A 4x4 truck with its big wheels and high ground clearance are features that allow the truck to move off-road. These features have the unfortunate side effect of making them dangerous to other road users, and very uneconomical / environmentally unfriendly. They also take up a lot of space.
Work vans and most cars are capable of driving on a building site or track.
Hood height, engine size, and the physical exterior dimensions of many vans are similar to those of pickup trucks. When used for work, it often just comes down to personal preference. One key difference is towing capacity - most vans are limited to around 750 kg, whereas trucks typically offer much more. Mine can tow up to 3000 kg.
Edit: Also, rear visibility in a van is much worse due to the enclosed cargo area. With a truck, you pretty much have 360-degree visibility.
Ford makes (or at least made) and E-350 van. It can tow anything your truck can. And seat 11 people. And keep your equipment secured and safe from the elements. And it has a backup camera.
most vans are limited to around 750 kg, whereas trucks typically offer much more. Mine can tow up to 3000 kg.
Yeah that’s bullshit. Vans that can do the max of 3500kg are common as fuck. You probably looked at the wrong spec. 750kg is the max for a trailer without brakes, regardless of type of car. There are usually two numbers on the spec sheet, one for max towing weight for unbraked trailers and one for braked trailers.
True, my bad. Many of the most commonly used vans here can tow 2500kg as long as the trailer has brakes. Anything more than that is rare though. Even many of the other mid-size pickups can’t tow 3000kg.
It may depend on local laws. Here the total weight of the combination (car + trailer) with a B+E driving license is 7000Kg, and 3500Kg for a car. That means you can have a van with 3500Kg capacity plus a 3500Kg trailer. So naturally there are vans that are built to match the max spec.
But the front/hood is much shorter in length. Also, people driving that type of van are much more likely to be doing so in a professional capacity and are significantly less likely to be asshole drivers fucking around with their phone while driving. People are bad drivers at baseline quite frequently, but if someone is on the job in a van used for commercial purposes, they’re more likely to at least be paying attention and not speeding everywhere.
Edit: I marked up your image to illustrate the point made much more eloquently in the video. Because of the length of the hood, the truck has a much longer distance of road obstructed from view in front of it, and this is with a standard truck that doesn’t have one of the very popular lift kits (and assuming that the driver is relatively tall.)
If there’s a 70 cm tall child standing in front of the vehicle, then in either case the child either would or wouldn’t be visible - there’s effectively no difference. It doesn’t really matter whether you can see 2 or 3 meters more of the road surface from one vehicle or the other. In both cases, the hood height is the same, and that’s what determines the safety in the event of a pedestrian collision.
Also, with a van, the rear visibility is greatly reduced compared to a pickup. You could say that can be compensated for with cameras - but that same argument applies to the front visibility as well.
Let’s also keep in mind where this discussion started from: a commenter was taking issue with clean, scuff-free pickups as if a work truck couldn’t look like that.
A 4x4 truck with its big wheels and high ground clearance are features that allow the truck to move off-road. These features have the unfortunate side effect of making them dangerous to other road users, and very uneconomical / environmentally unfriendly. They also take up a lot of space.
Work vans and most cars are capable of driving on a building site or track.
Hood height, engine size, and the physical exterior dimensions of many vans are similar to those of pickup trucks. When used for work, it often just comes down to personal preference. One key difference is towing capacity - most vans are limited to around 750 kg, whereas trucks typically offer much more. Mine can tow up to 3000 kg.
Edit: Also, rear visibility in a van is much worse due to the enclosed cargo area. With a truck, you pretty much have 360-degree visibility.
Ford makes (or at least made) and E-350 van. It can tow anything your truck can. And seat 11 people. And keep your equipment secured and safe from the elements. And it has a backup camera.
What’s your point? That thing is bigger than my pickup.
The point is that both of your points are factually incorrect.
Which points exactly?
Nah, you can read it again.
Yeah that’s bullshit. Vans that can do the max of 3500kg are common as fuck. You probably looked at the wrong spec. 750kg is the max for a trailer without brakes, regardless of type of car. There are usually two numbers on the spec sheet, one for max towing weight for unbraked trailers and one for braked trailers.
True, my bad. Many of the most commonly used vans here can tow 2500kg as long as the trailer has brakes. Anything more than that is rare though. Even many of the other mid-size pickups can’t tow 3000kg.
It may depend on local laws. Here the total weight of the combination (car + trailer) with a B+E driving license is 7000Kg, and 3500Kg for a car. That means you can have a van with 3500Kg capacity plus a 3500Kg trailer. So naturally there are vans that are built to match the max spec.
Here’s a great video by Fort Nine that explains how and why the shape and size of these trucks are a threat to everyone outside the vehicle.
This applies to vans just as well though. This Ford Transit is little over a meter longer than a Toyota Hilux so these pictures are roughly to scale.
But the front/hood is much shorter in length. Also, people driving that type of van are much more likely to be doing so in a professional capacity and are significantly less likely to be asshole drivers fucking around with their phone while driving. People are bad drivers at baseline quite frequently, but if someone is on the job in a van used for commercial purposes, they’re more likely to at least be paying attention and not speeding everywhere.
Edit: I marked up your image to illustrate the point made much more eloquently in the video. Because of the length of the hood, the truck has a much longer distance of road obstructed from view in front of it, and this is with a standard truck that doesn’t have one of the very popular lift kits (and assuming that the driver is relatively tall.)
If there’s a 70 cm tall child standing in front of the vehicle, then in either case the child either would or wouldn’t be visible - there’s effectively no difference. It doesn’t really matter whether you can see 2 or 3 meters more of the road surface from one vehicle or the other. In both cases, the hood height is the same, and that’s what determines the safety in the event of a pedestrian collision.
Also, with a van, the rear visibility is greatly reduced compared to a pickup. You could say that can be compensated for with cameras - but that same argument applies to the front visibility as well.
Let’s also keep in mind where this discussion started from: a commenter was taking issue with clean, scuff-free pickups as if a work truck couldn’t look like that.