About A Truck

Were you to ask an urbanite about rural culture, odds are good they would mention two things. Agriculture and pickup trucks. There is something about a truck. It occupies a place in rural America that horses did in the Old West. It is more than transportation. It is a hardworking symbol of rugged individualism. Even if it is not as much as it once was.

The earliest automobiles were little more than motorized wagons. Ford revolutionized motorcars and manufacturing in 1908 with the Model T. It was reliable, simple to drive, and affordable. Soon farmers, coachbuilders, and Ford dealers began modifying them. Opening the bodies and lowering the sides, adding a tailgate to make them suitable for the farm. The 1925 Model T Roadster was the first one offered as a runabout with what Ford called its "pickup" body. And the word truck comes from the 14th century term "truckle". Used to describe systems of rollers or pulleys used to move goods.

Ford sold around 135,000 Model T pickups before replacing it with the larger and more powerful Model A. Chevrolet and Dodge began producing pickups in the 1930's. At the same time tractors took over planting and cultivation of fields. The pickup truck could haul crop, feed, fertilizer, or seed back and forth to town in less time than it took to hitch a team of horses. Small family farms became much less isolated. With the pickup getting the family to church, school, and the grocery store between chores. Pent up demand from wartime production restrictions created an explosion in pickup sales in the post-war era.

Marmon-Herrington began converting Ford pickups to four-wheel drive in 1935. Allowing them to get more places, and to be more useful. But the first purpose built four-wheel drive truck was the Dodge Power Wagon produced for the war effort. When Dodge began to offer the one-ton workhorse in civilian form in 1946 it started a pickup truck renaissance. By the late 1950's all domestic manufacturers were offering four-wheel drive pickups. As more Americans found their way off of the farm, pickups did too, making their way to suburban driveways. Buyers began to demand more style and comfort from pickup trucks. And looking back that may be where things began to go wrong.

At the same time that four-wheel drive became ubiquitous manufacturers were moving in the other direction. Offering car-based pickups like the Ford Ranchero and Chevy El Camino. Built on station wagon chassis they tried to combine the comfort of a car, with the utility of a pickup, and did not do either particularly well. Even purpose-built pickups were becoming bigger and more comfortable. International Harvester introduced the first crew-cab in 1957 with its Travelette. First introduced for contractors and utility crews, by the 1960's they were already moving upmarket as family haulers.

At the same time smaller, simple trucks became less available due to the "Chicken Tax." A 25 percent tariff imposed on light truck imports in 1964, in retaliation for French and West German tariffs on U.S. chicken. Popular options like the Volkswagen Transporter were no longer affordable. The long-term truck trend moved toward bigger, more powerful, and more family friendly. Which is not to say that the 70's and 80's lacked small truck options. The Chevy Light Utility Vehicle and mini trucks from Datsun and Toyota offered plenty of pocket-sized fun. And the full-sized truck offerings of that era from Ford and Chevy remain some of the best trucks ever made.

While some people still buy trucks for work, they have become far more likely to be a status symbol. A pickup truck speaks of agency and manhood. There is no shortage of men willing to spend tens of thousands more than they have to let one speak for them. They are wearing "hickface." Consuming a rural aesthetic which has nothing to do with their day to day lives. I know guys who get more done with their Subarus than your average F-250 owner ever will with their truck. But I guess they need it to tow the weight of the man they think they should have been? It is too bad that the people who need a work truck cannot touch a new one for under $35,000. Because of all the standard features the "consumer" demands.

My first truck was a 1980 F-150 with the 300 inline 6. I bought it in 1999 for $1,000 cash. It had been a work truck and had 280,000 miles on it. I put a rebuilt transmission in it and drove it another 60,000 miles. It was everything that a pickup truck should be. Slow and reliable. Bench seat, hand crank windows, and an AM/FM radio but no tape deck. It was not four-wheel drive, but it had a limited slip rear differential and got through everything I ever needed it to. My current truck is superior in almost every way. But I do miss the simplicity of it.

Which is why, despite the cache of American trucks, every few months you will see a yearn post on social media about some barebones truck that everyone in the world gets to buy but us. Usually a Toyota. I guess they still understand what a truck is for. Hauling dirt and yanking stumps, pulling trailers and friends out of the mud. And a full-sized bed never hurt fertility rates. The pickup truck was never meant to be a merkin of rusticity for mass affluent ennui. So, when people get a little nostalgic about old trucks, only part of it is about the form and function and value of the thing itself. The other part is thinking about what we gave up when we left the farm. Mourning a time when Americans knew how to get shit done.