Where I am in Europe almost all the 'trucks' used by construction and road repair crews are Mercedes Sprinter or similar with a bed at the back and fold down sides. Usually they have a higher load rating which requires a C license (equivalent of CDL), but some can be driven on a standard car license (max gross weight 3.5t).

If you need construction materials delivered, this can accommodate almost anything. However usually for things like a stack of drywall, you would order a truck with a crane - simply because it's quicker to unload. For personal use the answer is simply to get a trailer. Here a lot of gas stations rent trailers by the hour for a reasonable fee, so it's very easy.

RVs also fit into this category. Most of them are under 3.5t, so you just need a standard car license. Some larger B class variants (which I guess in the US would still be considered small) need a C license. Caravans (travel trailers) are designed to be ok to tow on a standard car license, but in some countries you need extra training. Larger RVs don't make much sense here, as you won't be able to go anywhere with them.

People who have boats either leave them docked, or have boats that fit on a trailer that can be towed by a standard car. Nothing special needed. Same for cars, just put them on a trailer and drive away. Professionals often use car carrier variants of the Mercedes Sprinter et al, which can carry one or two cars, and another towed behind.

It's even more ridiculous than all that. We had "large" work-ready trucks as long as vehicles have been on the road that were all noticeably smaller in every dimension except payload. At some point suburban dads flipping the fuck out over their own notional masculinity drove the truck market off a damn cliff. Now 100/1500 series trucks are complete bullshit for towing and can't even fit a full sheet of plywood in the back without dropping the tailgate or propping it up on something. I swear I'm -this- close from trading my full sized truck in for one of those weird little Japanese deals with the actual full sized bed and built in dump (!!) and just hire out my towing to someone else.

It's really silly how few trucks you see with 8 foot beds anymore. Half of the stuff built now has a shorter bed than one of my S10s (6-7ft), and loading sheet lumber in a shorter bed really really sucks (you've either got to leave the tailgate open or prop it up on the tailgate, and either way you've now got a pretty serious liability that you've got to strap down real well). The trend towards unibody trucks is also strange since it means you can't pitch the pickup bed for a more useful flatbed or a Reading bed. I used to wonder why trucks didn't come off the lot with at least a tommy gate and a ladder rack, but I've since come to realize the vast majority of people (especially people purchasing half ton trucks) would never use or even know what to do this those.

The kei trucks aren't really a good replacement even for an S10 since so far as I can tell they won't run at highway speeds, but they're really good replacement for the Canam and Polaris money pits people buy (and are certainly way more capable of real work).

I owned two separate small sized Nissan trucks and they were great for hauling. When I needed to haul full 4'x8' sheets of stuff I used a little box frame I made from 2"x6" lumber that I put near the tailgate so that sheets rested on that and the wheel wells.

I don't own a truck anymore and now my "hack" is to remove the middle seats from my minivan and fold down the back row seats. That creates enough room that I can fit full 4'x8' sheets in it (with zero room to spare). I've hauled drywall and plywood in it with no problem. I sometimes get weird looks from folks when I roll up to the back of my minivan with a cart of plywood at the big box store.

I keep 2 8 foot 2x4s in the back of my truck at all times for hauling sheet materials. Having hard skids in place makes loading and unloading easier and ensures stuff like drywall and doorskin doesn't get taco'd up. This is a deeply stupid problem to have and I often wish I had a 70's era Ranger or F100 with a new-ish power train shoehorned in.

Yup. I'm from a farming community and basically all the farmers keep around circa 90s trucks because those had sensible beds and weren't 20ft off the ground.

Pretty sure the tiny bed on my grandfather's 1970 Datsun is larger than the beds on some of these behemoths.

> suburban dads flipping the fuck out over their own notional masculinity drove the truck market off a damn cliff.

Is it really dads? I've seen claims that is actually moms demanding this, dads just go along. (dads would be happy in a minivan, but their wife won't let their husbands be seen in one)

Lol what.

It has to do with wheel base and fuel consumption. Trucks are exempt from many parts of the fuel guidelines. Yet there is a segment of our population that need/want trucks. However, try buying a small truck in the US. It is pretty tough to do so, because of those regulations. The regulations need to be revisited to make more sense, but for some reason they are set in stone.

The what now? Tacomas are still a thing are they not? And both Ford and Chevy revamped and reintroduced their mid-sized truck offerings in the last 5 years.