Before I go anywhere with today’s Ask, let me say loud and clear that the amount of truck you need does not have to correlate even a little with how much truck you want, or have. If you need exactly “zero truck” and your daily is an F-350 King Ranch, good. Drive whatever you like.
There, with that out of the way, let’s talk truck-need. And to be certain, virtually everyone needs a truck. At least sometimes, to some degree. Most of my truck-need is well covered by my Toyota RAV4, which swallows all the mulch I ever require and hauls the vast majority of things that I would throw into the bed of a truck, if I had a truck. When I do need a truck, which is approximately once every one to two years, it’s usually to bring something home that’s simply too big to fit in the RAV4, like a king-size mattress or a piano. I have the former, the latter is just an example (I do own a Casio keyboard, though).
Thankfully, I do have a truck for these occasions. It’s parked at Home Depot.
Your mileage may vary, but at my Home Depot, the rentals are always clean and well-maintained, and taking one out for an hour or two is super cheap. It’s invariably a lot more truck than I need for the task at hand, but Home Depot doesn’t rent Mavericks. Which, if I owned a truck, would also be more truck than I need. But I’d love to have one, because cool little truck. See also the Volkswagen Pickup in the topshot. That’s plenty of truck for me.
Antti dropped a nice reply in Slack, let’s see what he’s got to say:
The perfect amount of truck for me is the Skoda Felicia Fun. Kind of like a cross between the Caddy/Rabbit Sportruck and a Subaru Baja, the Felicia Fun is basically a ’90s Skoda with a strange sense of humour. Think yellow steering wheel and frog-themed yellow seats. Its party trick is a sliding rear wall that has folding jump seats, meaning you can have your passengers sitting out in the rain if they complain about your music choices. Bet my kid would love it, though.
Well gee, that does look like fun!
How much truck do you need? See you in the comments.
Top graphic image: Volkswagen
When I lived in SE Texas, it seemed like a four-door Ford F-150 was the official state vehicle. I seldom saw them loaded with stuff in the bed or pulling a trailer.
When I visit my mom’s farm in rural N California, most of the pickups I see here are doing actual truck stuff.
Peter, you pretty much answered how I would about trucks. I can rent one at Home Depot or U-Haul the once or twice in a decade that I need one.
I had a Datsun 720-series pickup back in the early 80s when I bought a new home and needed to bring stuff like lumber to build a fence. I kind of tortured it bringing home about 1,600 pounds of paving stones. The rear end had about an inch of suspension travel left and the front felt so light that I only went about two miles on the freeway before exiting and taking surface streets. The steering was really spooky.
But no permanent damage was done and I sold it and bought an ’86 Accord that better suited my needs.
Friends and my former father-in-law had trucks I could borrow. And I’ll probably rent a truck later this summer to make a run to the dump and get rid of some old broken-down furniture that has been taking up space in my garage.
The idea of owning a truck of any sort as a daily driver doesn’t make sense for me, but I am not one to throw stones at those who make that choice. I just don’t want to hear them complain about the price of fuel. I paid nearly $80 to refill the virtually empty tank of my car today in California, but that will get me 500+ miles back towards home tomorrow.
I utilize my pickup when i need it. Otherwise it hangs out in the carport, ready to go when I need. I used to own a compact (toyota pickup) that I daily drove, this is a GMT400 3/4 ton. I don’t need to drive my pickup truck everyday, so I don’t. With the Toyota, I averaged around 18 mpg, and drove it daily. With the 3/4 ton, I get 10 MPG, but I only put a few thousand on it a year.
I need ZERO truck, but I really enjoy my 1500 Ram crew cab. I didn’t need it, I just wanted it. I like the way it looks and drives, and I’m in love with the Hurricane motor.
I HAVE done a few truck things with it, and I’m excited to now be able to tow a car trailer, so I now have the ability to retrieve shitboxes from out of state.
After 31 years for all but about the first 18 months of my vehicle owning life I had frame on body “mid size” pick-ups for the past 2 I’ve had a 24 Maverick 2.0 ecoboost AWD, 44,000+ miles later and my little trucklette has been great.
Other than the bed length its larger than my first a 93 Ranger Super Cab,and interior feels bigger than my last a 07 Nissan Frontier Crew Cab. Overall it also gets 12 MPG better than anything else I’ve ever owned. June of 24 when I was last shopping I toyed with the idea of getting a SUV, but didn’t want to give up the bed. I do use the bed a lot mostly fishing and kayaking gear, and as much as I would like to have multiple vehicles its just not in the cards.
Just this past weekend I did want to go somewhere that required a real 4X4 but luckily enough I was able to use my step-daughters Tacoma. I do miss off roading but I really hadn’t done it much so the Maverick has been great for me and I was able to scratch that itch. The only other time I could have used more truck was when asked to haul a trailer loaded is 6k pounds that I have done so in the past for a charity I volunteer with, but couldn’t because even with the tow package and brake controller I’m limited to 4k.
NGL, I’m always frustrated a bit by this sort of question – largely because the initial premises inherent in the question frame the ‘acceptable’ responses.
1) Most people who have a truck don’t need a truck
2) The best truck is the smallest possible truck
(and various permutations of the above)
Over the past few decades, my wife and I have owned 3 houses, and rented two others. During that time, one of us owned/drove (in no particular order) a Grand Vitara, an Isuzu Trooper, a Nissan Pathfinder, and a Saab 9-7x (also, a Volvo XC70 and a Saab 9-5). During much of this time, I’ve either frequented or lived in areas where 4WD/AWD is an absolute necessity.
I’m also an avid skier and cyclist, and we have always had 2-3 large dogs.
I say all of this because there are use cases where a largeish truck is the right answer (like a Miata…I also owned one of those at one point).
If you’re hauling 4×8 sheets of plywood or drywall, you will beat the shit out of your SUV (unless you have a suburban) or wagon. If you’re hauling bikes in your SUV, you will either have to hang a bike rack on the back, or you will end up with mud and/or grease stains on the inside of your SUV or wagon. If you’re hauling skis, you either need to invest in a rack or fold down a seat in back and get meltwater all over everything and watch as your tuned edges slice up the upholstery. If you need to carry 12-16′ lumber, you will both beat the shit out of the interior of your SUV/Wagon, and you will revert to some sketchy-ass combination of bungee cords and ratchet straps in hopes that you will survive the trip home.
If you are hauling a couch, or a bed, or several one-ton loads of brick or topsoil, you will be renting a vehicle.
I’ve done all of the above for many years. I’m tired of scratching the shit out of my vehicles, cutting/soaking them with my skis, and/or smearing them with mud/grease from my bikes (plus, my wife drives the SUV now, and is very particular about what goes inside). I also purchased a Covid trailer that I continue to use roughly 2x/month between May and September; that, my dogs, and all of the shit I take with me is more than anything short of a Suburban could haul.
The final point is this: My current truck is big…too big. But it is no smaller than any SUV large enough to do what I need, and has the added benefit of a bed that can haul large and messy shit without damaging the passenger space, and has no tangible detriments to such a vehicle. Moreover, I chose a truck with a 3.0 diesel – unusually efficient (~24mpg in short distance commuting in the mountains; tows my trailer at ~14mpg) but vroom-vroom sounds aside is a massive improvement over the 5.7 Hemi in my last truck (8mpg with the trailer; 14-16 mpg in town depending on gas mix).
Failed to mention that the bulk of camping I do is way off grid…I’ve gone through 1/2 dozen stabilizer jacks whilst finding my way to appropriate camping sites (finally ordered some QR baseplates).
Few if any unibody softroad SUVs could haul my trailer to the spots I prefer to camp.
Counterpoint:
Vans ALSO haul 4×8 lumber, couches, etc.
Also trailers exist. I had a wagon and a utility trailer for a long time. Worked pretty well for use cases that didn’t happen super often.
I have owned 3 different trucks in the last 20 years, but the most right-sized truck for me, was still the 1987 Dodge short wheel based van I had. These shorty vans were just genius at packaging. The overall length is much shorter than a pickup truck, but inside you have a 4X8 flat floor (once you remove the seats of course). The other great thing about vans is that sometimes you arrive where you are going at 12 midnight and you are dead tired. With a pickup truck you still need to unload your cargo (and somehow cram it all into your motel room), whereas with a van you just lock the door and walk off. And you don’t have to worry about whatever you are hauling getting rained on, etc.
If your hobbies are ‘clean’ or ‘indoors’, the full-sized van is really the better choice..
I need to tow my race car. Towed it hundreds of miles with gas engine, not fun, tranny kicks down all the time and you spend a lot of time over 3500 rpm climbing grades. Now I have a diesel, never going back to gas.
I bought my minimum truck – 2022 toyota tacoma. Sacrificed a longer bed for a manual transmission. The 60.5” bed is the absolute minimum for all the things I need to haul, and I really miss a full 8ft bed. Use it for truck things at least 2-3x a week and can tow 6500 lbs which is just barely enough for moving cars around etc. Can’t complain too much but I do wish I had at least a 6.5ft bed.
My 2002 Ranger is all the truck I need and have ever needed. And honestly, that is still too much truck most of the time (I’m not moving, hauling mulch, or going to remote trailheads every day). But it’s not a daily driver, and arguably keeping a 24-year old compact pickup is more economical than buying a new Maverick.
The amount of truck I need is a Ford Maverick, which is also the amount of truck I own. If you want to split hairs I probably don’t need it, but it’s very useful.
My Datsun 720 AWD is all I need. It’s a sub-1000$ rust heap, basically free to insure and as narrow as my city car.
However, it can do yard runs easily, haul 2 1000l water tanks and drive across a forest to chop up and bring back a fallen tree. It’s awesome.
I have a 1998 Chevy 3500 quad cab and long bed. I have owned this truck for almost 20 years. I have 4 kids and for the longest time we were a 2 vehicle family. We have managed or owned apartments for most of our marriage and as a result, this is the best truck on the planet. It can seat all 6 of us, yes it has a bench in the front, and still hold full sheets of plywood.
That is a hard job.
454?