What were the last of the real trucks

all I can tell you about real trucks.. was the 76 Custom Deluxe 10 my parents bought new to haul our snowdoggies around in.. 2 years later, it was a rotted mess. And being RWD, it did not see a lot of snow, salt, or mud.. They had to replace it in 79 with a new one

I believe the definition isn't so much in the truck, but the driver and how the truck is used. Truck options have grown a lot over time. Why people buy them are more diversified. There is more plastic and less metal. Bumpers are not what they used to be. I love 60-70's model Chevy/GMC. Especially the 73-78 "round headlight" short boxes. I'd take mine 2wd with any strong V8 as a burnout machine/hot rod.

But for all my general truck duties, I can't get out of my 99 GMC Z71. It has almost 240K, doesn't burn oil, the 4.8 gets about 14-15 mpg in town with Goodyear mud terrains; hauls garbage, firewood, parts; pulls a 18 foot metal trailer with a car; been driven at Coal Creek off road park, in snow, in minus 30 temps, and in 100 plus degrees; the push button 4wd always engages promptly (much faster than getting out and locking the hubs); puts out 300+ horsepower with simple exhaust/intake upgrades. It cleans up and drives to work with a shirt and tie later.

I'd take a new one but can't buy a new one, so it doesn't pay to buy a used one. The GM Denali package, Ford's SD King Ranch, and Dodge Lariet/Long Horn, etc , etc, are all loaded up nicely. If I won the lottery, I'd buy one, and I wouldn't be afraid to use it as a truck.

Old school - I do have a soft spot for Internationals (pickups and Scouts both).

Hmmm....

This thread makes me wonder how many of the posters saying that luxury options don't make a truck less work oriented would be making the same argument for a Miata (or 924, MR2, or 911) with an auto trans and all the other bells and whistles?

Sure a King Ranch ( or Harley) edition can still do all the same things a bare bones version can do.

But how likely is it for one of the lux versions to get driven through the brush to get to a favorite hunting/ fishing / camping location, have a loader drop 2 yds of stone into the bed, or filled with firewood?

I would expect one of the luxury trucks to get the same reaction on a jobsite as the guy at a track day with the $100k+ sports car, matching leathers, helmet and flawless paint. Sure they may surprise you, but no one expects either to be pushed to the limit of their capabilities.

I think the point that some people are missing,and others aren't verbalizing is that "new", "fake" trucks are trucks that people don't want to get dirty. ie, how's that touchscreen work for ya, when your hands are in leather gloves(from those haybales in the back), or maybe greazy(from that LS1 junkyard motor that you just stole for $100 from a PnP? Gone camping for the weekend.. when it rained... 12" over the weekend? What's your floor/floormats look like now? And how does that dirt make you feel about your $60K truck?

THAT'S the heart of the issue in my mind.

Me? I'll take the best, newest truck I can get, but leave me my cloth seats(vinyl's too damned hot down here in the south), vinyl floors, and real buttons for the radio, cruise, and headlights. Then I'm going to use the berkeley out of it, get it dirty, and generally use it like it was meant to be used, like a "real" truck.

Think too many trucks aren't bought/used to be trucks. Sure they may haul something once or twice a year, but I see a lot of them driving around that will probably never see anything but pavement. They've made them ride and drive like cars, so many people buy them and use them like cars, not for doing any real work.

Drove some fleet, base (manual transfer case, manual windows), '07 - '10 Chevy's on rough, muddy dirt roads testing heavy construction equipment. Luckily the fleet was large, because there was always one at the dealer, or needing to go to the dealer. Most of the rear doors would only open if you pushed in with one hand and pulled the handle up and out with the other. Traction control was useless in really muddy conditions, and wouldn't completely turn off.

Ranger50 wrote:

ultraclyde wrote:

Ranger50 wrote: In reply to Ian F: That ain't nothing I haven't seen before. Most of the repairs are under $200 each, besides the body and trans overhaul.

Lol. That still makes it a 10k restoration!

Since when? I can find rust free gasser Rams for under 2k.... Plus his Cummings is a mechanical P-pump job, so it can run all by itself with a fuel source to the injection pump....

I've thought about that - dropping the engine into a body in better shape. Hell, that's how it is now: a '95 drivetrain and dash (with vin) from a Std cab 4*4 in a '96 club cab 2wd that was once a V10. It was in slightly better condition when a bought it and represents a classic example of how NOT to buy a vehicle off ebay...

But doing that basically requires tearing two trucks apart next to each other at the same time and swapping everything and I have neither the time nor space to undertake such a project. I am up to my eyeballs in two houses (possibly a third) plus seven other cars that always seem to need something.

I'll probably end up putting it on ebay with about a $3k reserve and see what happens. If I can sell it for that, then I likely just buy another van and suffer the whining from the g/f. She likes the truck as it lets her buy bulk mulch and quickly put it around her house. Otherwise, a van would do everything we use the truck for as well as work better for my own needs (which the truck is useless for).

sethmeister4 wrote:

Tyler H wrote: I'll throw my vote for best all-around utility truck: Nissan 720 4WD extended cab, 5spd up through the earliest Frontiers. If you don't need to tow, these will do everything else. Big trucks don't work off road.

I like this. Nissan trucks are pretty darn indestructible. Fully boxed frames, tough (if underpowered) 4 and 6 cylinders, solid 4wd systems (except for when the newer ones started using Dana crap), manual trans available (and common), and typical Japan quality. Gonna get myself a 4cyl 4wd hardbody someday...

Thirded. My grandpa's '97 2WD Nissan pickup is nearly indestructable, fairly slick 5 speed, KA24 under the hood, and I bet that poor truck has ended up towing 10K+ lbs on numerous occasions (4WD Kubota tractor on a 20' single-axle open trailer, or the same trailer loaded front-to-back 4' high off the bed with firewood, that one ended up bending the poorly-mounted trailer axle like a piece of music wire but thats not the truck's fault ) and has moved the entire contents of a 2 person house 120 miles in one trip. It was stacked 10' high.

My grandpa neither knows, nor does he care, what a tow rating or GVWR is, and he's not that big on routine maintenance, but his little pickup has never skipped a beat

To my knowledge, the only breakage that's occurred is the over-center rear window latch when someone tried to break in by prying the window... and failed. Other than that, its eaten the front tires from a combination of low tire pressures and a way out of spec alignment (goes back to grandpa's lack of maintenance) and a workload about 10x what it was designed for.

My granddad's 67 f100 was a farm implement. 6 cyl, 3 on the tree. With upsized rears and helper springs and a tall rack we could get a cow in the back and lug it up to the auction house. When the river was up we could ford it with not too much water in the cab. As close to a car wash as it ever saw. It was fairly common for the gear linkage to bind up and stick in second. Granted, you could fix it with a hammer and a screwdriver.

I think my granddad would have been more comfortable hopping in an f350, hitching up a cattle trailer and taking 4-5 cows to auction and riding in a/c comfort going 65 mph instead of 35 mph.

Nostalgia is cool, but productivity kinda rocks.

In reply to oldtin:

True... My g/f's parents have a 1948 1 1/2 ton Diamond T they bought back in 1969 shortly after buying their farm. Back then, they would haul a bed load of firewood back to their main house in NJ each year. The truck could move a lot of wood, but the ~100 mile drive took most of the day and they were so exhausted from the drive unloading happened the next day.

The thing about $45k trucks....after a few years, they depreciate like anything else. My '04 Ford super crew has leather, heated seats, power everything. I use it just like any other truck I've ever owned. Mud wipes off leather just like it does vinyl. I agree that it would be hard to take a new truck and break it in, but once they're 8 years old, a nice one is just about as cheap as a stripped out one.

Sure..I love elemental sports cars, but I wouldn't choose one to live with every day. I also wouldn't choose a stripper truck for everyday duty.

If your truck is the center of your nuclear family, nothing wrong with a nice one. Buy it used, use it like a truck.

Old trucks definitely have swagger, and are a legitimate form of automotive recreation. My truck has to haul garbage, pull stumps and tote kids equally well. Leather is kid-proof.

tpwalsh wrote: I think the point that some people are missing,and others aren't verbalizing is that "new", "fake" trucks are trucks that people don't want to get dirty. ie, how's that touchscreen work for ya, when your hands are in leather gloves(from those haybales in the back), or maybe greazy(from that LS1 junkyard motor that you just stole for $100 from a PnP? Gone camping for the weekend.. when it rained... 12" over the weekend? What's your floor/floormats look like now? And how does that dirt make you feel about your $60K truck? THAT'S the heart of the issue in my mind.

That's an issue with the owner then, not the truck. I don't have too many "real work" pics of my truck (after all - I was working, not modeling), but here it is with 2 tons of mulch in the back -

Here it is full of Mustang parts -

Here it is with the rest of a mustang -

It gets beat. It gets abused. It gets stuffed full of E36 M3 both inside and out that would make a bunch of folks cringe. It's a tool. The fact that I can listen to some tunes while the AC keeps me comfy while towing across rural Iowa doing triple digits does not make it less of a tool. In fact, it makes it a better one - because I can knock out 1000 miles in a day with this tool, while a lesser truck would have had me white knuckled, worn out, and searching for a hotel hours prior.

EDIT - And what Tyler said. While this thing left some dealer floor costing the better part of $50k, I bought it at 7 years old with 80k on the clock for $7500.

you consider that bed to be "full" of Mustang parts?

i don't see a single engine, trans, or rear end there- just a hood and a couple of pieces of plastic..

i kid, i kid..

the last "real" pickup that GM made was whichever one was the last to come with a throttle cable- at least in the gas powered ones, at least. i can tow a trailer full of 12,000 pounds of round hay bales without any problems in my gutless 87 GMC 3/4 ton that has the tired 307 out of my old 71 Nova in it and it doesn't complain- it goes slow, but it does it- but an '06 Chevy K1500WT with a 5.3 will simply shoot the temp gauge way up, set off some chimes in the dash, and flash the check engine light while it barely moves out of it's own way until you get it on a road with a slight downhill grade. and if you get that 06 Chevy stuck in some sand/slush/mud/manure out in the cow pasture you are going to have to get the tractor to pull it out because the torque management won't let the tires spin enough to dig itself out.

yeah, the newer truck gets better gas mileage, rides a little better, and has AC- but the seats suck and it gets mad when you actually need it to do "truck stuff" like they show on the tv commercials. also, the ground clearance absolutely sucks on any truck with a torsion bar IFS setup- i might be a little "rounder" than i should be, but i should not have to use a floor jack to change the oil on a full size pickup.

Seems like most of you want a tractor, not a truck.

When we first bought our house I started making regular trips to the landscaping place for their 50/50 loam/compost mix. I asked for two yards and they asked when I wanted it delivered. I said "No, I have a truck" and the woman tells me point blank that no pickup truck will be able to carry 2 yards of topsoil. I politely disagree and she gets on the horn with the guy who runs the place. He asks a few questions and tells them to ring me up for 2.5 yards for the price of two.

The truck took it all without any effort and they know me by name there now.

I'll keep my power window'd, carpeted, cruise controll'd, electronic transfer case'd truck thanks. I may even add an in-dash navigation unit.

You can wax poetic about the Chevy diesel on the right with NO options, but I wasn't having any trouble averaging 75 mph on the highway towing that 32' steel trailer with a Miata and a ton of gear, while he was struggling to keep up. Oh yeah, I also averaged 17 mpg and he was happy with 11.

In reply to DILYSI Dave:

I'm still a little jealous of that truck. I came this >< close to buying it, but it wouldn't fit in my driveway at the time.

On the flip side, my truck was $7500 less than yours. :)

tpwalsh wrote: In reply to DILYSI Dave: I'm still a little jealous of that truck. I came this >< close to buying it, but it wouldn't fit in my driveway at the time. On the flip side, my truck was $7500 less than yours. :)

:) Probably my best purchase to date. And yeah, it fits pretty much nowhere.

I love vintage trucks and I will probably own one in the future cause I really don't need a truck that often but if you really need a truck to use, a new truck does everything better then an old truck can.