Why not put a spare car in it?

I watched a guy load bags of soil from the hardware store into the back seats of the crew cab while he had an empty bed. The bed would have been easier to load and could easily be hosed down if a bag leaked. I guess he forgot it was also a truck and not just a luxury commuter car.

Iiiiiidiot tax! $99,99 for 2 hour course where people tell you "You see that hood? Yeah, you hit someone with it, that person is GONE".

This line of work basically put me in the position that is the subject of commercials that try to convince suburban dads that they need a huge truck in case one day their family goes on a fictional camping trip to the middle of a swamp.

This is so on point.

So many defenders go, "It helped when I had to haul shit to the dump" or "I bring wood back to build my shed".

What about the other 95% of the year? Because I rent a van to move shit and I'm happy taking the bus.

Not to mention they don't even fucking fit in off-road situations half the time. Unless you're in a wide open field or have giant cleared roads (in which case why do you need an ultimate off-road machineTM), most off-road situations in the eastern US are going to involve trees. Try driving around trees in that thing and you'll be stuck in a matter of minutes.

For all the actual off road work I've done, the best vehicle has always been those little utility off-road vehicles (we call them mules or gators but I'm sure they have a real name) or just a regular-sized pickup truck with 4 wheel drive and low gears.

I once asked a friend with a truck to help me pickup a BBQ. When attempting to load it he got so worried about us scratching the truck bed that eventually we couldn't proceed. Called another buddy with a minivan, we put a moving blanket down and off we went. No whining, just work.

Some of those curbs may also be kids, but who can tell.

Pavement princess

There is also the factor of danger and safety. People are observing more gigantic cars on the road and being in a smaller one makes them feel unsafe. So they get a bigger one when they get a new car, perpetuating the problem.

What about a bear, though?

This picture is from Australia. We don't have many, they're becoming more common but ones that are lifted like that are less common. In my area it's mainly normal rams. Which are far bigger than normal aussie cars.

Visited upstate NY a couple of years ago. They accounted for I'd say 30-40% of all traffic. Of course, upstate NY is basically the southern US of the northern US if you know what I mean.

I hate how much they are spreading for no reason. We have rather small parking lots, especially in denser areas and underground parkings. Some 20 years ago that was never a problem at all. Now people take forever to park their shitty cars. People have to get out before they park, so they just stand in the way. Many use 2 parking spots because their fat asses can't get out of their fat cars, or they just can't drive in general and decided they need the biggest car they can afford to get groceries.

These guys are always parked in two compact spots and then complain that the spots are too small. And they never get towed.

people keep saying that they have uses as work trucks and i'm not sure i believe them because they made smaller trucks in the 90s and 80s and those trucks were still for work?

I mean i've seen one of these things towing 5 fucking cars. I can't think of the last time i had to load up 5 cars on a shipping trailer and then ship them on my fucking daily driver. Honestly i didn't even think that was possible, but apparently it is, and i have no idea why people own these things as daily drivers now.

to be clear, my issue here is that saying they have uses is underselling the problem. You can hire a semi with a flatbed to ship a bag of sand. But that's fucking stupid.

American "I got mine" mentality at its finest. Too much lead poisoning (my leading hypothesis. You don't elect someone like Trump unless there is something seriously wrong) to realise it's a race to the bottom. When enough people do something at the expense of others, what a surprise when others also do it at the expense of you, and it all turns to shit.

It's this absurd country of "Christian" values, except not the part of caring for others, "fuck that socialism hippie shit, except for Russia, which is cool now because they meddle in our elections... Or, they meddle in favour of my team! We need to do something about the socio-economic situation! What, unions? No fuck that Marxist shit you commie!"

Etc. It's all just too dumb. Hence, lead poisoning hypothesis.

you know it's funny, they made crewcab long beds in the 80s and 90s. They were just long and looked a little goofy, had normal proportions otherwise, these have been vertically stretched and widened to compensate for the absolutely bizarre form factor that they ship in. i genuinely have no idea what they're doing with the front suspension to require the hood to be that high off of the ground. A fucking hummer has more ground clearance with a lower hood.

There is almost no reason for a truck like this to exist, especially when you consider it's interior is "luxury"

That's not a RAM, that's a newer Silverado. GM is basically the king of massive cars at this point, everything they make is fucking massive