New Car/Truck Cargo Abilties for Sheet Goods?

[Jerome Stanek]

You must be really having major smiles being able to turn your truck around in less than a half square mile now.

I used to have F250 extended cab trucks and went to a F350 crewcab both with 8 foot beds and the 350 would turn inside the 250.

[Ole Anderson]

For years I had a GMC Safari van that would haul 4x8 with the rear doors closed, seats removed (PITA).

[Steve Demuth]

I've had 2 Priuses and with the back seat down both could get as many 8-foot 2x4's inside as I was willing to stack up between the seats over the center console.

Ditto. Lots of rough sawn hardwood from the local mill too.

My version of the OPs problem, though, is finding a light pickup with a long bed that isn't a full crew cab. Been looking locally for months, and literally nothing on the used market that has a standard cab, only a few extended cabs - nearly all full crew cab - and very few that aren't short bed.

Who the hell wants a truck with a 4' bed? Evidently, everybody but me.

[Jim Becker]

I used to have F250 extended cab trucks and went to a F350 crewcab both with 8 foot beds and the 350 would turn inside the 250.

Yes, the newer ones are supposedly better in this respect. I've had a number of equestrian friends mention that when they upgraded to newer trucks.

[Zachary Hoyt]

The Harbor Freight trailer is great for the price, the one thing I had to change on mine was to run a ground wire from each light to the trailer hitch, the painted bolt-together frame parts are very poor ground path and only one light worked at first when I wired it as shown in the instructions.

[Jim Becker]

My version of the OPs problem, though, is finding a light pickup with a long bed that isn't a full crew cab. Been looking locally for months, and literally nothing on the used market that has a standard cab, only a few extended cabs - nearly all full crew cab - and very few that aren't short bed.

That's kind how it's been for awhile now in the general truck market and that's going to limit the used market, too. For "new", Ford does still make the F150 with a standard cab and an 8' bed in both basic and XLT trims. They offer the same in the F250 space. RAM does not appear to offer the same in the 1500, but does have a standard cab with an 8' bed in the 2500. Tundra is available in a double-cab with 8' bed. Titan doesn't seem to come in an 8' bed version, but I could be wrong about that. GM/Chevy have a standard cab with 8' bed available. I suspect most of these would require a special order, however, unless a particular dealer sells a lot of "work trucks". Which brings me back to the used market...there's not going to be much happening there if there's not much happening in the new market for those configurations.

[mike stenson]

6' short beds have been a very standard bed length for as long as I remember.. including my buddies F100 (and very VERY common on pretty much every site I ever worked on). To be fair, a short box isn't all that restrictive compared to a long bed. Especially if you're having sheet goods. If you're filling the bed with rock/dirt, that's a different story IMO.

[Brian Elfert]

My version of the OPs problem, though, is finding a light pickup with a long bed that isn't a full crew cab. Been looking locally for months, and literally nothing on the used market that has a standard cab, only a few extended cabs - nearly all full crew cab - and very few that aren't short bed.

Fastenal sells off their regular cab trucks after a few years. You might check what they have listed for your state at vehicles.fastenal.com.

You won't be able to buy something as a used vehicle if it was never sold as new. People aren't buying very many regular cab long bed pickups new so there won't be many used ones. A lot of people say to only buy used vehicles and never buy new. If nobody bought new vehicles there wouldn't be any used vehicles to buy eventually.

[Steve Demuth]

Fastenal sells off their regular cab trucks after a few years. You might check what they have listed for your state at vehicles.fastenal.com.

You won't be able to buy something as a used vehicle if it was never sold as new. People aren't buying very many regular cab long bed pickups new so there won't be many used ones. A lot of people say to only buy used vehicles and never buy new. If nobody bought new vehicles there wouldn't be any used vehicles to buy eventually.

Thanks for the fastenal tip.

I've got a sedan for transporting my wife and myself places. I want a truck for truck stuff: hauling sheep, lumber, plywood, firewood, on the road and in the fields and woods. I obviously know why I can't find the kind of truck I want for that (light pickup, 4WD, standard cab, long bed, 5-speed manual transmission), but I figure I'm old enough to whine about it anyway.

I really miss my 53 Chevy 5-window, and wish at least once a week I'd never have sold the thing. But it didn't have 4WD, so it really couldn't cut it on my hilly land.

[Jim Becker]

Wanting that manual tranny really is going to "enhance" your search...

[Derek Meyer]

I had a 2004 Ford Explorer that I occasionally hauled sheet goods and lumber in. If I put the middle and back row seats down, I could get about 6 1/2" of the sheet inside. I'd pull the lift gate down and tie it so it didn't bounce around, and strap the sheets so they couldn't slide out. It worked okay, though not near as nice as a pickup.

I once hauled 1500 pounds of tile from Home Depot about 35 miles away to my house. The Explorer was only rated for 1/4 ton, so I was just a tad over. If I hadn't had the V8 and towing package I wouldn't have tried. It got a little warm by the time I got up the 7 mile long 7% grade, but it made it fine. The back end was riding pretty low, though not quite as bad as the car in the above pictures.

I did like that I could haul lumber 12' long completely inside if I put the front passenger seat down too. I just had to be careful when loading not to bump the windshield, as that would have been an instant break. I'm glad that only happened once. After that, I carried a blanket with me to protect the dash and windshield.

[Patrick Grady]

I installed a Draw Tight hitch (nice quality -rated 300# tongue weight ) for my Toyota Camry and bought a 4X6 $800 trailer (model DK-2 -made in Canada) from E-Trailer and I like the towing options. The wood shipping pallet for the trailer cuts down and fits perfectly into the trailer to make a 'flat top' which accommodates drywall and ply sheets for easy strapping. The metal (not wire) trailer folds and stands under a 7 mil tarp to slow down the rust. Getting a straight clean title for these small trailers can be troublesome so be careful and research. I wish I had this new trailer back when I loaded 4 double box bee hives into the old Saturn station wagon for a house move.

[Ben Helmich]

Seem that about 90% of even pickup trucks are too small to carry a sheet of plywood without leaving the tailgate down (which presumably explains the number of pieces of plywood, OSB, and drywall littering the highways). One wonders what in the world those trucks with the micro-beds are used for.

I had Suburbans back in our serious canoe camping days, they would hold a 4x8 sheet with the tailgate closed. Don't know if that's still true of the modern gussied up ones.

I now have a full size truck with the short 5.5 ft bed. It sucks. It really does. Except for most of the time when I’m just running around town with nothing in it. Then it’s great. The answer to your question about what the micro beds are good for…not much.

[Ben Helmich]

I've only had one truck in my life that DIDN'T have an 8' bed. Loved the truck but couldn't haul crap with it.

Bought my trusty '02 F250 brand new. 8' bed, will haul practically anything. Only thing it won't tow is a gooseneck trailer (for now)
While it'll haul plywood great, I've had other uses for it over the years--

2003
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2005
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2006
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2010
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2015 (just moving around the boat yard) -below was in 2008
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2016
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coupla months ago at the grocery store
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-- it's never been garaged, never had a wax job. Still looks and drives like new...

-back on topic, did I mention plywood fits in it?

(hey Roger, you started it!)

Man. I had a 2001 just like that. Best truck I ever had.

[Jim Becker]

I now have a full size truck with the short 5.5 ft bed. It sucks. It really does. Except for most of the time when I’m just running around town with nothing in it. Then it’s great. The answer to your question about what the micro beds are good for…not much.

Fortunately, if you have a hitch receiver on the back of your truck, you can get a receiver mounted "tee support" that will help with supporting longer items with the short truck bed. I had one of those back when I had my 2000 Tundra and it was the 6'5" bed. I think I bought it from Harbor Freight. When I sold the truck, I sold the support to another woodworker and bought my utility trailer to use with the subsequent line of SUVs I've been driving since.