Pickup Truck Beds

[timber_cruiser]

Re: Pickup Truck Beds

Reading this has caused me to look at old pics of my Chevy project truck. I found this in a field. The metal is original - except for the bed which is replacement. It was a work truck that saw hard use.

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[Mrleft88]

Re: Pickup Truck Beds

Sadly most "mini" pickups are not street legal in the USA. I had a Dihatsu with a dump bed that was sturdier than my Chevy 1500. But it wasn't street legal, and parts were impossible to get.
If I could get a street legal 3Cyl. Dihatsu, or Tata, You bet I would, in a new york minute. Fold down bed sides/tailgate, dump body diesel with 50MPG..... Who the hell uses a pick up for long distance pleasure travel anyway?
Trucks are for work, and getting around the property, and if your wife's car is gone beer runs...

[Nicholas Carey]

Re: Pickup Truck Beds

I remember going kayaking with a friend in his VW bus. Out on the interstate I noticed that the front wall on the outside was the same piece of metal as the front wall on the inside. Not much of a crumple zone.....

My microbus died when I put it into a phone pole at about 25 mph. Miracle — I hit the pole dead center — that neither of us was hurt.

[Brian Palmer]

Re: Pickup Truck Beds

I can do everything most of you are describing with my Toyota Sienna minivan. It can carry 8 adults (with room behind the last row) or 4x8 sheets of plywood or drywall and they will stay dry in the rain. I have had 9 bicycles in the back. I can tow up to 3500 pounds. I can sleep in the back with no tent. I can carry stuff on the roof. The newer models are now hybrids.

Most pickup trucks are just an affectation, all hat and no cowboy.

[Garret]

Re: Pickup Truck Beds

I hauled 5,000 bricks (not all at once ) in a 68 VW bus. Stack to fill the floor - with the middle seat out -about 6 bricks high - I judged the load by tire bulge. It was a lot of trips - but it sure did corner well with all that weight down low.

Modern trucks are stupidly big & have horrendous forward vision with the tall hood they use to make them look "manly" -need a forward camera to see close in front. That being said, I just hauled a 5,000 lb 24' camper with my 1500 GMC + 8 sections of scaffold, a bunch of tools, 15 2x10x14 rough cut (so full 2"x10") planks, and a bunch of misc. 2x4's on a ladder rack 300 miles. Not a problem at all, except the trailer getting blown around by 30MPH gusts.

Do I do that regularly? No, but it's nice to be able to.

The trailer is angled down to get past the transition at the bottom of the driveway without dragging the back of the trailer & destroying the levelling jacks. I stopped a mile down the road & put the other receiver on to level it out for travel.

MaineTrip.jpg

[WszystekPoTrochu]

Re: Pickup Truck Beds

I'll jump on modern pickup truck hate wagon any day
It's infuriating that these things started to gain any kind of popularity here

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[skuthorp]

Re: Pickup Truck Beds

The same monsters with the same safety problems are sold her following the demise of our own industry. They would never pass Australian design rules, so why do we have them on our roads?
Last RW Fed. government was slack about a great deal of things. J

[rbgarr]

Re: Pickup Truck Beds

I've got a 2009 Chevy Colorado that suits me just fine. It's one of the mid-size pickups.

I take the time to rest after unloading the moderate loads. I've been to the local dump three times today while launching the boat, taking brush and weeds and an old bandsaw, (9", bad bearings, cracked rubber wheels). The dump is a social space here, especially around the 'pick pile' where things can be dropped off and picked up. I got a new lampshade still wrapped in plastic yesterday. Margaret was happy.

The humongous pickups are just unnecessary except for commercial needs, IMO.

[stromborg]

Re: Pickup Truck Beds

These were cool. '63 VW Double Cab Transporter
[ATTACH=CONFIG]137773[/ATTACH]

I've seen a couple of old brochures that put the carrying capacity of the baywindow pickup at 1 ton. I think my '68 singlecab might have been rated at 3/4 ton.

The Vanagon Doka was good for a ton too.

[Nicholas Carey]

Re: Pickup Truck Beds

The [VW] Vanagon Doka was good for a ton too.

That Ferdinand Porsche guy, he were a smart cookie and a somewhat more than decent engineer.

[stromborg]

Re: Pickup Truck Beds

A man named Ben Pon came up the original design in 1947 while the factory producing Beetles was still under British control. Later Heinz Nordhoff would dust off the design and the Transporter was born.

The infamous tariff now known as the "Chicken Tax" did a lot to kill off the VW pickup truck market in the US.

[stromborg]

Re: Pickup Truck Beds

Also:
Volkswagen Beetle History

Volkswagen means “people’s car” and that is what the original VW Beetle was designed to be. Ferdinand Porsche is the name that most often comes up as the creator of the first Beetle. However, it was actually a Jewish engineer named Josef Ganz who had the first idea for this people’s car. Ganz was an automotive journalist, and he also held a number of vehicle patents for steering, suspension, and other automotive systems.

The VW Beetle we know today was originally called the May Bug by Ganz. It was a lightweight car with a rear engine, a tubular backbone chassis, independent suspension with swing axles, and a streamlined, curved body. This was the prototype for a Volkswagen vehicle that any person could afford. It was eventually called the Beetle because of the way its curved exterior resembled certain beetles.

https://www.vwofchicagoland.com/who-designed-the-vw-beetle/

There is a documentary out there someplace about Ganz. Netflix?

[Art Haberland]

Re: Pickup Truck Beds

It's good to see that this vehicle makes sense for you. Most people I know with modern trucks never use the bed.

Sounds like a co-worker with his Ram. He uses it as a truck twice a year. Once in the spring to put his speedboat in the water, and once in the fall to take it out. The rest of the time he drives it back and forth to work and washes and waxes it on a weekly basis. My ancient landrover does more towing and hauling than his "truck"

[Breakaway]

Re: Pickup Truck Beds

Sounds like a co-worker with his Ram. He uses it as a truck twice a year. Once in the spring to put his speedboat in the water, and once in the fall to take it out. The rest of the time he drives it back and forth to work and washes and waxes it on a weekly basis. My ancient landrover does more towing and hauling than his "truck"

And, when a storm is coming up the coast, he can go get his boat. He doesn't have to depend on anyone else.
That has value.

Kevin

[Mrleft88]

Re: Pickup Truck Beds

My 1969 VW microbus had a higher payload capacity than a c. 1980 American-made 1/2-ton pickup or cargo van.

Fold down the rear seats in my old Peugeot 505 station wagon, and you could load it up with a stack of 4x8 sheet goods and close the hatch.

My 73 Kombi had a 3/4 ton payload. I but 500bf of Cherry lumber in it and drove from VT to CT with no problems at all.
Unfortunately I also parked it too close to a telephone pole at speed one icy night. I found a 71 with a burnt out motor for$125. Towed that home and swapped out the motors and the fold down rear seat. Put helper springs on the rear shocks, and had a 1 ton payload.
It's true I had to down shift going up steep hills, but who cares? I could fit ten kegs of beer in that and still have room for a passenger.