As nauseating as it is to pat George W. Bush on the back for anything, we should take solace at least in this: for SUVs and some passenger vans in the once un-regulated 8500lb and higher GVWR category, some new CAFE regulations will come into effect by 2011. This comes out of the March 29th 2006 rule issued by the NHTSA that also boosts “light truck” gas mileage from 22.5mpg to 24mpg. Unfortunately, for pickup trucks with a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) above 8500lbs, usually referred to as “3/4 ton” and “1 ton” pickups, CAFE still doesn't apply at all. It’s important to take note that the ½, ¾ and 1 ton nomenclature for pickup trucks hasn’t denoted actual load bearing capacity since the 1930s, although these designations stubbornly hold on to this day. The actual payload capacity of a ½ ton full size truck is more like 1300lbs to 2000lbs. When the NHTSA news release came out, everyone from NPR to Automotive News just went ahead and edited GVWR down to “gross weight” or just "weight." The truth is, as morbidly obese as American pickup trucks have become, the 8500lb category includes the payload of the vehicle along with the net or so called "curb" weight. No Virginia, there is no 8500lb pickup...yet. But keeping the 8500lb GVWR cutoff for pickup trucks, let alone not boosting “light truck” gas mileage up to “passenger car” standards is particularly troubling when you look at pickup trucks from an historical perspective.

The C.A.F.E. enshrinement of size and weight as specifically “truck” attributes has absolutely no historical basis when you look at the pre C.A.F.E. era. In my book Horsepower War, I spend quite a bit of time proving that actually the opposite was true before C.A.F.E.; the heaviest vehicles were actually “passenger cars,” and pickups were once among the lightest vehicles Detroit made. A 1954 Chevy Bel Air hardtop coupe (the heaviest vehicle Chevy made other than the convertible)weighed around 3400lbs. The biggest Cadillac Eldorado weighed nearly 5000lbs, while a ’54 Chevrolet pickup didn’t even break over the 2700lb mark – that’s not “payload” – that’s the curb weight of the truck itself! By 1967 pickup weight had increased, but Ford’s F-100 pickup weighed about 3500lbs, while a Ford LTD full size sedan was well over 4000lbs.

In fact the F-150 model, along with the “Supercab” six passenger cab, came along in 1976 right after C.A.F.E. debuted. The F-150’s entire reason for being was originally to push it over the 6000lb GVWR class, so it could continue to burn leaded fuel and therefore go without a catalytic converter. Chevrolet did something similar with a “Big 10” version of its ostensibly light duty C-10 “half ton” pickup that same year. The Ford “Supercab” helped turn the so called “commercial” pickup into a passenger carrying conveyance. It is true that recreational uses for trucks were on the rise before C.A.F.E., but there was never a legitimate reason for NHTSA to mandate that “trucks” get lousy gas mileage. The loophole has helped to inflate truck size over the past 30 years. Now a 2006 F-150 long bed, regular cab 4x2 V8 is about 4800lbs. The more common “Supercrew” four door, 4x4 V8 model has grown to a morbidly obese 6000lbs – that’s well over the weight of two 1950s pickups.

The load carrying role of the pickup has shrunk as the passenger carrying part has grown. Chevy didn’t even offer a back seat in ½ ton “recreational” pickups untill 1989. Now pickup makers have shrunken bed size down to a mere 5 feet on many models. Dodge’s Dakota pickup doesn’t offer a long 8 foot bed anymore. In fact, now you can’t even buy a “regular cab” model. You have to get either the extended cab or four door cab.

In addition to size, the halcyon days of the ‘50s and ‘60s had commercial vehicles, a.k.a. pickups, with far less horsepower than passenger cars. There was no V8 available on the ’54 Chevy pickup at all, while the ‘54 Cadillac surged forward in the ‘50s horsepower race – roughly doubling the power of the Chevy pickup. In 1967, the Ford F-series offered three engines – only one of which was a V8, and it made only 200hp from a moderate 352 cubic inches (5.8 liters), about half the power of the mightiest engine available in the Ford passenger car lineup in ’67 – the 427 cubic inch (7 liter) V8. It’s important to note that the 200hp 352 was also the biggest engine for the 1967 F-250, rated at 7500lbs GVWR, and the F-350, with up to 10,000 lbs GVWR with dual rear wheels and about a 5700lb payload. In 2006 the base engine on the F-150 makes 200hp. Even the smallest V8 engine in the 2006 Chevrolet Silverado makes 285hp. That level of horsepower was unheard of, even in the biggest, heaviest pickups – those in the over 8500lb GVWR category - all through the 1960s 1970s, 1980s and even into the 1990s.

But aren’t today’s pickups better than yesterday’s? When it comes to people pampering, there’s no comparing today’s luxo trucks with the stark ones of yesterday, but measured in purely utilitarian terms of payload carrying capability, the answer is no. There are big differences in towing capacity, since the new models have so much more horsepower than those of a generation ago, but in purely “commercial” terms of carrying burdens, today’s pickups haven’t improved much, not just in spite of C.A.F.E.’s bow to light truck’s hallowed commercial role, but partly because of it. How could that be? At first blush these ratings seemed to have “improved” over the years. The 1967 Ford GVWR rating was 5000lbs for the F-100, while the 2006 F-150 rates 6800lbs. However we must subtract the vehicle’s “curb weight” from the GVWR number to get our “payload.” Result? The 2006 6800lb GVWR F-150 only nets about 500lbs more payload than a comparable 1967 F-100. On the “Supercrew” four door that gets all the face time in TV ads, the biggest payload is 1500lbs – nearly the same payload as the ’67 F-100. All the extra body weight of the large 6 passenger cab subtracts from the truck’s ability to do what pickups were originally intended to do before the loophole helped turned them into opulent luxury vehicles. Body weight is a hindrance to the actual payload carrying capacity of the pickup, not a help, and yet the NHTSA “commercial” rationale that heavy duty pickups have to weigh a lot and have massive engines has made them pound for pound at least, less utilitarian than they once were. Remember also that for commercial vehicles, excessive power isn’t a virtue either. Every extra penny spent on fuel could have gone into the business owner’s wallet as profit.

It’s interesting to note just how much these GVWR ratings seem to have “progressed” over the years. The current ½ ton, long bed, regular cab Chevy Silverado has a GVWR of 6400lbs, and a payload of 2000lbs. In 1951 the Chevy pickup rated just 4600lbs GVWR – then again, it only weighed 2600lbs – so basically, even though the GVWR has moved from 4600lbs to 6400lbs for ½ ton GM pickups over 50+ years, the payload has stayed roughly the same. Considering that the 8500lb GVWR has been “pegged” by C.A.F.E. rules and pickup body weight has been increasing for 50 years – and lately at an even faster pace – just put two and two together. Can’t we easily predict that GM and Ford will introduce personal use trucks above the 8500lb GVWR loophole cutoff that aren’t really for commercial or load bearing use?

We don’t have to. It’s already happened. Currently GMC offers a “heavy duty half ton” model called the 1500HD. Remember, in 1976 a GVWR above 6000lbs was considered a “heavy duty half ton” – now this modern heavy duty half ton pickup just happens to rate at 8600lbs - above the 8500lb loophole. It’s interesting to note that it only comes in “crew cab” or four door form and with a short 6.5 foot bed – the body style least suited to carry bulky loads. It’s also telling that the bare bones interior known as the “work truck” package isn’t even available. Even the “Base” trim isn’t. It comes only in highline luxury trim with chrome wheels, leather wrapped steering wheel, overhead console and power accessories, yet this truck is already getting Uncle Sam’s stamp for “commercial” use, at least to the extent that EPA doesn’t even bother rating its gas mileage. However, since the body weight of this bruiser is 5471lbs for the 4x2 model and 5762lbs for the 4x4, the payload isn’t substantially more than the regular ½ ton GM truck. Payload is 2838lbs for the 4x4 and 3129lbs for the 4x2.

Now a fair minded and reasonable TPM reader might ask what these poor, poor business owners are going to do if the NHTSA pries morbidly obese pickups from their cold, dead hands. Isn’t the demand that pickups – especially the “heavy duty” variety – get “passenger car” gas mileage akin to asking Detroit to pursue some Manhattan Project for pickups? Automakers often complain that NHTSA demands something on the order of turning lead into gold when it comes to pickup gas mileage gains. There’s only one problem with that argument. You can already buy a Mercedes built captive import from Dodge called the Sprinter Van that gets better gas mileage than many “passenger cars.” The 2500 series passenger van model has a payload of 3626lbs – far above the speciously named “heavy duty” GMC 1500’s capacity, and it weighs less – 4657lbs - but it rates a similar 8550lbs GVWR.

Somehow the Sprinter carries its load with a mere 2.7 liter, 154hp five cylinder turbocharged diesel engine – one factor that helps rather than hinders is that it has less body weight. GM seems to think you need at least 300hp for such a task – in fact you can’t get anything smaller than a 300hp or 345hp 6 liter V8 on not just the 1500HD, but the 2500 ¾ ton and 3500 1 ton GMC pickups that also share the “commercial” 8500lb GVWR loophole status. The Mercedes built Dodge Sprinter comes from Europe, where a legislative body did not declare by fiat that “commercial” vehicles must be astoundingly heavy and have massive, fuel swilling engines. Since the Sprinter Van is not tested by EPA, Dodge used SAE test J1082 conducted by FEV Engine Tech to determine that the harmonic gas mileage average for the Sprinter – even loaded down with 50% of its weight capacity, is 25mpg. EPA also doesn’t test the gas mileage for the GMC 1500HD, but the closest vehicle in the GMC universe is the luxury oriented Sierra Denali, which has the same crew cab layout as the Sierra 1500HD, a 345hp 6 liter “Vortexmax” engine that is optional on the 1500HD, a shorter bed and wheelbase, and only comes in 4 wheel drive, which EPA rates at 1mpg to 2mpg less than comparable 2 wheel drive Sierras. The Denali rates a dismal 14/17mpg rating, for a 15.5mpg average – so the Sprinter gets 1.6 times the gas mileage of the closest estimate we have to the 1500HD.

Even compared to the “one ton” class, the Sprinter compares well. The 3500 series Sprinter Cargo van with a 140” wheelbase has roughly the same payload rating as a 3500 series GMC Sierra crew cab 4x4 with dual rear wheels – that model is literally the biggest, heaviest pickup truck GMC sells and it nets a 4848lb payload vs. 4824lbs for the Dodge Sprinter. Once again, the Sprinter’s lighter body weight – in this case 5166lbs vs 6552lbs for the GMC – is a help in boosting payload, since the capacity of the axles and other parts is limited by weight, it doesn’t matter if the weight comes in payload or body weight devoted to a bigger passenger compartment or the extra weight of four wheel drive. The greatest payload available on the GMC line is the regular cab 3500 4x4 (a 4x2 would have greater payload, but is unavailable as a 3500 regular cab), which rates at 11,400 GVWR and has a 5687lb payload with the dual rear wheel option. (remember, you could have gotten that kind of payload in 1967 with a dual rear wheel Ford F-350 that weighed just 4300lbs) Compare that to the 3500 series Dodge Sprinter chassis cab model with a 10,200lb GVWR, but a 5774lb payload. Even on the lightest weight, smallest GMC dual rear wheel model (which has the greatest payload) the Dodge Sprinter compares favorably. Keep in mind that in its tow rating, the GMC, with about twice the horsepower of the Sprinter, yields about twice the towing capacity. However, the “commercial” role NHTSA assigned to pickups derives not from towing capacity, but from the cargo hauling ability of the vehicle itself. The lack of a cargo bed in 8500lb GVWR SUVs and passenger vans was used as a rationale to finally include these vehicles in C.A.F.E. regulation, even though they can tow nearly as much as similarly sized and equipped pickup trucks. In other words, NHTSA hasn’t designated towing capacity in the loophole, but the Gross Vehicle Weight Rating.

Conclusions

C.A.F.E. has proven its effectiveness and is worth both keeping and improving, but the ‘commercial’ rationale behind completely excluding 8500lb GVWR pickups has no historical basis in fact. It’s clear that though GVWR ratings keep rising through the years, the actual ability of pickups to carry heavy burdens hasn’t changed much. Considering that the new “footprint” system for generating C.A.F.E. targets takes into account longer pickup wheelbases, the wisest course would simply be to include all light trucks including those above 8500lbs GVWR. Clearly this false distinction between “commercial” and private use vehicles has actually served to make commercial vehicles needlessly bigger and thirstier, when historically pickup trucks have actually been markedly lighter in weight than passenger cars. More importantly, we can see that pickup body weight devoted to expanded cab space for extra passengers must be traded for payload capacity. Therefore, within a given class (i.e. ½ - ¾ - 1 ton) as body weight increases, payload decrease. Ergo, body weight and payload are actually negatively correlated. Given that more body weight is correlated positively with extra passenger space, it is actually passenger cars, and not light trucks that should weigh more – and in fact this was the case in the 1950s and 1960s, before C.A.F.E. granted the light truck loophole.

The 8500lb GVWR loophole has already encouraged makers to game the system in order sell luxury barges like the GMC Sierra 1500HD (obviously not intended for commercial use) without any EPA rating or C.A.F.E. target at all. The recent change in the way NHTSA derives fuel economy targets and the inclusion of some 8500lb+ GVWR large vans and SUVs in the C.A.F.E. system is a major positive step, but this recent effort is only a half measure if 8500lb+GVWR pickups are excluded. Furthermore, even the 24mpg standard that includes most 1/2 ton full size pickups should be boosted to the “passenger car” standard of 27.5mpg. NHTSA has a duty to finish its work in making sure that the system is not “gamed” and also that the auto market is not skewed by a system that “picks winners” by giving special dispensation to light trucks in general, and a totally free pass to any pickup over 8500lbs in GVWR.