2w ago

Tell me again why you need a pickup truck.

120 comments

I think those short bed trucks are the absolute worst. If you genuinely need a truck, get one with a proper bed so you can use it for it's utilitarian purpose. If you've got a short ass bed, you don't need a truck.
- People who buy these things don't really want "a truck"
  They want a vehicle which aesthetically resembles a truck, so their super manly male man ego can be satisfied, but which is actually just an SUV with extra steps.
  
  Julie Nolke has some thoughts on this...
  
  Honestly, if these trucks weren't bigger while hauling less than my mom with her old clio and trailer, I might be ok with calling em SUVs. These weird pickups are an insult to all other cars.
  
  Oh no! I drive a Prius! Whatever will I tell my wife and kids?
- Short beds and unibody designs are the worst fucking things to happen to trucks
  If you need a truck - and as a rural tradesperson, there are plenty of good reasons to need one - get something that'll actually do the job.
  
  Rural tradepeople in Europe rarely have trucks. Vans do the job in the vast majority of cases, a trailer can complement when needed.
- Yea, I want 90s single cab s10 like I had in college. Full bed, no electronic bullshit. normal size tires, didn't have to climb into it. Everything I needed to haul lumber and tools around and nothing I didn't. I could take the entire thing apart and put it back together. If someone would just make a truck like that again I'd be so happy.
  
  I would love an electric version of that. Just an in town daily driver, capable of hauling lumber, projects, etc…
- They don't make hardly any 8' beds on mid sized pickups. Pretty much everything is 5.5' which makes a trailer a requirement.
  
  I always have to laugh when I see a pickup with a trailer. The empty bed is always a nice extra touch. Like imagine paying an absolute shit ton on an expensive ass truck that eats gass like there's no tomorrow, just to end up using a trailer anyways!
  
  Want to see something strange but interesting, check out the Telos Truck. Can fit an 8 foot by 4ft piece of plywood in the back, has 4 doors, and is the length of a mini Cooper lol. The look is strange, but at least it shows companies trying to shake up what people think of as utility
- While my truck does have a short bed, it pulls my 24,000lbs/11,000Kg tandem axle tilt bed trailer just fine. Which is more important to me than hauling groceries or people with it.
  Plus the 4-wheel drive matters a lot when the roads have 6+ in/15cm of snow and it's only 2 miles/1.7 nautical miles to the nearest paved and perhaps plowed road or when I need to drive down a logging road.
  ***The metric and navel conversion of measurements was done for those people living in Lubbock Tx.
  
  The one in ten that actually uses a truck for truck stuff and not a mallcruiser.
  
  Ok. Explain the Lubbock joke. I grew up in Odessa, but Lubbock had Orlandos with their delicious rum cake and the science museum. That was really the only reason for me to go over there and deal with driving through fucking Andrews County with all the drunks on the road. The only thing I miss from Texas is the food and sky.
- If you need a truck get VW Transporter with an aluminium bed that you don't need to worry about the paintwork when loading/unloading
- Depends, I can still load my motorcycles or a quad or a snowmobile in a short bed with the tailgate open and I can still tow more than in a unibody SUV.
  It all depends on your needs.
- Makes sense for filling with people imho

If I need a truck I’ll rent one from U-Haul. They’re not that expensive.
Owning a truck? That’s pretty expensive for someone like me who just needs a small car to get around. Also avoids that problem.
- Renting them from Home Depot is also pretty cheap
  
  I find if I'm going far distances, home Depot is actually better. Around town U-Haul is usually better.
  Which is kinda ironic, as it's inverse to what they advertise for.
  
  I didn’t know I could do that! I live next to a Home Depot. I’ll try that sometime.
- Yeah, but you know what your problem is? You're way too reasonable!

I don't want to scratch the paint in the bed!
- In this case their cargo that they claim they constantly need a truck for, doesn't even fit in the bed because the bed is half the size a bed should be.
  
  One of the main reasons I probably won't buy a truck. Most beds are only 5 feet in the Tacoma world. My van has more storage space.

It’s partially the manufacturers’ fault. Good luck finding an 8’ bed without an extended cab.
That’s their only option if they’re limited to the footprint of a smaller truck in their parking spot.
- I'm dying for a return to 80s style trucks but with hybrid/electric engines
  Please just let me have a functional, strong truck that doesn't cost an arm and a leg to drive
  
  and won’t require bags of sand, gravel, or litter in the bed every winter
  
  Did you catch that glorious but brief period when Ford and GM were building retro EV’s?
- 8ft bed can be optioned on basically every truck. People buying trucks just prefer the crew cab because the vast majority of them are never hauling shit
- You know you can order vehicles from the manufacturer ahead of when you need it, right? Yes, there are stupid laws/rules in place that require a dealership to be part of the process, but you can generally pick what you want in a vehicle.

To load up deer I shot after a hunt.
Or I would if I hunted. Or had a truck.
Seriously though, farmers and heavy machinery contractors legit need trucks.
- I don't think anyone is arguing that people who need a truck shouldn't get a truck. But regular people with trucks is every bit as stupid as driving around in a tractor.
  
  Nobody who could use a truck uses a truck in Europe. Usually, a Van or something is the better choice. I don't really understand the "american pick-up truck" form factor.
- Where I live, hunters use a Lada 4x4 or a Suzuki Jimny.
  Farmers use tractors.
  Tradesmen use vans.
  Heavy machinery contractors use flatbed trucks.
  A pickup truck just seems like the worst of all worlds.
  
  I would hate lifting a moose into a modern truck, the bed is 3-4 feet off the ground. I'd sooner put a tarp in a minivan and use that.
  
  I'm still seeing a few Fiat Panda 4x4 being used too.
- *8 foot beds
- I've generally seen deer hunters use one of those little tow hitch storage bed thingies for deer, both on trucks and smaller vehicles

Mine is a smaller truck so it also has a little baby bed on the back, but it has allowed me to pickup a load of gravel and mulch. As well as haul garbage to the dump.
But I'm not 10 feet off the ground with huge tires or blinding headlights, and nobody can hear me driving down the road.
Just a little old Nissan to do the occasional dirty work
- Nissan hard body pickups were awesome. I had a 96 model, one of the last years they were made. If you're going to own a truck, this would be one of the more responsible ones to own.
- Small compact trucks are the way to go, I have a single cab 2000s Ranger and I love it.

at least he's hauling something unlike 99% of emotional support vehicle owners
- They’re hauling their egos.
  
  like I said

"warlock" LOL i can't believe the shit people look at and say oOoOoOhHhH i want that!
- i feel this way about the ford trucks that have SUPER DUTY banged into the back... embarassing...
- Holy shit. Warlock must be a thing with trucks? A year or two ago I was travelling to an unfamiliar city and the person at the rental counter couldn't find my reservation. She asked, "the only vehicle we have available is a truck, is that OK?"
  Whatever. Fine. The flight was delayed and I need dinner and a drink. I'm not going to be picky about a 2 day rental on a business trip.
  Let's just say that expectations were exceeded (in a WTF way) when I got out to space B29 in the parking garage and got my first view of The Warlock. It was pretty much this exact truck, but in a different color and with about 100 loose acorns in the bed.
  The Warlock did make an impression on our clients when I rolled up to their office the next day. The conference room was close enough to reception that I could overhear the #1 question of the day as employees drifted in or out: "who's driving The Warlock???"
  
  This was an excellent story. Thank you. The bit with the acorns sent me.

To haul one gallon of cat litter and a La Croix /s

Some warlock indeed, can't even magic his wood in the right hole
- Do you really think it would be better in the bed? I probably would have done the same
  
  I always prefer my wood in the bed but it's really a two-person job, at least

Shoulda bought a bigger truck.
- This person has sold me on a bigger truck.
  
  I need a bigger truck in case I ever need to haul an armchair.
  What do you mean you can fit an armchair into the trunk of a toyota prius?

I saw a lifted truck the other day, and not only did it not have a trailer hitch, it didn't even have a spot where one could be installed. I don't know much, but it seems to me that if you're not using your pickup truck for hauling, then you shouldn't even have one.
- Maybe they haul a bedful of bricks daily but never need to tow anything?
  
  Who the hell wants to load bricks into a lifted truck? Even if using a forklift, its often better and safer to keep the load as low as possible. It also safer while traveling to have the load lower to keep the center of gravity lower, hauling bricks in a lifted truck is more dangerous than stock height. Lifts can also impact stopping distance, which isn't something you want when you're also ruining your sightlines with the lift.
  
  I can almost guarantee the bed of that particular truck has never seen a brick, or any other building material.
  
  No no no, you don't get it, trucks bad!
- Generally if it doesn't have a hitch receiver you can put a ball hitch on the bumper in front of the license plate, but those are rated for less weight and are useless if the truck is lifted sooo
- "didn't have a spot where one could be installed"
  The hitch is bolted to the frame, if you don't have one installed there's no visual cue that you can't install one
  Some people need a truck without needing to tow a trailer, I had a client that had a lifted one to go fill up machinery out in the woods, his bed was a huge diesel tank with a pump, would you have expected him to do that with a Yaris?
  
  A lot of people call the draw bar/ball the "trailer hitch," so I took the comment to mean that the truck in question didn't have a hitch/receiver mounted.
  
  He can do it on a fucking unicycle for all I care, that's not at all what I'm saying.
- I saw a lifted truck with two cab extensions and like 3 feet of bed.

For all the money bags he has to haul around.

Because I need a vehicle. And I want one.

Kayak.
get a van
Get a life, it's a 6cyl and makes 28mpg. Go fuss at an Acura TL for all the emissions I create.
- I just throw my kayak or canoe on the roof of my car. My fuel economy drops a bit with it on the roof, but overall its a way better option for me than constantly guzzling gas plus the upfront costs.
  We aren't just fussing over emissions, its also the bigger tires, the bumper height/pedestrian safety, the blind spots many trucks have, the increased space they take up in parking lots.

120 comments