I've seen 3-4 Rangers in my area but

[Msfitoy]

Tacoma hasn't been updated in a while and it's proportion shows...tall cab relative to bed height...although that said, remember our Ranger is like 7 years old since it's architecture was developed in 2012...maybe just ahead of it's time...and still looks fresh

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[P. A. Schilke]

The bed side height is definitely a bit annoying. Maybe it can be justified in a full-size truck, but in the Ranger I can only guess they were going for a more bold, taller styling. It does make the Tacoma look a little smaller when they're side-by-side, so I wonder if Toyota will follow suit.

When I moved our 4WC pop-up camper from the old '93 Ranger to the new one, I had to build a 4.5" tall platform under it so that the bottoms of the camper's side overhangs would clear the truck's super-tall bed walls. That resulted in a big gap between the roof of the cab and the bottom of the cab-over.

Hi David,

This whole taller pickup box bedside was driven by Marketing. We fought it but these lousy ideas won. Chevy started it with the Deeper payload box. They had a deeper payload box than the F150 by ¼".... The trend continues and is worsened by the current Ranger tail up. I really do not like the fact I cannot reach over the box side, and am resigned to just curse Marketing....

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

 

[RedlandRanger]

Hi David,

This whole taller pickup box bedside was driven by Marketing. We fought it but these lousy ideas won. Chevy started it with the Deeper payload box. They had a deeper payload box than the F150 by ¼".... The trend continues and is worsened by the current Ranger tail up. I really do not like the fact I cannot reach over the box side, and am resigned to just curse Marketing....

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

For me, the taller box helps offset the shorter bed somewhat. The bed is shorter, but because it is deeper you can put more in it if you are stacking something (like firewood). So it does have at least one redeeming quality.

 

[ORANGE CRUSH 19]

I seen my first one today since I got mine last week here in mid GA

 

[DavidR]

Hi David,

This whole taller pickup box bedside was driven by Marketing. We fought it but these lousy ideas won. Chevy started it with the Deeper payload box. They had a deeper payload box than the F150 by ¼".... The trend continues and is worsened by the current Ranger tail up. I really do not like the fact I cannot reach over the box side, and am resigned to just curse Marketing....

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

That's kind of what we were starting to suspect, sort of a race to the bottom ( or top, LOL). I'm 5'11" (well, I used to be, probably more like 5'10" now ) and I can generally grab things from over the side, but sometimes it's a stretch and not easy if it's a heavy object. My wife is 5'3" and pretty much needs to get a step stool or climb in to get most things where she could reach into the old Ranger for most things.

I'm sure it's a double headache for folks who want to raise the truck a bit.

 

[DavidR]

For me, the taller box helps offset the shorter bed somewhat. The bed is shorter, but because it is deeper you can put more in it if you are stacking something (like firewood). So it does have at least one redeeming quality.

Yeah, we picked up firewood a few weeks ago and it was nice to be able to stack it a bit higher without needing to tie it down, even though we have the 6' bed. We also are planning to get a tonneau cover at some point, and it will probably have a slight advantage there too in fitting larger items.

 

[Msfitoy]

From a designer's perspective, the bed height is driven by the trend to higher belt line and lower cabin dimension on modern vehicles...if you compare cars from 80 when they had tall green houses compared to current trend where the green house is getting lower and lower...used to be you could hang your arm on the door comfortably on older cars/trucks but now you have to reach up on most vehicles...trucks have a bed that needs to provide visual continuity from belt line to connect and provide a proper side profile aesthetics...modern vehicles look cool from the out side but suffers from interior ergonomics and visibility...I personally find the Ranger as well as any other SUV/trucks to be very hard to see over the hood and comfortably know where the corners are...

 

[DavidR]

From a designer's perspective, the bed height is driven by the trend to higher belt line and lower cabin dimension on modern vehicles...if you compare cars from 80 when they had tall green houses compared to current trend where the green house is getting lower and lower...used to be you could hang your arm on the door comfortably on older cars/trucks but now you have to reach up on most vehicles...trucks have a bed that needs to provide visual continuity from belt line to connect to bed to provide a proper side profile aesthetics...

I remember in the '80s, at least for cars, Hondas had some of the lowest belt lines of all, and that was almost always liked and complemented by reviewers at the time. We had several and they did have good visibility from the inside and a feeling of being really connected to the road.

 

[MikeD]

One positive of the taller/deeper bed is that if you install a drawer system in your bed it gives you more useable height on top of the drawers. I'm planning on going that route myself. With a more shallow bed you lose more utility with a drawer system.

 

[Deleted member 1634]

Hi David,

This whole taller pickup box bedside was driven by Marketing. We fought it but these lousy ideas won. Chevy started it with the Deeper payload box. They had a deeper payload box than the F150 by ¼".... The trend continues and is worsened by the current Ranger tail up. I really do not like the fact I cannot reach over the box side, and am resigned to just curse Marketing....

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

Cursing marketing, sounds about right. The amount of times we have to redesign a perfectly working system or assembly just because marketing wants it to be a certain way is very annoying. Heck, we've even had to qualify brand new materials (which is not easy or cheap in the aviation industry with amount of testing involved) just because marketing wanted to someday paint things a certain color...

 

[FULLSCALE]

I can’t say I haven’t seen a Gladiator on the road anymore. I saw the same white Rubicon twice on Friday and another silver/gray one the same evening. The Rubicon stock looked pretty blah but the gray one looked really good with a mild lift and larger tires along with a more aggressive wheel fitment.

 

[John Lyman]

All of sudden today I have seen 4-5 Rangers not sure if they have been there or just new.

 

[outdoorphotog]

It would look much more impressive if they brought back the front end from the original gladiators pre 1970 and made it look like a truck rather then a jeep wrangler with a hottub welded onto the back of it.

 

[stangertwc]

I see Rangers almost every day now! Becoming more common all the time!

Same here - I live in ID and I now see them nearly every time I’m out and about...

 

[Dokkenmire]

I'm in MD (and I drive 500-600 miles a day at work) and every day I see more Rangers. Honestly I see more Rangers than Gladiators but not by much. I finally saw a Ranger work truck, plain white with an orange strobe light. Hopefully Ford gets back into cutting deals with companies for fleet sales on these. That can only benefit us in the long run.

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