How Much Weight Can A Pickup Truck Bed Hold?

Pickup trucks are practical and comfortable vehicles for good transportation and suburban life. They’re quite popular all over the world. However, pickup isn’t a common vehicle.

People live in cities, and there’s no place for civilian “trucks”, because they look much more harmonious on farms or are used for long hard journeys.

The most famous car manufacturers are engaged in the production of this cars class, or try at least. The rise of pickups began in the United States, and their history doesn’t still stop.

What pickup types are there?

There are 5 main types:

Passenger cars. Actually, it’s a pickup created on the basis of mass passenger cars. They’re more jeeps, than trucks.

Compact. The legendary Ford Ranger is a typical representative of this type. After mentioning this particular model, there is nothing more to add to explain.

Medium-sized. For a long time, cars of this type were an intermediate link between compact pickups and full-size ones. Now, compacts have caught up with mid-sized ones, and the latter, in fact, have ceased to exist as a type. Typical representatives, to understand, are the Chevrolet Colorado and Dodge Dakota.

Full-size. Serious dimensions characterize them: length – from 5 to 7 meters, width – more than 2 meters, spacious cabin and cargo part. Cars of this type are still produced in the USA by all those car manufacturers who stood at the origins of the pickup history. In terms of weight and dimensions, some pickups of this type are superior to small trucks.

Giants. Limited production vehicles for marketing purposes. Very serious dimensions and large weight – over 6 tons, characterize them.

American “King of the Roads” Ford F-650 is the largest pickup truck.

A bit of history…

As already noted, the first pickups appeared in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century. They were created by leading companies known and popular to this day: Ford, Chevrolet, Dodge.

These cars were based on passenger cars. And this’s the main argument to consider pickups as passenger cars. However, their main purpose is cargo transportation.

The first pickups are vehicles for farmers and builders. Harsh, utilitarian. Only by the 80s of the last century, pickups designed for young car enthusiasts began to appear. Young people have always been interested in motorsport, and pickup trucks became sports cars used for cross-country races.

How to choose a pickup truck?

The choice of a good pickup truck is carried out according to several criteria:

• Purpose. Most often, businessmen buy a car for transporting goods. But sometimes people go on them on extreme trips, fishing or hunting.
• Cost. It always depends on your own views and readiness to spend much money.
• Drive Type. For transporting heavy loads, off-road driving, it is better to buy all-wheel drive models. Cheaper rear-wheel drive vehicles are suitable for mixed mode operation.
• Carrying capacity. The more cargo a car can carry, the more convenient it is for the owner.
• Covering the cargo compartment. The most affordable protection against external influences is a rubberized awning. Expensive pickup models are equipped with a rigid metal canopy.
• Design features. Structurally, pickups can be assembled on aggregates of off-road vehicles or cars. The first ones have a large cross-country ability and carrying capacity. The second are more comfortable, cost less and are more economical.

Body features

A distinctive feature of any pickup truck from all other types of vehicles is the open cargo box behind the cab, called a truck bed. By the way, the body length of full-sized and compact pickups is about the same, but the width differs, on average, by 15 cm.

The standard American pickup truck has a body length from 6″ to 7″ (1828 – 2136 mm), called Regular or Standard Bed. For those under 6″, the Long Bed is usually about 8″ long (2438 mm) and is generally considered the standard choice for work machines.

All modern American pickup trucks have bodies with wheel arches located inside the cargo part. According to Ford tradition, this body type is sometimes called Fleetside. But earlier, and this is true even for models from the 2000s, a design called Flareside or Stepside with flat inner sides was used.

Carrying capacity of the body of different pickup models