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> many large pickup trucks are providing real utility to construction, farming, etc. Yes. One in 10 or maybe 20
by raverbashing 4y ago
> many large pickup trucks are providing real utility to construction, farming, etc.
Yes. One in 10 or maybe 20
- Retric 4y agoLet me guess, you don’t live next to farmers or a lot of snow.
- bipson 4y agoSeriously, snow? You don't need a pickup for snow!
- Retric 4y agoMoving snow, not driving on it.
- mrguyorama 4y agoHere in the frozen hellscape of maine, nearly all snow mangement is done by dedicated equipment. They use skidsteers, dump trucks, front end loaders with giant buckets or snow blowers, and what few trucks they do have don't plow, they spread dirt or salt, which the dump trucks also can do so they are only used to dirt/salt small parking lots. Individuals buy push snow blowers or snow blower attachments to their lawn tractors. Occasionally a business will contract someone with a plow on a truck but that's not common because the contractors who actually deal with this regularly have dedicated equipment that's better than a plow on a truck and using a shitty plow on a standard truck is actually not easy. Even the parking lot in my private apartment complex is cleaned after a snow storm by a company with multiple front end loaders and skidsteers.
- bipson 4y agoDude, I live in Austria. We know what snow is and how to move it. This is what you build for that purpose: https://img.archiexpo.de/images_ae/photo-mg/67143-15337174.webp https://img.archiexpo.de/images_ae/photo-mg/67143-15337174.w... https://d3v9db8ug40up8.cloudfront.net/styles/large/s3/2020-09/unix_universal_plough_heromodule2_1.png?itok=ozErzATd https://d3v9db8ug40up8.cloudfront.net/styles/large/s3/2020-0... This is colloquially called Unimog (successor, kind of), a general purpose utility vehicle with awesome drivetrain, huge tires, great weight distribution, not too heavy, serves winter and summer in several roles. or https://www.ecotech.at/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Ecotech-Schneepflug-ES2-1-scaled.jpg https://www.ecotech.at/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Ecotech-Sc...
- kasey_junk 4y agoPickup trucks are horrendous for snowy conditions. You literally have to put extra material in them to make them manageable. The farmers in my family do have pickup trucks. 40 year old ones with standard cabs and no frills. There is virtually no good function for a modern leather appointed king cab other than signaling your group. Which is fine! Half of car ownership is that but do t pretend that even half of trucks are used for some truck like usage. Heck the half that are is for hauling boats or rvs once or twice a summer.
- rayiner 4y agoI don’t think that’s quite accurate. I live in an area where even people with tiny houses have a boat, and they don’t bring it out just once or twice in a summer. And once you need that pickup truck instead of a Prius, the King cab and leather is just a luxury upgrade like anything else. I see plenty of contractors, etc., around here with big shiny pickup trucks.
- 1234letshaveatw 4y agoOr you know, 4WD
- raverbashing 4y agoGiven the % of urban vs rural population of the US, yes (as expected) Doesn't justify the urbanites buying SUVs though
- rayiner 4y agoDon’t forget that the Census Bureau counts every town of 2,500 in the middle of farm country as an “urban area.” I’m in an “urban area” and I can drive to horse farms in 5 minutes.
- lupire 4y agoUrban Areas include both Urbanized Areas >50K and Urban Clusters 2.5K-50K US is 68% Urbanized, 21% Rural, and only 10% Urban Cluster. https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/geography/guidance/geo-areas/urban-rural/2010-urban-rural.html https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/geography/guidance/g... And of course those horse farms only demand a big truck if you are doing big work on the horse farm. If all you need is AWD you don't need a big truck.
- dumpsterlid 4y agoPickups are actually one of the worst vehicles imaginable in the snow. You have to throw a lot of weight in the rear to get traction, the wheelbase is long so that spinning out of control is far more likely and terrifying, trucks are super high off the ground so roll over risk is high (ESPECIALLY with lifted trucks) and worst of all extremely heavy vehicles like big trucks have a horrendous stopping distance in the snow which is by far and away the most important thing in the snow. If you want a vehicle that will handle moderately deep snow the best a subaru station wagon is probably the ideal shape, or at low speeds a shorter jeep wrangler if you are actually going off road.
- Retric 4y agoUnless you want to toss a snow plow on the front and actually deal with it. That’s the thing even in urban areas you will see pickup trucks cleaning parking lots etc.
- mrguyorama 4y agoEven where I grew up in northern maine, where everyone had two trucks, 10 feet of snow per winter was reliably expected, and everyone runs a farm, very few people would plow their own driveway. For personal driveways, people had cheap push snow blowers. For the roads, we had big plow trucks and literal construction equipment was used for large roads and parking lots. Very few people plow, because plowing is harder than snow blowing, more damaging to your lawn and driveway than snowblowing, and just all around less effective. And the few people who do actively plow their own driveway will either start a business to do other people's driveways (a common way for 16 year olds to make money in the winter) or just straight up plow neighbors driveway for free or payment. Even in this literal heaven for trucks, full of farmers, outdoor activities, mud, and construction, 8 out of 10 trucks were driveway queens.
- Retric 4y agoInteresting, where I grew up both snow and trucks where significantly less common, but that meant infrastructure to deal with it was also more adhock. Back then I would say around 1/3 to 1/4th of households in the area with large trucks had a snow plow, but I only knew one guy with a snowblower. Of course that also related to how long it took the state to deal with back roads after even a minor snow event.
- JoBrad 4y agoI live next to a few people who keep their $80,000 truck immaculate, and will never touch an unpaved field with it. The best trucks for driving in snow and mud are the trucks that actual farm hands drive, and are usually far less decked out, have mismatched paint schemes, and are covered in scratches and dirt. Completely their choice to make that purchase, obviously, but I’ve seen worse vehicle choices. However when my wife walks past one and the hood is over her head, knowing that this is possible because it’s exempt from regulation as a ”farm vehicle” seems like a corruption of government regulation. I don’t think we need to make people prove how they will be using a vehicle, so maybe we should just require different license classes based on vehicle’s current weight and/or height? Driving a 7,000 lb truck that is 6.5’ tall is not the same as driving a passenger car.
- kkielhofner 4y agoI live in a rural area where pickup trucks are used for farm tasks, hunting (deer season, coyote season is every day), construction, towing, etc at a much higher rate than you probably see across the US in average. Among the community of people that use their trucks for "real work" (whatever their definition of that may be) an immaculately kept truck like the one you're describing would be referred to as a "pavement princess".
- JasserInicide 4y agoOk, but most trucks sold today are indeed pavement princesses. For every one you see in the country doing work, there's 5 others being parked on tenth/quarter-acre lots in the cities/suburbs.
- kkielhofner 4y agoI'd say it's not even close. As another commenter noted pavement princesses are probably > 90% of trucks sold today.
- Retric 4y agoMy guess is it’s closer to 25%, once you consider people who use a snow plow, haul a boat/camper/trailer etc. Now sure many of these could be replaced with smaller trucks without extended cabs etc, but the choice of pickup truck was still useful.
- yencabulator 4y agoThe best-selling car brand in Norway is Tesla. Pickups are not good in snow, at all, and that you think so puts you in "that crowd" for sure.
- Retric 4y agoYet, many people also have pickup trucks in Norway specifically to deal with moving snow which is what I was referring to. You don’t need a high percentage of big trucks to do this, but it is utility you get from a truck you don’t get from a model 3.
- yencabulator 4y agoSure, regular sedans are no use for plowing private roads or parking lots. (Anything municipal gets plowed with larger trucks.) As you say, you don't need very many pickups for that. The fraction of American pickups that are used for snow plowing is pretty much irrelevant to this conversation.
- Sohcahtoa82 4y agoLet me guess, you've never heard of the term "Pavement princess". Yes, farmers use pickup trucks, and they're great for that purpose. Nobody is arguing or disagreeing with you on that point. Nobody is arguing against the purchasing of pickup trucks in the general sense. We're arguing against the purchase of a pickup truck as a daily driver. Something that will be used to commute and buy groceries.