>Light duty automotive transmissions do not hold up under the kinds of loads trucks put on them when they're actually being used at capacity.
It's not 1995. They're fine. They'll wear out sooner but they're fine. 200k instead of 300k. By virtue of being able to handle lead footed stoplight to stoplight driving the transmission, cooling, etc, etc, is in pretty good shape to handle the sizes and speeds of things you'd want to tow with a Maverick. Nobody is hammering down in a Maverick towing god knows how much up a grade or plowing so it really doesn't matter. Towing loads on the body are essentially a non-issue since every modern hitch is engineered well enough to spread the load enough the vehicle can handle it.
As far as suspension goes they handle ~2k in the bed just fine (done it) so there's some implied capacity for tongue weight there even if it's not 1:1. I can't speak to the Hyundai Santa Cruz.
> It's not that big a project to put a real truck transmission (e.g. Eaton 9spd) in my 1998 Dodge.
It would be the exact same sized project in a unibody vehicle that used a longitudinal transmission. But you wouldn't have the easy button of just doing a body lift to make things fit, you'd actually need to dick with the tunnel and firewall and whatnot to do it the right way.
Regardless, that's not a use case the OEM needs to support.
>If you just need a rolling box to move light loads of lumber around, towing a utility trailer behind your car is probably a better option than a unibody pickup truck. If you actually need a truck, I can't imagine why you'd want one without a frame.
A utility trailer works fine if you don't actually need to do anything on short notice. You never have them when you need them. Backing them into dumb spaces can be a pain. The threshold at which things need to be tied down is lower. It's just not as elegant of a solution as a pickup box.
Idiot here o/. One very good reason to prefer a frame vehicle for a truck, besides the obvious (ruggedness, corrosion resistance, etc) is that you can more easily swap in components from heavier duty vehicles. It's not that big a project to put a real truck transmission (e.g. Eaton 9spd) in my 1998 Dodge. It would be a huge project to do it in a modern unibody vehicle. Light duty automotive transmissions do not hold up under the kinds of loads trucks put on them when they're actually being used at capacity.
Also it would be lunacy to attempt heavy towing or snow plowing without a frame.
If you just need a rolling box to move light loads of lumber around, towing a utility trailer behind your car is probably a better option than a unibody pickup truck. If you actually need a truck, I can't imagine why you'd want one without a frame.