In memory of my 95 extended cab
You must log in or register to comment.
A “regular bed” has always been an 8ft bed for the last 60-odd years. Look at any full-sized Ford, GMC, AMC, or Chevrolet pickup from the 70s, 80s, or 90s – it’s nearly impossible to find one with anything but an 8ft bed. If you wanted anything shorter you went with a “toy truck” like the Mazda B2000 to B2600i, or a Toyota Tacoma.
It’s just the utter lack of 8ft beds in full-sized modern (last 10-15 years) trucks that has had the industry reclassifying uselessly lobotomized truck beds as “regular” and normal-length beds as “extended”
Yeah I really don’t get it.
I drive an old pickup truck with a standard sized bed. Every time I’ve needed the bed of the truck, I’ve needed it to be as big as it is. If it was as short as modern truck beds I’d be making more trips or hiring a U-Haul or something.
I get a normal, functional bed AND it’s still a normally sized vehicle that’s easy to drive and park. When this vehicle eats shit, whoever makes a normal sized pickup is getting my money.
I’d be pissed if I bought a pickup that can’t fit a damn couch
It’s because they’re emotional support vehicles for suburban dudes who have an incredibly fragile ego. What they need is a van or a “sensible” SUV or even just y’know a fuckin car but these men are too sensitive and scared to drive one of those so they buy a truck as a family car instead.
It’s kind of pathetic honestly.
When this vehicle eats shit, whoever makes a normal sized pickup is getting my money.
So… either you’ll be buying used or not a truck.
Is your username a reference to the Greydon Clark movie?
I really want a Kei Truck, and I can’t be the only one.
OMG, there are two people in my neighborhood with them and I want one soooo bad. Only problem is I need to haul stuff to the landfill and that requires getting on the interstate which I don’t think they’re rated for in my state.
How else do you expect to fit two morbidly obese American parents and their morbidly obese children?
So today’s ‘trucks’ have just slightly more storage space than my old Mini Cooper did. Neat. Like can you legit fit like a bike or 4-wheeler in that?
2 things:
- The new truck has 4 doors. That’s a crew cab.
- Part of the reason for today’s massive trucks is a change in CAFE regs starting in 2012 that bases fuel economy standards on vehicle footprint. It’s easier to make a larger footprint than a more efficient vehicle.
It’s
easiermore profitable to makea larger footprintthe consumer buy a larger vehicle than a more efficient vehicle.Minor fixes, spot on otherwise.
I can see how 2 can be gamed by car makers, but I don’t know how I would fix it. Seems intuitive larger cars will use more fuel, e.g. can’t use the same standards on 18 wheelers and sedans.
Are there good alternatives? Is my intuition dead wrong
Tax carbon, by raising gas tax. Let the market figure out the details. This lets the market optimize for efficiency instead of optimize towards defeating the entire point of regulation.
hmmmm, this feels wrong, but off the top of my head i don’t have many critics. but, like, what if the car makers just make very inefficient, but also very cheap cars? won’t people buy that instead?
Very inefficient cars would burn a ton of fuel and then consumers would be paying a fortune in fuel taxes.
Depends on how high you make the tax, lower priced car might offset that.
And gas tax also disproportionately affect the poorer population, for many of them cars are mandatory because of commuting, etc. And those who are well-off might just not care about the tax.
Shift the tax to vehicle weight with a separate scale for electric cars but don’t have exceptions for commercial vehicles that could be used as private vehicles. For example, exempt cement trucks but not f350 dualies. It sucks that anyone with a legit business need for a f350 will get hit but that’ll just be the cost of doing business.
That’s the case with all Pigouvian taxes.
Pigouvian taxes
oh i didn’t even know there is a word for this class of taxes, thanks. i guess that’s why it felt intuitively wrong to me even though i can’t quite put my finger on it. maybe i just have a general aversion towards Pigouvian taxes.
Back then I was told the extended beds suck because they had more leverage and the frame was more likely to snap with a real load and you should use a gooseneck trailer anyways
No Idea how true this is but Hay if the extra length is harmful anyways then might as well shrink it more.
98 Ranger XLT extended cab. I’ve added trailer brake control for livestock hauling and a modern stereo with bluetooth, handsfree calling, and a sealed 10" sub cause I’m a metalhead.
It’s got the pushrod V6 that will last forever, in 99 they switched over to those awful self-destructing cassette timed V6s.
It throws no codes. Redid intake manifold and valve gaskets about 18 months ago, but I’ve got increased Idle RPM and minor oil leak again. So, I have to redo it, looking for a more permanent fix.
My truck does 10x the work most of those oversized pavement princess trucks do. It’s a little truck for our little play farm.
I see F350 work trucks all the time but they rarely have stock beds, most of them run a full dedicated tool box usually with ladder racks or a custom bed made of diamond sheet. Same deal for the 550 and 650 if they aren’t box trucks.
Your truck reminds me of the garage kept spare cars I see on farms. Sometimes they just live outside near the house but they get driven. Often to pull the bigger trucks out of mud somehow
Yup. I have a play farm, not a real farm. Real farming is an industrial process that requires duallys and such. However, those are also real trucks. Beat to shit, tools in the bed, not lifted so much you can’t load them, etc. They look the part. I do also have a 98 Chevy 3500 box truck. Drinks way too much gas to use it for anything other than its purpose, don’t even have it registered right now, bad cats.
I know some play farmers with dualies. One is for building a fence, one is for towing a 5th wheel and a toy hauler. The fence builder is similarly unregistered because it’s “expensive enough to maintain”
My current daily driver, which I won’t upload my own photo of because it’s literally enough to dox me (by people who know me IRL), is one of these:
It’s not an SUV, but air suspension allows it to rise taller than some crossover SUVs, providing decent clearance. And on the road you can lower and stiffen it for better handling (or keep it in the comfort position for normal height and soft suspension). Both axles are always being driven, with front and rear diff locks being electronic, based on the ESP system.
It doesn’t do as much work as your truck, but then I don’t live on a farm. If I did, I’d have a truck too. It does however do significantly more work than any of those pavement princesses. In particular, it’s been used for towing trailers, I’ve had the entire trunk, with rear seats folded down, filled when I moved most of my furniture. I’ve gone off road in it because I needed to go to the woods. Everything was muddy afterwards.
I’ll use yank units for the fun of it, so it’s got around 250k miles on it. It’s a remapped 3.0 diesel, so it does over 40 mpg very easily unloaded, and can keep up with pretty much anything on the road because of the ridiculous amount of torque it puts out. I paid less than 2k EUR for it (paid pretty much exactly 2000 USD given current exchange rates actually). With all the torque it has, you could also easily tow way more than the legal limit of such a vehicle - which I’ve never needed to.
It’s also rusty, scratched up, dented, etc. Some of the unnecessary extras don’t work (park distance control? lol no, it’s shorted out) It’s not the best car I’ve owned, but it’s the best one I’ve had for getting shit done. 3 months and 6000 miles so far, I’ve spent ~500 to replace some safety-critical neglected parts (brake, suspension) some of which will last the next 100k miles and some hopefully indefinitely (updated to a newer, more reliable ABS module).
It wasn’t cheap for the first person who bought it, but neither are modern trucks. It was cheap to buy used though, unlike trucks. Parts are cheaper too, but that’s partly because I’m in Europe.
I wish I had AWD/4WD sometimes. That’s really the only thing I don’t like about the truck.
Before this truck, I had a Malibu, kept folding the seats down, toting 2x4’s and such. Ripped sheets plywood in the parking lot with a battery powered saw to fit it in before.
Parts are still pretty cheap for this truck here. They made so many of them. I only gave $3500 for it, but that was before prices on used little trucks jumped so high.
I’m hoping I don’t ever have to replace this truck, but if I do, I would be looking at a V6 minivan, especially if I could get in AWD. Gut one of those, and it’s basically a little truck. I think it would do everything I needed, better on fuel costs, etc. I’m not much for lifitimg suspensions, but a truck-minivan with AWD I might lift a little to get into standard truck ground clearance range.
Trucks/utility vehicles are tools and should be used and maintained like a good tool. If it doesn’t have a few scratches and dents, it’s not a real tool.
Nice. Mine was Cayman Green, a couple of shades lighter than yours and a 4-banger, but similar otherwise.
This is actually my fourth vehicle, lifetime. My second was a 97 ranger with the 5 speed and 4 banger. I sold it and missed it so bad I got this one after I lost the car in a flood.
I live in Worst Carolina, and I know the feeling when you can just say you lost something in “the flood” and people just nod their heads like, “yep, I know”.
Red is peak truck for me.
I needed a new vehicle this year and knew I wanted a small truck to help with my forever ongoing home renovation needs. A Ranger was definitely what I was targeting before ultimately falling in love with an 88 Jeep Comanche long bed. Perfect size truck that looks Comically small when parked next to any modern day truck
They’re a vanishing breed. I was searching Autotrader for a compact pickup, and the only thing I found was a Mazda B2300 … from 1986. I can’t use that - I’d be too worried about damaging it. It’s a collector’s item.
I definitely feel that! I bought it knowing that I will have to do all my own maintenance and repairs, which is terrifying but doable. I had to promise myself that if it ever gets wrecked, I’ll have to restore it at any cost, because there simply aren’t that many left out there.
And more children die nowadays for the sake of… what? Small egos?
For the sake of bigger profits.
The Slate is the currently the only modern option for a mini-truck (if it releases).
Telo is also struggling to get to market and will be a much better choice than Slate if they make it. They’re not nearly as well funded though.
The Telo is also quite a nice small size, but unfortunately double the MSRP, with the base model costing 41k. It’s targeting a different market segment. The Slate’s theoretical low cost is a big draw, despite it being less featured (that’s actually what makes it appealing, IMO).
I look forward to it. It’s roughly the same price as my 95 Ranger, inflation adjusted.
Why can’t they make the Maverick a 2 door!
Sales figures don’t support it. There is some demand, but not enough to redesign the platform to support 2-door. That’s a consequence of unibody design, 2 door is a completely different engineering from 4 door.
2 door trucks are barely available for consumers these days, you practically have to get them off the fleet lots.
Small electric trucks are coming. Slate is marketing like crazy to drive up demand. Telo is struggling to get to market. CAFE killed small gas trucks. That’s probably OK, electric is more suited for small trucks anyway, just need truck people to understand how much better electric is on small platforms vs 4cyl.
I’d buy a electric truck with a full bed and a single cab if they made one. There are no options that don’t have stunted beds that I’ve seen.
I had an 06 Ford Ranger (actually a Mazda). RWD with a 4 cylinder and a 5 speed. No frills at all. That was a phenomenal truck. You could put snow tires on it, throw some sand bags in the bed, and go just about anywhere.
I wish I’d never sold mine. It would still be running today if I had kept it.
Same. Poor decision on my part. 🙁
I loved the Ford Mazda connection. I wish Ford hadn’t sold off their stake in the company. My current car is a Mazda 3 and the (Mazda designed) 4-cylinder in it was also used in later model Rangers before they were discontinued.
Most new trucks are basically just luxury SUVs for men who stomp their feet and say they want the boyyyy car, not the mom one.
Note to any offended truck owners: I said most! Some of my best friends are truck owners! :>
Actually true! And the best part is that my truck-owning friends are petite women. But they both do actual farm work in addition to their day jobs, so their trucks are beat up and dirty workhorses.
They insist on lending me a truck any time I need to do a big lumber run to home depot. You know that old saying about instead of owning X you want multiple generous friends who own X, lol.
In addition, I have been busy this summer and I have literally spent a couple grand on lumber for what is hopefully a once in a lifetime project. Believe it or not, I’m still driving an old Mazda3 and didn’t have to buy a truck! (Granted, my initial purchase was so big that I would have paid the delivery fee even if I daily drove a Canyonero with a trailer)
And those people who do buy trucks would often be happy with a much smaller one. They don’t exist. No, not even the Maverick. That’s “well, there’s spam egg sausage and spam, that’s not got much spam in it” for trucks.
I honestly doubt it they would even look at a smaller vehicle now. Most of the people I run into vastly overestimate their needs in a vehicle. They get a diesel 3/4 ton to tow their 4000lb boat because they “need” the towing capacity to do it. They would not believe that if they got the right model the Maverick, it could easily handle their needs.
I get an insane amount of comments about my work setup when I am fully loaded. “You need a bigger truck.” No I fucking don’t. It’s a F150 with a 16’ 10K trailer. The truck’s legal towing max is 10,200lbs. It’s engine is rated for 13,000lbs. Since I am using it for commercial use I have a maximum towing of 10,000lbs. Any more would require a DOT registration and pay fees crossing state borders etc. It’s a well balanced setup that I do around 100 deliveries with per year.
I could go up to a larger setup but the cost/benefit analysis doesn’t add up. I would save approximately 5 trips per year (around 20 hours) having a larger capacity but it would cost me $15K more per year in expenses for a 3/4 ton diesel truck and 17K trailer.
My wife and I are in the preorder group for the Tello, and I think that might be where you’re headed.
It’s the size of a 4-door Mini. Because of the packing advantages of batteries and electric motors, it easily puts everything you’d want in a basic truck and then some. It fits a 4x8 sheet flat on its bed (with some hangover out the back) just fine because it doesn’t have large wheel well intrusion. The wheels can be small because everything else is small, and that means there’s plenty of bed space.
It can also tow 6,600 lbs. So maybe not enough for you, but 6,600 lbs is hardly small. If I wanted to make my Miata into a dedicated track car and trailer it around, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have much issue.
Chapman’s “simplify and add lightness” works for trucks, too.
Yeah absolutely. And I believe we have some really stupid laws that help that effect along. Consumers are also to blame as well, but they always are.
