[red-iron-pine]

I have a soft sport for the old Rangers, but they had some serious safety shortcomings and lack many of the factors that drive modern truck sales now, like large size, higher up, and a correspondingly smoother ride.

It's a work truck, and in the US modern trucks are luxury vehicles, effectively mid-to-large-sized SUVs with a flatbed. I worked in Australia for a while and their 'ute's were quite stripped down in comparison, save for a few models (like the new Ranger, which IIRC was a model first developed for the Australian market).

[amluto]

I’ve never understood the purpose of high beds on a pickup truck. Maybe for carrying ATVs on bad roads?

If I were regularly carrying large or heavy loads in a pickup truck, I think I’d much prefer a low bed for ease or loading and unloading and for a lower center of mass.

[pandaman]

Unlike SUVs, pickups don't have an adjustable suspension (pneumatic or hydraulic springs) so if you had a low bed on an empty pickup, it would have likely compressed the shocks completely under a heavy load, or, alternatively, you'd had shocks so stiff that they would not move without load at all. Most people who carry heavy loads in their trucks prefer neither and opt for the "lifted" look due to the long shocks, which work both empty and loaded.

[amluto]

I wonder why. You can buy adjustable-height suspensions for pickups, but they don’t seem to be factory options. This feature exists for plenty of passenger vehicles.

Surely some truck maker could make, and charge more for, a pickup truck with a low bed, excellent handling at any load condition, and the ability to carry increase ground clearance as needed for off-road use.

A bit of searching suggests that the Dodge Ram, the Rivian R1T, and, hypothetically, the Tesla Cybertruck have adjustable suspensions.

[pandaman]

A passenger car is usually under 6000 pounds itself and rarely has more than a couple hundred pounds payload. A truck like Sierra 2500 that I most often see lifted, is over 10000 pounds with the payload. A reliable air suspension for that kind of weight is likely too expensive to get any customer demand on a work vehicle and unreliable one is to expensive for the warranty. That would be my guess.

[op00to]

I seem to remember the Ranger being absolutely horrifying at speeds over 25mph with unstable road surfaces. Like wildly zigging this way and that.

Still a super fun truck.