this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2023
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What always gets me is how shitty pick-ups are at transporting things.
A percussionist I know has a double cab van, I think it's a Ford transit. It can haul 3 timpani, a drum, tubular bells, a bass drum and other smaller stuff all in one trip. And then it still has space for 5 people. Try doing that with a pick-up.
As a bass player, a VW Touran can fit two double basses and two people. Can't do that in a pick-up.
Those are roughly the same size as a 150 though, aren't they?
Why is a behemoth of a van OK, but an equal sized pickup isn't?
Because pick-ups are truly unfit for purpose unless the purpose is to increase your confidence and sense of safety on the road. We are always gonna need utility vehicles for specific purposes. A percussionist is not hauling drums on the train.
You could easily do what you said with a pickup with a canopy though, while still having the towing and off road capabilities.
Can you forklift a pallet from the side? Nope the tub design doesn't allow it unless you have a tray design.
Can you load a large ladder on it? No ladder/timber rack.
Is it good off-road? Perhaps, but the tub design over the rear tyres and back bumper make the departure angle poor, you'll need rock sliders or a lift.
I think I'll stick to wagons and vans.
You can put a roof rack on almost any vehicle, just BTW.
Show me how you transport a ton of gravel in your car please (and remember, a ton is more than the towing capacity of the vast majority of cars, so no cheating!)
The places around me will deliver it for quite cheap so the uh, 2 times in my life I need that I'll just do that?
How often does the average person haul tons of earthen materials around?
And what do they use to deliver it?
Professional delivery truck with a lifting bed to slide the earth off the back easily wherever you ask them to
A specialized vehicle, not a crappy pickup truck
Never a pickup truck, that's for sure. Usually a tilt bed truck in my experience. Not something you'd generally want to drive unless you're moving gravel.
In my case multiple times a year... plus construction material, furniture, motorcycles... In the end I need to haul heavy shit multiple times a month.
Yet, people would take pictures of my SUV and call me an idiot with no respect for driving a big vehicle... With a 4 cylinders that has a fuel consumption that's the same (or better) as AWD cars that these same people don't criticize???
All highway, 8.2L/100km, mixed, 9.5L/100km.
AWD cars with similar power (so mostly V6) are higher than that, even more so if I include towing capacity in the comparison.
What's the car?
Volvo XC60
Just do a little bit of research into the fuel efficiency of various sized vehicles, the correlation is not direct and some larger vehicles get better gas mileage than smaller vehicles strictly due to efficiency. A small inefficient motor and a large efficient motor may yield the same mpg, but the large efficient motor is extracting more power from the same fuel source. And that's not even getting into diesel versus gasoline.....
Most of your fuel use goes towards overcoming aerodynamic drag, especially at highway speed.
You were talking about weight.
Once again, most of your fuel, especially at speed, goes towards overcoming aerodynamic drag. A heavy vehicle with good health aerodynamics will get better efficiency than a light one with poor aerodynamics.
I think its fair if people call you an idiot for buying an SUV to haul shit - there are far better vehicles for the job.
Yes, better drive a truck instead of taking my trailer with me just when it's necessary, so I take more space and have worse fuel economy 👍
I mean with reasoning skills like that I'm not sure you should be qualified to drive either of those things lol
I was ridiculing your logic but whatever 🤷
"Haha i was only pretending to be retarded"
What? Are you so obtuse that you couldn't detect the sarcasm when I said it would be a better idea to listen to you and to drive a truck so I would take more space and burn more gas? Are you fucking serious now?
Yes, they really are that dumb.
I have a small trailer. Towing capacity of my 2003 Subaru WRX is 1500 lbs. So I guess two trips? Truth be told, that's why I have the trailer. For when I need to move a decent volume of random crap for work.
I don't think the people here are complaining about pickups when used for work, but they are shit vehicles for daily driving. And, this is my personal opinion, crew cabs are usually not utilized to transport workers. More than not, I expect they are because they think they'll take the family or kids in it. Even then they usually drive without any passengers.
I get that a lot of workers don't want to have two vehicles, but pickups are not good daily drivers.
Two words: commercial van. Seriously, they’re great.