"Eigenvector" writes:


My personal experiences with my 2000 Ranger is that a 6 1/2 foot bed is
perfectly fine carrying 8 foot plywood, drywall, and 2x4's. The stuff does
stick out the back, but then Ford also designed the bed so that if you need
to carry plywood or drywall you can make a platform that straddles the wheel
wells with 2x4's. I frequently carry 10 sheets of 1/2" sheetrock in the bed
with zero problems. There are also a small mod you can do with the tailgate
bolts to use the lip of the tailgate to act as a platform for plywood. Ford
and I would imagine Chevy put quite a lot of thinking in their light duty
trucks - too bad they didn't advertise those features.

Not saying a larger truck helps with REAL farm labor, a light pickup has its
limitations that I'm well aware of, just that for someone who only does
occasional projects and work my Ranger is perfectly suited - and I can
parallel park it in the city.


And it gets 24mpg, is reasonably peppy and cost less than $10k new off the
lot.

scott (another 2000 ranger owner).