List options that you wished truck makers offered.
I wish Ford offered heated mirrors for the F250, darn things ice up on me all the time !!. Also, a power rear slider would be cool. My wife drives a sport trac, I just love that power rear window in it.
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Something that you could adjust from the cab that would stiffen the suspension (springs and shock damping) when you're loaded and soften it when you're empty. Air-bags and air shocks can make them stiffer, I know, but don't do anything about making them softer.
Maybe they could come up with a way that you could un-latch a spring leaf or two and open up the rebound damping orifice in the shocks when you're empty, then hook 'em back up when you need the support.
It's just a pipe dream, and probably would never work on trucks, but some cars are user-tuneable, and lots of motorcycles are, so why not my truck?
For people who get snow a few months out of the year, it would be about the same cost as 4wd but less to insure because it isnt meant for off roading.
In fact it could fall into the safety category.
Heated exterior mirrors!
Electric rear defogger instead of slider on compact/mid-size trucks.
Keyless entry/power locks without having to purchase power windows, too!
Hard tonneau cover
Adjustable shocks
Broader range of tire upgrades
Your choice of hitch class
How about a 5.4 with a rootes type supercharger? Torque when you need it, without the gas mileage penalty of bigger cubes.
** Add heated mirrors option.
** Add automatic sliding rear glass option.
** Upgrade the stereo in Super Duty F-250!!!! The current stereo in the F-250 is cheap sounding!
If so, we all we be still driving 70's style trucks....lmao
I don't know where you have been, but the truck market has done a 360 degree turn in the past few years, people want all the convinences of home & office in their trucks and then some. Not just for work anymore !!
white250: I'm a software engineer...scary, eh?
When it comes to certain things, I believe in "if it aint broke, don't fix it" principle. Thus I think trucks ought to stay trucks, and if people want crap like DVD/mp3 players, they need to get a Town and Country. Ideally each car should perform duties fit for its class. Trucks should work, not accumulate leather seats, mp3 players and things like that. Think of how stupid Chevy commercials would be then (ones with dirty workers, jumping into a truck with leather seats and watching their favorite movie on a DVD during the lunch break).
Technical advances are fine, better engines are fine, I just think automakers ought to hold their horses on the interior design.
I have a brother that is a electrical engineer for ford & another brother that is a mechanical engineer for chrysler....sometimes I wonder how these companies build vehicles...lmao...I hear horror stories from these two..
hence removable ext cab seat
the more options, the better.
I mean I dunno.. how is a "truck" defined? What
some people may see as diluting the truck genre
I see as improvment. If it doesn't comprimise
the truck's abilities, then why not offer it?
Well, I guess I can understand maintaining the
"tough truck" image, but then again.. it's just an
image and all relative anyways.
Being a software engineer as well and one in the
unix world, there are those hardcore people who
believe in command line interface only, nothing
automatic, no abstraction, etc. So while I use
my gui primarily to have even more text filled
terminals, there are some things microsoft has
that we don't which would be very useful and
convenient.
So why pigeonhole something? If a truck's gonna
have tunes, we might as well have MP3 players
included.
What improvements does keyless entry pad offer on a truck that's advertised as a tough work horse, hauling crews of dirty bluecollar workers to and from construction sites?
jimveta: Using GUI over CLI offers some degree of ease of interface, I don't argue there. I use both on my linux machines. However, where do you draw the line? Whats next? DVD player in the HD/SD trucks? How about a nice expensive stereo system? Keyless entry? Leather seats? Rear seat climate control? People who want that in a truck ought to buy a van instead.
Remote door locks opens the door faster with less effort. Keypad entry sure beats calling AAA when you lock your keys in the truck. Then again, breaking the window is quicker than both.
"People who want that in a truck ought to buy a van instead."
You'd haul manure in a van?
If people are willing to pay for the options, why not have them?
How many people use the crew cabs to haul the family around with the travel trailer out back? Its still a truck, but the DVD player would sure keep the kids quiet for the trip. So why is that a bad thing?
Then you can have good torque, reliability, fuel economy without the weight penalty that hurts when you venture off road. Normal diesel weight also hurts load capacity.
My Silverado LS has every luxury I want as standard equipment, so no problems there. Well, maybe a mount for my laptop so I can view the realtime map linked into the GPS so I'm never lost!
Mike L
One thing about the software: If you haven't already bought something, get the software that uses GPS data and vector-based coordinates to determine where you are on the map. I think it would take too much room on the board for me to explain just why it's better, but you will find that it is much more accurate than software that simply plots a GPS coordinate against a scanned chart image. If you want to know more, drop me a line. Maybe between the three of us (and anyone else that's interested) we can find a system out there that does just what we're looking for...
http://www.garmin.com/cartography/mapSource/
On the right side of the screen, in the box labeled 'MapSource Map Viewer', select US Road and Recreation - Continental US (or any other map set you desire) and you can pan around and zoom in for all the detail you need.
Mike L
Take it one step more. Since most people almost never use low range why not have options on the transfer case ratios offered. (I will use rear end gear ratios to explain what I mean because most people can relate to them). Why not have hi similar to 3.42 rear end and low range to simulate 4.10's. That way if you are on a flat open road running empty you could have the TC in high - if you are towing in the hills you could put the TC in low and have the benefit of "4.1" like gearing.
Won't work with Autotrac.
Don't you get a similar gearing change by shifting the automatic into 3rd?
Mike L
I just got the moving map working, and haven't had a real chance to give it a good test yet. Maybe next weekend when we take a dirt trail up the California lost coast into Shelter Cove. The MapSource shows a whole bunch of dirt roads meandering the hills, and I believe the moving map will keep us on the correct path.
Mike L
I carry it in my pocket when I'm trailriding, or set it on the dashboard of my truck if I'm somewhere unfamiliar. My brother uses his Vista this way. He also has a Street Pilot with easy to view color LCD screen. He's done the moving map thing on his laptop too. And it works, but eventually, you tire of the hassle driving with your laptop. You know what happens if you have to slam on the brakes, and it was sitting on the front seat next to you.
With the roads and recreation, it does the same thing as I described above for the Metroguide software, but does not have the address lookup. With Metroguide, you can enter 3600 W. 44th Pl., and it will come up as an icon overlayed on the street map. With Roads and Rec, there's no such feature, but your current position is always shown in the center, with the map moving underneath. The roads and trails are identified. You can select to have the LCD display more information, or less if you don't want it cluttered.
Other neat goodies for a truck?
how about an engine-driven air compressor
an inverter (120V 15 amps should be fine)
and the tool boxes that used to be mounted in the front half of the bed in front of the wheels - remember those?
Texas Trucker
Mike L
The have Topo's or maps with roads, rivers, rr's, etc. I would hope they use a common database, and simply change the way they display the data for the different types of maps.
Mike L
I know that most, if not all, of the systems these days work the other way: the PC is used to download info to the GPS, which then plots the data on it's own display. I also know that the PCMCIA cards existed at one time; I just can't seem to find one now, when I already have the laptop and some aviation-based software.
I suppose the best of both worlds might be a combination of hand-held and laptop based systems, so that you could hook the two together and use the laptop display while in the vehicle and download whatever you need for your hike from the PC into the hand-held.
Ever hear of a two-way compatible system?
I also think with Delorme products, (they have a good website), they also make a GPS antenna for use with a laptop. In reality, it's a full GPS receiver, but without LCD display or buttons. (And pretty inexpensive). As for how it plugs into your laptop, if not PCMCIA card, could be as simple as serial port (RS232 coms).
I've found Delorme Topo to be mostly full featured, at times a bit buggy, but there is a newer version than I'm using.
I for one would like to see more options available to meet my needs. Perhaps my needs are not the same as yours, but isn't that what makes life interesting, diversity. I take offense to scorpio's comment that those of us you want more should get a van...!!! He or she knows nothing of my needs or yours. Perhaps he could explain to me how exactly I could haul my 6 horses in the van so I I could be a little more comfortable. My wife, daughter and I travel 30,000+ miles each year pulling these horses. Should I not have the option to travel in some degree of comfort? Perhaps scorpio only has the need for a construction truck and doesn't need or desire things like heated seats, more comfortable seating (which would be much appreciated on a long trip) or a navigation system or better stereo or heaven forbid even a TV and VCR or DVD player. That's his choice. Why should we not be able to choose what works for us and pay for it. He doesn't pay.
Since purchasing my most recent Ford SD I have added many comforts including front and rear TV,VCR,DVD monitors, in dash navigation (which has worked beautifully as the voice tells me where to turn as well as watching the map if I desire). We added a sliding rear window, heated mirrrors and mirror turn signals. I would have been happy to pay for these at time of purchase form Ford had they been available.
Needs and useage for trucks has change as we become increasingly more mobile. And although most may not want lots of "luxury" or "comfort" options, why should those of us who do be subjected to the narrow mindedness of some of the posts presented here. We are willing to pay for options, you don't have to.
...and all I wanted to do was to see if the 2003 SD changes and options had been posted by anyone.
kip