Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Is Ford About to Build the Greatest Truck of Our Generation?

Around here it is a real oddity to see a paddock vehicle in petrol, there are a few soft-roaders that the townies use, as well as most cars.

Diesel pretty much has the market for work vehicles here.

For our American friends 1Kg = 2.2lb, so the Gross Breaked Trailer weight on the Land Cruiser is around 7700lb and 180L tank is around 45 US gallons..

Yeah, I'd say 'little' applies quite well..

Compare to the F-350: Weighs 8600 wet, GVW of 13,000# and is rated to pull 22,500#.. Oh, and it holds 38 gallons of fuel..

That Toyota is cute though..

If trucks/autos ran on water, we'd pay the same as fuel. Natural gas eventually will not be any cheaper than fuel. We seen this same scenario w/diesel fuel.

When I put diesels in my 31 Bertram charter boat many years ago, my buddies were buying bulk, off road diesel for refueling from their dockside tanks for under $.50/gallon. By the time I bought my first diesel Dodge 3/4 pickup a couple of years later, diesel was still a tiny bit cheaper than gasoline, but economy and longevity were much better. At my second diesel truck purchase, diesel fuel was quite a bit more costly than regular gasoline. Therefore, it is MY fault that diesel costs more! Me and all the other guys who bought diesel trucks and drove the DEMAND up, as the pump fuel cost has less to do with oil supplies or refining costs, but more what the market will bear. I would expect the same thing to happen with Natural Gas if it becomes popular as a vehicle fuel.

Propane was fairly popular for farm and commercial vehicles in Texas many years ago, using easily converted gasoline engines. It was cheaper, mileage was better, and the engines lated longer. As has been mentioned, the power from the same engine was much less than with gasoline or diesel, and a larger tank was required to carry enough to run very long. Propane is no longer that inexpensive, as rural residents who use it in their homes know.

We should also remember that LPG (liquified petroleum gas, such as butane and propane) and LNG (liquified natural gas) are not the same thing. The process used to compress both are similar, but LPG is a refining by-product, natural gas is a drilling product. Also, oil companies are unlikely to be "against" LNG, and certainly wouldn't be buying it from utility companies, because they produce both LPG and LNG, and sell it to the utility companies!

I dont have time too look at the numbers, but if memory serves me correct, that cute little Toyota would rate just below a half ton pickup here. Perfect for your weekender crowd that pulls a bushel of leaves to the dump once a year and a jet ski to the lake twice. Some creative marketing and you would have a good seller with the wannabe truck owner crowd (of which we have a lot of these days).

I love my F250.

Not sure how your ratings work eactly, but the Land Cruiser is a heavier duty beasty than say the Hilux or Tundra. I would consider those "recreational vehicles" where as the Land Cruiser is definately a commercial vehicle, if that makes sense.

Land Cruiser's of one sort or another are pretty much the vehicle of choice for the various NGO's, the UN and other such agency's when they need a tough vehicle for the Third World..Nissan Patrols are also somewhat popular, but are generally not considered as good a vehicle as the Land Cruiser..

Not sure about the Ford pick-ups, but I get the impression you don't tend to see them much outside the US? Are they exported in any great numbers?

Regards,

Peter

The thing is American trucks are built for use on paved roads, I doubt 10% of them ever make it off pavement and then only occasionally.

If you go to parts of the world where trucks may never see pavement, the Toyota Landcruiser and Hilux is the truck of choice.

I've driven Fords in the oil fields where they live their lives on gravel roads and they are shook loose by 80k on the odometer.

I would give it try. A major stumbling block to keeping a truck long term here is that they rust apart in less than ten years.

My Toyota is UAW made in Texas... And will be running when that POS ford has rattled itself apart.

CNG is about the best short term alternative there is, until something else becomes viable. That will take decades, minimum. Gotta start very slow near larger metro areas & let demand slowly spread out the infrastructure, as consumers, or lack of, allows/prohibits. Keep any .gov mandates out of it & let the market decide. Choices are good.

Already been built. . . . . called a "Tundra"

and your mini-van.

We actually use our F350's quite a bit off pavement, pulling horse trailers and hauling round bales. No doubt the Toyota would be a better off-road pickup if you weren't pulling or hauling.

I have yet to see a Toyota that could lug 5-6 horses and a 20' gooseneck up some rutted up cow trail that passes for a road.

Most people have a 'heavy' work pickup and use an ATV of some kind for bombing around off-road.


You are correct on one thing, 100k miles is about the max before the pickup needs to be replaced.

Quite a bit of difference between farm 100K and road 100K, but you know that. I don't imagine there is a rig around that won't rattle after 80-100K of farm and logging road use.

Absolutely..

The farmer I work part-time for had a Chev PU for about ten years - and it went through hell on the farm.. But it couldn't pull anything much heavier than a bale wagon. It's still there, but they bought an F-250 (gas) to use as another farm truck. And that one's going through hell too - but it's (so far) still pretty tight compared to the Chev.. IMHO, farmers are among the hardest users of any pickup truck..

It's all relative - one way or the other; each has it's strong points and weak points.. But I'd love to see some Toyota pull this: (41', 18K GTW and 3700# on the pin)




But to the OP's original post - Maybe the aluminum bit would work - but it's not something I'm going to try first...

You remind me of the idiots around here that drive a Harley because it's "American Iron" and at the same time degrade the Japanese bikes because they aren't American iron. Then the big, bad Harley rider jumps into their Japanese POS car/truck and bitches about American made cars/trucks.

A Jap "truck" is still a Jap "truck" no matter where it's built, or who builds it. To think otherwise is just plain foolishness.

BTW, your little POS toyota can't begin to work like a Super Duty. So go to the mall, ride around the parking lot and tell everyone about your big off road shopping adventures.

So an American truck is an American truck even if it's mostly assebled from parts from Canada and Mexico?

Serious question here, but do theses big Fords still have low ratio gear boxes? Are they permanent 4x4 or selectable 4x4?