this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2023
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As a German I dont get trucks at all.
If you need a lot of loading capacity, a van is almost always the better choice.
Especially when you sometimes need to carry a lot of people and other times a lot of material. You can just take the back seats out or fold them down, now you can use the same space for two different purposes.
And you can even install shelves for your tools and material, they are also protected from the weather and some thieves.
I have a Nissan NV-200 (which is almost too small to be considered a van) and I can seat 7 people or I can remove/fold away the backseats and I can suddenly carry more than I almost always need.
It is Diesel and right now I get 7l/100km (33mpg) even though I dont have a fuel saving driving style. I did some experiments when I was on vacation, if I drive a constant 120kph (74mph) I get 6l/100km (39mpg). If I drive around 90kph (56mph) behind commercial trucks, not hugging them but following them so I dont hold up traffic anymore than they do, I get between 4 and 5l/100km (59-47mpg).
Try doing that with a truck, especially when its got a big V8 engine that basically just burns fuel for nothing.
You can't put 80,000lbs of sprinkler in a van. You can't tow 80,000lbs of sprinkler with a van.
even this f650 monstrosity can't tow 80,000lbs. 80k is the max weight for a semi, truck and trailer combined
The F-650 weight limit is 50,000lbs (including trailer) off the factory floor.
However it’s common to spend a hundred grand on modifications, and those can easily include suspension and braking upgrades which would allow higher weight limits (especially trailer weight, where almost none of the weight is actually on the truck itself).
If you need to tow a crane or something like that, this is a perfect truck to use as a starting point. It’s small enough to drive off the highway to job sites in residential/etc areas, but capable enough (especially modified) to handle loads that would normally require a full size truck I that can’t possibly be reversed between two houses to get the crane into someone’s back yard where you need it.
Europe has trucks like this too. They just aren’t from a culturally popular brand like Ford.
80k is the federal legal weight limit for a truck and trailer, and that's spread across 5 axles. and any single axle can't be over 20k. an f650 is big by pickup standards but midsize at best by commercial truck standards. look at any pictures of f650's in use and the biggest loads they pull are single-axle beer trailers. no trucking company is pulling their 53' tandem axle trailers with f650's
almost any trailer approaching weight limits is going to be attached to a fifth-wheel, which puts load on the truck frame by design. literally the reason we call them semi-trailers. you'll never see anything with a pickup bed hitting 80k gvw
sure, you can upgrade the entire drivetrain and suspension and reinforce the frame to get an f650 to handle nearly double it's rated capacity, but at that point you're just putting an f650 cab on a truck fit for the job. OPs pic is an f650 with an f350 bed slapped on it and a few other cosmetics