A nice, big vehicle sends a strong signal that you can afford a newer car than others and that you aren't hung up on feelings or politics or penny pinching. Big trucks are fun and cool. Danger is cool. Being bigger than others is cool.
Strength. A man's vehicle should both demonstrate and develop his physical prowess.
Protection. A man's vehicle should make others safer, even if it puts himself at greater risk.
Providing. A man should buy the cheapest vehicle that serves his needs, the better to provide for his family.
A cargo bike is the manliest vehicle you can use.
For totally unrelated reason, I'm looking for a cargo bike, if you know someone... (jk)
On the original topic I agree with them that visibility has devolved and something needs to be done to fix this. I believe solutions can be engineered to solve this problem and it probably comes down to cost and profits as to why this has not already occurred.
Maybe they're all lugging a bed full of steel ingots that I can't see (but the suspension certainly doesn't look that way)? But it sure seems like <1% are being used for more than transporting 1 or maybe 2 people.
Ideally, renting a truck would be commonly done and not super expensive. It would be so great to to have a utility model for enabling occasional good heavy work to happen.
If you are buying these things you are just not interested in payload. Even the smaller ones like the rangers and hiluxes have a higher payload, and higher combined carrying capacity than these. It is not until you get into the range of the F350s that you get into the 13t total that you mentioned.. which is absolutely not what the article is about.
Even then, if they were serious about carrying capacity, the ranchers would probably be driving isuzu light trucks rather than F350s. Incidentally, they have much better visibility too.
I have never once needed to move 30,000 pounds of cargo.
I have never once needed a pickup truck.
The only times I have needed to move large, bulky things, a cargo van was a much, much more effective tool for the job, so I rented one. (Or borrowed, in one case.)
I have driven through several inches of snow in a Toyota Corolla. (It wasn't fun, but I did it. These days I have an AWD Subaru Outback.)
This idea that Real Men in rural areas have an unquestionable need for the biggest pickup truck imaginable, and nothing else could possibly do the same job, is just more toxic masculinity bullshit.
Most people who live in rural areas are not ranchers, farmers, construction workers, or otherwise Big Strong Men Who Have To Work With Their Hands And Tow Massive Loads All The Time. Such people exist, sure. But there's only a very small handful of them compared to the total rural population.
That's cool. I see these things every day, all day. Cattle, horses, hay, farm equipment, construction equipment.
is just more toxic masculinity bullshit
Some of that does exist but it does not exist at any of the local farms and ranches as the young men here can not afford to show off like that and have to get actual work done. Most of their families would shun them or beat them for acting that way. I believe you are describing city cowboys. They are easy to spot. Immaculate clothing, big shiny belt buckle but never did a day of real work in their lives, living off mommy and daddy's money. Super soft hands, lol. Those don't last long here.
Good for you? But that's not what you said. You said that having a pickup truck, and moving 30k pounds, was "absolutely required" in rural areas.
> at any of the local farms and ranches
Again: Most people living in rural areas are not ranchers or farmers. The people who have unnecessarily big pickups around here range from exactly the type of "city cowboy" you describe (though, again, this is very much a rural area; the nearest Starbucks is about 45 minutes' drive away) to home-grown redneck hicks with rusty lifted pickups that I have never observed to carry anything that wouldn't easily fit in the back of my Outback.
And, of course, there are a fair number of people with pickups that get good use. I'm not in any way trying to deny that there are good uses for pickups.
All I'm saying is that your claim that they are absolutely required for rural living is bullshit.