There’s no shortage of tough jobs to be done on the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch.
From riding fence to breaking in new mounts to helping ranch enforcer Rip (Cole Hauser) hunt down your employer’s enemies and literally cut the brand they betrayed from their flesh in the name of vengeance, there’s always some difficult work to be done on John Dutton’s (Kevin Costner) slice of Montana. But some fans think they might have found the hardest-working hand in the history of the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch, and it’s not someone you see celebrated or even shown on screen. Rather, it’s the person who washes all the Yellowstone Dutton ranch trucks, keeping them sparkling clean in all their appearances, despite the miles of dirt roads.
“I just want ONE scene where one of the Yellowstone pickups or SUVs isn’t sparkling clean, but splattered with mud and dirt and with a zillion bugs smushed on the front grille,” one poster wrote in a since-deleted post on Reddit that was picked up by The Daily Express. And they make a good point.
Why Yellowstone keeps its trucks sparkling clean
The replies to that original Reddit post have a good reason why they haven’t been. “99.78653% sure Ram is a sponsor so they want them trucks looking dazzling, yo,” one Reddit commenter said.
It’s a good point. The Yellowstone Dutton Ranch trucks are exclusively Dodge Rams, another example of the show’s penchant for product placement, and, judging by the comments, the deal is working out for both sides. “It worked,” one poster wrote in reply. “Made me want a RAM dually and I’m a software engineer with no use for a dually.” (A dually is a truck with two rear wheels on each side.)
Of course, part of the deal to keep the trucks looking nice on camera means they’re constantly getting replaced with newer models, which some responders on the thread find unrealistic for a working ranch. “No wonder Dutton has cash flow problems if he’s buying new duallys every year for the entire ranch,” one of these wrote.
There’s at least one moment where the show’s tendency for shiny vehicles is abandoned. “Was just re-watching the S3 finale…and Rip’s truck looks pretty much like that, right at the end of the episode.” But this just makes it the exception that proves the rule in the minds of some fans. “I noticed that too,” wrote lgb127, “but that’s the only time I think I’ve seen any of the trucks dirty. And you never see any of the ranch hands washing them. So who does it?”
Whoever that person is must be busy — too busy to appear on camera, or get tangled up in the show’s storylines. It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it.