This is a little off-topic of woodworking, but I thought I would ask. I've had a long-bed (8') dodge pickup for many years. Now I'm in the market for a new truck with an 8" bed. This is to mainly haul plywood and other sheet materials. Upon looking around, it seems that 8' beds are almost non-existence. Why is this? It seems that all of the trucks have an extra cab with a 4-6' bed. I just want a nice truck with a powerfull motor and a long bed for hauling material. A 6' truck bed means that you have to leave the tailgate down (safety haxard), or put the end on the top of the tailgate (bowing issue). I've seen a few bare-bone trucks with the 8' bed, but I'm looking for a more luxury as well. Any suggestions on who might make a decent V8 regular cab truck with an 8' bed with some luxury features like cloth seats and electric locks and seats?
Almost all dealerships inventory what sells. What you are looking for is not a big mover these days. However, you can order just about any version truck you want if you are willing to wait. Toyota offers a long bed 2 door with a 5.7 V8 producing about 380hp and mine gets about 16.5 MPG in town.
How things have changed. My parents had a family station wagon when I was a kid. I think it was a '72 Ford Torino. It wasn't advertised for tradesmen, but you could get a 4x8 sheet inside, *flat* on the "bed" between the wheels, and shut the tailgate. I seem to remember my Dad doing just that, with several sheets.
Oh boy, you had to bring this topic up. A pet peeve of mine. OK, here it goes.
I was brought up on a farm. We used to LENGTHEN truck beds. Since we did actual WORK we were concerned with cargo capacity. I then went to pickups with 8 foot beds that I could put sheet goods in and close the gate. Very nice. I even had a station wagon that I could put plywood and 2 X 4's in and haul it home. I then drove, for many years, a Jeep J-10 pickup with a seven foot bed. Since I did some off roading, this was nice. A little shorter than 8 foot, but adequate for most jobs. I still missed the 8 foot bed though. If I had to haul 8 foot stock, I had to either leave the tail gate down or put it on the top of the tail gate.
Eventually, the tail gate started to show signs of wear with things stacked on top of it. I ended up with making my own gate because the original wore out with me stacking things on top of it. I don't have a truck right now and it is really a problem when I want to haul something. I remember fondly the days when I could drop by a garage sale, buy something, and haul it home.
I talked to a truck salesman recently. He told me that nobody actually uses trucks for work any more. The problem, he told me, is that everything is build on certain length FRAMES. And they insist on adding an "extended cab" to the truck, they needed to subtract bed length. And the extended cab thing. If they just want to add a foot or so, they wouldn't be so bad. But they want to put SEATS back there. Even if only small children could fit in those seats. Then you have the DOUBLE CABS! These take up even more space on a fixed length frame. The truck beds gets even shorter.
If you want to get an eight foot bed, You need to get a truck in a "regular cab" and specify a "long bed". The language is changed. What was once a normal truck bed has become a "long bed". Even in the used trucks, they now represent no more than 5 or 10 % of the used truck market. And they sell at a premium because they are a "long bed truck". That seems so bizarre to me. That is like saying in I am hung like a horse because I am totally average in size. And nobody hauls sheet goods any more.
This same truck salesman told me that nobody actually does any work any more with trucks. Trucks are for partying! Trucks are for hauling people! Sheet goods are either delivered or use special trailers. Gotta have the music, air conditioning and internet access. Nobody does actual WORK any more! My take on this, we are going to hell. On the farm, we built and modified what WORKED. Because we actually worked. When trucks become party vehicles, we are all gonna die.
Yeah, I know. I am an old fart. But when I get another truck, it will have an 8 foot bed. And it will actually be used for WORK. I know, I am a dinosaur. But I am comfortable in my own skin. And I think that all trucks with 6 foot beds or shorter should be rounded up and melted down. So we can make trucks that can do actual WORK. And a little waterboarding on the folks who actually buy these things would be a good thing too.
It's not unsafe if you take a minute to string a single strap around it from latch to latch.
Tailgates don't bow from plywood resting on them.
Say no more. Get a Toyota Tundra. I got the smaller, 4.7L V-8 and it has -much- more power than I want or need. They're very luxurious, come with all the goodies, and cost less than the crap Obama Motors, Mercenary Dodge, and even Ford put out nowadays. They even have dual HVAC systems in the cab so the wife can be warmer, and the tailgate is assisted. You can flip it closed with one thumb. My '07 replaced a 1990 F-150 and the difference was as startling as going from Neanderthal to Normite tools.
Are you crazy? If you put material in the bed it will get all dirty. Could even get a scratch. Trucks are used to portray a manly image while taking the kids tot he ball game.
I looked for a long time to find my 2005 Chevy Astro Van. It can carry
8 people comfortably and is relative easy to get into. It is comfortable even in the back seat.
It can carry all of my camping gear, with all of the paintings and items needed to set up my wife's display tent when she goes to Art fairs.
I can carry a dozen plant behind the rear seat, and if I take the back two seats out, about 3 times that. I can carry patio blocks, groceries, packing boxes, furniture, and many other things.
When I need wood I can easily slide ten footers under the seats and shut the rear doors. If I need sheet goods like plywood or MDF, I can take the rear seats out and the 4X8 sheets will lay on the floor in the back. I brought a set of cupboards for the Utility room home about a year ago.
It has the power to pull my 21 foot boat.
Though there are much bigger vehicles available like the Ford Expedition, BUT there is currently no replacement for this VAN. What a shame. If I ever have to replace it I guess I will have to buy one on those electronic toys. Maybe a Smartcar! ;-)
Guess who is called when my daughters wants to buy new furniture or any thing else of any size?
Take anything a car salesman says with a few grains of salt. It's certainly true that more people buy trucks for recreational and other non-work purposes today than in years past. Dealers will stock up on the popular models because the higher demand for them means more profit for the dealer. As another poster pointed out, you can still order a truck with practically any option or variation you want. Look at any large fleet buyer and you will see that 8 foot bed models, with or without extended cabs, are still available from Ford, GM, Dodge (Ram nowadays) and I'd expect from Toyota and Nissan too.
They all (GM, Ford, Dodge, Toyota) _make_ 'em; you may have to order it w/ options you want if you're in a metro market. Out here in farm country they're still around altho even here the super-cab is more prevalent.
In general for farm work for what a PU is used for the shortbed will handle it; if it's actual hauling even a 8-ft isn't adequate so they opt for the extra passenger room over the bed length. Most guys will put a bale bed on one and a utility/maintenance bed w/ the compressor/welder/etc. on another and then have a shorttail for the "town" truck and maybe two or three others for off-road as well...
Not quite the suburb configuration... :) I've got the "townie" that's
1/2T 2WD w/ a topper that's extended but not full 4-door cab and the
8-ft 3/4T 4x4 w/ the diesel tank for field maintenance/service duty and another w/ the bale bed.
OBTW, I've not looked at last couple of years but until then and I presume still can--Dodge and Chevy built a full 4x4 w/ a longbed, too--I don't know Ford. But, the wheelbase is long--it's not something you'll likely want to drive in town (or write the check for, either, likely, altho you have to bite real hard on any of 'em any more, anyway).
I have a full size pickup. My wife has a minivan. Both can hold a full sheet of plywood - the pickup with the tailgate up, the minivan with the hatch closed. However - the minivan has a higher cargo capacity (5/8 vs
1/2 ton) and the plywood won't get wet in the rain.
Of course, once you need more than just "some plywood", the truck rules :-)
I bought a used 2004 Chev Duramax diesel with a regular cab and long bed in 2007 to tow a 5th wheel. At 3 years old and 54k miles, it was less than half the price of a new one. Now at 128k miles, it is just about broken in. It also gets up to 23 mpg highway and 14 mpg towing a 10k lb trailer. There are used trucks from RV users because they want a long bed to avoid having to use a sliding 5th wheel hitch.
In the mini-trucks even a 7 footer is getting real rare. I got a
1996 Ranger standard cab long-bos this fall to replace my PT, which replaced a TransSport, which replaced 2 long body Aerostars. With a bed-liner and a cap, it keeps everything dry and holds about as much as the 'stars did with the seats out - and I don't have to heat the whole bus to stay warm
DJ Delorie wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@delorie.com:
I had a truck for a couple of years, and now we've got a minivan. The only thing the minivan doesn't have that the truck did was 3-abreast seating in front. That made it easy to get plywood without making a special trip.
Another option you might consider is a small utility trailer.
I have one I pull with my old 1976 Rabbit. It only cost a few hundred dollars for the trailer and wood sides. Licensing is less then $20 a year and it's covered by my car insurance.
I routinely haul full sheets of plywood, lumber, sheetrock, finished projects, etc. Not to mention loads of barkdust, garbage to the dump, or whatever.
In one trip I can haul a load of building supplies in the trailer, tools in the back of my car, myself and three passengers, stop to pick up groceries, and still get 25mpg. :)
Not to mention, my car is a lot more driveable and easier to park than a big truck when I'm not hauling supplies.
One other benefit, I can disconnect the trailer if I don't want to unload it at that moment.
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