---
title: "Surplus USPS Mail Trucks Are Coming, So What’s Your Dream Build?"
description: "Retired United States Postal Service trucks aren't far off from flooding the market. Tell us what you'd do with one."
date: "2021-02-24"
modified: "2021-02-24"
authors:
  - name: "James Gilboy"
    job_title: "Contributing Writer"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/james-gilboy"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/39429/surplus-usps-mail-trucks-are-coming-so-whats-your-dream-build"
categories:
  - "Culture"
  - "News"
---

# Surplus USPS Mail Trucks Are Coming, So What’s Your Dream Build?

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/2021/02/LS-Postal-Hero.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

After much hemming, hawing, and [more than a few fires](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/34666/us-postal-services-aging-trucks-keep-catching-fire>), the United States Postal Service is finally getting [a new fleet of mail trucks](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/39417/this-is-the-united-states-postal-services-new-delivery-vehicle>). They're beautiful (to the eye of this beholder), slightly Pixar-looking machines, which in 2023 will become a common sight in neighborhoods across our nation—and maybe nostalgic icons for generations to come. Their arrival, of course, has a major implication: Government surplus auctions are about to be flooded with Grumman LLVs, the USPS's outgoing mail trucks. With this in our not-so-distant future, let's turn our eyes to the future of these venerable vehicles in private hands, and answer the following:

How would you customize *your* surplus USPS mail truck?

![message-editor%2F1614185643097-lspostalinline.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content-b/message-editor/1614185643097-lspostalinline.jpg>)
**Screenshot via YouTube**

I'll admit, this is something I've already thought a lot about, having daydreamed of racing one at Pikes Peak. My blank-check fantasy is an Unlimited-class truck with a carbon fiber body, ground effect aero, independent suspension, slick tires, and under the hood, GM's LS V8—practically a bolt-in, as the LLV is closely related to the Chevy S-10. And not just any LS, but one with [a flat-plane crankshaft](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/36053/2022-chevy-corvette-z06-will-have-625-hp-flat-plane-v8-that-revs-to-9000-rpm-report>) and independent throttle bodies, all in the name of making a noise to shake the heavens.

https://youtube.com/embed/Hgi7gW_QyOA

Problem is, of course, I don't see myself having the budget for any of that but the LS swap. Even my interest in that is contingent on there being a commercially available flat-plane crank, which I have struggled to find during sessions of window shopping. If I can't have my Michigan-made Fauxrrari howl, then I'd forego a V8 entirely in favor of [Buick's stout, supercharged 3.8-liter V6](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/33772/theres-an-800-hp-twin-turbo-buick-v6-that-needs-a-new-home>). It makes a noise almost as awful as Kid Rock, but it redeems itself by making mounds of power, and with reliability that'll see it outlast my grandchildren.

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## Author
James is a former staff writer for The Drive. He has changed the conversation around electrification, debunked misinformation online, and become a prominent hunter of what he calls "automotive cryptids."

### Author social links  
[Instagram](<https://instagram.com/jamesgilboy>)