this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2023
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Can you link a smaller one that supports 1,500lbs in the bed and 10,000lbs towing?
I can count to the number of urban residents who need a vehicle that meets those requirements on one hand.
Businesses that need to move stuff around for work typically use actual work vehicles that don’t have a five person cab attached to the front.
Ford Ranger is pretty close to that.
Also 90's F150s were way smaller than a modern one, and were rated for 8,000 pounds towing. So you don't need a monster of a truck to tow a lot, manufacturers are making them way bigger than they need to be.
It's not particularly small. The EPA has us fucked on that count.
Yeah, should be smaller for sure.
Where this photo was taken:
How many people do you think are willing to spend this much time, effort and money to do any of that, unless it's for a job?
@SwedishFool@lemmy.world literally said the relative uses their truck for work, so...
And they're from Sweden, this picture is from Germany. Ya know, a country with significantly less rural terrain. In addition, this car has no company markings and one of those covers over the bed no one needing to haul large machinery needs.
No one person needs a truck and 99% of campanies needing to haul large machinery just use a Mercedes Sprinter or similar.
I'm from the US, living in a major city, and regularly use both Pickup Trucks and Trailers, so ...
Also, congrats on saying "dude in Sweden's friend may need a truck, but really no-one needs a truck". These things don't exist because no-one needs them, and crew-cabs can allow for car-pooling, but I get it; Blindly hating that they exist at all is super important.
Would you believe they got so big because of EPA mpg requirements(also, airbags & crunch zones)? I can link you an article if so. Otherwise I'm not wasting my time.
Firstly, this comment is 3 weeks old - how did you even find it?
Secondly, approximately 99% of what a pickup is able to do can be achieved by a van, with better fuel economy, significantly better views and therefore a reduced child-killing rate and more capacity than a bed mounted way too high in the air. Nobody living in a city needs a truck. And car pooling? Yeah, I'm sure this happens all the time. How often are you participating in it?
And about the EPA requirements: I'm sure you're campaigning to have them adjusted, right? Clearly trucks don't need to be thrice as large as cars from the 60's. Also: Why should cars protect the inside more than the outside? Pedestrian impacts happen all the time due to bad drivers and large, heavy cars significantly worsen injuries. Don't they deserve protections too?
Yours was a reply to my own comment in the first place and I am regularly without good internet for a month at a time, so...
Anyways, yes, I agree that trucks should be smaller, and I donate to others who think like so, but in the meanwhile, people do have a need for trucks and cannot be blamed for buying what is available to them to purchase.
How often do I participate in car-pooling? At least daily when I'm not stringing barges together - I have a large family, my kids' friends know I'm good for a ride to group events, and I drive for Uber and Lyft ... All that said, I personally don't own a truck, but an SUV, since I've found the towing capacity(and MPG! WTF is up with that!?) of vans in my price-range to be absolutely pathetic. In trucks, when the occassion arrises, I am usually a passenger or renting.
That said, even the most rural farmers in the US now know how to import Kei Trucks, and how useful they are, so things are changing, if not quite in a "No one needs trucks" way.