On Fri, 09 Jan 2004 08:10:07 -0800, Jim Stewart wrote:
Harold Burton wrote:
Allowing for a full tank and me and the Missus in the cab will
still allow a 3400 pound load. Not bad for a 3/4 ton struck.

So maybe you can tell me something. Why is it
called a 3/4 truck in the first place. I had
always assumed it was the load rating.

Once upon a time it was (1920s). But in the fine tradition of
the American auto industry, vehicles have a way of becoming
bigger, more powerful, and more expensive model year by
model year.

In the 1920s, a half ton pickup really was loaded by half a ton,
a 3/4 ton by 3/4 ton, a 2 ton by 2 tons, etc, but today's "half ton"
pickup can easily carry more than a ton, a 3/4 ton can carry a ton
and a half, and a 2 ton can carry about 10 tons. The old labels
really just hung on because the *size* of the trucks remained
about the same.

The physical size of a domestic "half ton" pickup hasn't changed
all that much since the 1920s (it has grown some), but *much*
better tires, suspensions, and engines have allowed it to carry
much more weight.

This confused the Japanese when they first tried to enter our
market. They built "half ton" pickups for our market that could
really only carry half a ton, and the mini-pickup was born. They
lucked out, and that became a popular category, but it isn't at
all what we mean domestically when we refer to a half ton truck.

Gary