3 ms·

if you look back at the development of the Honda Ridgeline, the 1st gen had this weird bed structure where it was sloped. Structurally and aerodynamically this

if you look back at the development of the Honda Ridgeline, the 1st gen had this weird bed structure where it was sloped. Structurally and aerodynamically this is great. From a functional standpoint it makes it difficult if not impossible to load and unload from the sides of the bed. They 2nd generation uses a more traditional bed design. I suspect the cybertruck will wind up with a similar makeover

ahahahahah 3y ago
> I suspect the cybertruck will wind up with a similar makeover They haven't been able to redesign or even facelift the 11 year old Model S. You may be right, but it'll be a while.
bryanlarsen 3y ago
I'm over 6 feet tall with unnaturally long arms, and I find it hard to load and unload a 2021 Silverado from the sides since trucks are so much higher today than they used to be.
- gottorf 3y ago
  Yeah, modern half-tons have gotten ridiculously tall. You have to be a giant to actually use the bed for loading things, since the floor of the bed is up to your chest these days. An actual work truck would look like this: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/00_hyundai_porter_3.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/00_hyund...
  - rented_mule 3y ago
    Yes! My wife and I live in a rural mountain area in California. We only have one car, and it's a car because that is what is most practical for 95% of what we do. I'd love to have a kei truck for a second vehicle. Mainly for little runs to the lumber yard or to the local green waste disposal site after clearing our property to reduce our exposure to wildfires. And it's small enough to be out of the way when not in use. The one pictured in your link has 3 tail gates (back and two sides) that can be opened to make it a flat bed when needed. It won't haul multiple tons, but I never need to do that. Alas, they are very hard or impossible to register in many US states, including California.
    - gottorf 3y ago
      I'm not sure how small you need it to be, but if you took an older regular cab half-ton with the shorter wheelbase (6' instead of 8' bed) and replaced the bed with one of those fold-down-side beds, it'll be relatively compact. Or you could just rent a mule ;-)
- digging 3y ago
  Typical American pickups aren't any more functional than Cybertrucks today. They may have the right bed shape but they're scaled up to look cool and own libs so that, as you say, they're impractical to load.
  - bmelton 3y ago
    > they're scaled up to look cool and own libs Somewhat ironically, they're as big as they are because of the libs ... or at least because of Obama's modifications to the standards regulating vehicles through the use of the CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) program. The TLDR is that fuel economy standards are now based on the footprint of a vehicle, which was designed to encourage the production of more, smaller vehicles overall, but which resulted in the unintended consequences of it being easier to make the truck bigger than to make it more fuel efficient. Folks were warning that the standards would likely result in American cars getting "between 2 and 32 percent bigger[1]" years before, but it seems those warnings went unheeded. [1] - https://me.engin.umich.edu/news-events/news/cafe-standards-could-mean-bigger-cars-not-smaller-ones/ https://me.engin.umich.edu/news-events/news/cafe-standards-c...
    - bryanlarsen 3y ago
      We're complaining about the height of the vehicle. The footprint doesn't include height.
      - gottorf 3y ago
        Well, I suppose they're related. A pancake truck with a big footprint but short sides might look weird.
      - bmelton 3y ago
        Breakover and departure angles for work vehicles are practical considerations when taking vehicles off of pavement even if you aren't trying to cross the rubicon, and those angles are determined by heights relative to lengths so as one scales up, so too do the others. This is similar to how boats get bigger in every dimension as they grow in length -- you don't just make a boat longer without also scaling up its width and cabin volumes.
- mcv 3y ago
  Some modern pickup trucks are so huge that I think practical considerations have been abandoned some time ago.

ahahahahah 3y ago

> I suspect the cybertruck will wind up with a similar makeover They haven't been able to redesign or even facelift the 11 year old Model S. You may be right, but it'll be a while.

bryanlarsen 3y ago

I'm over 6 feet tall with unnaturally long arms, and I find it hard to load and unload a 2021 Silverado from the sides since trucks are so much higher today than they used to be.

gottorf 3y ago
Yeah, modern half-tons have gotten ridiculously tall. You have to be a giant to actually use the bed for loading things, since the floor of the bed is up to your chest these days. An actual work truck would look like this: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/00_hyundai_porter_3.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/00_hyund...
- rented_mule 3y ago
  Yes! My wife and I live in a rural mountain area in California. We only have one car, and it's a car because that is what is most practical for 95% of what we do. I'd love to have a kei truck for a second vehicle. Mainly for little runs to the lumber yard or to the local green waste disposal site after clearing our property to reduce our exposure to wildfires. And it's small enough to be out of the way when not in use. The one pictured in your link has 3 tail gates (back and two sides) that can be opened to make it a flat bed when needed. It won't haul multiple tons, but I never need to do that. Alas, they are very hard or impossible to register in many US states, including California.
  - gottorf 3y ago
    I'm not sure how small you need it to be, but if you took an older regular cab half-ton with the shorter wheelbase (6' instead of 8' bed) and replaced the bed with one of those fold-down-side beds, it'll be relatively compact. Or you could just rent a mule ;-)
digging 3y ago
Typical American pickups aren't any more functional than Cybertrucks today. They may have the right bed shape but they're scaled up to look cool and own libs so that, as you say, they're impractical to load.
- bmelton 3y ago
  > they're scaled up to look cool and own libs Somewhat ironically, they're as big as they are because of the libs ... or at least because of Obama's modifications to the standards regulating vehicles through the use of the CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) program. The TLDR is that fuel economy standards are now based on the footprint of a vehicle, which was designed to encourage the production of more, smaller vehicles overall, but which resulted in the unintended consequences of it being easier to make the truck bigger than to make it more fuel efficient. Folks were warning that the standards would likely result in American cars getting "between 2 and 32 percent bigger[1]" years before, but it seems those warnings went unheeded. [1] - https://me.engin.umich.edu/news-events/news/cafe-standards-could-mean-bigger-cars-not-smaller-ones/ https://me.engin.umich.edu/news-events/news/cafe-standards-c...
  - bryanlarsen 3y ago
    We're complaining about the height of the vehicle. The footprint doesn't include height.
    - gottorf 3y ago
      Well, I suppose they're related. A pancake truck with a big footprint but short sides might look weird.
    - bmelton 3y ago
      Breakover and departure angles for work vehicles are practical considerations when taking vehicles off of pavement even if you aren't trying to cross the rubicon, and those angles are determined by heights relative to lengths so as one scales up, so too do the others. This is similar to how boats get bigger in every dimension as they grow in length -- you don't just make a boat longer without also scaling up its width and cabin volumes.
mcv 3y ago
Some modern pickup trucks are so huge that I think practical considerations have been abandoned some time ago.