Rat-Loader

"Don't think of this as buying a rusty pick-up truck with shoddy brakes; think of it as buying a piece of history. The 1930s look is huge right now, so you'll have to act fast if you want to beat the hipsters to the punch. We know you'll treasure this classic Rat-loader from Bravado just as much as the previous 19 owners did."

- Southernsanandreassuperautos.com description for Rat-Loader. "Mint condition Rat-Loader. This 1930s pickup truck looks like you just drove it out of the Bravado dealership with a quart of moonshine in your pocket and the great depression on your mind."

- Southernsanandreassuperautos.com description for Rat-Truck.

The Bravado Rat-Loader (and Rat-Truck) is a pickup truck in Grand Theft Auto V.

Design
The truck appears to be a rat rod version of the Duneloader and features very strong design elements from the 1930s, resembling a Ford Model A pickup from the late '20s and a 1940 International Harvester D2. The truck features a ramshackle flat bed covered with random trash, but can be given a standard bed at Los Santos Customs. The Rat-Loader features crooked and bent front and rear license plates, a crooked front grille with missing and bent bars, and a bent hood. The stock Rat-Loader has rusty "Smoothie" wheels wrapped in discolored offroad tires. The truck has no front or rear bumpers; the license plates are instead mounted on the bars the bumpers would normally connect to. It also features a rusted and faded paint job. The Rat-Loader has no reverse lights, turn signals or brake lights, as it has no tail light cluster.

Most of the above damage can be repaired at Los Santos Customs, or, if desired, further damage can be added in the form of removing additional body panels. However, no matter what, the faded and rusted paint job remains. It can also be given hot rod style mods to make it resemble a rat rod pickup.

Variants
A clean version, known as the Rat-Truck was added in the Festive Surprise which removes the paint damage, but similarly to the clean Rebel has fewer available modifications with no options for the pick-up tray. The Rat-Truck features wider rear tires by default. All custom tires are narrower than the stock versions and this is not seen with the Rat-Loader. In a stock form, the Rat-Truck lacks a front license plate. Instead, a rear license plate is present.

Performance
Although the Rat-Loader and Rat-Truck come with a modern V8 engine producing a fair amount of torque, the weight and thin tires make it both prone to wheel-spin both off the line and on the way as well as giving it very poor braking. The suspension and direction setup also cause it to have a very wide turning radius causing massive under-steer and making low-speed maneuverability quite the challenge. Fish tailing is not uncommon due to its engine power. Durability is average, as the vehicle retains most of its structural integrity after severe collisions, and its engine is fairly durable against damage in collisions. The Rat-Truck also lacks tail lights and badges on the front and back.

Modifications
In GTA V, the Rat-Loader and the Rat-Truck can be customized at Los Santos Customs and Beeker's Garage.

Available modifications include:
 * Engine Bay (Stock Engine Bay, Chromed V8)
 * Exhaust (Stock Exhaust, Short Exhausts, Straight Exit Exhausts, Stinger Exhaust, Side Exit Exhaust)
 * Fenders (Stock Fenders, Remove Fenders, Cycle Fenders)
 * Grille (Stock Grille, Grille with Fixed Bars, Grille Bars Removed, Vintage Grille, Grille Cowl Removed)
 * Hood (Stock Hood, Remove Hood, Repaired Hood, Single Scoop With Hood, Single Scoop Without Hood, Triple Scoop With Hood, Triple Scoop Without Hood)
 * Truck Bed (Rat-Loader only) (Stock Truck Bed, Basic Truck Bed, Basic Truck Bed With Arches, Wooden Sided Truck Bed, Chopped Truck Bed)

GTA V

 * Driving a Hotknife, a Z-Type or any Beaters makes the Rat-Loader spawn more frequently.
 * The Rat-Loader will occasionally spawn in a lot one block north and one block west of Trevor's Trailer in Sandy Shores, where Cletus Ewing can be met in his Strangers & Freaks mission, Target Practice. Also spawns two blocks directly south of there.
 * Often spawns behind a red building across the road from Sandy Shores Ammu-Nation, behind a couple of other buildings. Other vehicles may spawn near it.

GTA Online

 * Rat-Loader Can be bought for $6,000 (formerly free) on Southernsanandreassuperautos.com.

GTA V

 * The Rat-Truck can be found in all three protagonist's garages after the Festive Surprise update is installed (Original).
 * The Rat-Truck can be bought for $37,500 on Southernsanandreassuperautos.com (Enhanced).

GTA Online

 * Rat-Truck Can be bought for $37,500 on Southernsanandreassuperautos.com.

Trivia

 * It's one of the oldest cars in the game, along with the Duneloader, Z-Type, Hotknife, the old Tractor and the Roosevelt.
 * The Rat-Loader contains a CB radio. When in the car with the radio off, indistinctive chatter can be heard through the radio. This is also the same with the Bodhi and the Tow Truck.
 * Before 1.07 it was in the Unity Class, after 1.07 it was in the off-road class, then in 1.10 it was placed in the Muscle Class.
 * Even though this vehicle is a pickup truck, it is classed in-game as Muscle, likely on account of the more modern, high output V8 and hot-rod like characteristics of the vehicle, making it more closely related to a muscle car than any other class.
 * Due to a glitch, after patch 1.07, it couldn't be stored in players' garages online. Rockstar later fixed this in 1.10, making it completely free to modify at Los Santos Customs and returning the ability to store it.
 * When getting in the vehicle, it simply says Rat-Loader, despite being manufactured by Bravado.
 * Inside in the interior under the steering wheel, a Vapid logo is clearly visible, despite being a Bravado vehicle. This is also the same with the Duneloader, and may likely be an oversight, but given the dilapidated nature of both these trucks, the Vapid steering wheel may be a replacement for the original wheel.
 * A glitch occurred if you took the vehicle to Los Santos Customs, and cycled through all the available truck bed modifications without picking any of them. When you exited the truck bed menu, the Rat-Loader's truck bed would disappear completely. The vehicle would then remain like this for as long as the player wished, and it could even be stored in a garage without losing this unique trait. However, this has been patched.
 * The Rat-Loader's name is most likely referencing Rat Rod cars, as it can also be modified to look like one.
 * No matter how many times you repair the Rat-Loader, it will always make suspension and transmission noises after a mission or a loaded game, it is unknown if this is a bug or the car is not able to be fully repaired to rid the vehicle of its rusty mechanism.
 * Despite how common the vehicle is around Sandy Shores, the only time it can be seen being driven by an NPC, is a rare, yellow custom one that spawns being driven in Sandy Shores. (NG only).
 * Similar to the Duneloader, the cargo in the back of the Rat Loader will not fall out or come out even after sustaining several heavy impacts or being turned upside down.
 * The default radio station for the Rat-Loader is:
 * GTA V : Rebel Radio
 * If you drive the Rat-Loader at high speed and then bail out while inspecting closely, the Rat-Loader's engine noise suddenly sounds like that of the Sandking, the same thing happens to the Rebel.
 * If you are driving the Rat-Truck around (with Cycle Fenders installed) and you get it dirty enough (tested in snow) there seems to be a outline of a face on the fenders.
 * When adjusted for inflation, the Rat-Truck would have been 2,415.00 when originally purchased in the early 1930's.

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