Truck cruelty

BRO! I worked for a paving company years back and the business manager had this raised modified to all hell f350 (trash). He'd get it washed every week, rarely used it for actual work other than dragging a trailer and it CONSTANTLY broke down. Damn thing was impossible to load anything but buckets cuz the bed was as high as my friggin nipples (lol).

Bonus Question: Guess how tall he was

I recently lost my '05 f150 that I used for work to frame rot, so I got a '17. I've put two holes in the bed, through the bed liner, and I haven't even been treating it that bad. It's almost as though Ford doesn't want you to use it for work harder than carrying your yeti between kids baseball games.

Basically if you're using a pickup as a commuter vehicle..you probably don't make good life choices.

That is false for nearly everyone. Unless you are driving double the miles of an average person, the costs of a second car that is practical for 99% of your needs and a truck for that last 1% is higher than the costs of just driving the truck for everything. You have to make payments and taxes on the truck even when it sits in the driveway. You might get a small insurance discount for a truck you rarely drive, but your insurance on two vehicles is higher than just one.

People say "just rent a truck", but every time I look into that I discover rental trucks come with a lot of restrictions such that you can't use them as a truck (I expect a truck used as a truck to get paint scratches). And the cost is so high that it won't take many rentals to making having a truck the cheaper option (getting right of the car in exchange).

My biggest gripe with modern trucks really. Have fun putting that new refrigerator you needed in there and then getting it out once you're home, and God forbid you put a toolbox behind the cab, you're climbing into that bed to get every little thing you didn't think you'd need because you can't just get it by reaching over the side.

You could probably tow 4 of the front truck with the front truck.

The bed is a little narrow for 4x8' sheets of material on a 90s Ranger. There's only about 41" between the wheel arches and the opening in the bed itself above the arches is about 44" which is not quite enough. (It's wider in the gap above the arches but before the top lip of the bed, but you'll never get anything into that space that can't be disassembled or moved with a shovel...) You could stand your material up on edge, but don't try that with drywall. 48x40" pallets are no problem, though. Or at least one of them at a time. It'll slide right in there provided if and only if you orient it with the skinny dimension between the arches. Ditto with 2x4s if you want to leave the tailgate up. Otherwise your strap game had better be strong because the standard model has a 6' bed and the longer 7' bed is both rare and also not quite long enough. I used to drive a 90s Ranger for work and believe me, I crammed, or tried to cram, every type of thing you can think of into the back of it at some point or another. You can get a lot done with one but sheet goods are their downfall.

The 8' bed work trucks of the era could do what you're describing perfectly, and do so better than today's "full size" trucks while maintaining a smaller footprint on the pavement. That, and you can actually see out of the goddamned windows. I have a 90s Silverado in fleet truck spec, crank windows and a single cab with an 8' bed. I can indeed stack 4x8' drywall or ply neatly between the wheel arches and even close the tailgate on it. Much to the envy of my coworkers, who still pathologically own dinkum 6' bed crew cab so-called trucks that they can't fit anything into the back of, and then destroy the back seats "ThAt tHeY ToTaLlY NeEd bEcAuSe oF ReAsOnS" by jamming them full of tools and dirty materials anyway, so the whole thing is pointless. At that rate you may as well just get a van and call it a day.

i just bought a Ford Maverick. and it’s a smaller truck. it’s basically everything i needed.

Plus those corporations are the ones lobbying for those regulations.

It may not be only the EPA's fault, but an unintended consequences of the CAFE standards and how they change over time is a perverse incentive to increase wheelbase and track, lowering the fuel efficiency instead of raising it.

If you haven't yet, watch the video. It does a good job explaining why you can't make the Chevy S10 we used to see all over the place in the 90s without a big penalty that would make it too expensive.

if only they didn't give it headlights that blind people

nearly drove into one last night because it was coming up a small hill in front of me in my neighbourhood (on a curve) and I drifted left as I slowed down to ensure I didn't hit the pedestrians to my right. couldn't see a fucking thing because of its 'lowbeams'

I don't know what the old one was, but let's say it was something like the Ford Courier from the 1970s. That pickup could take a load of 1,400 lb (635 kg). I don't know how often someone would need to load more than 600 kg into their truck, and that's with the curb weight of 2500 lbs or about 1100 kg. A modern F-250 has a curb weight that's more than double the Courier at about 6300 lbs or 2850 kg. It can carry 5000 lbs, (2270 kg) but again, how often is that needed?

I can understand buying a big truck if you're towing heavy things, but for loading up the bed with stuff, I wonder how often someone would get to 600 kg and say "I have lots of space remaining, but dang it, I've reached the weight limit!"

40 years ago it was common to put 5-6 people into the cab of the smaller truck. It wasn't comfortable for anyone but it was done. Worse however it was not safe for anyone (not enough seat belts) and so people died. Often those people were kids who should be in car seats, but instead were sitting on laps. If the weather wasn't too bad they would put some of those people in the bed of the truck (which could fit 15) instead of the cab.

So you say this to everyone who owns a vehicle?