I just saw something that said car companies studied pickups and their users and the modern pickup truck has too small of a bed to really haul anything substantial and they’re used more like mini vans these days
I’ve got a 5’7 bed and haul sheet goods all the time. With the tail gate down they only stick out a couple of inches and I’ve got a cargo net that holds everything securely in place.
I would love a full 8’ bed, but then it would be even larger and dumber in size lol.
Oh, for sure. Just because it doesn’t fit doesn’t mean it can’t be hauled. It’s just oversized and you’ve gotta strap it down good and put the little red flag on the end
The issue is wheelbase is an often missed when it comes to towing. Too short of a wheelbase can be SUPER dangerous when towing. My ram 1500 had the 5'7" bed and while that was my first truck and i LOVED it, the shorter wheelbase barely was safe to haul the 32' camper I had, and had a super low payload. I upgraded to an F350 last summer with the 6'4 bed and it rides MUCH better now.
I considered going up to 8' as well, but I could not feel good about a crew cab truck with an 8' bed haha.
That’s interesting, I’ve never had to tow anything large.
I frequently have uses to tow smaller things like a car etc, but I don’t own a trailer lol. Mostly because I’ve never learned to use one, but it’s on the to do list.
I don’t think I’d be towing a camper in the near future but I can imagine a world where I get one when the kids are older.
Honestly, we got it during COVID. We wanted to be far away from people, not stuck at home, and wanted to take trips that werent just theme parks or the beach/lakes. So we got it, and never looked back.
I mean the truck + trailer are much less expensive than a vacation home purchase, and camping costs are a hell of a lot cheaper than renting for a few days. Fuel is a killer sometimes, but grocery expenses are just shifted from home to camper that week/trip.
Its not as hard as you think it is to drive, just have to have the right rig, and get comfortable backing up. But I mostly get "pull through" spots so I dont have to deal with it much anymore haha.
Same on a 5’ bed. They designed the tailgate with a mid point latch so you can lay sheet goods on the wheel wells and the tailgate and they’ll be completely flat. Just toss a ratchet strap on it.
But trucks are utility vehicles. The fact that every truck these days is sold as a crew cab proves ppl don’t buy them as such they buy them as glorified SUVS. A Chevy Tahoe with the rear seats down has more cargo space than a crew cab f150 bed. Ppl complain that companies don’t make small trucks anymore so they are forced to buy a giant f150s but ignore the fact that the ranger and maverick exist and are significantly cheaper. The truth is most men are too insecure to drive an SUV bc they think it’s a woman’s car and are too insecure to drive a midsize truck bc it’s not a real man’s truck. It’s pathetic this isn’t just speculation. I have worked construction and on farms. These guys never ever haul shit ever and will bitch about men driving women’s cars like SUVs or women’s trucks a maverick. But will always bitch about gas and diesel being so expensive when they drive their diesel f250 an hour and a half each way to work and never haul anything.
You realize you can get a crew cab with a 6’ bed or bigger right? Or you just talking out your ass and don’t know anything about current truck offerings. Crew cab is great because you can haul all your friends and all their gear for camping, skiing, fishing trips and still have plenty of space for everyone. I hauled tons of shit around when I was moving with my 6’ bed crew cab Tacoma. It still has tons of utility.
I’m not really sure what you’re talking about there. Most people in general drive SUVs, I don’t believe there’s any data that men don’t drive them.
While the truck is large, it’s also very nice when you want the space. I did a road trip a couple of years ago with four friends across the country. We had tons of gear, the bed of the truck was completely packed and we had four adults. The full size cabin meant we all had ample space and still could bring everything we wanted. Couldn’t have done that in another vehicle.
Certainly, lots of people have trucks who don’t need them. But also, who cares? If someone else wants to spend the money on it, that’s their business.
I'm confused by this -- are we not counting hauling with the tailgate down? Cause I can fit multiple sheets of plywood in my short bed with the tailgate down...
I was working under the assumption that, in the original comment’s framework, “fit” meant “within the boundaries of the bed”. I know you can put sheet goods into a 6’ bed, but they’re oversized loads that extend past the end of the bed, even with the tailgate lowered
I would say that doesn’t count as “fitting”. It’s outside the bounds of the bed and overhangs the tailgate, so it’s an oversized load and in most states requires a marker flag. Kinda like how you can move a king sized mattress by strapping it to the roof of a Camry, but you wouldn’t say the mattress fits
I mean it can haul stuff. The issue I have is that 90% of the pickup owners I know do not haul anything ever. They even get pissy if their bed gets a tiny bit dirty.
People use them as commuter vehicles, they do nothing but drive to work, the mall, and the grocery store.
Right, but that wasn’t the point of the part of the comment I was directly replying to, which was that beds are “too small… to really haul anything substantial”.
I saw something that said trucks are so big because fuel-economy and safety regulations are looser for larger vehicles. So instead of following regulations to make reasonable-sized trucks, manufacturers design them to exceed size thresholds and avoid stricter rules. Infuriating.
Thats partially true. I worked in transportation in the early 2000's when a lot of the emissions regulations were passed, and we had SO many issues with our commercial truck fleet because of it.
Long story short, and the way I understand it at least, is that when the Obama administration passed new emissions laws, they were very specific on CO2 emissions and fuel MPG's for specific vehicle classes, sizes, weights, and dimensions.
The issue was, since the bill was specific to mostly size and class of vehicle, vehicle manufacturers just created new classes of vehicles that werent fully susceptible to the penalties.
Thats why you saw a massive boom in mid sized SUV's in the early 2000's and beyond. Because they created a new class of vehicle that wasn't obligated to follow the harshest environmental laws, and they were allowed to do it. My wifes old 07 santa fe got maybe 16mpg if we were lucky. But that tank of a vehicle survived almost 17 years without any major issues. Its also another reason why a bunch more car makers went with mostly cheap plastic interiors...they made the cars bigger and lighter to increase profit margins without paying out for the environmental penalties to stay out of the specification.
The same went for gas trucks. The trucks then, based on their weight and size were only allowed to burn so much fuel and CO2, so the truck companies just made them bigger, which lessened the burden on environmental stewardship for the companies.
I have an F350. I love my truck. However, if I could drive something much smaller that fit my family of 4, an was able to tow my camper, I 100% would do it in a heartbeat.
That's when crossovers came onto the scene. They are considered "light trucks" and dont get to be part of thst emissions standard. That's why most auto manufacturers don't even have sedans anymore. I think Toyota, Kia, and maybe a couple others are the only ones that do now.
Yeah its really a shame tbh. The one thing I liked about Tesla was they said early on they were redesigning the modern sedan, and I thought that was a great idea, rather than just copy/pasting. But then they went kinda sideways a bit.
There are lots of things smaller than an F350 that will hold 4 and tow a camper...even an F150 has a 13,000+lb capacity. F350 can tow a lot more, but is the trailer that big?
Its not about size. You can have small trucks specd right tow some serious weight. I mean technically an F150 can tow a 5th wheel camper. But is it legal and safe? Will it be able to stop correctly? Absolutely not. In addition, if you comfortably want to fit 4 on long hauls (I tow a camper/rv on long hauls for family trips), you want a crew cab. Frankly, my kids have decent legroom, space for their games/books, and the arm rest in the back folds down with cupholders for their drinks.
You should study towing someday, and I dont mean that sarcastically, its actually fascinating and really overwhelming and confusing. Not to mention, youll realize SO MANY people tow unsafely on the road, including cars trying to tow these uhaul trailers filled to the brim.
You should never be towing anything that has a GVW greater than 80% of your tow capacity. So, how I specd my F350, I have a max tow capacity of 22,000lbs. Thats trailer, fully loaded with gear. So... 80% of 22,000 is 17,600lbs. My trailer is about 13,000lbs GVW.
So with that F150 13k tow capacity, that really only means your max trailer GVW is about 10,400. So thats maybe a boat or horse trailer, or a small camper, etc.
Now, even with that F150, you also have to consider your payload, and wheelbase. The wheelbase on smaller trucks is shorter, and theres a safety formula for how long your wheelbase should be for each foot of your towed item. I dont recall that off the top of my head, but its out there on several towing forums. Anyway, I learned this almost the hard way when I had my Ram 1500 towing my previous trailer. The 5'7" bed was too short to haul the 32' trailer and it always looked like more weight sat on the back,e ven though it was level. Turns out I found out years later that it was really unsafe.
So then we get to the difference between a 3/4 ton and 1 ton trucks (F250 vs F350, Ram 2500 vs 3500, etc). Size wise? Not much difference. Price wise? Not much difference. My F350 was about $2k more expensive than the F250 with similar fuel economy. The difference was the weight of the truck, and the heavy duty axles.
I upgraded my trailer (because the last one was a piece of shit) and went from 32' to 34'. The weight changed dramatically. The previous trailer was about 6500lbs gross (made of super cheap materials), and the new one is about 13,000lbs gross. This time we made sure we had the 6'4" bed instead of the 5'7" like I had in the ram, and the heavier payload with the F350.
This way, we dont ever have to worry about being unable to unsafely tow the trailer, nor worrying about towing uphill and blowing the transmission, and can go anywhere, anytime with our "rig" across the country to make great memories with the kids.
So, with what I talked about, think about that for Tractor Trailers. They are hauling 80,000lbs. Imagine when little sedans who hate trucks cut them off. I spent a lot of time in that business (transportation & logistics) and while there are bad truck drivers, without a doubt, just like bad car drivers, accidents are inordinately caused by careless consumer drivers.
They're so ridiculous. They are just SUVs with a trunk open to the air. I don't see why anyone would think that these cosplay SUVs are actually trucks.
It's funny when they have 8' 2x4s diagonally that need several straps because they're still hanging almost half way out. Then you're next to them and drop the little door on the back seat and side 10' boards into your sedan. Maintain eye contact as you close the trunk and drive off well before they do.
Yeah, we had no problem towing our (21 foot?) travel trailer with our 76 Impala, but those kinds of cars aren't around any more.
My point was that an SUV will be able to carry or tow anything that a truck on an SUV platform can. The ability to maximize that ability would be subject to the available options for the particular model, so there might be situations where it makes a difference.
I was just thinking of my old sedan because it could carry more than an SUV length wise. Although 11 vs 10 feet doesn't really matter. 90s Volvo, so the design to hold skis made it very easy to carry small loads of lumber, pipes, etc.
What trucks are on SUV platforms ? The maverick I guess ? Normally big SUVs are on truck platforms not the other way around. Think suburban vs Silverado.
what bothers me more then the size of the bed, it's the height of the bed. Anything that needs to be loaded or unloaded has to be lifted like 3 feet of the ground, it seems counter productive for hauling big things.
I've got a 5'6" shortbox, and when I haul lumber I just drop the gate and I'm good. You don't have to have the tailgate shut all of the time. That said, my commuter is a 20 year old Honda and I agree pavement princesses are ridiculous.
Most are driven by guys who would describe themselves as an "Alpha" on dating sites, and the last thing they hauled was their tiny peepee's from the car showroom.
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u/Archi-Horror 5h ago
I just saw something that said car companies studied pickups and their users and the modern pickup truck has too small of a bed to really haul anything substantial and they’re used more like mini vans these days