I guess in other climates it’s different, but over here people get vans for that. Can I interest you in the concept of “what if your pickup truck had a roof and also wasn’t grotesquely oversized?”
Although, I’m looking at this year’s Renault Trafic and that front is actually starting to get concerning, tbh.
I have a minivan currently and they’re so practical for the average American. Hauling stuff? Put the seats down, and your “bed” is longer than almost any pickup’s, plus it’s protected from the elements. Hauling people? Seats go up, and it will fit seven people. Even though you sit high up the grill is angled downward, meaning better visibility AND in a crash will throw the victim over the car rather than under (way better likelihood for survival). They also tend to get decent mileage compared to trucks. Hell they even make for a great camping vehicle: no tent needed, just throw a sleeping pad in the back with the seats down and call it a night. It’s such a shame that they were branded as soccer mom vehicles, because a lot of folks buying trucks for their “practicality” would be better served with a minivan.
However! They are not good for: carrying loose gravel/soil/mulch/manure, transporting livestock, traveling on 4WD roads and other rough terrain, hauling a trailer, or moving stuff that’s tall but cannot be tipped on its side. The carrying/hauling capacity is really low, the ground clearance minimal, and the carpet-like interior gets dirty really easily. These are not tasks that the average customer is going to undertake often, and I’ve creatively worked around many of these limitations in the past for one-off instances, but it’s definitely not an everyday-use farm vehicle.
Refer to the video I posted above. The first comment mentioning those things seemed a bit confusing at first, but I’m starting to think maybe Americans don’t have a notion of what a work van looks like? That’s… a thing I learned today.
I know what a work van is, but I only have minimal experience with them so instead I critiqued my extensive experience with minivans vs pickups. A work van could address some, but not all, of the issues I outlined. The bigger issue is that it’s still a MUCH larger vehicle than I want or need. I’d rather a small pickup and a detachable trailer for when I’ve especially large jobs to handle. I’d even consider importing a kei truck if they were A) road legal and B) available in automatic.
Ah, gotcha. I was confused because whenever the point of pickups comes up people keep bringing up having to use them for work, and in my mind that’s what vans are for. I’ve been taken to school in a van before, but that’s not the point of them.
I think over here people would instead get a hatchback and a van if they had to do both things. That’d probably cost the same amount of money and be more practical. And you’d have two cars by the end of it.
Oh, and there definitely are work vans sized like minivans. That’s the entire point of the Kangoo, as far as I can tell. It’s basically a minivan you can choose to get with or without seats.
EDIT: Oh, hey, apparently you CAN buy a Kangoo with a closed cabin, too. I said earlier that you couldn’t.
The Trafic in particular has a separated cabin and the floor of that thing is pretty much one layer of sheet metal between the wheels. You’re good on both counts.
It does smell… eh… agricultural inside one of those after a while, of course. It’s kinda nostalgic for me at this point.
For the really nasty stuff people here just get a trolley to hook up to a jeep or a tractor and a bit of patience. Or, you know, sealed containers. Trust me, people do haul a lot of smelly stuff and I haven’t seen anybody who owns an open bed pickup truck in my life. I know more people who moved stuff around with oxen than with pickup trucks. It works.
Wouldn’t be able to pick up chem in it, and you’re welcome to throw a dead, half-eaten calf in your van, but I’d rather throw it in my truck bed and hose the contents of the intestines out later.
Like I said, for the really nasty, loose stuff people would just throw an open bed trolley in the back of a different vehicle and do it that way.
I don’t know what you carry, but I’m pretty sure you can do both of those things in a van if you have to. At most you may want to put a tarp underneath first. And you can hose it later. Again, I don’t think Americans are picturing what the back of a work van looks like or how it gets used. If you fully open the back and side doors at once you actually get direct access to more of the floor than you do in a pickup bed.
I guess in other climates it’s different, but over here people get vans for that. Can I interest you in the concept of “what if your pickup truck had a roof and also wasn’t grotesquely oversized?”
Although, I’m looking at this year’s Renault Trafic and that front is actually starting to get concerning, tbh.
I have a minivan currently and they’re so practical for the average American. Hauling stuff? Put the seats down, and your “bed” is longer than almost any pickup’s, plus it’s protected from the elements. Hauling people? Seats go up, and it will fit seven people. Even though you sit high up the grill is angled downward, meaning better visibility AND in a crash will throw the victim over the car rather than under (way better likelihood for survival). They also tend to get decent mileage compared to trucks. Hell they even make for a great camping vehicle: no tent needed, just throw a sleeping pad in the back with the seats down and call it a night. It’s such a shame that they were branded as soccer mom vehicles, because a lot of folks buying trucks for their “practicality” would be better served with a minivan.
However! They are not good for: carrying loose gravel/soil/mulch/manure, transporting livestock, traveling on 4WD roads and other rough terrain, hauling a trailer, or moving stuff that’s tall but cannot be tipped on its side. The carrying/hauling capacity is really low, the ground clearance minimal, and the carpet-like interior gets dirty really easily. These are not tasks that the average customer is going to undertake often, and I’ve creatively worked around many of these limitations in the past for one-off instances, but it’s definitely not an everyday-use farm vehicle.
A work van is not a minivan.
Refer to the video I posted above. The first comment mentioning those things seemed a bit confusing at first, but I’m starting to think maybe Americans don’t have a notion of what a work van looks like? That’s… a thing I learned today.
I know what a work van is, but I only have minimal experience with them so instead I critiqued my extensive experience with minivans vs pickups. A work van could address some, but not all, of the issues I outlined. The bigger issue is that it’s still a MUCH larger vehicle than I want or need. I’d rather a small pickup and a detachable trailer for when I’ve especially large jobs to handle. I’d even consider importing a kei truck if they were A) road legal and B) available in automatic.
Ah, gotcha. I was confused because whenever the point of pickups comes up people keep bringing up having to use them for work, and in my mind that’s what vans are for. I’ve been taken to school in a van before, but that’s not the point of them.
I think over here people would instead get a hatchback and a van if they had to do both things. That’d probably cost the same amount of money and be more practical. And you’d have two cars by the end of it.
Oh, and there definitely are work vans sized like minivans. That’s the entire point of the Kangoo, as far as I can tell. It’s basically a minivan you can choose to get with or without seats.
EDIT: Oh, hey, apparently you CAN buy a Kangoo with a closed cabin, too. I said earlier that you couldn’t.
Plenty of agricultural stuff you don’t want to share a roof with. And you want a hard bed that you can hose off.
The Trafic in particular has a separated cabin and the floor of that thing is pretty much one layer of sheet metal between the wheels. You’re good on both counts.
It does smell… eh… agricultural inside one of those after a while, of course. It’s kinda nostalgic for me at this point.
For the really nasty stuff people here just get a trolley to hook up to a jeep or a tractor and a bit of patience. Or, you know, sealed containers. Trust me, people do haul a lot of smelly stuff and I haven’t seen anybody who owns an open bed pickup truck in my life. I know more people who moved stuff around with oxen than with pickup trucks. It works.
Wouldn’t be able to pick up chem in it, and you’re welcome to throw a dead, half-eaten calf in your van, but I’d rather throw it in my truck bed and hose the contents of the intestines out later.
Like I said, for the really nasty, loose stuff people would just throw an open bed trolley in the back of a different vehicle and do it that way.
I don’t know what you carry, but I’m pretty sure you can do both of those things in a van if you have to. At most you may want to put a tarp underneath first. And you can hose it later. Again, I don’t think Americans are picturing what the back of a work van looks like or how it gets used. If you fully open the back and side doors at once you actually get direct access to more of the floor than you do in a pickup bed.
Sure but you could do that with a regular-sized truck too.