Pickup truck front end design has nothing to do with this. It’s entirely based on Tonka Truck design principles I.e. bigger and boxier and higher is more tough! Tough = good! It’s the same reason glove sizing at Home Depot starts at XL and goes up from there.
In reality pickup trucks are kind of a joke. For instance the 2023 Toyota Tacoma, often cited as being “good” cause it’s smaller, has worse gas mileage than an f-150 and has a max payload of 900lbs. You know what else has a max payload of 900lbs? A sedan.
Ford actually got rid of the heavy duty package from the f-150 (which increased the max payload to around 3,000lbs from about 1500) because they said people weren’t buying it…
You can’t fill the bed of an F-150 with sand, with plywood, with cement bags, with lots of building materials. You can easily overload it.
> glove sizing at Home Depot starts at XL and goes up from there
This is demonstrably untrue, FWIW. I have in front of me two bundles of gloves, recently purchased at Home Depot, one marked M and one marked L.
> * You can’t fill the bed of an F-150 with sand, with plywood, with cement bags, with lots of building materials*
You appear to be suggesting that truck bed sizes should be volumetrically limited by the densest and tightest-packing material available for general sale.
That's probably sand or gravel. Maybe rebar. Doesn't make sense though.
... remember wanting it to make it feel very locomotive… my first week in Detroit I was driving through downtown and seeing the fist of Joe Louis, and remember thinking that’s what this truck should look like – a massive fist moving through the air.”
... we spent a lot of time making sure that when you stand in front of this thing it looks like it’s going to come get you. It’s got that pissed-off feel, but not in a boyish way, still looking mature. It just had to have that imposing look,” explained the GM designer.
In reality pickup trucks are kind of a joke. For instance the 2023 Toyota Tacoma, often cited as being “good” cause it’s smaller, has worse gas mileage than an f-150 and has a max payload of 900lbs. You know what else has a max payload of 900lbs? A sedan.
Ford actually got rid of the heavy duty package from the f-150 (which increased the max payload to around 3,000lbs from about 1500) because they said people weren’t buying it…
You can’t fill the bed of an F-150 with sand, with plywood, with cement bags, with lots of building materials. You can easily overload it.