Evolution and Devolution of the American truck

 "We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." - Immanuel Kant

 I recently read a brief article (which I can sadly no longer locate and link), about the evolution of the US light pickup truck.  The article described how the basic American truck has recently evolved from a humble vehicle for hauling cargo, into the family sedan.  New trucks now typically have a tiny cargo area, a huge cab that can seat six, and (strangely) an intimidating front profile. 

To show the nature of the changes which that article discussed, I picked a few images of US trucks at 10 year intervals. 

1919 Ford Model T truck.  Not intimidating.

1930 Ford Model A truck

1940 Plymouth truck

1950 Chevrolet truck.  Great lines.  Rugged and simple.  For hauling cargo, not passengers.

Two 1960 trucks - one Chevrolet, one Ford.  I'll be discussing the 1960 Ford in a coming post.

1970 Chevrolet C-10

1980 Ford F-150

1990 Chevrolet Silverado standard

And here is where we see the start of devolution - of the practical cargo-hauling truck becoming a family car.  There had long been crew cab work trucks - International Harvester sold a four-door truck in 1961.  However, standard trucks had always come with two doors, a bench seat, with a 6 or 8 foot box behind.  This began to change in the late 1980's, it accelerated through the 1990's. 

2000 Ford F-150  Note the larger cab, and the smaller box.

2010 Chevrolet.  For that one time you had to bring a big-screen TV home. 

2020 Chevrolet.  Imposing as it looks, it's likely just a soccer dad vehicle.

 Below:  Where exactly do you put a 4'x8' sheet of plywood or drywall?  Do you have to rent a trailer for stuff like that???  This thing barely qualifies as a truck - it's a man's version of a minivan.  Half of these have bed covers anyway.

Below:  Both of these rigs have the same bed length, but only one of them is a truck.

 All that said, I too own a an extended cab diesel truck, which I stupidly once commuted in.  I'd love to see how well the above truck would manage a load with 8ft lumber and 10ft treated 4x4s.  Or a couch.

I'd imagine if this trend continues, the family truckster in 2040 will look something like below, LOL.