Is a crew cab pickup your dream off-road vehicle?

I prefer to use the huge 4x4 pickup truck with glossy paint and a fancy interior to haul my 'dream off-road vehicles', then send them without a care.

David S. Wallens said:

That’s quite a rig you got there, said the lot attendant when pulling up to the Greek restaurant, let me find a spot for you.

He had me back into the loading zone.

This answered the first question that popped into my mind when reading: how do you park that thing?

Full size trucks are not my thing, but I get they have (extreme) utility and a lot of people like them.  I just never understand how they park.

Although I see them a lot on the road, when I look around in the grocery store parking lot I rarely see any.

I discovered that my GMC Yucon is smaller than my GL450.  By almost a foot.  Only noticed it when I had them parked next to each other.  
 

I have multiple bigger vehicles and what makes them parking lot friendly is the turning radius.  Light steering and a tight turning radius makes parking easy. Length of vehicle really does not matter that much. 
 

Another thing of note most mid size sedans are about the same size as an suv. My CLS550 is about the same footprint as the yukon.  And it is on an E class chassis.   Another thing is width makes things harder to drive than length.   A very wide vehicle needs a lot more attention to drive. 
 

No one would say a thing about my CLS being to big but I am sure people judge me for my Yukon.  I laugh at them for being uninformed and narrow minded overly judgmental people.  I don't judge you for driving a Fit or a Mini. I actually want a mini. 
 

Then there is the G Wagon.  Extremely polarizing vehicle. It is the worst Mercedes I own but at the same time it is the best Jeep I have ever owned.  It has a presence. But it is not big. It is smaller than the Yukon. It is smaller than my CLS.  But in a vacuum it looks like a big vehicle.  I have a love hate thing with that vehicle.  Lol.    
 

I actually think people get mad that I have a nice vehical and they don't.  If you life situation prohibits you from having something someone else has being judgmental and degrading towards them is just an attempt at creating equality by degrading them. I find that sad.  

TravisTheHuman said:

David S. Wallens said:

That’s quite a rig you got there, said the lot attendant when pulling up to the Greek restaurant, let me find a spot for you.

He had me back into the loading zone.

This answered the first question that popped into my mind when reading: how do you park that thing?

Full size trucks are not my thing, but I get they have (extreme) utility and a lot of people like them.  I just never understand how they park.

Although I see them a lot on the road, when I look around in the grocery store parking lot I rarely see any.

My 2500 is easy to drive around my small western ranch support town because it is one of many. Denver, it gets a bit tight. Ottawa, it was downright claustrophobic.

My "crew cab" holds 12 people or room for 12-foot lumber, has dry, lockable storage space, and doubles as a camper

... so, a crew cab truck is not my dream off-roader, but I wouldn't turn one down.

dean1484 said:

Another thing of note most mid size sedans are about the same size as an suv. My CLS550 is about the same footprint as the yukon.  And it is on an E class chassis.   Another thing is width makes things harder to drive than length.   A very wide vehicle needs a lot more attention to drive. 

When we first met my wife said she didn't like driving my XJ because it's so big. Her MK6 Jetta is longer and wider. So I guess it's actually the height that she doesn't like. 

buzzboy said:

dean1484 said:

Another thing of note most mid size sedans are about the same size as an suv. My CLS550 is about the same footprint as the yukon.  And it is on an E class chassis.   Another thing is width makes things harder to drive than length.   A very wide vehicle needs a lot more attention to drive. 

When we first met my wife said she didn't like driving my XJ because it's so big. Her MK6 Jetta is longer and wider. So I guess it's actually the height that she doesn't like. 

This is why it doesn't surprise me that CUVs are so popular.  I know the wagon crowd* is always saying "GET A WAGON NOT AN SUV", but a CUV can be built to much more urban/suburban friendly dimensions than a wagon can while offering similar interior volume

*I love wagons

 

I've had a few trucks at the same time as my 4Runner. I still have my 4Runner, and the trucks are gone. That said, the GMT800 standard cab regular bed Z71 was pretty excellent overall. I should've kept it, added a side step for my wife and just made it into a beach camper. 

My biggest pet peeve is finding a modern, mid-sized truck that *is* a standard cab with at least a 6' bed. 

Ok, how about the one I saw at the FLAPS yesterday? Diesel, reliable, etc. not available in the US market, though.

In reply to Msterbee :

How else am I supposed to get a polar bear carcass home? They won't let me bring that on the train. 

Last summer I road tripped up from Ft Worth to Durango in my 176" wheelbase F350, and got my first taste of off road trails. Nothing super strenuous, but I got several comments from guys doing the same trails as me in build side by sides being impressed because they had the same truck sitting in the parking lot.

Animas Forks and Cinnamon Pass was the most I got into, switchbacks all turned into 3 point turns

Loved off roading, and will never do it again in this truck. One day I'll build something dedicated and haul it there with the 350 instead like everyone else

I just asked my son this morning, so how's your new truck?

It's not good on gas, is all he said

Msterbee said:

How about people stop driving vehicles that use up an inordinate amount of the earth's resources for no reason other than vanity.

Sport cars and minivans?

I'm going to come at this with the "The price of full size pickups is too damn high!" angle. Trucks have their purpose in the world, and I'm not going to judge what people buy with their money, but it's out of hand.

Last I checked, the Trail Boss package was basically a base model 4x4 with a few off-roady doo-dads bolted onto it, like slightly more knobby tires and a skid plate. And somehow that's $72,000+? Insane. Even the base model ones are stupid now. For example...

Back in 2020, my FIL bought a brand new Silverado W/T base model 2wd with the 8ft bed in fleet white. It is so base, it has crank windows, which were apparently still a thing in 2020 (and still are). He was a contractor, and he used trucks as tools on the job site, so getting something fancy was not worth it since it was going to get insta-trashed. He paid about $25k OTD with taxes for his. The same truck now, in the same model generation, is $40k+ OTD. Only difference is you get the 2.7L turbo 4 instead of the LS-based V6. It has almost DOUBLED in price in 5 years with virtually no improvement of the product. I know inflation has been a thing, but that price has outpaced inflation by quite a bit. 

EDIT: So I think I answered my own question about the Trail Boss package. There are apparently two flavors: the Custom Trail Boss and the LT Trail Boss. The one GRM tested is the latter, which is basically the skid plates/knobbies on the more luxe LT trim. That explains the bigger V8, all the cameras, etc. The Custom Trail Boss can be had in the low $50k range, which is still an absurd amount for a truck, but relative to what they cost these days, I guess.

TheTallOne17 said:

Last summer I road tripped up from Ft Worth to Durango in my 176" wheelbase F350, and got my first taste of off road trails. Nothing super strenuous, but I got several comments from guys doing the same trails as me in build side by sides being impressed because they had the same truck sitting in the parking lot.

Animas Forks and Cinnamon Pass was the most I got into, switchbacks all turned into 3 point turns

Loved off roading, and will never do it again in this truck. One day I'll build something dedicated and haul it there with the 350 instead like everyone else

This is above Animas Forks, near Mineral Point :) 

And another pic of Cinnamon, just because I have it handy and it's a pretty trail above the treeline.

There's a lot to be said for off-roading in a vehicle you can drive to the trails. It gets rid of a whole bunch of overhead and hassle, like towing a race car vs tracking a streetable car. Just like the track car, it also means you need to take a little more care with your rig and it may not be as optimized for off-road/track use as a streetable version. For me, since trail drives tend to be "drive from home to Moab/Ouray/whatever, wheel, drive home" in a day, that decreased hassle is worth it. It also means I don't have to worry about plotting a route that will take me back to the trailer without using a piece of highway - such as starting the Alpine Loop in Ouray and coming out in Silverton.

In reply to Msterbee :

You have zero ability to know what else people might use their trucks for, just because you typically happen to see them when they're commuting in it. For a large percentage of modern truck drivers, owning just one reasonably efficient vehicle that reasonably meets all of their ('little else') needs and commuting in it too, is in fact the 'reasonably environmentally conscious' decision.

Just go back and look at the graphic that I had ninja edited into my previous post. Unless you can point me to where you rage equivalently against all the multitude (millions) of other car, minivan, and CUV/SUV commuters getting similar or worse economy, applying your self-righteous indignation only towards the most visibly obvious subset is disingenuous and misguided-at-best. 

So berkeley those base (V6) Charger drivers for wasting an 'inordinate amount of the Earth's resources for no reason other than vanity'! 

I'm going with yes. 

I started my off-road exploring career in the best little off-road vehicle built, the Suzuki Samurai. Mine was a tin top with 33" tires, 6" lift, gears, 1.6 swap, lockers, and only 2200 pounds. It had all the off-road chops. The winch on the front was a waste of weight, it never got stuck. Not once. 

It worked perfectly around home, but as new places to explore got farther from the house I realized how awful a lifted Samurai is to spend days in. I flat towed it a few times behind my F350 but that was always a pain because I never come out of the woods at the same place I go in. I wasn't interested in extreme mudding or rock crawling, I just wanted to go places and see things without having to turn around at every slick spot in the road. So I modified it to make it a better on-road vehicle without killing the off-road capability. Gone were the huge mud tires, the tall gearing, the lockers, and the lift. It was 100% better...

But as the new places to explore got even farther away, the Samurai started to lose its appeal again. The interstate was right out of the question. 70 mph meant listening to the 1.6 scream at 4500 rpms and it had all the crumple zones of a beer can. 

So enter off-road rig number 2. The XJ. What an outstanding machine. Super capable off-road. I had learned my lesson about the huge mud tires and the lift so the XJ stayed low and on 32" tires. I did a regear to help it pull the tires. It also received a rear locker and front LSD. The winch was only used to pull out other people. It worked perfectly and stayed around for quite a few years. I did 90% of the South Carolina Adventure route in it and only had to take one detour when the road disappeared into a bottomless pit. 

But even the XJ isn't a lot of fun when you put it on the interstate for 6-8 hours because there is a road in the mountains you want to travel. There is surprisingly little room behind the back seat which made packing for camping a challenge if you needed the back seat open for passengers. So I passed it on to my middle son and bought...

You guessed it, a 4 door pickup. Granted it's not a huge one, nor was it $70k+. But it did come with a factory electronic locker in the front and rear diff, as well as 4:56 axle gears and 4:1 transfer case gear. It has a much stiffer frame than any truck I've driven so it doesn't flop like a noodle over every bump or washboard. The fenders will swallow 35" tires with no lift and no rubbing. It is surprisingly capable of off-road in OEM form.  Every bit as good as the XJ was and more useable for my style of exploring. The bed gives me enough room to haul a comfortable camp set up and I can still stick a couple of grandkids in the back seat. It is larger than the XJ at 213" long and 75" wide, but not enough to be noticeable. Don't get me wrong, I liked the XJ, but the H3T is better for me in every way. 

This just popped up on my FB feed. Seems relevant. 

In reply to Tony Sestito :

I can buy a truck under the GM employee discount and you can get a base truck with NO options for $32,000 - guaranteed to hate your truck.  Not even tinted glass or cruise control.  If you order one these incentives may be gone.

A lot of dealers list a $32/$33,000 for sale.

I'm hoping they at least have power steering! Even the two-door short beds trucks are so much larger than they used to be, driving one without PS would be like driving a big box truck from U-Haul in the '70s.

I bought my dream off-road vehicle last year; small, overbuilt and understressed, and simple. I love it. YMMV. 😊