Apples to apples, those vans are more expensive and larger. At what point does it become ok to have an open bed? There are valid pros and cons in every choice being talked about, here.
At what point does it become ok to have an open bed?
When the distance from the back of the truck to the front of the bed is longer than the distance from the back of the cab to the front of the truck, it turns from a Sport Utility Truck into a Pickup Truck. Typically that’s around when the bed gets big enough to haul a sheet of plywood or drywall safely.
Of course it’s OK to have an SUT instead of a pickup truck, just not as useful for construction work.
So edgy.
What if you rest the wood on the tailgate, or lean it on the roof, then tie it down, is it no longer safe?
What if you’re the driver for a small crew that picks them up every morning then uses the smaller bed for supply runs?
Just lemmy grasping at straws to put everyone into a box based on incomplete information.
I said nothing about safety. I just said it should be considered a different class of vehicle if it meets certain characteristics. SUTs are great for camping, for hauling surf boards & kayaks (possibly with a rack) and tow just as well as pickups. They don’t have a full-size bed, so they’re worse at most jobs, though the larger cab does mean they can carry more workers at once. It’s a trade-off: get worse at most work-related tasks, get better at personal tasks and thus reach a wider market.
