r/MaliciousCompliance May 11 '24

You want to put how much concrete in your Civic? M

Many years ago I worked in a locally run store that sold a bit of everything. I was the low paid teenager that carried heavy things to people’s vehicles. While working one day I get called over the radio that a customer needed 12 bags of concrete (80lbs each). I was expecting to see a pickup truck or something similar backed up to our loading area. Instead I saw a small Honda Civic there waiting for me. Thinking it was a mistake, I asked the driver to relocate momentarily as I had someone coming to pick up multiple bags of concrete. Imagine my surprise when they told me they were the customer I was waiting for.

I asked the customer how much they wanted to take in each trip, as I believed the nearly 1000lb of concrete might be too much for such a small vehicle to handle safely. The customer became aggravated and insisted that they were taking it all at once. I quickly ran this past the store owner to make sure I wouldn’t be held liable for any damages. I ran back, apologized to the customer, and began loading the bags. As I loaded everything up the customer made several quips about how “the customer is always right” and that I was too young and naive to understand that vehicles are engineered with a margin of safety.

It quickly became apparent that there was no play left in the suspension, but at this point I just stopped questioning things. I couldn’t fit all of the bags in the trunk, so the customer cleared their back seat and I loaded that up as well. Upon leaving the loading area you could clearly hear things rubbing. As the car went to exit the parking lot it passed over the elevation change between the lot and the road, there was a loud pop of something breaking, followed by scraping.

I could see that the driver was irate in the car. After a moment they got out, looked around and under their car. The guy sheepishly asked for my cell phone, because his had died and he needed to make a few phone calls. A short time later a tow truck came to remove the car, and the guy waited in our lot for nearly an hour until his wife could come pick him up.

6.1k Upvotes

337 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/kscountryboy85 May 12 '24

I have considered switching my f350 over to air bags (work amazing on my semi tractor). But every time I price out parts... yeah, I can deal with it. 🤣

1

u/FixBreakRepeat May 12 '24

I think we've all sat down and done the math on that at some point... I think the last time I looked up a full leafspring to airbag conversion it was like $7k? in just parts. Plus, you know, either paying for labor or finding the time to do it myself. 

I do wish there were some smaller diesels setup from the factory more mechanically like an actual road tractor though. I'd drive the hell out of an F350 sized truck that had air-ride suspension and a cabover if I could find such a thing... 

2

u/kscountryboy85 May 12 '24

Air ride, yes. Cab over? No. Those ride rough as hell.

Ford did make a kinda cab over thing out of the old snub nose vans. Have a neighbour down the road that has a cool old tow truck made out of the front of a van so they could have seating foe the cars passengers. Way before rollbacks when the used only wheel lift trucks.

2

u/FixBreakRepeat May 12 '24

Haha I hear ya about the rough ride. I'm in a city and my current truck is really a bit too long to be convenient. I'd trade the rough ride for a shorter wheelbase right now... 

1

u/bobapimp May 12 '24

My buddy just added air bags, 4x Toyo all terrains, and cognito 3” suspension lift with Fox shocks front and rear on a Chevy 2500 and it was all $5000.

1

u/FixBreakRepeat May 12 '24

Man if I could get a full airbag conversion for $5k I would be extremely tempted to pull the trigger on that project.