The sad thing is that they’re not even that roomy. Something like a skoda superb beats this ford truck hands down when it comes to leg room.
So:
not that great off-road (too heavy, too wide, too long, not enough weight on rear wheels)
not great at transporting stuff, because the load bed is open.
not fuel efficient (and low range)
less safe (higher chance of roll over, takes longer to stop, lower safety standards compared to regular cars)
poor visibility (too high, don’t see pedestrians + low obstacles)
not that roomy
not that comfortable
poor handling
A common argument is ‘it can tow stuff’, which is also silly because you can do that with a far smaller car too.
So it’s a fashion statement or virtue signaler. I mean, obviously we all hate it, but the people that buy these kind of trucks usually get off on that. They’re virtue signaling to their (internet) friends.
I would love to see the smaller car that can tow a 35 foot 5th wheel trailer.
Or the van that can haul 12 foot logs stacked 6 feet deep.
Or carry two 1000liter water totes and allow them to be filled from the overhead hose that is provided by the municipality.
Or pull a trailer with a rented excavator.
The point here isn’t to argue. But I do get pretty tired of these threads just shitting on trucks for fun. They don’t make sense for non tradespeople living in a city. But I could not do with one vehicle if that vehicle wasn’t a pickup.
I’m building a homestead from scratch where I had to cut the trees of the forest down in order to make room to put my trailer to live in. Without the truck I could not haul the trailer all the way to the mill, all the milled wood back, and carry all of the things that I need to build the house. While still giving me 4 seats so that my nephews have a seat when I pick them up.
Edit to add: Mine is also dirty, dented, scratched, and abused. I don’t have time to make a work machine shiny, I have work to do.
You have a point. It’s also clear that the Ford pickup in OP’s picture hasn’t done anything remotely close to any of the things you mentioned and likely won’t be, even once a year.
Frequent campers, contractors, farmers, builders/carpenters, junk and scrap haulers, landscapers all have a use for a pickup truck. Most others don’t.
The amount of trail rash on my Jeep agrees with you. My rig gets used and abused on trails. More of a toy since I WFH and share my GFs much more reasonable vehicle.
Yeah but people are specifically criticizing the people who buy trucks to show off in the city, not people who actually use them for what they were made to do
The comment they replied to is literally someone criticizing people for using them for what they were made to do… so no that isn’t what “people are specifically criticizing”.
Yeah that’s my bad, I didn’t realize that criticizing comment’s original point. I’d love to see someone run a small farm with a freaking sedan, what a moron.
I get that. I really do. But a lot of these threads devolve into “there is no reason to own one of these.” So I replied to someone saying similar stuff to remind this person that there are reasons.
Yeah that’s my bad, I didn’t realize that criticizing comment’s original point. I’d love to see someone run a small farm with a freaking sedan, what a moron.
As someone else pointed out already, yes, there are people who need a truck. They don’t need an oversized death machine. There is little to no reason for a truck to have that much bulk, the bulk doesn’t add power.
However, most “need a truck” is either shit that could be done in much less vehicle, or done so infrequently that it makes 0 sense to OWN said truck. I sometimes need a truck… so far thrice in my life. I rented said truck.
My wagon covers almost all of my hauling needs, rental covers the few outliers.
You can tow an excavator, etc etc, with a Ford Transit. Hell, they can still drive ok if you stuff enough crushed cars in the back to get a curb weight of 3 tons.
Meanwhile a 1/2 ton pickup looks like it’s struggling with half a ton in the tiny tiny bed.
You are going to want to check your numbers on that transit van.
My 250 has three times the towing capacity of the transit, and the transit can’t pull a 5th wheel.
And an E45 bobcat (which is small relative to some machines I pull )is twice as heavy as the tow capacity of the transit, without considering tongue weight or the bulky trailer needed to haul such a thing.
Ok, that’s fair … I guess because the F250 isn’t sold here people have a different attitude.
For your needs here people would get something like an Iveco Daily 3.5 ton with dropside deck, they can take a good beating, about the same size as a heavy duty pickup but with more space on the back.
They also do options for a crane, tipper for agregates, and crew cab … seems like a pretty solid work platform compared to a pickup.
I‘m always surprised at how well those 2 wheel drive Fiat Panda‘s perform. We mostly use it for our farm because it can‘t really get stuck, or we haven‘t managed to get it stuck in 11 years.
They also fit a decent amount of luggage!
Gotta stuff those fat americans in there somehow.
The sad thing is that they’re not even that roomy. Something like a skoda superb beats this ford truck hands down when it comes to leg room.
So:
A common argument is ‘it can tow stuff’, which is also silly because you can do that with a far smaller car too.
So it’s a fashion statement or virtue signaler. I mean, obviously we all hate it, but the people that buy these kind of trucks usually get off on that. They’re virtue signaling to their (internet) friends.
I would love to see the smaller car that can tow a 35 foot 5th wheel trailer.
Or the van that can haul 12 foot logs stacked 6 feet deep.
Or carry two 1000liter water totes and allow them to be filled from the overhead hose that is provided by the municipality.
Or pull a trailer with a rented excavator.
The point here isn’t to argue. But I do get pretty tired of these threads just shitting on trucks for fun. They don’t make sense for non tradespeople living in a city. But I could not do with one vehicle if that vehicle wasn’t a pickup.
I’m building a homestead from scratch where I had to cut the trees of the forest down in order to make room to put my trailer to live in. Without the truck I could not haul the trailer all the way to the mill, all the milled wood back, and carry all of the things that I need to build the house. While still giving me 4 seats so that my nephews have a seat when I pick them up.
Edit to add: Mine is also dirty, dented, scratched, and abused. I don’t have time to make a work machine shiny, I have work to do.
You have a point. It’s also clear that the Ford pickup in OP’s picture hasn’t done anything remotely close to any of the things you mentioned and likely won’t be, even once a year.
Frequent campers, contractors, farmers, builders/carpenters, junk and scrap haulers, landscapers all have a use for a pickup truck. Most others don’t.
Fair.
The amount of trail rash on my Jeep agrees with you. My rig gets used and abused on trails. More of a toy since I WFH and share my GFs much more reasonable vehicle.
Yeah but people are specifically criticizing the people who buy trucks to show off in the city, not people who actually use them for what they were made to do
The comment they replied to is literally someone criticizing people for using them for what they were made to do… so no that isn’t what “people are specifically criticizing”.
Yeah that’s my bad, I didn’t realize that criticizing comment’s original point. I’d love to see someone run a small farm with a freaking sedan, what a moron.
4x4 with a tow hook. Attach an open trailer when necessary.
Here’s a 4x4 towing a boeing 747:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmM-635RR6o
I get that. I really do. But a lot of these threads devolve into “there is no reason to own one of these.” So I replied to someone saying similar stuff to remind this person that there are reasons.
Yeah that’s my bad, I didn’t realize that criticizing comment’s original point. I’d love to see someone run a small farm with a freaking sedan, what a moron.
As someone else pointed out already, yes, there are people who need a truck. They don’t need an oversized death machine. There is little to no reason for a truck to have that much bulk, the bulk doesn’t add power.
However, most “need a truck” is either shit that could be done in much less vehicle, or done so infrequently that it makes 0 sense to OWN said truck. I sometimes need a truck… so far thrice in my life. I rented said truck. My wagon covers almost all of my hauling needs, rental covers the few outliers.
You can tow an excavator, etc etc, with a Ford Transit. Hell, they can still drive ok if you stuff enough crushed cars in the back to get a curb weight of 3 tons.
Meanwhile a 1/2 ton pickup looks like it’s struggling with half a ton in the tiny tiny bed.
You are going to want to check your numbers on that transit van.
My 250 has three times the towing capacity of the transit, and the transit can’t pull a 5th wheel.
And an E45 bobcat (which is small relative to some machines I pull )is twice as heavy as the tow capacity of the transit, without considering tongue weight or the bulky trailer needed to haul such a thing.
I get it. Most people don’t need it. I do.
Ok, that’s fair … I guess because the F250 isn’t sold here people have a different attitude. For your needs here people would get something like an Iveco Daily 3.5 ton with dropside deck, they can take a good beating, about the same size as a heavy duty pickup but with more space on the back.
They also do options for a crane, tipper for agregates, and crew cab … seems like a pretty solid work platform compared to a pickup.
Here’s a VW Touareg towing a Boeing 747:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmM-635RR6o
150 tonnes.
Tbf using a Skoda for comparison is cheating, they’re notorious for being very roomy. 😛
I‘m always surprised at how well those 2 wheel drive Fiat Panda‘s perform. We mostly use it for our farm because it can‘t really get stuck, or we haven‘t managed to get it stuck in 11 years. They also fit a decent amount of luggage!
I bet my wagon could do half these people’s “tow stuff”
Pickups suck at literally everything they try to do. They are the worst of all worlds.