...
I had a Cockapoo that adopted me after having lived with 1) The breeder that owned momma a daddy dogs. 2) The mid eighty YO couple that bought the puppy from the breeder. Wife passed within six weeks and husband passed in another six weeks. 3) Puppy goes back to breeder. 4) One of my sister's MIL buys puppy from breeder. Sister's MIL passed after owning puppy for about 12 weeks. 5) Sister takes puppy to her house. Sister already has three dachshund dogs that do NOT welcome new puppy. 6) Sister asked me to PLEASE take puppy. That was one of the few really GREAT decisions I made in my life. We had each other for 14+ years.

And yes, she LOVED to ride in the truck bed. Even more exciting for her than just riding in the truck bed was riding in the bed on the way to the veterinarian. She would start dancing around like she was on fire when we got within about 1/2 mile of the vets office. I asked the vet about her reaction when she realized where we were. He said some dogs are just crazy and then some just love to go to the vet. ;)

Class III
 
Rollover prompts clarification of MN law

On the news tonight, a story about a 16-year-old kid who rolled his pickup with a bed full of passengers. Three in the cab and six in the box. No alcohol involved, they were on their way home from a church event. Amazingly, there were no serious injuries.

A viewer had expressed surprise that it was still legal to ride in the box, prompting the talking head to clarify that it was legal as long as all the seat belts in the cab were in use.
 
rwsmith said:
Now that's sad. I wonder what they would say about the guy that rides his dog on his motorcycle.
Click to expand...

I stopped at the rest stop on I 5 just south of Portland one day and there was a guy on his motorcycle and he had his cat with him. He had a carrier strapped to the back of the motorcycle. The cat seemed to be perfectly content.
 
When I was a kid, we rode in the boat (Texas Maid Fiesta) behind the truck from Irving to Possum Kingdom every weekend. Also rode in our travel trailer. Those were fun times....
 
Even by today's standards......

My parents never led us to or put us in danger. Now people will say that kids should NEVER ride in the bed of a pickup truck. If my folks let us ride that way, they did NOTHING to endanger us like going into traffic, or bounce us out or throw us around. We played and climbed on everything. We weren't made out of China nor were we stupid enough to do something that would really put us in danger. If all parents had the same level of responsibility that mine did there would be a lot less trouble in the world.
 
My sister and I rode to California in the bed of this 1947 International in 1951. We had some side boards and a tarp on the truck. There was a mattress in the bed.

I remember once while riding with my Dad he remarked "look there, we're running a mile a minute" as the speedometer read sixty MPH.

Over the years I have hauled 4H kids and base ball kids all over in the backs of trucks. I was very fortunate not to have any accidents with other peoples kids. It was a very different time.

standard.jpg
 
Many years ago, I saw the aftermath of a head-on crash where someone was standing in the bed of a truck. It seemed like he flew through the air for a hundred yards before he landed on the pavement and then he slid another one hundred, mostly on his face (probably was less but it seemed like 100 yards). Colorado River on Memorial Day, so I am sure alcohol was involved!
 
Here's the story copied and pasted from The Bismarck Tribune. This happened a few hours west of where I live. Notice it says 'Truck's Box', which is the truck's bed, not a box in the truck bed. And yes, growing up as a North Dakota farmer, I took many trips in the bed of a pick-up!!!!

BURLINGTON (AP) — Formal charges are pending against an Alabama woman who was stopped by authorities in North Dakota driving a pickup truck with four young children in the truck's box.

Ward County Chief Deputy Bob Barnard says the pickup was stopped Thursday afternoon on U.S. Highway 2 near Burlington. He says deputies found children ages 6, 7, 8 and 8 in the box, which had a fiberglass cover.

Three adults and children ages 1, 2 and 10were in the cab of the pickup. Barnard says the 1-year-old was the only child restrained in a car seat.

The 32-year-old woman driving the truck was arrested on child restraint violations and a felony charge of reckless endangerment. The children were turned over to other family members after arrangements were made to safely transport them.
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But I think the accident in Minnesota probably highlights the reasoning for the laws banning the activity:


Nine injured when pickup filled with teens riding in truck bed rolls


August 24, 2015 12:55 pm • Forum News Service

ANNANDALE, Minn. -- A pickup truck with seven teenagers riding in the truck bed and two in the cab rolled late Sunday, injuring all nine.

Wright County sheriff's deputies responded to the report of a single vehicle rollover accident near Annandale just after 10 p.m.. When deputies arrived, they found a 1998 Chevy S10 pickup that had been severely damaged in a bean field near the intersection of County Road 35 NW and Peyton Ave. NW in French Lake Township

Two teenagers were in the cab of the 1998 Chevy S10 pickup and seven other passengers were riding in the truck bed, the sheriff's office said in a news release.

Blayne Kovisto, 16, of Dassel, was driving the truck and Nels Wuollet, 16, also of Dassel, was the front seat passenger. Ryan Raisanen, 17, Greenfield; Kyle Laho, 16, Corcoran; Clayton Johnson, 15, Dassel; Niklas Lee, 15, Greenfield; Payton Halonen, 15, Monticello; Chad Hoikka, 15, Cokato; and Garrett Keplinger, 15, Cokato; were all passengers in the truck bed.

Eight passengers were transferred by ambulance to different hospitals in the area and the driver, Kovisto, was flown to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.

Annandale is about 25 miles south of St. Cloud.
 
HOUSTON RICK said:
After reading about parents being charged for allowing their 10 year to - gasp - walk to school the whole quarter mile by herself, I stopped keeping track. I walked 1.5 miles each way every day (not uphill each way although if it snowed or was very cold, I still walked) when I was six. In the summer, I disappeared at dawn and did not return to parental supervision until the streetlights were on (except for meals sometimes). I do not think we know how much harm (sissification?) that we are doing to kids these days with all our over protective rules.
Click to expand...

This was the way it was for me and some of my friends. Holy cow..my father was a Chesapeake bay waterman(as was I later) and we'd (my friends) and I would go down to the river and use his skiff(with motor) and run up and down the river jumping out of the boat(in 40-60 feet of water). We'd ride the back of the truck and on top of hay wagons(stacked)....jump out of the loft of the barn carry a gun at the age of 10...Yep we knew we could be hurt but..even as kids we avoided things that looked dangerous...and guns were never pointed at another person...never. I also agree with the last statement Houston Rick wrote above.. And my last statement is so many parents today don't each their kids RIGHT FROM WRONG and when things go wrong it is NEVER their kid's fault! They are right..it's their(the parent's) fault
 
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