A Brief History of Trucks: Where the Came From and Where They're Going

Trucks are one of the most quintessential American icons. In fact, the Ford F-150 is the 14th most American thing ever. I have to point out here, that it was only beat out by Kentucky Bourbon/Tennessee Whiskey, the hot dog, cowboys, the Second Amendment, George Washington, the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, Resolve, Coca-cola, Baseball, Winning, the Constitution and the American People themselves. Not too shabby if you ask me! 

This year Dodge boasted back to back "Truck of the Year" awards from Motor Trend--which is pretty impressive considering the field of competition which includes heavy weights Chevy and Ford. But if you spoke to Gottlieb Daimler, inventor of the first "truck" (I'll admit, it's a loose definition), pictured below, I'm sure he would be skeptical to believe the magnitude of the fanfare surrounding "Truck of the Year" in America. 

And not too long after Daimler, came Ford's first truck concept. She's a beauty, isn't she? Now, these trucks didn't have a whole lot of power or much hauling capacity, and they faced a much greater struggle than their sister automobile--the passenger car. When automobiles were first introduced to the general public, they were seen as a tool for freedom, the ability to go places. But trucks, while they still accomplished this (although, with a bit more struggle as the normal drive trains used in passenger cars tended to fall short for more heavy duty vehicles), they didn't have the public convinced. 

And really, we all know the hardships that the truck has faced, even in recent years. During the economic downturn of 2008, there was a large school of folks that were convinced the raising price of a barrel of oil would be the downfall of the great American Truck. But, in the end (in 1898 and 2008), it was the whole idea of the truck that was revolutionary and that keeps us hooked. Trucks bridged the gap between utility and convenience, personal freedom and the working man's efficiency.

But after all these years, where are trucks headed? While I am certain that trucks will indeed have a bright future, especially in North America, I'm not so certain about this GMC concept truck from the Chicago Auto Show. Sure it's shiny and the paint looks great, but...

  

...to me, it looks more like a throwback to the Chevy El Camino  of 1982 than the future of trucks. But, maybe that's just me? You can't lie, you see the resemblance. Perhaps it is the extension of the cabin that will hurdle this concept/retro style into 2015, but either way, the short bed of this truck probably won't draw the rugged, "let's get this done" American featured in practically every Dodge commercial since the 2013 Super Bowl. 

Trucks have come a long way. There is no denying that. Where they're going, probably can only be dictated by the American imagination, but I'm sure whatever that means, it will be exciting and keep all of us on the edge of our seats at the next round of Auto Shows in 2015. 

Why Tailgating (ah-hem, drafting) Is Good For Fuel Economy

Nerd Alert: I'm going to engineer out on you in a second, so don't freak out if I drop some buzzwords like "Thermodynamics" or "Surface Integral" or, well... okay--I won't actually use any of those words. False alarm. But seriously, I want to talk about drafting (or in some circles, tailgating) and I think it's about time that we get technical about it. So let's get started.

I'd venture to guess that most of us can remember back to good old driver's training where we learned to keep two car lengths between us and the vehicle ahead of us. And for most people (read: those of us that do not treat an automobile as an extension of ourselves), this is probably a good idea. I mean, safety first. So, from this point on, let's just assume that the drafter in question actually knows how to handle his/her car.

Alright, now that we have the technicalities out of the way: Why do we draft in the first place? To me, the reasons are two fold. First, we tailgate to make our presence known. Until we can broadcast our thoughts into another persons car--perhaps something like "Dear Sir, Please move into one of the right most lanes if you plan to travel at a speed that is 20 miles per hour less than the posted speed."--tailgating is our next most readily available option to make our opinion known on the road.

But what about when that person in the late '90's Prius and no muffler doesn't get the message? Is there any benefit remaining? Most would say, "Just pass on the right, Tommy." But wait one second, you guys. I contend that there is some benefit to sticking behind this individual and practicing the respected art of drafting. For a brief introduction, take a look at Mike Rahal's video on how extreme tailgating has gotten in the context of NASCAR.

So let's take a closer look at the details (look away if you're squeamish when it comes to math). As already alluded to in the video, the whole basic concept of drafting is reducing the amount of drag on your car by taking advantage of the airflow of the car in front of you.

The symbols in this equation (working from left to right) are: the force of drag (FD), the density of air (rho), the velocity of the car relative to the air (v), the coefficient of drag (CD) and the cross sectional area of the car (A). So when you draft, you're using the airflow coming off the car in front of you to reduce the velocity of the air acting on your car. Therefore, the force of drag on your car is significantly reduced! The reduction of drag is especially large as the air speed is reduced since the force of drag is related to the velocity of the air acting on your car by a square.

Let's do just a small thought experiment. Let's say (just to make the numbers easy) if you were to be travelling alone on the highway going 100 m/s (v) and have a cross sectional area (A) of 10 square meters (all other factors are 1), the force of drag is equal to 50,000 N. Now, if you start drafting behind someone such that v becomes something like 50 m/s, the force of drag drops to 12,500 N. So, if the velocity of the air around you drops by half, your drag force is a quarter of the amount it was before!

I'll spare you the free body diagram, but if there is only 25% of the force on your car, you'll only be using 25% of the fuel you'd need if you weren't drafting!

So, go on--draft in the name of fuel economy (and physics).

Where Did All the Stick Shifts Go?

I'm not going to lie; I like when things are done automatically for me--automatic bill pay, e-mail, fast food, and obviously, the microwave. But when it comes to cars, I have to say I'm a fan of doing it the old fashioned way. Maybe Miranda Lambert was on to something in her new song "Automatic."

There's just something about being in charge of your transmission, not the other way around. I mean, I don't think anyone wants to be passing a slow-moving Toyota Prius in the right lane and then think to himself as the engine hesitates with an automatic down shift, "Transmission, I disagree." Now, don't get me wrong, automatic transmissions are kind of an amazing thing. An engineer somewhere sat down and thought of probably a million different scenarios and came up with a response to each one and then programmed that into the on-board transmission control so that no one would have to think about it anymore. You push the pedal, and you go. That's it. Easy pea-sy.  

And for some people, that works for them just fine. But for me, I want to have a real relationship with my car. I want to listen to the engine, understand what it needs, what I need, and then make the call. Second or third gear, up shift or down shift. That should be up to me. From where I sit, intuition trumps a computer every time. 

Think about it--would you rather have an in-the-flesh pilot flying the 777 on your next vacation, or a scaled up drone on autopilot? Before you answer that, consider Captain Sully landing Flight 1549 in the Hudson River when the plane's engines were taken out by hitting birds in quick succession. I wonder, how long would it have taken for an on-board computer to solve that problem? Would that event have even been a consideration in the programming of the auto-pilot? I'm not so sure. I'd have to image that a plane hitting two birds which take out both engines is pretty low probability, and when it comes to programming autopilots, averages and numbers win out. So you would think that stick shifts would be a hot commodity, wouldn't you? But according to Edmunds.com industry analyst Ivan Drury, stick shifts are on track to be "virtually extinct within the next 15 to 20 years."

So why are is the number of vehicles with manual transmission being both sold and driven in the United States dwindling? Am I alone in all of this? The article above sites several likely culprits: it's more difficult to learn to drive over an automatic, it's annoying in stop-and-go traffic, and manual transmissions are liable to stall on occasion (even for seasoned motorists). 

Now, if I were to be a devil's advocate for just one second, I would make the following arguments. First of all, while manual transmission is more difficult to learn, I contend that it teaches you more about what is going on in the car (and therefore makes you a better motorist). I also must state two highly over-used cliches--"Good things take time" and "If it were easy everyone would do it." Secondly, about the stop-and-go issue, I agree this is annoying (No further questions, your honor). But on the third point, as a driver of many a manual transmission, stalls generally will only happen at a stop. While this is embarrassing, it's not the end of the world. My final, and perhaps most important point: How in the world are we going to make "Fast and the Furious 23" if there are no more manual transmissions left in the U.S? I don't think anyone has considered this. Maybe America just needs to sit down and watch this video. 

You're (almost as) excited as this guy, aren't you?