My how trucks have grown...

A modern truck is no harder to get in or out of than a stock Miata. For some people either one is a problem, just for different reasons. 

This argument is like saying modern sportscars like the C8 should be more like a 70s SS Chevelle because those were easier to get in and out of and the trunk was better.

Buying more vehicle than you need is a different argument than its designed badly. I will absolutely agree that a modern "half ton" truck is much more vehicle than most buyers need. Its much more vehicle than a 72 C10 in both size and capability. If you only need the capability of a 72 C10 there aren't a lot of new options, and that's a shame. But all of those are much different than saying modern trucks are badly designed. 

kevlarcorolla said:

Its cheaper to do a 2" lift to a Ridgeline making it look less weenie then properly lowering a full size 4wd truck to have a usable bed height and not need a ladder to get in/out of either the bed or the cab.

I actually just bought a ram. My first mod will likely be a 2" drop in the rear to make it easier for in and out of bed. Honestly, the reason I didn't get a ridgeline is because I wanted more interior space and 6 seats when necessary. 

ultraclyde (Forum Supporter) said:

A modern truck is no harder to get in or out of than a stock Miata. For some people either one is a problem, just for different reasons. 

This argument is like saying modern sportscars like the C8 should be more like a 70s SS Chevelle because those were easier to get in and out of and the trunk was better.

 

No really the same at all. Trucks are made to haul things in the bed. If you can't easily get stuff in and out of the bed, it seems like a pretty crap design. 

Except virtually nobody buys trucks to haul stuff in the bed.  The beds of 99% of the trucks you see are empty.  

In reply to 93EXCivic :

I disagree. Trucks are made to do a lot of things. One of those is haul things but its not the only one. I don't have any trouble getting the things I need to haul out of mine. Or getting in or out if the bed when I need to. One person's problems are not a universal issue. I had a 69 F100 and a 96 F250. The 2013 F150 I have now is a far superior truck for MY needs than either of them. Not a bad design at all.

In reply to parker :

That's just your perception.

My neighbourhood is full of trades guys. Pretty much all the trucks here earn a living.

In reply to mw :

I'm kinda straddling the fence on how much truck I need Mike.

 Leaning more to staying with a full size though,I lower the rear of my titan about an inch and half with just the tools I carry every single day.

 I don't dig the lifted offroad truck look at all but a lifted 2nd gen ridgeline sits pretty nice weirdly.

In reply to ultraclyde (Forum Supporter) :

What is the benefit of a tall bed? Like lets put aside the technological advances of a new truck vs an old one. Like let's say they are the same in terms of ride, comfort, gas milage, etc. But one had the bed height of a typical 90s pickup and the other was a normal modern pickup. How is the taller bed better? That is what I don't get. 

In reply to 93EXCivic :

I'm not saying a taller bed is an advantage or better in any way. If you could give me my truck that rides the same, performs the same off road, tows just as well, and has a bed height thats 12" lower it would absolutely be better. But, what I AM saying, is that the higher bed height alone is not enough to condemn what is possible the most overall functional example of a pickup truck.

Kreb (Forum Supporter) said:

IMO, my 2008 Ridgeline is as legitimate a truck as any 1/2 ton quad-cab out there. And it handles like a significantly smaller vehicle. My only beef is that it's a bit of a fuel hog, although the 2nd gen is supposed to be better. When I want a real truck (Defined as one with an 8' bed) I have an old F150 with the unbreakable 300CI I6. 

I'm going to do a father/son build of one of the Smythe conversions. Either a Subbie or a VW turbo-Diesel.

I really want to build a plum crazy purple Dodge Charger ute.  I'd supercharge it and call it a Hellcamino....   and I'd want a manual trans which seems to be a big problem.

Its funny. Trucks are so versatile that yall can't even agree on a common use or purpose for them. Personal taste, needs, perception, budget, all these factor in the differences. 

Honestly there's nothing wrong with disliking trucks because of x reason and there isn't anything wrong with liking the same truck for x or y reason.

I don't like or understand the love for p71's on GRM. I'd rather pick so many other vehicles over it. But, I'll never say anything about the p71 being stupid or people are (insert negative word) for buying, liking, or recommending them. I don't even think those things. I don't like something and that's usually where it ends. Guess I don't have the spare energy to bitch about something I don't like that other people like. 

Y'all beat this horse way too often. It's been dead. 

ShawnG said:

A Ridgeline is a truck?

In fairness, I'd bet that most people who buy Ridgelines do it because they actually want something that is both sensible to drive and also provides practicality for picking up stuff that won't fit into a crossover because they actually need something that can do that - as opposed to the guys with trucks like the one in the first pic, which are really just a testosterone supplement in many cases. 

YMMV...

I took the blocks out if the leaves, and wound the torsion bars down on the front of my 2k Silverado.  2wd height, 4wd.  Works for me.

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

That's why I have my Tacoma. 

It's not really good at truck things but it gets 22mpg and it hauls dirty stuff better than a car.

ShawnG said:

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

That's why I have my Tacoma. 

It's not really good at truck things but it gets 22mpg and it hauls dirty stuff better than a car.

I'm not sure what "truck things" a Tacoma isn't good at though. Unless you mean hauling the 40-foot flatbed trailers full of large pipes, or having front-loaders dump 5 tons of rocks in the bed, like in the Ford commercials :)

For 99% of the population whose truck is not for actual work purposes (like a roofing contractor, for instance) and/or live out in the country and haul dirty stuff around -  a Tacoma or Ridgeline or old Ranger (or 8' utility trailer that any car can tow) is more than sufficient for any utility purposes they might have. The number of non-business F250 owners who have actually towed 15k lb trailers or loaded up the beds with 2 tons of lumber is probably a tiny fraction.

And for the record, I'm not anti-pickup or anti-large vehicles.. I'd probably own one if I had a need. I have two truck-based (full-frame) SUVs for my utility needs, but I don't haul a lot of bulk "dirty" material (dirt, mulch, whatever). I like having the secure large-volume storage of the Sequioa vs. a Tundra the same size (I can put 4x8 plywood inside too!), since much of the time it's loaded up with expensive rally tires, tools, and gear that I don't want to leave in a pickup bed.

I just think bro'd-out/lifted huge pickups are silly because they're generally substantially WORSE at what they're supposed to do (towing, hauling, whatever). Like extreme camber on a performace car, it's 100% about style and 0% about performance. I wish big-truck guys would simply admit that fact and stop pretending like they're doing "truck things" with them.

(extension of discussion: urban mall-crawler Jeeps on 36's with Hi-Lift jacks strapped to the hood and shovels strapped to the roof rack). 

Get off my lawn with your big pickup :)

ultraclyde (Forum Supporter) said:

A modern truck is no harder to get in or out of than a stock Miata.

This is phenomenally beyond my experience.

A modern truck requires a ladder to get in and out of, and the huge doors combined with the vehicle width means there is a narrow aperture directly behind you from which to escape, assuming that you are not okay with simply bashing a huge dent in the car next to you because berk it.  Which is why I never park next to a truck, ever, because I can't see someone driving a truck in a daily-driver, parking-lots scenario without the owner  having a complete lack of concern for other people.  

Hell, I had a minor panic attack the other day when I saw a Dodge Ram Gingantor Edition parked next to my car, until I realized it was the tenant's truck he was driving because his VW was broken again, and he is even more anal retentive about door dings than I am.

Miatas are easy.  Sit in, and lever your right elbow on the windshield to get out.

My Colorado Z71 hauls loads of wood and garden materials, moved tons of boxes, has towed 4 vehicles and has been offroad at 10,000 ft.  It's also been camping a few times.  I use my truck, which is why I bought it.  I traded in a full sized truck because parking a full size truck in Dallas is a real problem.  

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

My Tacoma is an '03 so still a compact truck, not good at truck things (for me) means:

Can't pull the wife's horse trailer.

Can't pull the travel trailer we own.

Can't pull the flatbed from work when I need to borrow it to haul hay which is twice a year for about three tons of hay each time.

Can't carry my motorcycles because it ends up on the bump stops.

Can't haul landscaping supplies for yard projects.

I like my Tacoma. It's paid for, it's cheap to run and it's WAY more useful than a car or a minivan.

For doing truck things that my Tacoma doesn't do, we have the wife's 3/4 ton Suburban. If that won't do it, I borrow a bigger truck from work.

Yes, I think bro'd out trucks are silly too and a lot of times they're hauling sailboat fuel but where I live, plenty of trucks have to earn their keep.

Wife unit manages a horse barn for a living so she uses her Suburban for truck things quite a lot and it's been more practical for her than her F-250 was.

Am i the only one that wants a previously mentioned B series sized truck, or maybe a late 80s early 90s Toyota/Ranger/S10 etc with modern suspension and drivetrain?  Comfort, reliability, handling, ECONOMY and POWAAA?

I think that would sell out with a waiting list.  Think of the factory 4 cyl available right now.  

And for the general truck discussion, my personal view is trucks are longitudinally mounted, rwd based drivetrains mounted to body on frame vehicles.  Ridgelines are minivan based utes.  Pull a heavy trailer or a boat out of the lake with FWD one time.

I admit it.  I just like trucks.  But one of the big things like about them is their ability to do trucky stuff.  I've had a truck in my fleet for almost four decades.  For the last 20 years I've had one as my daily driver which means that most of the time I'm one of those guys driving an empty truck around.

On the other hand when I need to do something trucky I almost always have my truck with me.  My trucks have always carried some tools in them which also means I can do something toolly with little or no pre-planning.

I'm going to use this thread as an excuse to post pics of my last two trucks doing trucky things

My '01 F250 Plowing snow in Upstate NY.  I bought this truck new.

Hauling tools to work on a project at a friend's house in central Maine

Hauling cast iron radiators to the sandblaster as part of a rehab of the 100+  year old colonial that my parents own in Upstate NY

16 passenger canoe from a Canadian Mountie barracks in Toronto Canada to a children's camp in the Adirondack Mountains in Upstate NY.  Border Patrol officer - "Wow! That's a big canoe!" Me - "You should see the guy that paddles it!"

Home Depot run in Albuquerque.  Parked next to my truck's older brother.

Deep in the woods in North Central Maine cleaning up a secluded chapel as part of a mission trip.

Stopped at an abandoned store in Colorado on the way back from a race at High Plains

Posing on the West Mesa in Albuquerque with a rainbow in the background.  I sold this truck a little over a year ago with around 280k miles on it.  It now has over 300k on it and the women who owns it love's it as much as I did and continues to use it for trucky things.

My current truck is a 2015 Ram 3500.  It had a little under 50k miles on it when I bought it.  Here it is in my parent's driveway in Upstate NY.  This was part of a trip that involved instructing at a track in Kansas, visiting a customer in New Albany Indian and picking up my milling machine from a buddy's shop in Upstate NY were it had been sitting since I moved to Albuquerque six years prior.

In my office parking lot in New Mexico.  I don't remember why I had the trailer.

I stopped on my way home from work and picked up a rental mini-excivator to do some yard work.

My buddy's trailer with our wrecked race car in it.

And apparently my trucks need to pose with a rainbow at some point in their lives.  This shot is in the parking lot at Wild Horse Pass in Phoenix Arizona where I was doing some instructing.

When I hurt my ankle my friend kindly lent me his tundra, since all my cars have manual transmissions and I couldn't drive them.

this truck had a 6" lift and huge wheels/tires.  He never takes on anything harder than a fire road.  IMO, the lift/big tires ruin the truck.  It also got a whopping 11mpg...

In reply to APEowner :

Love it. 

Suburban truck fantasy:

Suburban truck reality:

(Not really, but if people are going to make fun of my Ridgeline, we might as well take the meme all the way)

For real though, if you don't mind being judged by people, crew cab trucks today rival minivans as a family hauler. Crazy amount of space in some of those. You'll be judged for driving a van too, just from a different group of people. So might as well pick the one you like better.

I hope we see more trucks like the Ridgeline, I may not be able to buy one but they actually look pretty good on the road. A sport version would be great.

In reply to yupididit :

I'll E36 M3 all over P71s. I borrowed a Spec Panther from a buddy, he gave me instructions to keep the trans temp under 220. It was no fun lapping at full throttle for a straight, then half for the next half lap.

Maybe I'm E36 M3ting on automatics instead of P71s, but man, that ruined them for me.