Recently it's become more and more evident to me that a lot of people in the scene are way too negative toward each other. Mini-truckin' is a community and should first and foremost be a tight-knit group of family and friends sharing their passion. However, after receiving this letter (edited to fit the page), and seeing more and more online communities and groups in general feeding off negativity, I decided something should be said. Here's the letter:
Hello, I've been reading Mini Truckin' magazine ever since I was a freshman in high school. It's what reeled me in! I started building my first ride when I was 15 years old. After a killer sound system, smoothed and painted interior accents, a 5/6 drop, and my very first outing with a truck club, I decided to purchase the Holy Grail of mini-truck modifications: air-ride parts. This past winter was spent plowing snow, courtesy of my fresh '01 Envoy front bumper and the unsightly carrier-bearing X-member on Extended Cab S-series trucks. The more I thought about air-ride on my daily driver, the more it seemed like a bad idea. So what did I do to get through non-hammered, friendly Illinois winters? I traded the truck off on a brand-new Subaru Impreza. All but two members of the club stopped talking to me and even my girlfriend became angry with me. Why on Earth would they think so much less of me? It's not like I showered it with stickers and bolt-on parts, slapped a monster coffee can on the back, added an underbody kit with neons, and began calling myself Paul Walker! It's just a nice, reliable daily driver until I find my Hardbody project. Mini-truckin' is a community. There are no set rules on how to be a mini-trucker. It is what it is. I talk to all walks of custom life, and I think the world would be a much better place if others thought the same.
There are two things going on that I think have led to the majority of negativity in the scene, and both directly affect one another. The first is the age group. The mini-truckin' scene is quickly becoming a younger group of truck enthusiasts, and as such, many are new to the custom world, and age and ignorance go hand in hand (trust me, there's plenty I don't know about, especially anything that took place in the scene before 1995). So, yes, the younger crowd might be partly to blame.
But in my opinion, the other contributor lies in the hands of our mentors. The river runs of the old days were just as wild if not wilder than any show today. Mini-truckers are by nature the underground rebel style of enthusiasts, and as such, we feed on more hard-core events, trucks, and people. This is not a bad thing, but it can be controlled better. If the OGs of our scene and the guys who have been around longer would take the youngins under their wings (like many have done for me) and teach them instead of bashing them for not knowing what they know, this would have a tremendous effect and would help to create a more positive atmosphere for everybody.
We really need to stop and realize that we are all part of the same society and that no one out there is better than someone else because they know this or that. The sooner we can unite and come together as a whole rather than constantly putting down one another, the sooner we'll see a big revival in the scene. I hate to say it, but I'm sure we lose people all the time to the import or other communities because someone might try to build a mini, and after all the bashing and hatin' are done, they get fed up and move on. Like we've said many times before, it's not what you drive, it's a way of life. So let's go out there and be a positive light for those around us! Please drag true. L888888888.