Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
Adding a custom look to your truck is a great way to make it uniquely your own. When you can add functionality and flair to your pickup, it is a winning combination. Adding bed rails offer you the chance to do exactly that. What kinds are available you ask? Below, you’ll find the information that you need.
There are two dominant styles, though you will find others on the market. Before you decide what style you want, you will need to determine what your exact needs are. For example, if you have a tool box that extends over the sides of the bed, you will need to find a set that can be made to accommodate this. If you have an extended bed, you will also need to find the appropriate rail length. The same applies to short beds. Thankfully, there are a wide diversity of truck bed rails available for the different brands of trucks. Two are described below.
Drill Style Truck Bed Rails
These are the sportiest of the lot with additional areas for tie down attachment or handgrips for riders in the back of the truck and do not extend the entire length of the bed. Rather, they fall just shy of the last stake pocket. Usually, you will have to drill mounting holes in the top of the bedside to accommodate mounting. They offer a great look and are made from 16 or 18 gauge steel.
Stake Pocket Rails
These do extend the entire length of your truck bed and mount in the last stake pocket. Usually, there is no drilling involved in mounting, though some brands and styles will require it, especially for extra “flex” plates or base plates for added rigidity. Made of 16 or 18 gauge steel like drill style bed rails, this style is available in chrome or powder coated finishes giving you a nice variety of choices.
Customizing bed rails is also possible through some manufacturers offering a laser etching or engraving process. If you are particularly proud of you truck, you should add some personality by sporting the logo or emblem of your favorite brand. Ford, Chevy, GMC, Dodge, or another brand.
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Tuesday, May 6th, 2008
Domestic automakers found themselves on the wrong side of the market in April, as consumers shunned pickups and SUVs for fuel-efficient cars.
Truck sales last month fell by double digits at GM, Ford and Chrysler as gas prices pushed near $4 a gallon. Considering that Detroit’s Big Three are heavily into pickups and sport-utility vehicles, this pushed overall sales down 16 percent at GM, 12 percent at Ford and 23 percent at Chrysler.
Trucks also were down at Toyota and Nissan, but the Japanese Big Three, including Honda, build more cars, sales of which rose in April, giving all three gains for the month.
“What we did not count on is oil being nearly $120 barrel,” Mike DiGiovanni, GM’s sales and market analyst, said in a conference call with analysts and media. “It caused a significant shift [in buying habits] that came very quickly.”
Nearly 47 percent of GM’s sales last month were cars; at Ford it was 40 percent, both up from last year. Cars accounted for 62 percent of Toyota’s business; 65 percent at Nissan. A computer problem prevented Honda from releasing its numbers, but the company estimated a 6 percent increase on the strength of its Fit and Civic small cars and the midsize Accord.
Gas prices are limiting consumers’ ability to afford large vehicles and forcing businesses to defer purchases of large pickups, which were down nearly 25 percent at GM and 21 percent at Ford.
Toyota’s Tundra full-size pickup suffered its first decline since the current model was introduced in February 2007. Toyota said it had about an 85-day supply of Tundras, double what is usual, and has slowed production in Princeton, Ind., and San Antonio.
“We have to adjust too,” said Toyota Senior Vice President Don Esmond, citing a 15 percent decline in pickup sales in the first quarter. “But we haven’t laid anyone off at either plant and have no plans to.”
Erich Merkle, an analyst with industry forecaster IRN Inc., said the domestic automakers weren’t blind to the need for smaller, fuel-efficient vehicles, but he said it was hard for GM and Ford to switch to small cars when both were racking up profits on truck sales of more than 1 million annually apiece.
“How do you stop producing what the market wants, especially when, until recently, it was difficult for them to make any money on small cars produced in the United States,” Merkle said.
But a government mandate to increase fuel economy to an industry average of 35 miles per gallon by 2020 shifts the focus to cars.
Ford is responding with plans to build the Fiesta, its new global subcompact, in the U.S. for sale starting in 2010. GM will introduce 14 new or refreshed products in the next 18 months, with 13 cars or crossovers.
In the past, consumers spooked by high gas prices returned to large vehicles once the pain at the pump eased. The jury’s out on whether that will happen again.
Ford sees pickups stabilizing at 11 percent to 12 percent of the total vehicle market, down from a peak of more than 14 percent in 2000.
“The consumers who still are buying pickup trucks really need a truck,” said Jim Farley, Ford sales and marketing chief.
If gas drops to less than $3, Merkle thinks consumers will behave the same as before. “People will forget very quickly,” he said. “We had the same problem in the early 1980s.”
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