30mpg, 7.5 foot bed, 2700 lbs hauling capacity

A 1/2 ton full-size truck can fit 55 80# bales, if the bales are tight and stacked properly, you don't even need to tie your load down.

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practically everything is practical

Well I suppose it might be ok if one doesn't need a large hauling capacity. I can't justify buying a truck that I cannot lay a sheet of plywood flat in the box and raise the tailgate. I haul a 3 horse slant load trailer and need the turning radius, I also haul 150-200 bales at a time - 55-65 lb. bales, and so need a heavy duty truck with a full size box and large towing capacity.

My Chevy 2500 HD has no bells and whistles, my gal friends call it "the man's truck" and my men friends love it. No carpet, no gizmos, just plain roll up and down windows, no door locks, does have the four things I wanted: a/c and heat, radio, power steering and power brakes. I'm a simple kind of gal and need a simple kind of truck that the dog can ride in, the grands can spill a coke in the floorboard and I can hose it out, mud doesn't stick and I don't holler at anyone about "muddy boots".

My truck gets 17 mpg on the highway empty and 13-14 pulling my trailer, doesn't lose power uphill towing and has a heck of an overdrive with tow package.

I paid 26,000 for it new (only new vehicle I have EVER owned in life and probably my last) but to me, it was worth it for the reliability since my old truck ( a 1981 Ford F100) was getting unreliable and breaking down. Reckon it was time, it had over 330,000 miles on it but couldn't haul the GN.

My next truck will likely be something similiar with a diesel and be used, maybe a couple of years old so as to let someone else take the depreciation hit. Oh and mine is a four door, full body truck. Need that extra space for the grands..all 7 of 'em plus the dog.

Trailrider - I wanted, no - lusted over a dually - lol - but the price tag and mpg were way out of my budget, I still look at them and sigh..but one has to be reasonable, even though us horse folks generally want the showiest rig on the road, no sense owning one if all you can do is take it out for spin on photobucket~! I feel your pain..a good dually is a gal's best friend.

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I'm sure they vary in length, but I've seen some in parking lots that 3 foot guess at bed length is being generous. They look like boxy car that they forgot the trunk lid. Must be midget deer. Full size van more friendly for people or cargo. Especially set up where seats easily removable and you have a hose down type interior instead of shag carpetting. Van can tow anything down the road that simular pickup can tow. Without the passenger seats van can carry full sheets of plywood, drywall, etc and protect it from rain.... With seats can carry lot more people than any other vehicle.

Drive thru coffee.... gag.... Well there I go again making assumption that you mean fast food joint. Sure you hit the Starbucks, right? And you use change? My gosh havent you seen those commercials where automaton customers whip out their debit cards, and cash just slows down the system..... Got to get with modern way of doing things. LOL

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I agree, when I had goats long time ago, I didnt want over 30 bales on my old 3/4 ton and then wasnt blazing down the highway. 50 bales on a half ton, well I dont want to be the guy driving it as not only is is it way overloaded, but to get that many bales loaded, you've raised the center of gravity to where its going to handle like pure carp. Now pulling it on a double axle trailer is different if you are set up to tow properly and I mean with proper hitch and with trailer brakes. Thats safely doable though personally I dont like towing with anything less than a 3/4 ton.

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"What would you do with a brain if you had one?" -Dorothy

"Well, then ignore what I have to say and go with what works for you." -Eliot Coleman

You're thinking FarmTrac. Early Mahindra models revolved around IH technology...

The tractors match up because mahindra bought the old dies from Ford.
The engines are BMW I beleive. If you look at the old trucks they are willy's/jeep based designs and were licensed years ago.

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Gary in Central Ohio

My Mahindra tractor has a Mitsubishi 3 cly diesel, and has run great fro 4 years now, no problems.
I am happy with it.
My JD dealer that I bought it from told me that 60% of the parts were from thre small JD line, made in a factory in India, that made Jeeps during WWII.
He is still selling them..............

I don't know about the trucks and SUV's though, I think I will stick with my Fords as I actually carry stuff in mine.

I've been absolutely floored by my '01 Dodge Ram - quad cab (takes care of the family hauling), short bed (@ 6.5', not one of the real shortys) 1500 4x4 with a towing package. . The only thing I'd change in it is to go from the big gas engine that gets not-so-great mileage (@ 15 on the high end) to the inline-6 diesel that gets closer to 25 MPG. I've hauled feed, round bales, mobile homes (No, I am not kidding - hauled a 10x50 singlewide with the thing - it didn't even heat up!!) and it's done everything I've asked of it. I don't really get that deep into vehicles, but I LOVE this truck!

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Sidepasser, yours is the truck to have.
My first truck was a 1977 Dodge Club Cab (only 2 doors) w/318 engine. Manual transmission, no air, no radio, no power steering, no carpet or power locks or windows. Anyone (even me) could fix it. I Put 300,000 miles on it after buying it used. Fixed the clutch once, put a couple of starters on it, an alternator and a resistor or something similar. Other than that just kept changing the oil and filters, it ran and ran. If you had to put in spark plugs or distributor cap you could sit on the fender and dangle your legs inside next to the engine. There was so much room to work, cause there was nothing under there. And the best part? The whole darn truck was made of metal! I wish I still had one like it! Mary.

The swiped the grill from Jeep.

My neighbor has swapped to running all Mahindra tractors and hasn't had any problems.
Personally, I'd rather support American products but hardly anything is built in America any more. Even the smaller John Deere's are made over seas.

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"They laughed, because he was different"

"He laughed, because they were all the same"

Ozarckat that is what I was getting at in my first response. I am sure there are a lot of people on this fourum that could get plenty of use out of a F150, Chevy 1500, or even a Ford ranger with a Diesel engine. A F150 with a small v6 desiel could esily get 25mpg and do what ever you asked of it. A ranger could get in the low to mid 30s (mpg) pretty esay. If it takes a foriegn company making these type of trucks first to get the attention of the big three I am all for it. Desiel engines have came a long way in the last few years. They are quite, clean, and down right fast, compared to just a few years ago. Now I will make my disclaimer now, I am a DESIEL fan, I have a Chevy 2500 with a Duramax, and two Volkswagen cars both with diesel engines. The truck does not get great milage 17mpg unloaded on the highway and 10mpg pulling my lawn trailer. But, both the cars get mid 40s mpg on the highway. Desiels can get just as good or better milage that a hybrid without all the complicated batteries and electric drive systems. JMHO

Its just about anything now.
True story, was working in the CNH tractor plant (Case).
Very large milling/ boring etc machine had a cooler for the controls that wasn't working.
The machine was a "Mendili" (spelling?) but anyway it was made in Italy.

The cooler was made in Germany,
w/ the compressor (Danfoss, used to be in Racine WI),
now owned by a Belgian company,
but the compressor was made in Spain.

This machine was making 1/2 of the rear end gear box for the big Case/NewHolland tractor, w/castings made in China
Case had closed their foundry in Racine.
Case or now CNH is owned by Fiat

So try as best as you can,(I do), but even their (CNH) small tractors are made overseas.

Those 318s were awsome

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Yeah, I'm among the diesel converts, too - We're looking at a Jetta wagon with the TDI engine when our current sedan gives up the ghost. We were looking at a lot of different high MPG vehicles, but since I do 95% of our mechanical work, I didn't want to get into a hybrid that had a bunch of systems I don't understand. Diesel's been around long enough that I can find the references I may need if I got stuck on a repair, but I wouldn't lay nearly the same odds on a hybrid. I really think, though, that they could do some really phenominal stuff with a small diesel (think VW's TDI) set up with a hybrid system - it'd probably leave the Prius in the dirt . . .

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Its amazing how people can underestimate the usefulness of a small truck. I garauntee that my 4cyl 2wd 5sp 6ft bed Ranger will do at least 85% of the things you do with your bigger truck, and I can do the 12% of the left over 15% by making a second trip. I can haul all the sand, dirt, feed, animals that I need to with my ranger. I can pull small-medium sized trailers, and I can get 28-32mpg doing it all.

Also, EVERYTHING on my truck is far cheaper and easier to fix than your big truck. Tires, Leaf springs, Clutch, battery, have all cost at least 1/2 the price of the same items for my F250 7.3 diesel Ford I had several years back.

Small trucks are great little utility vehicles, They are perfect for those of us that don't have the money for a big truck and a commuter car. My Ranger serves the farm just as well as my 60 mile round trips to school 3-4x a week.

Sure they do, they just are making what the public is buying - and that's big SUV's -- you can't re-tool a car factory overnight.