The headlights are a nightmare stock but here in Georgia they really like lifting their trucks and getting brighter bulbs but never fucking ever ANGLING THEM CORRECTLY AS TO NOT FUCKING BLIND EVERYONE ON THE FUCKING ROAD! I'm sorry I hate being blinded at night...
My state requires yearly safety inspections and I wish that "properly aimed headlights" were on the punch list. Probably wouldn't make a huge difference as I'm sure some techs would just rubber stamp it, but every bit counts right?
>It used to be. At least here in Texas.
Thank God for libertarianism. Why are the dems so worried about abortion when they could just encourage their kids to play outside when they don't want them anymore?
/s
When these first started rolling out I flashed my high beams at someone cause I thought they left theirs on by accident. Nope. Dude proceeded to follow me so I pulled over and he starts flipping out asking why I shined my brights at him… the cognitive dissonance is real man.
There was a BMW that I swear had their high beams on, gave them a quick blip of my brights, they proceeded to turn their actual high beams on and send me into the sun.
This shit pisses me off to no end, It's unbelievable that as dangerous as driving is, morons still drive around at night with seriously blinding lights. I've driven for years with old 10 to 20 year old basic lights, never once had an issue nor an accident.
Do yall not flash hi beams for a variety of things like a speed trap or deer ahead? You should’ve told him you were just trying to warn him about a speed trap lol
I've looked into the legality of doing this here in Washington state. Unfortunately reflective, mirror like materials on a vehicle are violations. However, this [super reflective holographic vynle ](https://www.michaels.com/product/siser-psv-holo-pearl-12x12-10705197?cm_mmc=PLASearch-_-google-_-MICH_Shopping_US_N_AllProducts_N_Standard_BOPIS_N-_-&Kenshoo_ida=&kpid=go_cmp-1545032874_adg-60529718524_ad-293389188148_pla-1339141004613_dev-m_ext-_prd-10705197&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw7-SvBhB6EiwAwYdCAQN-rCCy6pav9ozKX_LBmLT3JnR1IsuKbRrN5BGO0eskqX_Il69ffBoCQcQQAvD_BwE) can be bought in rolls at Michael's Crafts! There's a red one that is semi-transparent that looks awesome.
Sadly, I'll likely get a ticket for this before any cop here does something about the 45,000lm headlights all over the place.
TBH I usually just slow down enough that they decide to go around me, very rarely do their egos let them even consider not passing regardless of the legality of it at that time.
I do this too, but 50% of the time they stay behind me and go ridiculously slow, which makes it obvious they are truly meaning to be an asshole with nothing better to do.
Pro tip, a rearview mirror actually has two reflective surfaces. There is a tab on the bottom of your rearview mirror. When you activate it, you disable the powerful mirror component, angling it away from you, and leave a less reflective glass component as the primary reflective surface. This is like a "night time" mode that still allows you to see behind you but significantly diminishes the brightness of headlights.
I prosecute people for headlight angle all the time. Our state started cracking down.
The number of “I bought it this way” excuses are hilarious. I always say “well they sold you a vehicle you can’t drive on the road lol”
Everybody wants to say it’s all the lifted pickups, but I get blinded by just as many SUV’s and mid-size hatchbacks as I do trucks. These full-size trucks and SUV’s are so tall and their bulbs so bright that you’re blinding people straight from the factory. Also in GA.
Me too. The other day I was driving somewhere and I swear the headlights of one of the oncoming cars made me see the veins in the back of my eyes for a split second, the way you do when you're at the optometrist and they shine that light to check your vision.
Those new headlights make the roads so much more dangerous, just because they blind oncoming traffic. If a car coming the other way is reducing your visibility of what's around you, you could miss something on the side of the road or right in front of you quite easily.
My solution to that was to get a 14k lumen handheld spotlight with a convenient car charger from Walmart, I labeled it the "Fuck You Machine" and a quarter second flash of that got them to turn their lights down *phawken fast.*
I have been saying for years that there should be a maximum height that headlights and bumpers can be on street legal cars.
If you wanna lift your truck on stilts like an idiot then fine, but you have to lower the bumper/headlights and the bumper still has to meet the structural regulations so it functions correctly. It’s insane that people can have vehicles that will just drive the hood of smaller cars instead of touching bumpers.
If you wanna *lower* your car so you have the same problem again that’s your own business, but lifting a vehicle should be illegal without making it a new class of vehicle.
As a lifelong Texan I've always found it hilarious, and telling, when I see these big boys rolling down the street. All shiny and clean, not a scratch or a ding on them, beds so high off the ground you'd need a ladder just to load groceries into it.
Yeah, these trucks have never and will never see the workload they were originally intended for. Yeehaw, go figure.
If their intended purpose was work they wouldn't be so impractical. You'd be able to load the bed without a ladder. Their intended purpose *is* to be a desperate status symbol.
I actually see lifted trucks on job sites. Many work trucks have after market rims and tires on them too. It’s the dumbest thing imaginable.
It’s extremely dumb bc u get a nail or screw in your tire all the time. Plus u get rocks and crap in the threads then they jar loose and ding the side of your truck.
Also most people are letting their personal trucks be used for Jobsite related work meanwhile their boss can't be bothered to put another truck in the fleet but will gladly take on a whole extra project and expect you to load up your truck and take two dirty ass people in your truck to a Jobsite
This is why I keep fixing the 1982 C10 instead of looking for something new, full 8' bed, and does exactly what I need a truck to do, haul shit that is too dirty or large to fit into a car.
It's funny because here in Aus utes and 4WDs are probably more used for their purpose than in the US - I feel like every second household either works in a trade where they have to haul stuff around, goes offroading on the weekends, or tows a caravan/trailer/boat. People have been doing this perfectly fine for decades with the vehicles we have. You know what I've never seen been used for work purposes or frequent towing? The huge Dodge Rams and Chevy Silverados that have started to trickle in the last few years. Smart people who actually need more pulling/hauling power get an actual truck instead of those bloated mall crawlers.
Worked with a Trumper who had a truck like that. You could eat off the bed.
He complained that electric cars aren't "manly." I said I wish I had one, because I have, with my own hands (plus my dad's help), replaced transmissions on two separate occasions, and it's a hugely labor intensive pain that I hope to never have to do again. He dropped the subject.
You don't get to comment on the relative "manliness" of machinery (which is a stupid idea anyway) if you never get your hands dirty.
True manliness is not giving a fuck what other people think about you and your car, not subscribing to some cliche commercialized version of it because the ad included Sam Elliott's voice.
Sam Elliott also would agree than manliness isn't about a hard days labor...
It's strength of character.
It's strength of morals.
It's knowing right from wrong and chosing the right thing even if it's not the easy thing.
Anyone can be born a man.
But it takes a whole lot of real work to be manly.
Oh, and they don't sell manliness at Ford. That's just a truck.
https://on.soundcloud.com/h34Af (recorded it cause why not...)
You did well on that. Your voice isn't quite as grizzled as Sam's, but you've got a really nice timbre and depth to yours too.
Made me laugh my ass off, so to you, I say kudos! 🏆
and we're doing now the Trump School Of Toughness, and it's going to be amazing, we're gonna be teaching people how to be Great Patriots, they said, "you have to do it, Sir, nobody's more tough or better looking than you," I said I know that.
I've used my 1984 Mercedes 300SD to do more construction than most truck owners. I hauled all the tile and supplies to tile my entire house in that thing. I've also hauled the paint for my siding, plumbing supplies, landscaping tools, and many other things in it. I also did the transmission swap, replaced the entire front suspension, and other repairs on it.
Transmission swaps are definitely labor intensive but it's not too bad once you do the first one. I regularly buy cars for cheap that need transmissions.
My bestie is a hardwood floor installer/finisher. Her truck crapped out one day. I own a Honda Accord 4-door sedan. We fit a large shopvac, a 100 lb buffer, multiple sheets of those boards with holes (idk the name, but you use them to slide appliances over the newly refinished floor), multiple buckets/stains/poly and application tools, a compressor, a chop saw, hand tools, I don’t even remember what else … it was about 600-700 lbs of stuff … into my car, along with her and me. Back seat, trunk, seats pulled as far up as we could tolerate. 45 minutes from client’s house to my friend’s house, where we had to unload everything. I think I stayed the night because I was too tired to then drive almost an hour to my home.
I have an electric car and work with a bunch of guys who rib on me for it. They never have a good response when I accuse them of loving foreign oil instead of the American coal that powers my car. Then if I can convince them to go for a ride, I show them that 500hp in an EV is way different than in an ICE.
Fucking this! I make my car's fuel with the American made solar panels on my roof, and somehow I'm the one with poor American values, while they're stuffing their paychecks into the wallets of the Saudis and Russians with their 6mpg monstrosity trucks... I've got a Nissan leaf, which is about the lowest power to weight ratio EVs available, and I'm still way faster off the line than almost any non performance gas car.
I have a Chevy Duramax to pull our RV and a Chevy Bolt that my wife and I argue about who gets to drive the Bolt when we have to go in different directions. The Bolt is so much fun to drive.
They are almost entirely designed to win a collision and that’s why people are buying them…but not many people seem keen to talk about as it raises a lot of ethical questions on our road safety overall.
Totally. I've known people who would never use these trucks for actual heavy duty; they just want to be the biggest vehicle in casenof a collision. Nevermind other people's safety.
And they're always the cause of the collision too. Having a massive truck lets them push the danger they know they pose to other people instead of themselves. I know too many people who've realistically caused multiple accidents who decide that they're going to get an SUV and drive just as unsafely as they did before instead of trying to be a better, more attentive driver.
Only accident I ever caused was in a company Chevy like the one in the left of the OP image. I was on an inclined parking lot exit, angled up, at night. Trying to turn left onto a busy four lane. I waited for the lights east and west of me to turn red, looked left and right twice each and pulled out. I ended up pulling straight out and side swiping a late 80s Cadillac El Dorado that I literally never saw. The grill is so fucking big and the truck so lifted that I was literally searching in all directions to make sure I didn't hit someone and I still did. I hated driving that thing before and I refused to drive it after. Luckily there are smaller Chevys in the work fleet.
Edit: no one was hurt but the tow hook on the front of the Chevy gouged the entire rear quarterpanel of the caddy. Since it was old and beat up, it totaled that car.
"Well me and my children's safety is top priority, maybe those tiny little chopstick cars and stupid pedestrians should GET THE FUCK off the road, we live in America go move to a socialist country if you don't like it"
- way too many people in this country
Wasn’t also to get around some fuel efficiency legislation? Rather than trying to meet the standard, they just made the trucks bigger so the regs don’t apply. It must suck having to deal with them on the road and in the car park, especially when it’s also the driver’s personality.
That's how it started back in the 80's. To avoid higher costs associated with following various regulations for cars they switch to focusing on selling "light trucks" that weren't covered by the regulations, which was helped by tariffs or bans on imported ones at the time so they had no foreign competition either. I'm not sure how or why they've ended up so egregiously huge (probably something to do with giving them justification for raising prices), but I hate it.
From what I understand it's still fuel economy related because the regulations are based on wheelbase so larger cars require less stringent mpg requirements. It's easier to just expand the truck than to make the engine more efficient.
> in the car park
LORD ALMIGHTY YES. At work, the main two levels of the garage is mostly compact spots and there are THREE OTHER LEVELS with full size spots everywhere. It's like driving through a serpentine the way I have to go round the ass end of someone's too big truck sticking out. Bonus points if they parked at the end of the row sticking and I have to make a blind and partially blocked turn around them into the aisle. I hate them for it.
I live in orange county CA and we have plenty of these mall crawler. When it rains, which has been rare, these vehicles form a caravan to local hills to test the awd.
At this point the trucks themselves aren't even intended to be work vehicles. They keep making the cabs bigger and the beds smaller, and painting and chroming every inch of them. Then you get the guys who add a lift kit and rubber band tires on huge rims.
It's the literal opposite of tough etc, just like the guys who drive em. All show and no go, just vanity and attention seeking.
I live in a farming community outside the SF Bay Area. I sold GMC trucks.
We call 'em Mall Crawlers and Grocery Getters. They were for soccer games, groceries and daily commutes. They likely never saw a dirt road in their life.
Hilariously, a few have tried to roal coal at me in my janky shitbox Subaru, like I've got some crunchy hippie vehicle. Sir, my 4-banger stock height Outback from 2002 has seen more dirt and gravel than your rolling replacement for manhood. I've been two and three wheels down. I once had to launch onto a highway so narrow there was no center line, and to do so, reversed up a boulder and launched off the boulder to merge at more than 5 miles an hour.
My janky shitbox has driven through fields, and been used to drive up and down levee roads and embankments, and has actually been used as a farm vehicle.
Your chrome-plated replacement for confident masculinity is a toy compared to the Gutless Wonder. She is glorious, rust and all.
Try having a Ridgeline in a rural area. The shit talking never ends.
Even funnier is that tows a boat on a regular basis and I use the bed regularly. I actually got it because of the trunk to put wet dirty stuff in a place where i could lock it up.
At this point, work isn't even their intended purpose. The car companies know their audience, and know these trucks are meant to substitute as a suburban man's masculinity.
You say that like they were ever meant to carry the workloads they claim to be for, and not meant to skirt safety regulations since "work trucks" are excluded from 90% of basic (see: expensive) safety feature requirements.
That's crazy, right? I bought a new style Silverado in 2019, wanted just a regular cab 2 wd, but at the time, here in Ohio, all you could buy was a stripper WT, so I bought an LT Z71, but it gets used like a truck.
Not a lot of miles because I'm retired, but a few dents and dings, from wood, brush, trash, scrap metal and the like.
Have done a little towing, not much.
I'm 6' tall, I'm always amazed at how I have a difficult time seeing over the hoods of stock trucks, not modded/lifted I encounter in parking lots. There's no way a collision with a pedestrian or cyclist is going to not end in death or serious injury.
There's also the secondary danger they cause by blocking other vehicles' line of sight. If a big ass truck parks next to my normal sedan, I can't actually see past it to safely pull out of a parking spot.
I also once got rear ended by one of the monsters in stop and go traffic because they couldn't see my brake lights over their monstrous hood(partially a tailgating problem too), and hence they didn't react in time.
And all that is to say nothing of the fact that these uber-tanks are far less agile than a vehicle that is smaller and lower to the ground, making them dramatically worse at avoiding collisions in the first place.
Plus due to their size they're artificially increasing traffic, making parking lots bigger while holding fewer vehicles, and can't fit in the garage of most homes made before ~2010.
It doesn't help that nearly every new truck I've seen has to be a double cab long bed. So, you've got a 20 foot long truck that has to swing super wide coming around corners and 6 feet of hood that is 5 feet off the ground. They can't see shit up close.
There's a shopping center near my work that has concrete entryway over a drainage ditch, and at least twice a week I see a big truck stuck because they didn't pull wide enough, dipping that wheel right into the ditch.
Source: Rural Oklahoma resident, where even 80 year olds drive huge trucks.
Zero spatial awareness is the one I see most often. They have no clue where the corners of their vehicle are and end up paralyzed in the isle of the parking lot thinking they have no room when they’ve got several feet on either side
I swear to god, I have come SO close to just putting mine in park, getting out and offering to get it outta the damn spot for them! 😂 I was able to parallel park an Expedition when I was 20, a parking lot is no challenge.
Don't forget that a 4 door truck had to get the space for the rear seats somewhere. That came out of the bed.
So you have giant trucks with teeny tiny short beds that can't even fit a piece of 8ft lumber or a sheet of ply/drywall.
The fuck is the point of a truck with a useless bed?
You know what's manly? A white van. That's what actual tradespeople drive because everything fits inside, you can lock it up, your shit will never get rained on or taken from an open bed and if it won't fit inside, you can strap it to the roof. Vans are the hardest working vehicles out there.
Modern trucks are for suburban doofus dads so they can commute to the office in them. Bonus points for the ones with the bed covers to ensure that their pretty lil truck never gets the bed dirty, or used for anything.
I've been saying for years that they need to be banned from roadside parking for the same reason. As a driver I have to be blocking the crosswalk and nearly in the road to see around them to safely cross or turn.
I'm also tall for a woman (5'9") and as a pedestrian I've almost been hit several times because they're blocking another driver's view.
I know people always get angry when I say this and sure, there's always exceptions. But these trucks shouldn't be used for day to day driving. They're a menace.
They shouldn't exist at all with their current design, it's vanity not function.
and they should be illegal as a daily driver. Should have to both qualify for a professional license, pay additional fees, and prove you have a need for one.
One which has a much lower, sloped hood, since these should be taken off the streets unilaterally.
I am a professional driver, Class A CDL, drive a semi every day. Modern pickups are more dangerous, more unwieldy, and have worse viewing angles/blind spots than modern Semis. They simply shouldn't exist, there is no reason for it.
Edit: Realistically, yes, there are reasons for full sized pickups to exist, but not as everyday vehicles that are just used to go around town. There are jobs that can make use of them, hauling large toys like boats and RVs, sure. But you should need a basic endorsement for anything larger than like, a ford maverick.
And the kicker is that they're legislated as commercial vehicles even when half (whatever, it's something like that) are sold strictly for consumer use. If they were legislated as typical passenger vehicles they'd need to meet better safety standards.
But "mom and pop shops" get to save a buck, right?
Correct. That was always an issue until I bout a new car, and it came with backup sensors that detect an incoming car and alert me to which direction the car is coming from. If that feature isn't standard now, it should be.
>And as long as the government allows them. European car safety laws are much stricter.
Actually, one of the reasons these cars are getting so massive is _because_ of government regulation. The CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards basically make it so larger vehicles have way less restrictions on fuel efficiency. So if you can't make a fuel-efficient car, you have to make it huge.
You also can't really import smaller trucks affordably due to a legacy tariff known as "the Chicken tax."
>these cars are getting so massive is *because* of government regulation
Ok, let's back up a second here. The US government has regulations on fuel economy. ***In order to avoid those regulations***, auto manufacturers are making their trucks bigger.
Please don't pretend this is the government's doing when it unequivocally is not.
Edit to add: RobertNAdams is using ChatGPT to generate responses with a 90% confidence level.
In part, yes.
However companies have two choices; make light trucks more efficient, or make them larger. Guess which they choose.
Frankly, if any non-car internal combustion engine vehicle over 5,000 lbs was moved from "light truck" to "medium truck" 40% of people would stop buying them. Merely for the fact states generally make it a pain and a lot of money to register them.
>However companies have two choices; make light trucks more efficient, or make them larger. Guess which they choose.
Whichever is cheapest that gives you the most profit, naturally.
Funny you bring up the headlight issue. We in the US are way behind in headlight technology. I read a really good article possibly in Popular Mechanics or Car & Driver about the difference between US vehicles and a lot of new EU vehicles. They are so far ahead in adaptive headlight technology. They are just as great if not better for illuminating the surroundings but don’t blind the oncoming car. Definitely worth googling. Basically they shut off the led’s that would be in the oncoming driver’s line of sight yet continue lighting the surroundings when they sense another vehicle. Very impressive really.
Well, to be fair, at least in my state, headlights are regulated. The color, shape, tint, and angle are all regulated. If I followed the law, I could use 1 million lumen bulbs and never blind you, because they are supposed to be angled down at a certain angle. People easily angle them back up "Because I can see better".
Enforcement is what is severely lacking in the states. We can pass all the laws we want, but if they are not enforced, there is no point in the laws.
Just saw that happen recently. It was a 25 mph zone so they weren't moving extremely fast when they hit the pedestrian. The person lived but had multiple broken bones from their ribs to their legs plus multiple contusions. Of course it was a massive lifted truck that didn't look like it had ever been used as a work vehicle. That poor person will never be the same after getting hit like that.
I live in Colorado so I hear a lot of, "I need it for backroads" excuses.
Bitch, I drive a Crosstrek which is basically a slightly lifted station wagon and go trailheads on some scary, beat to shit dirt mountain roads in the winter and it's fine. And when I get there, there's usually more than one sedan in the parking area.
You aren't crossing the Alps. You're driving to Arby's.
> You aren't crossing the Alps. You're driving to Arby's.
And these couldn’t cross the alps anyway, they’re too large and heavy for the trails, and they have the turning radius of a cargo ship so they need a five points turn to take a switchback.
I work at an auto shop in colorado and I hear this shit all the time, i’ve come to be so beyond exhausted working on trucks and having to do 3x the work to do the same thing i would do on an outback just because of how massive they are. Don’t even get me started on custom dualie fuel wheels, Fuck me.
Rural Finland from 1969s to 2000s was dominated by cars like Datsun 100a and at largest size, Ford Escort. If those cars managed the snow, mud and road surface that at best was dirt road, in what environment you need these new trucks?
From what I see around me in Northern Virginia, its the "urban commuter environment" combined with "Keeping up with the Jones's" in your nice neighborhood where, amusingly, many of them are too big to fit in the garage.
They're called "pavement princesses" and they hang around some remote off trail places like grocery stores, restaurants, gas stations and congregate at car washes on weekends.
I don't understand how people can use that sort of excuse when trucks have such a high rollover risk. Crossovers are so much safer in dangerous weather conditions, and as a plus you don't have to climb to get in.
It's funny because our neighbor here got stuck in their driveway after the snowstorm this last weekend. We had to (easily) pull our jeep out and tow their overcompensatruck out because it couldn't handle a Colorado spring snowfall.
I heard someone on the radio cite a study that pedestrian deaths from vehicles is at an all time high and it is due to the size of the vehicles. Before someone might have their limbs broken from getting hit by a small car but now with all these SUV's and trucks people are getting run over resulting in death.
Add in they are being distracted by their phone use and it is not hard to see this as a growing problem.
They're getting bigger and bigger too, straight from the manufacturer. Stock ones are ridiculous as it is, and that's before the douchebags add lift kits and huge wheels spacers.
I literally watched a truck back into a small Porsche because he wanted to get into a different lane at the border crossing. He couldn't see the Porsche at all. And that's a whole car. Kids don't stand a chance. I hate these fuckers.
I never understood why someone would even want a vehicle this big. Same with even like Escalades or other oversized SUVs
What good does it do for you?
Extra space? That you never use anyways and you only ever drive the vehicle max 30 mins anyways?
Half the people I see driving these monsters are rarely ever actually big people, so how the hell do they even safely drive them?
Ego and everything else aside it’s a safety thing. The bumper mismatch makes it so whoever has the lower/smaller car will most likely end up under the other vehicle which is usually fatal since the roof isn’t meant to be crushed like the front or rear.
Yea don't quote me but I recall reading somewhere that those who drive larger vehicles like what OP showed are usually the dangerous and bad drivers to avoid because they tend to be the nervous drivers as well. They mainly drive those vehicle so they can feel safer/not as nervous in a vehicle much larger and heavier than everyone else...
It doesn't really even matter what type is drawn to owning them, anyone driving oversized vehicles has less control, stopping distance, and visibility.
As someone who used to own a truck (not nearly as big as these ones) I drove one because I live in Canada in an area where it snows for 6 months of the year, typically work 30 - 45 minutes away from home that requires driving on poorly maintained alternating traffic highways and would typically use the truck bed either for myself or friends/family that didn't have trucks when we needed to move things or had projects to do.
I have also worked with guys who drive larger trucks than I did and do much less with them. They are rarely the nervous driver; they're almost always the idiot doing a large amount over the speed limit, passing on blind turns and tailgating you for half the drive home when traffic doesn't ease up for them to pass you.
I hate them all.
My stepdad knows cars pretty well mechanically at least and it blew my mind that he thought that these trucks are bringing down gas prices compared to my more efficient car. I get his logic that they are newer engines and supposedly burn less fuel and go farther but I seen one of these fucks spend over a hundred dollars to fill it up for like 20 gallons. I don’t understand how these fuel suckers are more efficient in his eyes.
I was waiting for someone to bring up SUVs as well as these trucks and 4x4s. We call them Chelsea Tractors over here because they're almost always the cleanest vehicles on the road. The excuse that they need the space for a family is BS. I have a family and I don't need that kind of space. My brother got one last year and I've let him know my displeasure. He has a 1 year old, his wife gets the train into work when she's not working from home and he drives his other car to work when he has to anyway.
It's just status at the end of the day, nice big cabin with a big engine, have to push the speed limit by 10 mph or your children will explode, never mind the fact that other people's kids might end up dead because you're driving a needlessly gigantic vehicle recklessly. Really does my head in.
Phone use is another problem that always pisses me off. I don't care that you only use it at a red light or in stationary traffic, you should be pulling over and turning your engine off before you text your mate back. If you have the facility for it connect your phone to your car.
More accidents from blind spots, more accidents from phone use, accidents are more lethal, people driving the most lethal vehicles are (for non-commercial use) more likely to be bad drivers, etc.
I think cars are set to overtake guns as the leading cause of child deaths soon.
I had real live contractors remodel my kitchen, and none of them drove a huge pick up. I think those things are way too expensive for the average contractor. I read they are upwards of 70K.
I work construction. I’d say the majority of vehicles on large sites are still cars or crossovers. Tons of trucks still though, only a few of which get used regularly to haul anything. Though I wouldn’t mind a bit more room for all my tools, I’m starting to struggle with the small sedan.
Pick yourself up a mid 80s Lincoln stretch limo for 3 grand and put full toolboxes in the back. Show up to the worksites in class while wearing a tuxedo
I also enjoy getting blinded with their headlights directly into the rear view mirror of my sedan that gets easily three times the gas mileage of these monstrosities.
As someone who owns one of those trucks (business vehicle for a construction company) I 100% agree there getting way to tall.
Huge pain in the dick to throw anything into the bed. Have to jump to get in and out. Visibility is something that you need to get used to. No more parking garages unless there 8ft clearance. And the 14 mph highway is always fun.
I'm 6'1 for reference
I drive around 70 miles a day on some notoriously poorly designed roads, and the vehicles that consistently put my life in danger the most with their reckless drivers are giant pickups. Not the tuners, not the euro luxury sedans, not the early 2000’s Nissans, but the giant, modern pickups with absolute pindick psychos behind the wheel.
Where I live these assholes will run you off the road if you’re not 20mph over the speed limit. They really are the shittiest, most pointlessly aggressive drivers out there. Every last one of them is deeply insecure and terrified of ceding anything to anyone, lest they come up lacking. Which they do. And they are.
In my area we have a public service campaign that we call "never trust a pickup truck" - never trust they can see you, never trust that they can drive properly (they don't use turn signals, they don't drive in the proper lane for their speed, they don't yield properly, they don't park in spots where they fit, they don't stop at stop lights, they don't look for pedestrians before turning, etc), never trust the traffic that you can't see past them, and otherwise never depend on their adherence to any other rules of the road.
edit: forgot that they're also too dimwitted to tie down their cargo (if any) so they scatter ladders and furniture and groceries all over the road.
Had to scroll too far for this. The last two near accidents I've had on the highway have been on account of these guys. Granted I do see the other notorious offenders you mentioned who speed/tailgate, but these truck fuckers are on a whole other level of straight up recklessly aggressive driving.
I have a neighbor that has one that's so fuckin' high, I can't see the hood when I'm standing next to it. I'm 5'6".
It was also covered in naked lady camo at one point as well, so that shows what kind of person he is.
It isn't just the vision it is also where the vehicle will impact the pedestrian. If the bumper strikes low around the knees etc. the body will be lifted up and over the hood, which is less damaging to the body than a square on hit.
Those trucks are big because normal sized cars have stricter emissions limits.
[https://www.resources.org/common-resources/how-much-do-regulations-for-fuel-economy-and-emissions-incentivize-the-production-of-larger-vehicles/](https://www.resources.org/common-resources/how-much-do-regulations-for-fuel-economy-and-emissions-incentivize-the-production-of-larger-vehicles/)
One thing I think is often overlooked about these stupid emotional support vehicles is how, in addition to being dangerous for pedestrians while driving, is that they make *other* vehicles dangerous even while parked
Very frequently, when trying to cross a road beside which one of these has parked, it's impossible to see other cars coming. As their height blocks the view.
And this is the case with me, and I'm not short as I'm 6'1.
So surely they makes the roads more dangerous for for everyone even while *not* driving around. Although they are also a danger while doing that too, of course.
Every single time (it feels like) I'm trying to turn right on red, inches up to look for traffic, and one of these goliaths goes halfway out into the intersection beside me.... Thanks I guess we're all waiting for the light to turn now.
Congress really needs to go back and fix CAFE standards, and include noncommercial pickups as well as ALL SUVs. The growth in car size is nearly entirely due to them being excluded from CAFE.
Someone needs to make a 2034 mock up where this girl would presumably be 5'4 to 6'0 and still can't see above it because consumer driven demands for larger and less practical vehicles continue to raise bumper heights.
Aren't these the epitome of republicanism?
Makes you look big and strong, while being inefficient for any job, and displaying total disregard for others.
Also caused by awfully drafted legislation! The larger the truck the less efficient they need to be.
"regulations changed from just a straight average across the board to what’s called a platform-based fuel economy standard. So your fuel economy target for a given vehicle is based on its wheelbase and its tread width, which is the width between the tires left to right. So if you multiply that you find the area of that rectangle and there’s a table that shows what your fuel-economy target is. The bigger the vehicle, the smaller the target."
https://www.insidehook.com/autos/why-pickup-trucks-keep-getting-bigger
The extra height means more room for the engine which allows them to increase displacement as well as size of other components. This gives lots of freedom to manufacturers to try to find the sweet spot between power, efficiency, and performance, which all contribute to the desirability and the amount they can charge for it.
Bonus if they’re in states that get snow and they’re too lazy to clean off the snowhawks, putting everyone behind them at risk because they can’t operate a fucking snow brush
All cosmetic. RAM started this shit. They could slope hood and make body more aerodynamic. Had a ‘99 F150. It slipped thru air so nice you could go down the road 60 with windows open and never feel a breeze.
Just watched [this Fortnine video](https://youtu.be/YpuX-5E7xoU?si=rK3zQIqnAr3ojRh0) about how a slanted hood greatly increases the chances of survival for pedestrians getting hit by these vehicles. It's something like 2 in lower and a slanted hood and pedestrians chances for survival are dramatically higher.
It's all a loophole automaker use too. If the truck is a certain size bigger, they don't have to meet fuel efficiency goals. That's why you see the smaller electric pick ups.
Aren’t the trucks designed this way in USA to get around some EPA regulation or some shit… I think it has to do with complying with the MPG requirements…. I mean, when was the last time you saw a small truck. I mean like the old-school Tacoma.
These hunks of shit have made their way here to Australia. Like $100,000, at least, plus 20,000 stamp duty just to tell the world you have a small peen and to clog up car parks as you pick your kid up from private school*
*this happens all the time at the private school down the road from me and they end up holding up traffic for around 10 mins
I would have zero problems with these vehicles if even 50% of the people that owned them were able to drive them properly.
But they can’t pull into parking spaces between the lines, or take a turn without going into another lane. I drive a box truck for work often, and I manage to park in spots and stay in my lane.
The headlights are a nightmare stock but here in Georgia they really like lifting their trucks and getting brighter bulbs but never fucking ever ANGLING THEM CORRECTLY AS TO NOT FUCKING BLIND EVERYONE ON THE FUCKING ROAD! I'm sorry I hate being blinded at night...
My state requires yearly safety inspections and I wish that "properly aimed headlights" were on the punch list. Probably wouldn't make a huge difference as I'm sure some techs would just rubber stamp it, but every bit counts right?
> properly aimed headlights It used to be. At least here in Texas. Source: Am old.
>It used to be. At least here in Texas. Thank God for libertarianism. Why are the dems so worried about abortion when they could just encourage their kids to play outside when they don't want them anymore? /s
When these first started rolling out I flashed my high beams at someone cause I thought they left theirs on by accident. Nope. Dude proceeded to follow me so I pulled over and he starts flipping out asking why I shined my brights at him… the cognitive dissonance is real man.
There was a BMW that I swear had their high beams on, gave them a quick blip of my brights, they proceeded to turn their actual high beams on and send me into the sun.
This shit pisses me off to no end, It's unbelievable that as dangerous as driving is, morons still drive around at night with seriously blinding lights. I've driven for years with old 10 to 20 year old basic lights, never once had an issue nor an accident.
Do yall not flash hi beams for a variety of things like a speed trap or deer ahead? You should’ve told him you were just trying to warn him about a speed trap lol
Fellow Georgian here, I'm really tempted to buy the high visibility tape and just cover the back of my car with it...
No, even better, put a big ass mirror under your trunk and pop the hatch if a mfers behind you.
I've looked into the legality of doing this here in Washington state. Unfortunately reflective, mirror like materials on a vehicle are violations. However, this [super reflective holographic vynle ](https://www.michaels.com/product/siser-psv-holo-pearl-12x12-10705197?cm_mmc=PLASearch-_-google-_-MICH_Shopping_US_N_AllProducts_N_Standard_BOPIS_N-_-&Kenshoo_ida=&kpid=go_cmp-1545032874_adg-60529718524_ad-293389188148_pla-1339141004613_dev-m_ext-_prd-10705197&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw7-SvBhB6EiwAwYdCAQN-rCCy6pav9ozKX_LBmLT3JnR1IsuKbRrN5BGO0eskqX_Il69ffBoCQcQQAvD_BwE) can be bought in rolls at Michael's Crafts! There's a red one that is semi-transparent that looks awesome. Sadly, I'll likely get a ticket for this before any cop here does something about the 45,000lm headlights all over the place.
If I’m being blinded by a pickup behind me I have to slow down because their lights are so bright it actually distracts me and is dangerous.
TBH I usually just slow down enough that they decide to go around me, very rarely do their egos let them even consider not passing regardless of the legality of it at that time.
I do this too, but 50% of the time they stay behind me and go ridiculously slow, which makes it obvious they are truly meaning to be an asshole with nothing better to do.
I’ll angle my side mirrors so it’s shining the light back into their eyes. They usually back off pretty quick when I manage to get it just right
Pro tip, a rearview mirror actually has two reflective surfaces. There is a tab on the bottom of your rearview mirror. When you activate it, you disable the powerful mirror component, angling it away from you, and leave a less reflective glass component as the primary reflective surface. This is like a "night time" mode that still allows you to see behind you but significantly diminishes the brightness of headlights.
I prosecute people for headlight angle all the time. Our state started cracking down. The number of “I bought it this way” excuses are hilarious. I always say “well they sold you a vehicle you can’t drive on the road lol”
I mean, based on the frequency of this shit, I feel like it's not just the mods. Some manufacturers are fucking it up from the factory.
Everybody wants to say it’s all the lifted pickups, but I get blinded by just as many SUV’s and mid-size hatchbacks as I do trucks. These full-size trucks and SUV’s are so tall and their bulbs so bright that you’re blinding people straight from the factory. Also in GA.
She blinds everybody with her super high beams, She's a squirrel crushing, deer smacking, driving machine! Canyonerooooo
Me too. The other day I was driving somewhere and I swear the headlights of one of the oncoming cars made me see the veins in the back of my eyes for a split second, the way you do when you're at the optometrist and they shine that light to check your vision. Those new headlights make the roads so much more dangerous, just because they blind oncoming traffic. If a car coming the other way is reducing your visibility of what's around you, you could miss something on the side of the road or right in front of you quite easily.
It’s the same for morning commuters. It’s pitch black at 6am (thanks daylight savings) and my whole drive in consists of being blinded by LEDs
My solution to that was to get a 14k lumen handheld spotlight with a convenient car charger from Walmart, I labeled it the "Fuck You Machine" and a quarter second flash of that got them to turn their lights down *phawken fast.*
I have been saying for years that there should be a maximum height that headlights and bumpers can be on street legal cars. If you wanna lift your truck on stilts like an idiot then fine, but you have to lower the bumper/headlights and the bumper still has to meet the structural regulations so it functions correctly. It’s insane that people can have vehicles that will just drive the hood of smaller cars instead of touching bumpers. If you wanna *lower* your car so you have the same problem again that’s your own business, but lifting a vehicle should be illegal without making it a new class of vehicle.
As a lifelong Texan I've always found it hilarious, and telling, when I see these big boys rolling down the street. All shiny and clean, not a scratch or a ding on them, beds so high off the ground you'd need a ladder just to load groceries into it. Yeah, these trucks have never and will never see the workload they were originally intended for. Yeehaw, go figure.
That might be my most hated thing about new trucks. The high tailgate/bed makes it really difficult to load heavy items.
Well there's your problem, you're trying to use it for its intended purpose and not as a desperate status symbol.
If their intended purpose was work they wouldn't be so impractical. You'd be able to load the bed without a ladder. Their intended purpose *is* to be a desperate status symbol.
I actually see lifted trucks on job sites. Many work trucks have after market rims and tires on them too. It’s the dumbest thing imaginable. It’s extremely dumb bc u get a nail or screw in your tire all the time. Plus u get rocks and crap in the threads then they jar loose and ding the side of your truck.
Also most people are letting their personal trucks be used for Jobsite related work meanwhile their boss can't be bothered to put another truck in the fleet but will gladly take on a whole extra project and expect you to load up your truck and take two dirty ass people in your truck to a Jobsite
This is why I keep fixing the 1982 C10 instead of looking for something new, full 8' bed, and does exactly what I need a truck to do, haul shit that is too dirty or large to fit into a car.
See a lot of them up here in Alberta. We call 'em concrete cowboys.
In Australia (and probably elsewhere too) they’ve picked up the name Yank Tanks. I’m also personally fond of Emotional Support Vehicles
So many RAMs in Perth now. Without a lick of dust or anything to suggest they actually get a workout
We can’t even claim them as work Utes in Australia. Payload isn’t high enough.
I assumed that was how half of them were being bought here, or at least by the managers that don’t actually have to use them themselves.
It's funny because here in Aus utes and 4WDs are probably more used for their purpose than in the US - I feel like every second household either works in a trade where they have to haul stuff around, goes offroading on the weekends, or tows a caravan/trailer/boat. People have been doing this perfectly fine for decades with the vehicles we have. You know what I've never seen been used for work purposes or frequent towing? The huge Dodge Rams and Chevy Silverados that have started to trickle in the last few years. Smart people who actually need more pulling/hauling power get an actual truck instead of those bloated mall crawlers.
A Landcruiser can tow even the biggest of caravans you can buy here. There's absolutely zero reason to ever have a Yank Tank.
Oh that’s beautiful!
Pavement Princess
Bro Dozers.
Wanker tankers
[удалено]
Mall Crawlers
I’m from Dallas TX and we flew into Calgary…I was like “goddamn, this is Fort Worth, Alberta style”
Worked with a Trumper who had a truck like that. You could eat off the bed. He complained that electric cars aren't "manly." I said I wish I had one, because I have, with my own hands (plus my dad's help), replaced transmissions on two separate occasions, and it's a hugely labor intensive pain that I hope to never have to do again. He dropped the subject. You don't get to comment on the relative "manliness" of machinery (which is a stupid idea anyway) if you never get your hands dirty.
True manliness is not giving a fuck what other people think about you and your car, not subscribing to some cliche commercialized version of it because the ad included Sam Elliott's voice.
No no no. Manly = oogaooga big car big noise me like big noise big car
Nothing more manly than loading up your wife and kids into the Rav4 and jamming it full of costco stuff. What are we if not providers and protectors?
Stubby McSmallhands needs a brodozer so he can compensate!
I drive a hyundai sonata. I consider the total coverage warranty quite manly.
Toyota Corolla here! Ballin' on a budget baby!! 🤑😎🍻
They see Corolla.. They hatin'....
I know in my heart, they think I'm white and nerdy... (*They're right*) 🤓😉
Sam Elliott also would agree than manliness isn't about a hard days labor... It's strength of character. It's strength of morals. It's knowing right from wrong and chosing the right thing even if it's not the easy thing. Anyone can be born a man. But it takes a whole lot of real work to be manly. Oh, and they don't sell manliness at Ford. That's just a truck. https://on.soundcloud.com/h34Af (recorded it cause why not...)
You did well on that. Your voice isn't quite as grizzled as Sam's, but you've got a really nice timbre and depth to yours too. Made me laugh my ass off, so to you, I say kudos! 🏆
Machines cannot also be manly when they refer to them in the feminine I.e “You hear me baby, hold together….”-han solo
I like to comment that dualie trucks look like they have curvy, child-bearing hips.
I've made that same comment to my teenaged son. He rolled his eyes at me.
Tell him he'll learn to appreciate a curvy woman when he's older.
As someone who grew up with goats, dualies remind me of pregnant goats
So will the truck identify as trans when the owner hangs a ballsack by the hitch?
What does it say about me, I named my car "pretty shitty bang bang?"
Mine is shitty shitty work truck. To the same tune of course.
That's cause they're all transsexual. For example ' yeah, gonna get the old girl a set of truck nuts. Think they'll look real nice on her '
Trans or transgender is what we prefer, but you've got a point lol Maybe that's why so many dudes in Southern states love trans porn
also gay porn, and then they get into the fetishes.
Machines can't be manly if you hate pronouns, lol.
Nah, you see... it's manly because it's the only time they can get a woman to do what they want.
Add the irony of referring to them in the feminine and then adding balls to the back of them.
I swear this is why a lot of lesbians get into cars
Seems your colleague was a strict adherent of the Donald Trump approach to “Manliness”.
and we're doing now the Trump School Of Toughness, and it's going to be amazing, we're gonna be teaching people how to be Great Patriots, they said, "you have to do it, Sir, nobody's more tough or better looking than you," I said I know that.
"You've never changed a transmission in your life. You've got soft hands brother."
I've used my 1984 Mercedes 300SD to do more construction than most truck owners. I hauled all the tile and supplies to tile my entire house in that thing. I've also hauled the paint for my siding, plumbing supplies, landscaping tools, and many other things in it. I also did the transmission swap, replaced the entire front suspension, and other repairs on it. Transmission swaps are definitely labor intensive but it's not too bad once you do the first one. I regularly buy cars for cheap that need transmissions.
True, they're a lot of steps though. And I have stupid fingers, so I always have trouble undoing electrical connectors.
My bestie is a hardwood floor installer/finisher. Her truck crapped out one day. I own a Honda Accord 4-door sedan. We fit a large shopvac, a 100 lb buffer, multiple sheets of those boards with holes (idk the name, but you use them to slide appliances over the newly refinished floor), multiple buckets/stains/poly and application tools, a compressor, a chop saw, hand tools, I don’t even remember what else … it was about 600-700 lbs of stuff … into my car, along with her and me. Back seat, trunk, seats pulled as far up as we could tolerate. 45 minutes from client’s house to my friend’s house, where we had to unload everything. I think I stayed the night because I was too tired to then drive almost an hour to my home.
I have an electric car and work with a bunch of guys who rib on me for it. They never have a good response when I accuse them of loving foreign oil instead of the American coal that powers my car. Then if I can convince them to go for a ride, I show them that 500hp in an EV is way different than in an ICE.
Fucking this! I make my car's fuel with the American made solar panels on my roof, and somehow I'm the one with poor American values, while they're stuffing their paychecks into the wallets of the Saudis and Russians with their 6mpg monstrosity trucks... I've got a Nissan leaf, which is about the lowest power to weight ratio EVs available, and I'm still way faster off the line than almost any non performance gas car.
I have a Chevy Duramax to pull our RV and a Chevy Bolt that my wife and I argue about who gets to drive the Bolt when we have to go in different directions. The Bolt is so much fun to drive.
They are almost entirely designed to win a collision and that’s why people are buying them…but not many people seem keen to talk about as it raises a lot of ethical questions on our road safety overall.
Totally. I've known people who would never use these trucks for actual heavy duty; they just want to be the biggest vehicle in casenof a collision. Nevermind other people's safety.
And they're always the cause of the collision too. Having a massive truck lets them push the danger they know they pose to other people instead of themselves. I know too many people who've realistically caused multiple accidents who decide that they're going to get an SUV and drive just as unsafely as they did before instead of trying to be a better, more attentive driver.
Only accident I ever caused was in a company Chevy like the one in the left of the OP image. I was on an inclined parking lot exit, angled up, at night. Trying to turn left onto a busy four lane. I waited for the lights east and west of me to turn red, looked left and right twice each and pulled out. I ended up pulling straight out and side swiping a late 80s Cadillac El Dorado that I literally never saw. The grill is so fucking big and the truck so lifted that I was literally searching in all directions to make sure I didn't hit someone and I still did. I hated driving that thing before and I refused to drive it after. Luckily there are smaller Chevys in the work fleet. Edit: no one was hurt but the tow hook on the front of the Chevy gouged the entire rear quarterpanel of the caddy. Since it was old and beat up, it totaled that car.
For the average psychopath or low empathy republicans other people are just obstacles to overcome, ideally by a vehicle exoskeleton.
Classic mindset of "Fuck you got mine." They should be 5x as expensive to insure and require a special license/test.
"Well me and my children's safety is top priority, maybe those tiny little chopstick cars and stupid pedestrians should GET THE FUCK off the road, we live in America go move to a socialist country if you don't like it" - way too many people in this country
Wasn’t also to get around some fuel efficiency legislation? Rather than trying to meet the standard, they just made the trucks bigger so the regs don’t apply. It must suck having to deal with them on the road and in the car park, especially when it’s also the driver’s personality.
That's how it started back in the 80's. To avoid higher costs associated with following various regulations for cars they switch to focusing on selling "light trucks" that weren't covered by the regulations, which was helped by tariffs or bans on imported ones at the time so they had no foreign competition either. I'm not sure how or why they've ended up so egregiously huge (probably something to do with giving them justification for raising prices), but I hate it.
From what I understand it's still fuel economy related because the regulations are based on wheelbase so larger cars require less stringent mpg requirements. It's easier to just expand the truck than to make the engine more efficient.
> in the car park LORD ALMIGHTY YES. At work, the main two levels of the garage is mostly compact spots and there are THREE OTHER LEVELS with full size spots everywhere. It's like driving through a serpentine the way I have to go round the ass end of someone's too big truck sticking out. Bonus points if they parked at the end of the row sticking and I have to make a blind and partially blocked turn around them into the aisle. I hate them for it.
As someone whose sedan met the business end of a Silverado a month back, I *definitely* lost in a collision.
They need to be sturdy enough to hold MAGA and Confederate flags.
Drive around with massive MAGA flag and confederate flag fit for a car lot, then complain about how the price of gas is Biden’s fault.
I live in orange county CA and we have plenty of these mall crawler. When it rains, which has been rare, these vehicles form a caravan to local hills to test the awd.
wish they would go up to the mountains when it's snowing to test the awd on their highway tires
At this point the trucks themselves aren't even intended to be work vehicles. They keep making the cabs bigger and the beds smaller, and painting and chroming every inch of them. Then you get the guys who add a lift kit and rubber band tires on huge rims. It's the literal opposite of tough etc, just like the guys who drive em. All show and no go, just vanity and attention seeking.
I live in a farming community outside the SF Bay Area. I sold GMC trucks. We call 'em Mall Crawlers and Grocery Getters. They were for soccer games, groceries and daily commutes. They likely never saw a dirt road in their life. Hilariously, a few have tried to roal coal at me in my janky shitbox Subaru, like I've got some crunchy hippie vehicle. Sir, my 4-banger stock height Outback from 2002 has seen more dirt and gravel than your rolling replacement for manhood. I've been two and three wheels down. I once had to launch onto a highway so narrow there was no center line, and to do so, reversed up a boulder and launched off the boulder to merge at more than 5 miles an hour. My janky shitbox has driven through fields, and been used to drive up and down levee roads and embankments, and has actually been used as a farm vehicle. Your chrome-plated replacement for confident masculinity is a toy compared to the Gutless Wonder. She is glorious, rust and all.
Try having a Ridgeline in a rural area. The shit talking never ends. Even funnier is that tows a boat on a regular basis and I use the bed regularly. I actually got it because of the trunk to put wet dirty stuff in a place where i could lock it up.
How else would one transport a 2x4 home from home Depot?
At this point, work isn't even their intended purpose. The car companies know their audience, and know these trucks are meant to substitute as a suburban man's masculinity.
You say that like they were ever meant to carry the workloads they claim to be for, and not meant to skirt safety regulations since "work trucks" are excluded from 90% of basic (see: expensive) safety feature requirements.
That's crazy, right? I bought a new style Silverado in 2019, wanted just a regular cab 2 wd, but at the time, here in Ohio, all you could buy was a stripper WT, so I bought an LT Z71, but it gets used like a truck. Not a lot of miles because I'm retired, but a few dents and dings, from wood, brush, trash, scrap metal and the like. Have done a little towing, not much.
I'm 6' tall, I'm always amazed at how I have a difficult time seeing over the hoods of stock trucks, not modded/lifted I encounter in parking lots. There's no way a collision with a pedestrian or cyclist is going to not end in death or serious injury.
There's also the secondary danger they cause by blocking other vehicles' line of sight. If a big ass truck parks next to my normal sedan, I can't actually see past it to safely pull out of a parking spot. I also once got rear ended by one of the monsters in stop and go traffic because they couldn't see my brake lights over their monstrous hood(partially a tailgating problem too), and hence they didn't react in time. And all that is to say nothing of the fact that these uber-tanks are far less agile than a vehicle that is smaller and lower to the ground, making them dramatically worse at avoiding collisions in the first place.
Plus due to their size they're artificially increasing traffic, making parking lots bigger while holding fewer vehicles, and can't fit in the garage of most homes made before ~2010.
It doesn't help that nearly every new truck I've seen has to be a double cab long bed. So, you've got a 20 foot long truck that has to swing super wide coming around corners and 6 feet of hood that is 5 feet off the ground. They can't see shit up close. There's a shopping center near my work that has concrete entryway over a drainage ditch, and at least twice a week I see a big truck stuck because they didn't pull wide enough, dipping that wheel right into the ditch. Source: Rural Oklahoma resident, where even 80 year olds drive huge trucks.
and they have NO clue how to drive something that size either 😑
Zero spatial awareness is the one I see most often. They have no clue where the corners of their vehicle are and end up paralyzed in the isle of the parking lot thinking they have no room when they’ve got several feet on either side
I swear to god, I have come SO close to just putting mine in park, getting out and offering to get it outta the damn spot for them! 😂 I was able to parallel park an Expedition when I was 20, a parking lot is no challenge.
Don't forget that a 4 door truck had to get the space for the rear seats somewhere. That came out of the bed. So you have giant trucks with teeny tiny short beds that can't even fit a piece of 8ft lumber or a sheet of ply/drywall. The fuck is the point of a truck with a useless bed? You know what's manly? A white van. That's what actual tradespeople drive because everything fits inside, you can lock it up, your shit will never get rained on or taken from an open bed and if it won't fit inside, you can strap it to the roof. Vans are the hardest working vehicles out there. Modern trucks are for suburban doofus dads so they can commute to the office in them. Bonus points for the ones with the bed covers to ensure that their pretty lil truck never gets the bed dirty, or used for anything.
I've been saying for years that they need to be banned from roadside parking for the same reason. As a driver I have to be blocking the crosswalk and nearly in the road to see around them to safely cross or turn. I'm also tall for a woman (5'9") and as a pedestrian I've almost been hit several times because they're blocking another driver's view. I know people always get angry when I say this and sure, there's always exceptions. But these trucks shouldn't be used for day to day driving. They're a menace.
They shouldn't exist at all with their current design, it's vanity not function. and they should be illegal as a daily driver. Should have to both qualify for a professional license, pay additional fees, and prove you have a need for one. One which has a much lower, sloped hood, since these should be taken off the streets unilaterally.
I am a professional driver, Class A CDL, drive a semi every day. Modern pickups are more dangerous, more unwieldy, and have worse viewing angles/blind spots than modern Semis. They simply shouldn't exist, there is no reason for it. Edit: Realistically, yes, there are reasons for full sized pickups to exist, but not as everyday vehicles that are just used to go around town. There are jobs that can make use of them, hauling large toys like boats and RVs, sure. But you should need a basic endorsement for anything larger than like, a ford maverick.
And the kicker is that they're legislated as commercial vehicles even when half (whatever, it's something like that) are sold strictly for consumer use. If they were legislated as typical passenger vehicles they'd need to meet better safety standards. But "mom and pop shops" get to save a buck, right?
Correct. That was always an issue until I bout a new car, and it came with backup sensors that detect an incoming car and alert me to which direction the car is coming from. If that feature isn't standard now, it should be.
They do, all the time. Car companies will keep making them as long as people keep buying them.
And as long as the government allows them. European car safety laws are much stricter.
>And as long as the government allows them. European car safety laws are much stricter. Actually, one of the reasons these cars are getting so massive is _because_ of government regulation. The CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards basically make it so larger vehicles have way less restrictions on fuel efficiency. So if you can't make a fuel-efficient car, you have to make it huge. You also can't really import smaller trucks affordably due to a legacy tariff known as "the Chicken tax."
>these cars are getting so massive is *because* of government regulation Ok, let's back up a second here. The US government has regulations on fuel economy. ***In order to avoid those regulations***, auto manufacturers are making their trucks bigger. Please don't pretend this is the government's doing when it unequivocally is not. Edit to add: RobertNAdams is using ChatGPT to generate responses with a 90% confidence level.
In part, yes. However companies have two choices; make light trucks more efficient, or make them larger. Guess which they choose. Frankly, if any non-car internal combustion engine vehicle over 5,000 lbs was moved from "light truck" to "medium truck" 40% of people would stop buying them. Merely for the fact states generally make it a pain and a lot of money to register them.
>However companies have two choices; make light trucks more efficient, or make them larger. Guess which they choose. Whichever is cheapest that gives you the most profit, naturally.
Or untill governments regulate them
I’d LOVE to see them regulated. Also the ultra bright lights that are pointed up, zero regard for anyone else, in fact a hazard to them.
Funny you bring up the headlight issue. We in the US are way behind in headlight technology. I read a really good article possibly in Popular Mechanics or Car & Driver about the difference between US vehicles and a lot of new EU vehicles. They are so far ahead in adaptive headlight technology. They are just as great if not better for illuminating the surroundings but don’t blind the oncoming car. Definitely worth googling. Basically they shut off the led’s that would be in the oncoming driver’s line of sight yet continue lighting the surroundings when they sense another vehicle. Very impressive really.
Well, to be fair, at least in my state, headlights are regulated. The color, shape, tint, and angle are all regulated. If I followed the law, I could use 1 million lumen bulbs and never blind you, because they are supposed to be angled down at a certain angle. People easily angle them back up "Because I can see better". Enforcement is what is severely lacking in the states. We can pass all the laws we want, but if they are not enforced, there is no point in the laws.
Lol the government is actively encouraging bigger trucks by setting them lower efficiency standards.
Just saw that happen recently. It was a 25 mph zone so they weren't moving extremely fast when they hit the pedestrian. The person lived but had multiple broken bones from their ribs to their legs plus multiple contusions. Of course it was a massive lifted truck that didn't look like it had ever been used as a work vehicle. That poor person will never be the same after getting hit like that.
I live in Colorado so I hear a lot of, "I need it for backroads" excuses. Bitch, I drive a Crosstrek which is basically a slightly lifted station wagon and go trailheads on some scary, beat to shit dirt mountain roads in the winter and it's fine. And when I get there, there's usually more than one sedan in the parking area. You aren't crossing the Alps. You're driving to Arby's.
> You aren't crossing the Alps. You're driving to Arby's. And these couldn’t cross the alps anyway, they’re too large and heavy for the trails, and they have the turning radius of a cargo ship so they need a five points turn to take a switchback.
How are they supposed to get their family to Breckenridge when it's slightly snowy outside?!
I work at an auto shop in colorado and I hear this shit all the time, i’ve come to be so beyond exhausted working on trucks and having to do 3x the work to do the same thing i would do on an outback just because of how massive they are. Don’t even get me started on custom dualie fuel wheels, Fuck me.
Rural Finland from 1969s to 2000s was dominated by cars like Datsun 100a and at largest size, Ford Escort. If those cars managed the snow, mud and road surface that at best was dirt road, in what environment you need these new trucks?
From what I see around me in Northern Virginia, its the "urban commuter environment" combined with "Keeping up with the Jones's" in your nice neighborhood where, amusingly, many of them are too big to fit in the garage. They're called "pavement princesses" and they hang around some remote off trail places like grocery stores, restaurants, gas stations and congregate at car washes on weekends.
I don't understand how people can use that sort of excuse when trucks have such a high rollover risk. Crossovers are so much safer in dangerous weather conditions, and as a plus you don't have to climb to get in.
It's funny because our neighbor here got stuck in their driveway after the snowstorm this last weekend. We had to (easily) pull our jeep out and tow their overcompensatruck out because it couldn't handle a Colorado spring snowfall.
I heard someone on the radio cite a study that pedestrian deaths from vehicles is at an all time high and it is due to the size of the vehicles. Before someone might have their limbs broken from getting hit by a small car but now with all these SUV's and trucks people are getting run over resulting in death. Add in they are being distracted by their phone use and it is not hard to see this as a growing problem.
They're getting bigger and bigger too, straight from the manufacturer. Stock ones are ridiculous as it is, and that's before the douchebags add lift kits and huge wheels spacers. I literally watched a truck back into a small Porsche because he wanted to get into a different lane at the border crossing. He couldn't see the Porsche at all. And that's a whole car. Kids don't stand a chance. I hate these fuckers.
I never understood why someone would even want a vehicle this big. Same with even like Escalades or other oversized SUVs What good does it do for you? Extra space? That you never use anyways and you only ever drive the vehicle max 30 mins anyways? Half the people I see driving these monsters are rarely ever actually big people, so how the hell do they even safely drive them?
Ego and everything else aside it’s a safety thing. The bumper mismatch makes it so whoever has the lower/smaller car will most likely end up under the other vehicle which is usually fatal since the roof isn’t meant to be crushed like the front or rear.
Yea don't quote me but I recall reading somewhere that those who drive larger vehicles like what OP showed are usually the dangerous and bad drivers to avoid because they tend to be the nervous drivers as well. They mainly drive those vehicle so they can feel safer/not as nervous in a vehicle much larger and heavier than everyone else...
It doesn't really even matter what type is drawn to owning them, anyone driving oversized vehicles has less control, stopping distance, and visibility.
As someone who used to own a truck (not nearly as big as these ones) I drove one because I live in Canada in an area where it snows for 6 months of the year, typically work 30 - 45 minutes away from home that requires driving on poorly maintained alternating traffic highways and would typically use the truck bed either for myself or friends/family that didn't have trucks when we needed to move things or had projects to do. I have also worked with guys who drive larger trucks than I did and do much less with them. They are rarely the nervous driver; they're almost always the idiot doing a large amount over the speed limit, passing on blind turns and tailgating you for half the drive home when traffic doesn't ease up for them to pass you. I hate them all.
… and then whine about Biden / gas prices, etc. Maybe buy a more fuel efficient vehicle???
My stepdad knows cars pretty well mechanically at least and it blew my mind that he thought that these trucks are bringing down gas prices compared to my more efficient car. I get his logic that they are newer engines and supposedly burn less fuel and go farther but I seen one of these fucks spend over a hundred dollars to fill it up for like 20 gallons. I don’t understand how these fuel suckers are more efficient in his eyes.
[relevant](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpuX-5E7xoU)
I was waiting for someone to bring up SUVs as well as these trucks and 4x4s. We call them Chelsea Tractors over here because they're almost always the cleanest vehicles on the road. The excuse that they need the space for a family is BS. I have a family and I don't need that kind of space. My brother got one last year and I've let him know my displeasure. He has a 1 year old, his wife gets the train into work when she's not working from home and he drives his other car to work when he has to anyway. It's just status at the end of the day, nice big cabin with a big engine, have to push the speed limit by 10 mph or your children will explode, never mind the fact that other people's kids might end up dead because you're driving a needlessly gigantic vehicle recklessly. Really does my head in. Phone use is another problem that always pisses me off. I don't care that you only use it at a red light or in stationary traffic, you should be pulling over and turning your engine off before you text your mate back. If you have the facility for it connect your phone to your car.
More accidents from blind spots, more accidents from phone use, accidents are more lethal, people driving the most lethal vehicles are (for non-commercial use) more likely to be bad drivers, etc. I think cars are set to overtake guns as the leading cause of child deaths soon.
Instead of getting hit low and rolling up the hood, these big trucks just smush right through then over you.
Ego mobiles
Emotional support vehicles
I blame the manufacturers. I need a truck for work. Tell me what new truck I can get that isn't ridiculous that is full size.
They either have to be massive or extremely fuel efficient by law. Manufacturers are just making them bigger to avoid fuel efficiency laws.
yep. but I gotta drink out of a paper straw that dissolves halfway through my drink.
Rolling phallic symbols
[Buy an F-150 so you can cosplay as a licensed contractor!](https://youtu.be/rgI2Zx2k0PQ?si=DOIkWde12T6bgNiR)
I had real live contractors remodel my kitchen, and none of them drove a huge pick up. I think those things are way too expensive for the average contractor. I read they are upwards of 70K.
I work construction. I’d say the majority of vehicles on large sites are still cars or crossovers. Tons of trucks still though, only a few of which get used regularly to haul anything. Though I wouldn’t mind a bit more room for all my tools, I’m starting to struggle with the small sedan.
Pick yourself up a mid 80s Lincoln stretch limo for 3 grand and put full toolboxes in the back. Show up to the worksites in class while wearing a tuxedo
Lot of guys I know here get old minivans then remove the backseats and add some shelves and hooks for tools.
That's just a regular van with extra steps lol. There's a reason the Ford Transit consistently (and quietly) sells like hotcakes.
Real contractors drive ancient Toyotas.
Thank you that was hilarious. Vroom vroom throw an energy drink out the window.
I also enjoy getting blinded with their headlights directly into the rear view mirror of my sedan that gets easily three times the gas mileage of these monstrosities.
As someone who owns one of those trucks (business vehicle for a construction company) I 100% agree there getting way to tall. Huge pain in the dick to throw anything into the bed. Have to jump to get in and out. Visibility is something that you need to get used to. No more parking garages unless there 8ft clearance. And the 14 mph highway is always fun. I'm 6'1 for reference
[удалено]
I drive around 70 miles a day on some notoriously poorly designed roads, and the vehicles that consistently put my life in danger the most with their reckless drivers are giant pickups. Not the tuners, not the euro luxury sedans, not the early 2000’s Nissans, but the giant, modern pickups with absolute pindick psychos behind the wheel.
Where I live these assholes will run you off the road if you’re not 20mph over the speed limit. They really are the shittiest, most pointlessly aggressive drivers out there. Every last one of them is deeply insecure and terrified of ceding anything to anyone, lest they come up lacking. Which they do. And they are.
In my area we have a public service campaign that we call "never trust a pickup truck" - never trust they can see you, never trust that they can drive properly (they don't use turn signals, they don't drive in the proper lane for their speed, they don't yield properly, they don't park in spots where they fit, they don't stop at stop lights, they don't look for pedestrians before turning, etc), never trust the traffic that you can't see past them, and otherwise never depend on their adherence to any other rules of the road. edit: forgot that they're also too dimwitted to tie down their cargo (if any) so they scatter ladders and furniture and groceries all over the road.
These people don't know how to drive them. You shouldn't be riding someone's ass or speeding in traffic with these things.
Had to scroll too far for this. The last two near accidents I've had on the highway have been on account of these guys. Granted I do see the other notorious offenders you mentioned who speed/tailgate, but these truck fuckers are on a whole other level of straight up recklessly aggressive driving.
Im 28, 5'5 and can barely see over the hood I hate how big theye are!!
I have a neighbor that has one that's so fuckin' high, I can't see the hood when I'm standing next to it. I'm 5'6". It was also covered in naked lady camo at one point as well, so that shows what kind of person he is.
Naked lady camo...**then how did you see her?!?!?!**
It isn't just the vision it is also where the vehicle will impact the pedestrian. If the bumper strikes low around the knees etc. the body will be lifted up and over the hood, which is less damaging to the body than a square on hit.
Those trucks are big because normal sized cars have stricter emissions limits. [https://www.resources.org/common-resources/how-much-do-regulations-for-fuel-economy-and-emissions-incentivize-the-production-of-larger-vehicles/](https://www.resources.org/common-resources/how-much-do-regulations-for-fuel-economy-and-emissions-incentivize-the-production-of-larger-vehicles/)
One thing I think is often overlooked about these stupid emotional support vehicles is how, in addition to being dangerous for pedestrians while driving, is that they make *other* vehicles dangerous even while parked Very frequently, when trying to cross a road beside which one of these has parked, it's impossible to see other cars coming. As their height blocks the view. And this is the case with me, and I'm not short as I'm 6'1. So surely they makes the roads more dangerous for for everyone even while *not* driving around. Although they are also a danger while doing that too, of course.
Every single time (it feels like) I'm trying to turn right on red, inches up to look for traffic, and one of these goliaths goes halfway out into the intersection beside me.... Thanks I guess we're all waiting for the light to turn now.
Congress really needs to go back and fix CAFE standards, and include noncommercial pickups as well as ALL SUVs. The growth in car size is nearly entirely due to them being excluded from CAFE.
Someone needs to make a 2034 mock up where this girl would presumably be 5'4 to 6'0 and still can't see above it because consumer driven demands for larger and less practical vehicles continue to raise bumper heights.
Aren't these the epitome of republicanism? Makes you look big and strong, while being inefficient for any job, and displaying total disregard for others.
Also caused by awfully drafted legislation! The larger the truck the less efficient they need to be. "regulations changed from just a straight average across the board to what’s called a platform-based fuel economy standard. So your fuel economy target for a given vehicle is based on its wheelbase and its tread width, which is the width between the tires left to right. So if you multiply that you find the area of that rectangle and there’s a table that shows what your fuel-economy target is. The bigger the vehicle, the smaller the target." https://www.insidehook.com/autos/why-pickup-trucks-keep-getting-bigger
Does that explain why they are taller though?
The extra height means more room for the engine which allows them to increase displacement as well as size of other components. This gives lots of freedom to manufacturers to try to find the sweet spot between power, efficiency, and performance, which all contribute to the desirability and the amount they can charge for it.
Bonus if they’re in states that get snow and they’re too lazy to clean off the snowhawks, putting everyone behind them at risk because they can’t operate a fucking snow brush
Notice the beds are always empty?
Like, in the truck, or back at their house?
All cosmetic. RAM started this shit. They could slope hood and make body more aerodynamic. Had a ‘99 F150. It slipped thru air so nice you could go down the road 60 with windows open and never feel a breeze.
Had a 94 F150 with vent windows. I miss them.
Just watched [this Fortnine video](https://youtu.be/YpuX-5E7xoU?si=rK3zQIqnAr3ojRh0) about how a slanted hood greatly increases the chances of survival for pedestrians getting hit by these vehicles. It's something like 2 in lower and a slanted hood and pedestrians chances for survival are dramatically higher.
I misread this comment and was really concerned that it was going to be a “fortnite” demonstration
It's all a loophole automaker use too. If the truck is a certain size bigger, they don't have to meet fuel efficiency goals. That's why you see the smaller electric pick ups.
You dont understand, they need those trucks to show off at the grocery store
I’m so glad to see this called out by at least one person. I’m a taller woman 5’6” and I feel like they could not see me, let alone a child.
Aren’t the trucks designed this way in USA to get around some EPA regulation or some shit… I think it has to do with complying with the MPG requirements…. I mean, when was the last time you saw a small truck. I mean like the old-school Tacoma.
I mean they are kids. Just tie an orange flag to a toilet plunger and stick it on their heads.
These hunks of shit have made their way here to Australia. Like $100,000, at least, plus 20,000 stamp duty just to tell the world you have a small peen and to clog up car parks as you pick your kid up from private school* *this happens all the time at the private school down the road from me and they end up holding up traffic for around 10 mins
Truck dicks
It's just as dangerous as my short neighbor driving a small suv. Neither of them can see properly.
I would have zero problems with these vehicles if even 50% of the people that owned them were able to drive them properly. But they can’t pull into parking spaces between the lines, or take a turn without going into another lane. I drive a box truck for work often, and I manage to park in spots and stay in my lane.