stux⚡️20 years of pickup truck design progress in one photo
Oh yeah…
Nafnlaus 🇮🇸 🇺🇦@stux Pickup trucks are great vehicles... for doing what they were actually designed to do (haul cargo, tools, etc for work, drive on rough terrain, etc).
Buying them as urban cruisers is beyond ridiculous. I mean, do these people hate having good visibility and love having difficulty parking?
Marten
CJ PalomaI -still- own a 2003 ranger precisely because I can easily hop up into the (large) bed. I've used that bed literally hundreds of times to haul wood, wood chips, autumn leaves, sofas, bikes, kayaks (yes plural) and yucky recycling. It will can hold a full size piece of plywood flat in the bed. Try doing that with virtually any of the newer pickups, including the new rangers.
@CJPaloma @marten @stux Exactly. If you *actually*, *frequently* use it for work, pickups excel at their role.
Note that in Europe we have another option (not sure why it never took off in the US), which is small trailers. People tow them even with passenger cars. Own one or rent it as needed, leave it behind when you don't need it.
The choice between a pickup and a trailer is *where*. If you'll be driving on roads, choose a trailer. If you'll be driving on dirt, a pickup.
Richard@richard_merren @CJPaloma @marten @stux Trailers "exist" in the US, but they're not even remotely used as widespread as they are in Europe. It's weird.
bhtooefr@nafnlaus @richard_merren @CJPaloma @marten @stux Part of the problem is differences in safe towing practices, and more prevalence of automatic transmissions and longer warranties in the US.
European towing practices tend to put 4-7% of the trailer weight on the hitch, which puts very little load on the rear suspension relative to the trailer's weight. A lot of cars have a 75-80 kg (165-176 lb) towbar load rating, and even at a conservative for Europe 7% on a 75 kg rating, that's about 1071 kg (2362 lb) of trailer that can be towed. (And European tow ratings often aren't conservative.)
American towing practices put 10-15% on the hitch, which is *much* more stable at speed (and there's an expectation in many areas of going 65-80 MPH (105-129 km/h) highway speed when towing, instead of the 80-90 km/h (50-56 MPH) that most European countries limit towing to)... but means that that same 75 kg towbar load rating translates to, at a conservative 15%, 500 kg (1102 lb) of trailer that can be towed. The automakers that *do* allow towing then often round that down to 1000 lbs (454 kg).
Then, automatic transmissions tend to be stressed a lot more by towing (both due to the added sustained torque, as well as more frequent shifting), and the automatics in cars aren't built for that duty cycle. Combine that with longer warranties in many cases, and automakers have incentives to simply not allow towing at risk of voiding the warranty. (And, then, you've got the standards that automakers in the US market use for setting tow ratings on trucks nowadays, which is basically a torture test that almost nobody will encounter in real life: https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/1502-sae-j2807-tow-tests-the-standard/ )
Although, in the US, towing with a vehicle not rated for it, or above the rating, isn't *illegal* like it can be in many European countries, it's just likely to void your warranty, and if you lose control and cause a crash and are determined to be at fault, you can be held personally civilly liable for the damages.
European towing practices tend to put 4-7% of the trailer weight on the hitch, which puts very little load on the rear suspension relative to the trailer's weight. A lot of cars have a 75-80 kg (165-176 lb) towbar load rating, and even at a conservative for Europe 7% on a 75 kg rating, that's about 1071 kg (2362 lb) of trailer that can be towed. (And European tow ratings often aren't conservative.)
American towing practices put 10-15% on the hitch, which is *much* more stable at speed (and there's an expectation in many areas of going 65-80 MPH (105-129 km/h) highway speed when towing, instead of the 80-90 km/h (50-56 MPH) that most European countries limit towing to)... but means that that same 75 kg towbar load rating translates to, at a conservative 15%, 500 kg (1102 lb) of trailer that can be towed. The automakers that *do* allow towing then often round that down to 1000 lbs (454 kg).
Then, automatic transmissions tend to be stressed a lot more by towing (both due to the added sustained torque, as well as more frequent shifting), and the automatics in cars aren't built for that duty cycle. Combine that with longer warranties in many cases, and automakers have incentives to simply not allow towing at risk of voiding the warranty. (And, then, you've got the standards that automakers in the US market use for setting tow ratings on trucks nowadays, which is basically a torture test that almost nobody will encounter in real life: https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/1502-sae-j2807-tow-tests-the-standard/ )
Although, in the US, towing with a vehicle not rated for it, or above the rating, isn't *illegal* like it can be in many European countries, it's just likely to void your warranty, and if you lose control and cause a crash and are determined to be at fault, you can be held personally civilly liable for the damages.
