10,000 pounds is a light load

Slate.com writer Seth Stevenson a href=”http://www.financialpost.com/executive/story.html?id=1244262″expressed skepticism/a over an ad for the Toyota Tundra pickup that aired during the Super Bowl, mainly because of the use of the word emtranny /emfor transmission. To wit: span style=”color:#000000;””I am puzzled by the announcer’s contention that ‘truckers know towing 10,000 pounds up a steep grade ain’t good for your tranny.’ I’m picturing a post-op sex change patient standing in the pickup’s bed, hands on hips, displeased with the truck’s towing power. What’s that you say? He means transmission? Oh. I suppose that would make more sense.”/spanbr /br /The real puzzler is the reference to 10,000 pounds. In any Class 8, well-versed in hauling loads four times that heavy and heavier, I’d say that’d be a cinch. Unless the announcer was talking about hotshots, of course. In which case emhotshots /emis the operative term, not emtruckers/em. Ah, the presumption of copywriters. . .div class=”blogger-post-footer”Channel 19 is the blog version of the column of the same name featured in Overdrive: The Voice of the American Trucker. Todd Dills (tdills@rrpub.com) is its author./div