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Originally Posted by mikeyjd
im leaning toward something a little bigger than a ranger just for utility purposes.
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What part of the truck do you need to be bigger? I've found that if you go with a much bigger truck you end up with worse mileage and needing a step ladder to get in the truck bed, we have a crew cab 4 wheel drive Dodge 1500 at work with the same size bed at the Ford Ranger and the truck bed is over a foot higher up off the ground making it pretty useless, the 4 wheel drive is ok, but it doesn't help you stop any quicker.
We end up using that truck for towing and the truck bed gets used for tossing trash from job sites in.
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but the same concepts could still be applied. I wonder if I could get enough decent batteries cheaply to make that idea pencil out. i'd also have to study how to do an electric drivetrain as it seems like a pretty big hassle at first thought, for how little range you get out of it.
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How much range do you need? how many miles per use and per year are you planing to put on this vehicle?
With lead acid batteries I think you could build the hybrid drive train for around $2,000 with new batteries and a used motor off Ebay, $4,000 to $5,000 with lithium batteries, that might sound like a lot but swapping a diesel engine in to another vehicle is not free, VW TDI engines start at $1,000 and go on up, then you need to shoe horn it in.
I'm also a big fan of trailers, they put the load low to the ground, you can drop the trailer full of cargo and still use the vehicle and when you are not towing your mileage is great!
Of course I'm also a fan of knowing people who own pickup trucks, that way I have options as to what truck I want to use.