Nate Nagel wrote:
aemeijers wrote:

Does anyone make a small pickup any more? Like the rangers or toyotas
from 10-15 years ago? All the stuff on the lots now looks huge, not to
mention looking like a Tonka toy. Big meaningless chrome phallic
noses, pointless huge tires, etc. Does anyone make a truck that looks
like a truck anymore? I'm a form follows function sort of person- I
don't need rolling bling.

I hear that. It seems that even the full size trucks get bigger and
bigger. I've got a 93 F-150 and I feel like the bed sides are really
tall - taller than my dad's '73 Chevy and WAY taller than some old
Studebakers I've worked on. But parked next to a NEW F-150 mine appears
comparatively easy to load.

Why is it that both the bed floor and the top of the bed sides seems to
creep up every revision of a truck chassis? Wouldn't a LOW bed floor be
a selling feature? Some of these new trucks ought to come with a
folding stepstool shoved behind the seat.

nate

I think a saw a couple brands advertising fold-out bed and bumper steps
a couple years ago. I think they have super-sized the apparent visual
dimensions, and raised the bed and sidewall heights, to make them look
Big and Tough, and in proportion with the giant tires. (Pretty useless
for the 2/3 of trucks that never leave the pavement. And guess what, 4x4
guys? In snow, tall and skinny works better.)

When Ford split off their heavy pickup line about 10-12 years back, they
suddenly had a lot of complaints from gooseneck and 5th wheel owners
(one of the few groups that really need big trucks). The steep rake and
high bedsides meant the old hitches were not tall enough, and if they
raised the hitch up so bed sides and trailer didn't hit in bumpy roads,
the tow geometry was all wrong. Guys that pull goosenecks for a living
were having to buy chassis-cabs and get purpose-built diamond-plate
utility beds put on.

As a kid, I had a couple of mid-70s Ford F150s as company trucks. They
drove about like the full-size station wagons, and used the same size
tires. As construction go-fer vehicles, they worked fine. No, I couldn't
haul a full cube of block or shingles with them, but they did what they
needed to do, and a small-block v8 provided enough power. A baby pickup
like the stretch-cab ranger or early-90s toyota would meet 95% of my
current hauling needs, and would probably fit in my garage. (My head
does bang the rear window on the regular-cab version, and you do need
SOME weather-protected hauling space.)

--
aem sends...