Sunday, November 2nd, 2008
Most people who buy pickup trucks are interested in the ability to haul cargo easily. Many are farmers, construction workers, movers, or otherwise. But how many times have you been speeding down the highway or interstate only to come up on a pickup truck and realize that the driver has not properly secured the cargo he or she is carrying? Unsecured cargo has been the cause of many fatality and non-fatality accidents, and these accidents were completely preventable.
What is the best way to secure cargo in the bed of a pickup? Here are some tips.
For only $60, Isuzu sells a Bed Web Net made of a tough elastic material and designed to stretch. The mount hardware is included and installation is easy. The net keeps cargo from flying out or sliding out of the back even during hard stops or fast turns.
Buy a bed extender. Designed for the Isuzu truck, the Bed Extender, made of steel, retails for well under $300 and gives pickup owners additional truck bed length. This particular bed extender has the ability to swing in to provide a contained cargo area as well.
Bed Covers work well too. Many pickup models also can be accessorized with bed covers that not only keep cargo inside, but help to hide it and prevent theft as well.
Cargo Sports Bags are another option. These are often used in SUVs as well and do an excellent job of keeping smaller items from rolling around or flying out of pickup truck cargo beds.
It’s also important to keep in mind that using these precautions, as well as others will protect the cargo itself. When hauling cargo, it’s important to drive more cautiously than normal and make slow, steady turns. The added weight of your load can make turning more difficult and brakes may not respond as quickly or efficiently as when driving without cargo.
Every pickup truck has cargo weight guidelines. It’s extremely important to obey these guidelines. While it might not be simple to actually weigh the load you plan to haul, it is better to err on the side of caution if estimating. Hauling additional weight beyond the manufacturer’s guideline can significantly increase your chance of an accident or damage to your vehicle. There is also a chance you could be ticketed by law enforcement for hauling a load heavier than your pickup is designed to carry.
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Saturday, October 25th, 2008
According to the Ohio Department of Safety, there are more than 200 deaths each year in the U.S. associated with riding in the cargo area of pickup trucks. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that pickup truck occupants are three times more likely to be involved in rollover crashes than in other types of vehicles. The largest number of vehicle fatalities and injuries are caused by rollover crashes.
Are pickups simply not as safe as cars and SUVs? It turns out that the fatality rates have little to do with a pickup’s design. They have more to do with the use of safety belts. While safety belt laws have consistently become more stringent in all 50 states over the past ten years, according to the NCSA, only 69% of occupants in pickups were wearing safety belts by June 2003, compared to 81% of passenger car occupants and 83% of SUV and van occupants. The Ohio Department of Public Safety reports that your chance of surviving a crash in a motor vehicle is 25 times higher if seatbelts are used.
Theories abound about the reason pickup truck occupants are less likely to practice seatbelt use, thus increasing their own risk. For many who are using their pickup trucks for work (hauling and farming), the drivers tend to drive short distances and get in and out of the vehicle often. Throughout the course of the day, putting the seatbelt on and taking it off could be considered cumbersome. Another theory is that some families, particularly living in rural areas, use their older model pickups as the vehicle used for family outings. Because many of these pickups do not have adequate room for all the passengers inside the cab, some of the passengers travel in the cargo area. While this is illegal in many states and restricted to speed conditions and age of the passengers in other states, it still happens.
Fortunately, newer model pickup trucks have been designed with passenger safety and convenience in mind. For example, the popular Isuzu truck offers a 3-passenger 60/40 split-bench front seat with integrated outboard head restraints and the Isuzu i-370 Crew Cab offers rear 3-point seatbelts and 3-point middle seatbelt for passenger protection. Also ford truck is an good example.
If you’re driving an older model pickup truck, you are urged to consider after-market upgrades to make your vehicle more safe for passengers, or to consider purchasing or leasing a newer model pickup.
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Tuesday, October 21st, 2008
If you’re in the market for a pickup truck for sale because you need a pickup, that is… you’re going to put it to the test and need something tougher and roomier than an SUV, it’s important to take a look at the warranties on competing models. Truck warranties cover four aspects of the vehicle: Basic Warranty, Drivetrain, Rust, and Roadside . comparing four popular trucks with regards to each of these warranty components: Dodge Dakota, Toyota Tacoma, Isuzu i-370, and the Ford Ranger. Here’s what they found out:
Basic Warranty. Three years of coverage or up to 36,000 miles is the industry standard and covers the average lease, making all four candidates dependable with the Dakota, Ranger, and Tacoma coming in on par. The Isuzu i-370, however, comes out ahead in this category, with the Isuzu Basic Warranty covering three years or up to 50,000 miles. This is important if you do a considerable amount of driving or hauling and plan to put on more than 12,000 miles a year.
Drivetrain. This is the biggie because engine components are expensive to replace and quite frankly, you can’t continue to drive the truck if they aren’t functional like you could with most exterior component failures. Isuzu proves superiority in this category as well with 7-year, 75,000 mile powertrain coverage. The Tacoma and Ranger lag significantly with their 5-year, 60,000 mile warranties, and Dodge truck brings up the rear with its considerably inferior 3-year, 36,000 mile coverage.
Rust. Now this may not mean a whole lot unless you live in an area of the country where the seasons can be less than friendly on your car, or if you tend to do a lot of city driving on salted streets in winter. If either of those situations apply, rust prevention should be a priority. In this arena, all four vehicles run neck and neck with Isuzu’s corrosion limited warranty slightly more impressive than the others. Dodge offers a 5-year, 100,000 miles warranty for the Dakota while Isuzu gives car owners an extra year with 6-years or 100,000 miles rust-free. Toyota truck and Ford truck won’t cover as long as Isuzu will. They offer five years only, with unlimited mileage (which doesn’t account for a whole lot since corrosion is associated with time and not the number of miles the truck drives).
Roadside Assistance. The winner, again, Isuzu with a 7-year, 75,000 mile roadside assistance package. A full four years longer than the Dakota’s 3-year and 36,000 mile guarantee. Ford provides assistance for the Ranger for five years or 60,000 miles. And we had trouble finding the Tacoma’s roadside assistance package on Toyota’s website, so we aren’t even sure one is offered.
All in all, Isuzu seems to stand behind its i-370 (and i-290) by extending its warranties beyond those of its competitor—always a good sign when trying to determine if a vehicle will withstand the additional wear and tear pickups tend to endure. If you’re not going to push the truck to its limit, the Ford and Toyota’s warranty packages will probably prove to be sufficient. The biggest red flag, in our opinion, is Dodge Dakota’s extremely limited drivetrain warranty which could very easily equate to big expenses down the line.
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Thursday, October 16th, 2008
Recent media attention on the number of highway fatalities caused by semi-trucks has many people asking whether our roads are indeed ’safe.’ A fully loaded truck for sale, like the one that slammed into the back of another truck on California’s I-5 last month can do an intense amount of damage. In that particular accident, three people were killed and at least ten more injured when the truck entering the 550-foot underpass crashed into the truck in front, causing a massive pile-up and ultimately, an explosion.
This isn’t the first time the safety of sharing our roads with oversized semi-trailer trucks has been questioned. Trucking industry practices are continuously being reformed to address the number of fatalities these vehicles cause, including reducing the amount of time a truck driver is allowed to drive without a break, instituting new methods of driver payment that do not include “paid-by-the-mile” incentives, and adding more highway patrol officers designated to specifically crack down on truck drivers that don’t keep proper log books or break traffic laws. But is it enough?
So what can you do to protect yourself and your families?
The trucking industry isn’t going anywhere any time soon, and while we can hope that some of these measures begin to drastically reduce the number of highway deaths, now is the time to make sure you’re driving the safest vehicles you possibly can.
Even the safest vehicles may not be able to stand up to a collision with a semi, but there are certain vehicles that tend to fare better than others. First, SUVs and pickup trucks for sale generally keep their occupants safer than passenger cars when in collisions. While other factors obviously dictate how well passengers will be protected in a crash, such as the type of crash, the rate of speed the vehicles were moving, and the passive safety features installed on the vehicles, SUVs and pickups tend to be heavier and therefore sustain less damage.
Other key factors to examine are the active and passive safety features of your vehicle. For example, while most SUVS offer dual stage airbags (the type that protect occupants from rear-end and head-on collisions by preventing contact with the dash and steering column), the Isuzu Ascender 5-Passenger also sports head-curtain side-impact airbags that protect the body from injuries caused by rolling or side-impacts. Taking the time to compare the safety features of your vehicle to the available safety features in models that are known for safety (like Isuzu and Volvo) will give an indication of deficits in your vehicles safety system.
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Sunday, October 12th, 2008
The Chevrolet Colorado was introduced in the market in 2004 to replace the Chevrolet S10 and the GMC Sonoma model of mid-sized pick-ups manufactured by General Motors. This is a product of collaboration with Isuzu trucks, the company that helped in designing this versatile truck. The Japanese car-maker began selling its own version of the truck in the last quarter of 2005 as its I-series of trucks.
Chevy Colorado is based on the GMT355 platform designed by General Motors of North America, General Motors Brazil and Isuzu. GMT355 was also used as the basis for the Hummer H3’s GMT345 platform.
The patriots camped at the General Motors assembly plants must be thinking of a non-conventional strategy to beat their Japanese rivals. Getting the support of their rival’s own rivals - does that make a sense? Good thinking! But don’t be caught with a spy in your bed. Show them you’ve got that loyalty badge from the patriots - a blue-topped keychain designed just for Colorado owners.
Colorado is available in both manual and automatic transmissions and in either two wheel-drive or four wheel-drive variants. Standard models are powered with a 2.8L LK514 engines, but a power packed variant sports a 3.5L L52 I5 engine - known as Z71 or the 4-door version of both Chevy and General Motors Corporation model (the Canyon). The Z71 later evolved as the LT2 and LT3. There is a ZQ8 edition featuring a lower and road-tunes sport suspension, which sports 17-inch wheels and beautifully designed bumper. So-called Xtreme editions of the ZQ8 have 18-inch wheels.
The US sales of the Colorado and the Canyon peaked in 2005 at 163,204 units, surpassing the Ford Ranger by almost 35% and just 3.3% behind the new best-seller Toyota Tacoma. In 2006, however, while still leading the Ford pickup truck for sale by 27.5%, Colorado and Canyon’s sales lagged their Toyota competitor’s by almost 34%.
So Colorado owners, get your Chevy Colorado Keychains to show them you are riding on a non-conventional truck, a secret warfare designed to steal technology from the land of the rising sun. Priced at $6.99, designs are available in Circular Chrome plates, Leather topped with Silver, Leather topped with Gold and an Oval Metal variant. All designs feature a blue crystallite dome embossed printed in faint gold scripts bearing the Chevy logo and model name “Colorado”.
The 2008 Colorado maintained its original hardworking stance. A regular cab, extended cab and crew cab variants are available. The 4×4 pickup trucks for sale models are equipped with the Insta-Trac, an automated system where you can easily shift from 2WD, 4×4 low to 4×4 high with just a touch of a button conveniently located at the panel board. As a standard on Z71 variants, the powerful, efficient and durable Vortec 3.7L I-5 engines truly lives on Colorado’s “Work Harder, Play Harder” marketing tag.
The hardworking features of the Chevrolet Colorado trucks are balanced with a powerful Radio Data System compatible radio and music entertainment platform with an in-dash 6-disc CD change. Your remote keyless entry control replaces the key in your elegant keychain this time.
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Friday, October 3rd, 2008
Several pickup trucks, however, already have a leg up on the competition. Specifically, Isuzu truck its two high-performance pickups: the i-290 and i-370. Both models offer a wide variety of safety features you might only expect to find on a Sport Utility.
The first and perhaps most important, is the Electronic Traction Control option which also includes Automatic Locking Rear Differential. The feature helps provide more controlled acceleration on slippery surfaces and in severe weather conditions by reducing engine power to reduce wheel spin. Another features is the pickup’s push-system that allows the driver to shift from 2-wheel-drive to 4-wheel drive on-the-fly. Anti-Lock Braking Systems are a must when it comes to safety and Isuzu’s pickups offer 4-wheel anti-lock brakes to reduce wheel lockup on slippery surfaces when the need to brake hard arises. Daytime running lights and a tire pressure monitoring system also make Isuzu pickup truck safer than many competitors. The pickups also sport Head-Curtain Side Impact Airbags and an automatic Airbag Suppression System in the event that an accident should occur.
By comparison, here’s a list of the pickup trucks that made the list of the Top 20 Most Dangerous: the Ford Ranger truck and Mazda B-Series truck which doesn’t offer stability control, side airbags or curtain airbags; the Nissan Frontier (Extended Cab) ; and the Dodge Dakota 4-door pickup . A few SUVs also made the list like the Nissan Xterra, and the remainder was populated by very small economy cars such as the Saturn ION and Mazda3.
While the trend is typically to make vehicles safer by adding both passive and active safety features, the reality is that certain cars tend to fare better in accidents than others. Small, lightweight cars are no match in a collision with an SUV for sale even if they possess enhanced safety features. While pickup trucks tend to fare better than cars in SUV collisions, it’s evident from the aforementioned study that many pickup truck manufacturers simply aren’t adding valuable safety features to their pickup lines in the way they are on SUVs.
Pickup truck enthusiasts shouldn’t have to compromise safety to drive the vehicles they love. Demanding SUV safety features be added either as standard or optional to pickups is the first step. Purchasing pickup trucks for sale that have these features – like the Isuzu i-370 or i-290 – will entice others in the automotive industry to follow suit and soon, pickups will be as safe as SUVs.
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