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
I would LOVE to have one of those early 90’s Extra cab Tacoma’s V6,long box,2wd,and manual transmission.My father had one as a company vehicle and it was perfect.The truck was low enough to load comfortably and always seemed to have enough room for everything we needed to move.I haven’t seen one of those in years and could not imagine how much a nice version would cost in today’s market.
If it were a second vehicle, then I’d just go with an older 1/2 or 3/4 ton pickup with an 8′ bed, probably RWD with a lockable diff (though a chassis swap with a newer 4WD with independent suspension would be neat). Guaranteed to do all of the truck things I’ll realistically ever need without being an absolute pig.
Unfortunately though, I already have a second vehicle, which is already one too many for my current circumstances, so the pickup that I’m shopping for has to be a daily. Easy to park, reasonable on fuel, and comfy, while still hauling furniture, tools, engines, gas cans, and branches. Kei trucks are too small inside for me (big sad), so logically I’d step up to something like a Daihatsu Gran Max or T5 VW Transporter… except we can’t have anything good in this country until it’s 25 years old, so that’s not happening either. Which basically just leaves me with conventional mini pickups and utes. Which everyone else is also looking for because the very last ones of those are now ~15 years old, and they were cheap, disposable vehicles when new, so anything remotely nice is now getting kinda pricey for what it is.
I hate this economy.
What I don’t understand is why there are so few trucks based on vans. Get rid of the hood (or most of it) and give that length to the bed.
There were loads back in the days before crash testing. I guess you could get a E-series or express cutaway and put a bed on it.
You can and people do but I’m thinking of an even shorter nose, more like a RAM Promaster.
Ik why the fleets hated the van based trucks.
You had to rip out the interior to work on them.
With modern transverse engine layout vans it’s not a problem, but I understand why they didn’t do it much before.
If I had to get a new 2wd single cab pickup currently in production it would be a Ram Promaster Chassis cab SWB and put a bed on it.
Fleets had vans back then. Were those any easier?
“With modern transverse engine layout vans it’s not a problem”
As is far more reliable drive train tech. No more oil changes and full lube jobs every 3k!. Spark plugs go more than 10k! No more fiddling with carbs! No changing points, ever!
Truly it’s an age of wonders.
Lets just say I know someone who was very high up with the largest fleet of moving vehicles possibly in the whole world, but certainly in North America, who also spent his young adult years working in the service centers, on the lots, etc.
They hated the vans, which is why the only van based vehicles they had in the fleet were vans, and even when they decided to rent just about everything they still avoided van based vehicles except for exclusively vans.
I just purchased all the truck I need, and nothing more. I needed something to use around our property, to haul the occasional large or heavy load (firewood, etc), and to plow our long driveway. So it needed to be four wheel drive, and I preferred something full size over a Ranger. For less than $5k. I ended up with a 97 F150, with about 90k miles on it. 4×4, single cab, bench seat, 4.2 V6. I would have liked a V8 but since I don’t need to tow anything, the V6 is just fine. And the AC works! There’s a bit of rust, but nothing worrying, and I gladly accepted that as a trade off for lower miles.
Personally, for me a Honda Fit is the right amount of “truck”.
I’ve only had one thing – my old fridge that died – that hung out the hatch and had to be tied up with an orange flag. Everything else…fit.
Same. It’s amazing what can fit in a Fit.
For the things that don’t, I have a small trailer.
Now imagine that as a 2 door pickup with the fridge loaded vertically.
I had a 2005 Sport Trac and that was every bit of truck I need and then some. It picked up furniture from HomeGoods, gardening stuff from Home Depot, it moved my wife out of her College Dorm in one easy trip. The bed extender and lockable bed cover took care of anything I needed to carry. It was a great vehicle and I miss it on a regular basis.
I don’t need any pickup regularly. I could really use something akin to a Maverick sometimes. I ended up prioritizing PHEV over pickup bed, but it really would come in handy, especially in summer. I’d rather throw my wet river gear into a bed, but at least I have a cargo mat protecting the carpet back there. The only times I need a pickup (moving appliances or the like), I can rent one.
I don’t tow, though I have considered a raft trailer. That doesn’t take much towing capability, so throwing a hitch receiver onto just about anything would get me what I need in that regard.
I do have a place in line for a Telo. I’m really hoping they come to market. Properly small, more capability than I need (assuming their claims approach reality), visually interesting, and visibility looks good.
Really depends on the use case. If we were replacing my wife’s Acura wagon that we used for longer trips – a Maverick Hybrid AWD in XLT trim and then put a canopy on the back for dry and lockable storage. I would actually prefer this to a SUV or crossover because I can throw wet and dirty stuff in the back.
If I didn’t have the Express 4500 and needed something to tow / haul things I would look at a full size extended cab 4×4 with a flat bed. Likely a Chevy with the base 4 cylinder engine
My 2009 $9k avalanche feels like the right amount of truck. It’s a third vehicle to two electrics so only gets used when needed. It tows the camper with bikes in the bed, three people a 100lbs of dog in the cab. Can hold close to a yard of dirt and last week got used to bring home a 7ft patio table and 6 chairs by folding the midgate with a bike on a rack. Hoping to use it for some mtb shuttles and dirt road access this summer as well but $6/gal gas means it is parked as much as possible. Better gas milage would be nice but we don’t drive it enough for that to payoff.
I can think of two small truck options, the Hyundai and the Ford. Ford can’t make them fast enough and the Hyundai kind of sucked by most measures. That tells me there’s a market for a good one and there should be more available.
My Maverick is plenty of truck for me. I can haul pretty much anything I’m willing to deal with; other things tend to be better delivered. It drives more like a car than a real truck. It has a back seat for my dogs/anything I don’t want in the bed.
Need, though? I got along without a truck for most of my life and probably still could. I’d just be minorly inconvenienced from time to time.
I want to tow my Miata track toy on a trailer, roughly 4100lbs including all gear and supplies for a weekend. I can do it with my wife’s Honda Pilot. However my family would like to take road trips with a camper, so a 7000lb+ towing capacity would be really nice. We rented a camper from a family friend, and the oldest kiddo and my wife loved it. I’d personally just tent camp, but those two need A/C and a shower. Plus, with two kids in car seats, it puts me into a Crew Cab half ton or BoF Large SUV if it were to be my daily driver.
Future plan is to get some sort of tow pig, what exactly is TBD. I could employee lease a Sequoia for Mrs. Cheese or lease a Tundra for myself. However, I really enjoy driving a small car every day because most times it is just myself or me and my 4 year old and 2 year old, so I ordered a GR Corolla with the intention to buy it out when the lease is up. When that happens, we may replace Pilot with a Sequoia which will accomplish the towing needs. However, we test drove one and she wasn’t sold on it due to the size. I personally want to just get myself a dedicated beater/SUV truck tow pig and have been heavily looking at GMT800 2500 Suburbans/Yukon XLs. I also really want an F150 Raptor or F250 Tremor, so one of those may replace the GR Corolla after the lease is up.
I have had a pickup of some sort for 32 years of my 34 years of driving. Two 80’s-90’s compacts, a full size 8′ a full size 6′ and finally my current midsize 5′ bed. Despite being a “useless” 5′ bed, the current truck meets 95% of my needs and gets used on a regular basis. With the tailgate in the mid postion, I can haul 8′ lumber and 4′ x 8′ sheet goods. The bed gets used on a weekly basis for various things that either couldn’t be hauled in a wagon/suv or would be much more inconvient. The modern midsize feels like a good compromise to me for a lot of people easier to drive than a modern full size, easier to fit in a garage, but can do most of the things the average truck owner needs. In the three years I have owned it, I can only think of one time that an 8′ feet bed would have made a different and even that was trival, I bought some steel tube and had two pay for two cuts (3 7′ sections) vs one cut (2 10′ sections) to haul it home.
Tough question to answer. “Need” depends on where you draw the line and what sacrifices you find easiest to live with.
As for how I actually use my truck, probably once a week I haul something that could be hauled in a 4.5 foot bed, once a month I haul something that needs a 6.5 foot bed, and a few times a year I haul something bigger (usually with a trailer). I usually drive by myself, although I infrequently but regularly have 3 or 4 full-size adults in the vehicle (including myself).
For me, owning a larger truck is more convenient than owning a smaller truck and renting a bigger one when truly necessary (parking at home is not an issue; I rarely drive in dense urban areas, etc.).
Based on all of this, I have found that the most convenient truck is one that has a 6.5 foot bed, can comfortably tow 5,000 lbs., and can realistically seat four adults for short/medium length trips. An extended cab midsize or 1/2 ton with a 6.5 foot bed is probably about ideal for me, although I own a 3/4 ton because I like it.
Because I stubbornly insist on doing many things myself (It’s cheaper/ it’s faster than waiting on somebody else/ I can take care and do it right the first time even if I have to learn to do it/n nobody else will do it so I have to do it myself/ etc. in various combinations…) I find myself needing a truck that I can just jump into and go haul stuff and get stuff done. To that end, some sort of full-size pickup or SUV* plus small trailer has almost always been in my driveway and usually serves as my daily driver.
*SUV = Land Rover Discovery or a Jeep, not a modern crossover.
I’ve had an I-6 powered F150 and a V8-powered Chevy Squarebody, both with heavy-duty suspensions, and recently a 2nd-gen Cummins-powered Dodge. All of them were expected to earn their keep; looks were never important so they stayed on the job until rust and wear took too much of a tool. Trucks are for work, not status.
Now that I’m older and have a little more disposable income, My wants takes me more to looking for nice older “classic” Range Rovers and Discovery I’s to tow the trailer be still be a little bit more comfortable. (But they’ll never pass for the modern definition of “luxury” — they’re still trucks, just with nice seats.
If I need a truck soon, it will probably be some variety of Toyota these days. Hard to beat the reliability and good resale value if I find something I want to trade it in on.
I owned a 1983 F-100 which was single cab 8’ bed for many years. My daily driver was a Crown Victoria and later a Grand Marquis. I traded the Mercury in and bought a 2015 F-150 crew cab short bed in 2020. The F-100 now belongs to a friend who wants to restore it. The newer truck doesn’t haul long stuff as well as the old one did but I can comfortably fit people on road trips and it does what need for my current job. If I need to haul longer stuff I can borrow a trailer and the truck will tow it just fine. The newer truck is also far better on gas and creature comforts. Of course my family members always want to borrow it when they need to do truck stuff.
OMG this is my song!
I need enough bed to haul motorcycles, hang 8′ lumber off the back or prop 12+’ lumber on the roof, or lay down in, with a low load floor. “Enough truck” for me is a 2WD 1/4T minitruck with a 6′ bed, which has been my primary and preferred vehicle for 40 years now. Married someone who loves dogs so current one has an extended cab.
Spouse’s Enough is a 3/4T or 1T pickup with an 8′ bed for the camper and tow capacity for a 4T rated horse trailer or 5T of round bales. Oh, and occasional deliveries of 1-2 pallets of fertilizer/feed. 4WD in case of mud/snow on the way, extended cab for dogs and friends of course. We’re on our second OBS F250, but some day I hope an 8′ bed REV comes along.
Funny that they aren’t selling this kind of thing new anymore as far as I know, but I guess that means we can keep buying used and spending car-payment money on more fun things.
So after owning Toyota trucks for 40 years they eventually were totaled in a wreck, or sold to my weed guy.
Both my next door neighbors own big Ford trucks.
So I guess owning a truck is not a priority as long as I can borrow one of those when a truck is required.
Is your weed guy a lawn maintenance person or a “weed” guy?
Depends on who is asking….
..for a friend
90% of the time I don’t need my truck. It’s an 09 small tacoma base model. It does most of the same truck stuff as any full size other than towing. Most of the time its just sitting waiting for work to be done while I ride to work.
My dream truck is an old VW caddy with a 1.8t swap. GTrucki…
The little ones are decent on gas, so I always used mine as a DD. They can really do a lot.
The only amount of truck 99% of people need is a 5×8 utility trailer that a 150hp Outback with a CVT can haul a ton to the dump with no problem 1-2 times a year.
Having loaded/offloaded low trailers I tend to agree. Last time I hauled a lot of sheet goods in a borrowed F250 the lift was a PITA. I just wish I didn’t need to plate and register one here.
I pull mine with a Honda Fit.
Plate for the trailer? Costs like $30/year in Washington state which is cheaper than a Uhaul.
Why buy when neighbors have them already? Just one more thing to store on the property.
Truly trailers are the best solution unless it’s snowing outside.
In a few decades that won’t be an issue anymore.
Maybe, but I doubt people will put snow tires on their trailers even in the future
Why would they when snow no longer exists?
I own a ’13 Highlander with a hitch that meets my needs 95% of the time. I just need to borrow/rent a trailer on occasion. I can occasioanlly borrow a long bed extended cab F250 from a friend, but hate parking the Queen Mary and it is way more truck than I would ever need. Looked at an ’89 F150, V8 2wd short bed in the fall as a possible toy/hauler.
All I need is an old 2wd compact pickup.
BTW, the Highlander lives it’s life in the driveway. Mostly used for roadtrips/vacations, hauling or nasty weather.
What I actually need is a nice 90s wagon with no sloping roofline to eat into the cargo space and a trailer hitch. What I have is a Silverado 1500 that gets horrendous gas mileage. Been thinking really hard about downsizing it to a Maverick with the hybrid and 4k tow package, which would take care of virtually all of my truck needs. But you know what’s nice? Not having a car payment, so the Silverado stays for the time being.
I have a nice 1990 Volvo 240 wagon with a trailer hitch for all these reasons. Plus, a Thule roof rack for lumber and other long items. If I need even more space I have a $300 4×8 utility trailer. More than a half yard of gravel is asking for trouble, however. Lesson learned.
I used to have an ’87 245DL with a trailer hitch, it was a great car. I do regret letting it go a bit, but it was probably for the best since I didn’t have the skills or money at the time to give it the love it needed to go another 30 years.
Generically speaking… Minimal is at least a 6 foot bed. My small 4-banger 1996 Tacoma has one and despite being small, is way more useful than half of the full sized trucks I see with those tiny beds or what counts as a “small truck” these days, which usually translates to a car or SUV the manufactures just chopped a 2 foot bed out of the back.
I tend to have two truck-like needs: one that can be accomplished with a 5×7 utility trailer towed by a small car and one that needs a gooseneck hitch. But daily driving a truck is way less enjoyable, so I accept my car+truck lifestyle.
I realized quickly: All I need is a hatchback with a trailer hitch.
I do not need a truck.
You also obviously need a trailer and how to drive with one.
Uhaul has one, as does my BIL.
I don’t need the trailer itself, just infrequent use of one.