American Trucks Are Pointlessly Killing People

[Ironhold]

I’ve driven hatchbacks for the last 20 years, so I’m familiar with what a cramped engine bay is like. But that sounds like a bogus excuse. How many of these guys driving big pickups are doing their own maintenance? Most of the car tinkerers I’ve known drive small cars like Subarus and Hondas.

Around here, the farmers, ranchers, and other people who have large trucks for job-related reasons do indeed try to fix their own vehicles first, and see going to a mechanic or other such facility as a last resort.

My dad is a certified master mechanic, and makes a point of pride to shade-tree as much as he can with our various vehicles. It took a *lot* for me to convince him that with my bad back I couldn't do certain repair jobs on my car by myself no matter how much he tried to "encourage" me. (For anyone asking, I've got a vertebrae that's so badly blown I shouldn't even be able to walk.)

 

[iluvatar5150]

Big trucks are necessary for people that have big jobs to do ... whether within a company ... or people with farms and/or acreages, pulling campers/5th wheels etc. They aren't risky .... incompetent drivers are risky ... and aren't always among drivers of trucks.

You didn’t read the article, did you?

 

[Trogdor the Burninator]

Of course, the inconvenient truth is that much of the rest of the world manages to get by just fine without American monster trucks. Tradespeople get to job sites with their tools in smaller utes or vans, people towing caravans, boats and horse floats do so just fine, and farmers go about their business in smaller trucks too or on quads and trail bikes.

 

[disciple Clint]

Does it have a spiked cow catcher and skull ornaments?

not yet

 

[Ironhold]

Of course, the inconvenient truth is that much of the rest of the world manages to get by just fine without American monster trucks. Tradespeople get to job sites with their tools in smaller utes or vans, people towing caravans, boats and horse floats do so just fine, and farmers go about their business in smaller trucks too or on quads and trail bikes.

(edit: switched it to thumbnail as it was stretching the page)

This is the floor plan for a fifth-wheel travel trailer, which is basically a house on wheels.

It's about 40 feet long, which for the sake of safety I'm bumping up to 13 meters. The fifth-wheel hitch would be up front there on the right, just past the fireplace and flat-screen TV mount.

Not only are there people who do in fact live in these things as if they were regular houses, they're often used as a "home on the road" for small families that travel. This has become an issue with COVID-19, as there's been a surge in the sales of RVs and travel trailers because a person can technically travel without leaving home, meaning they don't have to deal with hotel rooms and the like.

Not only is a vehicle going to need a lot of power to tow it, they'll need hard, solid brakes to stop it once it does get in motion.

 

[disciple Clint]

I think that's part of what the OP was telling us.

By and large, we should be able to agree that if the buyer wants that look, then it's probably all right for him to have it. On the other hand though, almost every "supertruck" that I see in my area is pointlessly noisy and going well over the speed limit. Why do you think that is?

Well I do not know, I do not live in your area as far as I know.

 

[Nithavela]

not yet

Keep chasing the dream.

 

[disciple Clint]

If society doesn't want people to have trucks that big then society can make the laws to regulate trucks that size out of existence. I hope they at least change the regulations so that new trucks must be smaller. It's pointless for more people to be getting hurt or killed just because someone wants a bigger truck purely for aesthetics. I take the pro-life stance on this issue.

Let me share with you what can be seen from those big trucks, people reading their email, people talking on the phone, people reading books and other publications, people eating with both hands off the wheel, people shaving, people putting on makeup and then there are things that are best not posted here. Distracted driving kills far more people than big pickup trucks.

 

[trunks2k]

Not only is a vehicle going to need a lot of power to tow it, they'll need hard, solid brakes to stop it once it does get in motion.

The argument is not "Nobody needs powerful vehicles with a large towing/hauling capacity". The argument is "Most people who have these big powerful vehicles don't actually need it and can do just fine with something smaller and less powerful.* For those that DO need something powerful, there's no reason the big powerful trucks have to be designed to the dimensions that they are; they can maintain their performance while being designed to be safer. There's very few cases where trucks like those are necessary".

It's like big huge SUVs that are driven entirely on normal city roads and just haul a couple kids. They aren't at all necessary, and in terms of practicality, I would bet something like a minivan is actually better. But people don't like the aesthetics of a minivan. Heck, I'd bet most people with kids would be fine 95% of the time with a station wagon or hatchback sedan.

*case in point: My father in law owns a steel fabricating business. He hauls a lot of heavy steel around. He owns a truck, but does just fine with one on the smaller end and he prefers the smaller dimensions of his previous decades old truck that had similar towing capacity, but he couldn't find something like that any more.

 

[Caliban]

They're too big, and the reason is aesthetics, not practicality, writes Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper likes pickup trucks. He drove an old F-150 as a youth in Colorado and a Toyota Hilux while in college. He just doesn't like modern pickups, and his column at the Week isn't one about personal taste. Cooper makes the case that today's pickups are way too big, for no good reason, and thus too risky for the road.

American Trucks Are Pointlessly Killing People

I am waiting for this. Rivian is making some awesome electric trucks.

 

[durangodawood]

if they are way too big it is for a very good reason, that is what buyers of trucks want.

Nice rationale for supporting anything that people want.

 

[ArmenianJohn]

Let me share with you what can be seen from those big trucks, people reading their email, people talking on the phone, people reading books and other publications, people eating with both hands off the wheel, people shaving, people putting on makeup and then there are things that are best not posted here.

Let me share with you what can be seen from the facts. Those people in the cars are not the ones raising pedestrian deaths, it's the people in the needlessly oversized pickup trucks. I mean, you're helping prove my point because you're saying that the drivers of appropriately sized vehicles can shave, eat, text, talk on the phone, read books, wear blindfolds, play video games, do their taxes, perform surgery, etc. while the attentive and focused drivers of the pickups are killing more people. It's definitely the vehicle, then.

Distracted driving kills far more people than big pickup trucks.

Proof? The article gave proof to the contrary. I'm not interested in your subjective speculation.

 

[Trogdor the Burninator]

This is the floor plan for a fifth-wheel travel trailer, which is basically a house on wheels.

It's about 40 feet long, which for the sake of safety I'm bumping up to 13 meters. The fifth-wheel hitch would be up front there on the right, just past the fireplace and flat-screen TV mount.

Not only are there people who do in fact live in these things as if they were regular houses, they're often used as a "home on the road" for small families that travel. This has become an issue with COVID-19, as there's been a surge in the sales of RVs and travel trailers because a person can technically travel without leaving home, meaning they don't have to deal with hotel rooms and the like.

Not only is a vehicle going to need a lot of power to tow it, they'll need hard, solid brakes to stop it once it does get in motion.

But again, this example just seems like using an outlier to justify a rule.

These huge trailers don't exist in most countries, because (i) they don't fit in most places, (ii) they are very hard to maneuver on narrow roads and (iii) they require a big expensive vehicle to tow them.

But of course, we have plenty of people who go on holidays, camping etc. with the vehicles that are available, without any issues. And even in the US, the vast majority of people will never own or use one of these things.

 

[wing2000]

I actually tried to respond to him on Twitter.

I live in Central Texas, where large trucks are quite common.

Contrary to his assertions, a lot of the people who buy large trucks do so for actually valid reasons. Some are work trucks, while others are used to haul trailers... especially RV travel trailers, particularly of the "fifth-wheel" variety, where the hitch assembly they use is more akin to the hitch assembly used by semi trucks (and, in fact, a semi-style hitch mounts in the bed of whatever pickup truck is hauling them).

The people who buy big beasties just to by a big beastie aren't as common as he'd think.

...oh I think the big beasties are common, particularly in suburban areas of America. It's easy to detect the pickups that are used for actual work or retirees pulling large RV trailers.

 

[Trogdor the Burninator]

...oh I think the big beasties are common, particularly in suburban areas of America. It's easy to detect the pickups that are used for actual work or retirees pulling large RV trailers.

Of the top 20 best-selling vehicles in the USA, places 1,2 and 3 are held by huge trucks. If you count the Toyota Tacoma and GM Sierra (which both place in the top 20 as well), that's more than 2.5 million sold, year on year. Add large SUVs and it's pushing 3 million. They're not all going to farmers.