Who Uses A-Pillar Grab Handles On Dodge Trucks? (Warning!)

[Mike DC]

As a slowly recovering really fat guy (current just Fat Guy), that is 6-4 but thankfully strong for my size, I never use grab handles or side steps on vehicles for fear of breaking them or bending rocker panels. I'm down over 150lbs recently and still plenty to go, but how much better i feel without carrying around another adult human of weight is insane. Back in the day, a great family friend with a c2 corvette convertible threw me the keys to take it around the block, and i could not fit behind the wheel, that was the wake up call to change my thinking and start to fix myself. Last fall, i was able to finally fit, but felt as if my head was above the windshield, still a dream car though, good times.

Very well done, man.  I mean it.  Losing big weight is REALLY difficult these days.  Our culture is tailored to low activity & over-eating.  With all the HFCS, the loss of micronutrients, the antibiotic-fed meat, the estrogenic effects of microplastics . . . our food supply is basically hot-rodded to encourage weight gain.  And once you have been big for a while, your body's hormonal programming is sort of re-wired to try to keep you big.   


Early Corvettes are just damn tiny inside.  I worked on several C1-C3s a few years ago.  I was barely 6'0" and 180 lbs and they felt too small for me.  (I do have kinda long arms & legs for my size though.)  A Mazda Miata interior feels big in comparison. 
 
 

[Kern Dog]

I've noticed and I'm guessing that you can confirm that the colder and wetter states have higher humidity and your interiors don't wear out as fast as they do in the warmer and drier states. I've rarely seen an unmodified old A body with a nice looking dash pad on it. Our cars sit in 110 degree heat and get dried out and brittle.
My truck theoretically should have shown the same signs as those Dart dash pads but mine are still pliable and reasonably soft. I have seen trucks in junkyards with broken handles on the A pillars, missing a pillars and some with cracks forming. I thought that I was just lucky with this truck. I turned 400,000 miles on it a month ago and I want to keep it forever.

[Mike DC]

Yeah, the wet states tend to preserve interiors longer than the dry states do.  Opposite of what happens with sheetmetal. 

Modern interiors are lasting longer than they used to because of better plastic/vinyl materials + everything comes with OEM tinted glass.

[Old Moparz]

I thought that I was just lucky with this truck. I turned 400,000 miles on it a month ago and I want to keep it forever.

Maybe it's all that hand lotion you use, it's helping preserve your handles. 

[Kern Dog]

Ha...Nice try but that is a swing and a miss!
I'm not the "hand lotion" type. I've had rough hands from construction and working on cars since the mid 80s!