PickupTrucks.com Celebrates 23 Years
It was 23 years ago today that a college student with a passion for pickup trucks purchased an unused domain name and started one of the longest-lasting truck-focused websites in the world. We call it PickupTrucks.com, but you might call it your source for all things pickup truck related.
While 23 years may not seem like a long time to you, 1995 was a pretty interesting time. Can you remember what pickup truck you were driving or lusting after back then? Was it a Toyota SR5? A first-generation Ford F-150 SVT Lightning? Maybe it was a Chevrolet C10 or a Ram 1500 with the new big-rig look.
Pickups have come a long way in 23 years and so have we. We still have a few tricks up our sleeve that we'll be testing and we'll be seeking your opinions, so keep your eyes open this year. In the meantime, we can't think of a better time to be right in the middle of the some of the most exciting pickup truck news we've seen in decades. More coming.
Cars.com photo above by Evan Sears
Comments
Congrats on 23 years
Nicely done!
-CT
Well done.
I remember my father driving me to school on his 1985 Ford F-250 with the 7.5 gas engine.
I had a used 1985 F150 with the 4.9L engine and creeper gear 4-speed tranny. It was white with not a single option. Not even 4WD. It had those little triangular windows that were used to keep the windshield from fogging-up. If it happened to be raining, they would drip on the vinyl floor. Remember the floor vents? That was the closest thing to A/C except when traveling on hot asphalt, hot air came thru. I thought putting a sliding rear window in would help, but that only allowed my to reach for the cooler in the bed. I put a killer stereo in it from the exact same interior of the (bought that one new) 1985 F150 before it. Did a lot of driving to and from graduate school with that truck (if it wasn't for the stereo...) I didn't know soooo many people that needed help moving...
By the way..., that stereo was a Blaupunkt Tucson head unit with a Nakamichi amp (wired directly to the battery with 8 gauge cable) and Polk 10Xa's in the doors. Bought a sub-woofer from Radio Shack behind the bench seat. Oh the memories..., I don't know why my wife liked it...
I was driving a 1988 Comanchee, drove it until 2002, sold it with 300,000 care free miles on it...I did not have a computer until 1999ish
oh..., how can I forget the 265/75/15 Tiger Paw Uniroyal tires stuffed under those wheel wells. I put the hubcaps of a 1977 Oldsmobile Toronado. A little unique fashion...
Congrats!! Great Site
One last comment..., it's about how this site saved me...
We got a computer January 2000..., on one Saturday morning I was learning how to surf..., found this sports website and saw off to the side was "XFL Bombshell"...., I thought, oh no, that football league folded and went out of business..., so I clicked on it and to my surprise..., up "popped-up" a bombshell..., a very scantily clad bombshell..., along with 125 others bombshells..., they were popping-up faster than I could click the ever moving red x to close..., my wife rounded the corner and into the room she walked over..., I..., I..., I..., I turned the monitor off..., my wife went into the living room..., I thought I fainted there for awhile...
Needless to say, I learned how to block pop-ups , erase history, and then found how windows had some sort of suggested sites function..., typed in pickup trucks and bam! Been reading ever since...
Thanks PUTC, no bombshells please...
Congrats. Moderate your comments section and I'd come visit here more often.
Congratulations but as Red has pointed out, moderation is needed.
Thank You PUTC
yes, you are the best info site for pickups
I enjoy reading your site everyday
PUTC gives us more info than any dealer can give us
You give us a craving and excitement to go out and buy a new pickup every year
one thing you always miss (I believe that's important) is the local dealers reputation how well the customer is taken care of after the sale of his pickup and for me that's the #1 reason why I own the make of pickup I own
I would love to see stories about good and bad dealers, how warranty claims are handled ( I can write a book about that on my past experiences)
Congrats to 23 years but really in 23 years we still don't have real moderators cleaning up the crap messages that gets posted on every article!!! So tired of my truck is better then yours and so on.
Congrats to Pro Ford......I mean PickupTrucks.com
@bassin bob
I don't know where you are, but down here in central Florida the bass are jumpin' right into the boat this week. The bite is on!
23 years of blowing on Fords tiny dong! LMBO!
I’ve been following this page since 1998, nice job making it what it is today!
Several years ago pickuptrucks.com published an article entitled(and I quote you from copying and pasting the article THAT IS STILL PUBLISHED AND UNCORRECTED!),
"10 Things to Know About HD Truck Tires"
"Posted by Mark Williams | May 22, 2014"
about putting new tires on a truck.
Your eighth section, entitled:
"8. Replacing Two Tires"
gave deadly and illegal advice to your readers as from a position of a supposed "expert".
And I quote you, Mark,(copied and pasted from the article, mind you),
"If you are replacing only two tires, move the remaining pair of tires to the rear axle and put the new tires up front. "
You said if you only put two new tires on the truck, put them on the front. This is illegal in many states and extremely dangerous. Many people die and are injured every single year after getting this bad advice.
The law is clear that in any conditions(especially slick conditions), the rear wheels of any vehicle no matter what kind must have the better grip to avoid the rear of the vehicle from losing traction while the front keeps grip. This causes the vehicle to spin out of control and/or not brake correctly.
What's worse, is that you are supposed to be an expert in pickup trucks, where this problem is greatly exaggerated because pickups are lighter in the rear than other vehicles.
Many of us wrote in vigorously demanding you take down that article and publish a correction.
You did not, and completely ignored us.
Additionally, right aftrer the deadly, expert advice, you contradicted yourself in the same paragraph by writing
"Plus, according to some experts, most people can recover more easily from loss of traction to the front tires (understeer) than they can from loss of traction to the rear tires (oversteer)."
So, yoru article is totally contradictory and confusing and wrong.
But you did not listen to us at all!
So many of us left pickuptrucks.com and Mark and built up your competitor's comment section.
I just heard from another that you have posted an article asking for advice.
Well, we will see if you are sincere about that and care about the deaths you have caused in the last several years. Not to mention those who have been injured by the spreading and publishing of this deadly and extreemely badly writting and edited article.
You will probably never be able to counteract the death and estruction you have caused, but you can do your best for years to come, dilligently and repeatedly publishiing the correct advice.
We still DEMAND that you take down that article and publish a new article humbly apologizing for your callis and lazy "so called" expetise.
And the next year's article you published about winter driving entitled,
"Mismatched Tires Steer Toward Winter Trouble"
"Posted by Mark Williams | September 18, 2015"
is no excuse for not publishing a correction and an apology.
Especially when you STILL HAVE THAT OLD ARTICLE UP!.
IF you want to write about comparing vehicles, fine.
If you wan to write about matters of life and death, then you'd better get it right.
Otherwise, stay to yoru usual fluffy topics.
And post a correction when you do get it dead, wrong, just like legitimate journalists do.
And if you doubt that you are to put two new tires on the rear, then:
be sure to google
"two tires" rear
just like that into google.
And go study carefully each link and their results.
Tom
The guy at the tire retailer doesn't care if you miss-match or replace 2 tires.
Everytime I go into a tire shop they never have the tires I want in the amount I need.
If I need all 4 tires they will say they only have 3 on stock, if I need 2 they only have 1
I know it's a bait and switch to force me to buy the brand of tires they want to sell me but I can't knock down the salesman and walk into his storage area to see that for myself.
Then when I order new tires online and take those tires to a local tire shop to get installed they tell me to get lost
what do I do ?
Ecoboost, tell the salesman you want a particular tire and you would like them to order your tires and you will bring your truck back when they arrive at the shop to be mounted. If they try to play any games ask for a manager. If the manager won't order the tires take your business elsewhere and, if it's a big company, let their corporate office why you will no longer be taking your truck to their establishments.
Tom, The blood of Putc is against you. Go back to the competior.
What was I doing?
Back then I was enjoying the camaraderie of the PUTC online community forum. Of course that was a victim of poor PUTC management and or incompetence. PUTC continues to go downhill. What next? Very Sad.
In 1995 I owned a 2.4 litre King Cab Navara and a very unreliable 1995 XJ Cherokee Sport.
Its good to see PUTC has made it 23 years. I would like to see more global pickup articles, especially from Australia, Thailand, South Africa and China. The EU and Sth America also.
My logic is the global market is becoming more exciting with some quality 4x4 performance pickups becoming available. Australia (Thailand to a degree) is a good place to start as it so far has had the most significant impact in the design and emgineering of the global midsizers.
I was driving a 1978 F150 reg cab long box 4x4, with 351M engine and 4 speed standard. After 1979 Ford went to thin sheet metal , less attractive trucks.
papajim,
Florida is fished out, well over 20 million people, many reitiree's wanting to own Suburbans, fishing.
Come to Australia, the size of the US with the population of Florida if you want fishing.
Phew, what nonsense.
Looks like Australia has become an important influence in Pickup development Globally, in the last couple of years not just for Ford and the Ranger.
Quote is from a Ashwani Gupta from Renault-Nissan
"Gupta made clear his interest in the concept had been stimulated by a meeting with Lester and his team and that Australia was driving the one-tonne product development debate within the company globally.
“I think the transformation which we are seeing in the one-tonne pick-up market is driven by Australian voice,” he said."
From an article on a proposed Raptor Navara Fighter.
https://www.carsales.com.au/editorial/details/nissan-to-study-navara-raptor-fighter-111231/
Are there still any companies making a profit building cars/trucks in the land down under?
@papajim
Car production has ended but Big Rig Truck production is flat to the floor. A lot of infrastructure development across the country
Kenworth, Volvo, Mack and IVECO. Can add in Bus builders as well. Another newish Automobile manufacturing venture is armoured Military vehicles. Several have been sold to Japan recently.
"Australia and Japan have outlined an intention to expand defence equipment collaboration, building on Canberra’s newly confirmed deal to sell additional Bushmaster multirole protected vehicles to the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF)."
papajim,
There's no fish left in Florida.
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