At some point “bigger truck” just becomes “public infrastructure stress test with cupholders.”
I suggest vehicle length and width limits for parking lots. Parking fines for those who exceed them, and make the fines bigger the more the vehicle exceeds it.
At least where I live, vehicle technical data is publicly available by license plate, so it’d be trivial to implement too. The Europark guys will literally stand around and wait for your parking clock to expire if you stay for 2 minutes too long, how about they do something more useful instead.
Either it’ll make people reconsider driving these large beasts in the city, or the owners of the parking lots get extra revenue. Either way at least it’ll cost the giant truck owners money.
Honestly, requiring a separate license for larger vehicles would probably be more effective. It’s already pretty common to have separate licenses for different classes of vehicles.
Make it require a more rigorous driving test, and maybe more expensive too. We should probably also outlaw consumer vehicles with such shit visibility anyway, but that’s a different issue.
Parking lots are built and run out of a desire to get people to park there (so that they don’t go somewhere else). A garage owner is not going to willfully limit his customer base without a good reason. And “providing a happy parking experience” is not good enough. Driving and looking for parking is already not a happy feeling. It’s a case of “the customer is always right (even if they’re a dick)”.
You’d need the government to force these limits and then it’s not about just parking: it’s regulating vehicle size entirely.
I’ve had a ticket for not fully parking in the bay before, this should more than qualify
I bet that paint scratches easily
Those tyres aren’t flat either. I wonder how that can be rectified…
LPT: Super glue a BB pellet into the plastic air stem cap. Results in a slow leak over time, and it may take the owner a couple of times filling up the tire to realize what the problem is.
I get piled on every time but no one needs a modern pickup. There is a more suitable vehicle for your needs if you are in trades, and a pickup isn’t it. Need people space? Same deal.
Even worse they COULD make trucks that do everything new trucks do without being so huge. Kei trucks would do most of what people use American trucks for.
Hell, American trucks used to do everything modern ones do at half the size.
What do you suggest for the trades? A van?
D’uh. Vans are more lockable, there’s more space, you can just walk straight into them, they have much shorter hoods so that more of their length can be for storage than for just being long for the sake of it, and they are way more modifiable than people think. A work van is still body-on-frame so they’re perfectly capable towing vehicles to boot.
Trucks do one thing better, and that is having a bed that can be removed/taken up for more useful things like fifth-wheel hookups and towing rigs. I guess you can also maybe put a single haybale in there, but actual farmers who aren’t cosplaying don’t move their shit one bale at a time while pretending they’re Ford Tough™.
U-haul rents pickups but there’s a reason you never really see them. Why would I go through all that trouble and cost and not at least get the van?
Yes, obviously, but they are already making pick up trucks that have a sealable bed. They also have pick ups that have a raised construction on the bed with a roof. Next step is a double door on the rear and they will just be vans again.
Do you actualy have any real trades experience. Or are you just barking?
I do. My family ran a house construction company. We never bought anything but vans because:
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materials are expensive, and it rains.
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Tools are expensive, and it rains.
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Materials are expensive, and people steal.
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Tools are expensive, and people steal.
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Shit falls out of pickup beds all the time. Every fucking day a load is lost on a highway.
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Most pickups can’t even carry 4x8 sheets with the tail up. Poser work trucks.
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Vans have a lower loading height, and can be accessed from 3 points.
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FWD vans can actually be driven in snow, as opposed to a stupid design that puts the drive wheels at the wrong end of the vehicle, which means poor ground clearance because of the differential and driveshaft, so they mount bigger wheels. Dumb on top of dumb.
I understand the constant TV commercials about payload with Sam Elliot narrations but get fucking serious, most construction trades do not use their own vehicles, they just commute to the work site.
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Barking? Well I sure seem to have bitten you
No just calling out your lack of practical understanding of skilled trades.
So how does having an open top and a larger vehicle for the same storage space make more sense? Not in trades just have a vague sense of 3 dimensional space and efficiency.
Nah, that’s just your lack of understanding
Yes, that is what they all use here because its just better. A roof keeps your tools dry and if someone wants to steal it they need to break in rather than just grabbing it.
Where is here? This is just pathetic. You ever load a skid of material/ equipment into a van? It’s do able with the right size fork lift I guess, pain in the ass though when you got two skids worth to load unload. How about when you only have a crane avaliable? How about when you have petrol cans / slip tanks to bring to a job site to fill up your crane/ excavator? You think a guy wants those fumes in his cab? Need a dump box for landscape work? Pull of your bed and put one on. Want to get into tow and recovery, pull of your bed and put a tow lift on. Need a flat deck? Guess what you got it for the price of fun. Need a welding rig? Guess what it’s right there put the welder in the back and gas bottles. What you gona fill the van cab with exaust fumes from the welder and risk leaking oxy/propane/acetylene into your nice and dry van cab? But hey your shit will be dry right?
Usually people needing bigger than a van here get flatbeds rather than US style pickup trucks
My guy, no one is saying that pick up trucks are useless. What they are saying is that trucks are too big and too expensive for what the majority of buyers use it for. Many Americans buy their pick up trucks for symbolic cultural status, not pragmatic trades use.
I once spent a summer installing new milking parlors at dairy farms in central PA. The welder, tanks, PPE, and the rest of our tools fit just fine into an old transit van with sliding side doors, rear double doors, a hitch to tow the generator, and a roof rack for large items like pipes and ladders. A box truck was used to deliver material pallets to each worksite.The company I use for plumbing and HVAC uses vans. The carpet cleaning service I use has their cleaning machine built inside of a van. When I had to transport 50+ computers to refresh satellite office hardware I used a minivan with removable seats.
Could a pick up have done all those jobs? Absolutely. However, we didn’t need a pick up to do all those jobs, and the vehicles we did use were much smaller and less expensive. That is what people in this thread are saying. Most modern pick up trucks are not designed for trade use; today’s midsize pickups are larger than full-size pickups from 20 years ago, and they have the bells and whistles that you’d expect to see in a higher end passenger car, instead of the vinyl/plastic interiors that they used to have ~20 years ago.
EDIT: I just saw that the original person you responded to did say that no one needs a truck. They were probably being hyperbolic, as there are use cases for pick up trucks, so I can see where your push back came from.
Or an older pickup with equivalent bed space and no weight wasted on a second row of passenger seats.
Okay how old? We talking pre 2008? Because anything before that are pigs on fuel, perform significantly worse, and lack of basic saftey features.
Do you have any numbers to attach to those claims?
Efficiency has improved over the decades despite the trucks getting larger: https://carbuzz.com/ford-improved-f-150-fuel-economy-five-decades/ you’ll also see how the old inefficient engines had less power than the new more efficient ones.
Electronic Stability Program became mandatory in the US in 2012 and the EU in 2014. I’ve driven a '05 Grand Cherokee that didn’t have it (or even traction control if I remember correctly), though German cars mostly started getting it in late 90s or early 00s. ESP can be an absolute godsend in the winter because unlike your right foot, it can control each wheel’s brakes individually to prevent skids.
It’s not just trucks, all vehicles have gotten safer and more efficient over time because of regulations that have forced manufacturers to adopt new technologies. I’ve never heard anyone question this before, as it’s so widely known.
But do they have to be huge and tall?
Oh they most definitely do not, they’d be more efficient if they weren’t. And perhaps not safer for the people inside, but safer for everyone else.
Oh, I probably could have been more clear, I wasn’t asking if newer vehicles were safer or more efficient, just how much more.
You have my thanks, for I did not have the energy for that!
They still make single row ones. We have many at my workplace. Usually tradies that work for larger businesses or local governments use them. Smaller trade businesses generally the dual/super cab ones. They do have their uses but most people don’t use them for that purpose.
Ranger XL single cab or Hilux single cab still around. The Holden Colorado was my favourite as someone that did a lot of long drives but that doesn’t exist anymore.
At the end of the day, most people want to drive a bigger car because they feel safer when though the bigger vehicles are the problem.
Neat, I’ll retract the older part of my comment, if you absolutely need a pickup truck get one of those then. As for the safety thing, I’m aware of it, and I’m also aware of how psychopathic it is. Fuck you for wanting to have any chance of survival when I hit you, I don’t want to be hurt at the same time.
Most of the world does real work in one of these.
Isn’t that still just a pick-up truck?
I’ve only ever seen these:
A van but with a flatbed.
Honestly, this should be a ticket. Parked vehicle outside of a parking spot, obstructing traffic, etc.
“Well what else am I supposed to do?”
Use the truck parking spots.
“But they’re far away/nonexistent”
Take a cab or otherwise figure it out.
yeah, it’s too big for the spot
simple
“Well what else am I supposed to do?”
Don’t care, that is your problem. I have a similar response to people complaining about roads not being increased in size because cars are getting larger. The road was here first, you then decided to buy a larger car. Really it seems like a you problem.
“What, do you expect society to accommodate your special needs vehicle? You some kind of woke commie?”
Exactly.
Just because your vehicle doesn’t fit in parking bays doesn’t mean you can just park anywhere you like.
What else is he supposed to do? Use his LEGS?
Not for long
These will be pretty rare in 10 years time if things continue the way they are. That said I’m in a country adopting EVs, so YMMV
Ah, yes, because EVs can’t be made into giant ugly trucks
gahh, every time I see a Hummer EV, I think people can’t get stupider
I learned recently that the stated target demographic for the original hummer was “people who didn’t serve in the armed forces, but felt like they should” and it’s funnier every time I think of it. They knew their market SO well, and I’d been wondering for years “who the hell is this for?”
Me too.
And then I see a Cybertruck
Yes but, it can crab walk
That’ll happen as well, but at least it’ll be a lot cleaner. I’m still of the mind there’ll be less.
You do have a point though.
10 years? The longer Operation Epstein Fury drags on, these guys will be struggling to gas up in months.
Yeah can’t argue with that
That’s going to hurt too many of the wrong people, unfortunately, for the benefits in the end it will give.
I just hope it doesn’t turn into Kuwait but the whole area.
Yeah, they will get even heavier so you will never see a road without craters in it
Maybe tracked vehicles will come back into fashion. Finally a RAM TANK half-track.
Yeah nah as time goes by it’ll go the other way. Batteries will get lighter as tech improves.
The argument going on about this reminds me of what my grandmother told me about the horse to car transition. Pretty much all the same stuff, including how big they were in comparison to a horse.
Fuckin gold
But people keep buying bigger cars. We are able to build small cars it’s just that almost no one is buying them.
almost no one is buying them.
In North America.
UK too. Though not quite as bad as the US.
Yeah you’re right it sucks. It’s mainly from what I can see, governments building legislation that gives tax breaks for these cars like happens here in Oz or manufacturers using politics to shut out especially smaller and trade EVs from over seas.
You’re right though, however you are
Well for now BEVs are still much heavier than ICE vehicles. It will take decades for them to finally become lighter than ICE vehicles.
Well for now BEVs are still much heavier than ICE vehicles.
only in the US, where people love tanks and can’t do math so they need to carry around 2000lbs of batteries.
In the meantime they’re still significantly cleaner
Some need them, and if we have to have them better they’re electric.
It’s obscene.
Antisocial behavior
Honestly, even if we ignore how obscenely selfish and un-neighborly this guy is being, even if we assume he only cares about himself and his emotional support vehicle…shouldn’t that make him worry about that truck getting hit by someone driving by? How many times is he going to lose his truck’s bumper because he parks it with the nose sticking halfway through the travel lane?
With gas prices, they’re screwed…
Diesel probably gets 1200km ± 200km per full tank approx 120L tank size. So 240$ cad for a full tank. It’s still nothing compared to the new imports using turbo 4s and having to put in premium. Because of the NOx reduction legislation.
Time to make zig zag stiles for parking garages.
This, but in traffic unsafely blocking my left line of sight so I can’t safely do anything until they take their sweet time trying to go.
…At least during a turn I can “use” them as protected cover.
I absolutely hate these people parking in garages. I’m sorry but that shit is just absolutely unnecessary.
Dinosaurs once were the norm, too .
Only in the US lol
Happens in Australia too though I think in Victoria you are meant to put out witches hats if your car is in the street
Lol you mean VLC icons?
That’s the ones
