If the discussion is light duty trucks then I’d say that most of them around here are 2WD. The 4WD trucks are very popular here due to farm, oil and gas field use, etc but those are 3/4 and 1 tons.
Thank you Dag,was just looking at new trucks on the net(why would anyone string one out for 7 yrs?I dont think a new one is in my future,I havent heard anymore about the Guy that was developing an add on hybrid system for just about anything-the results were promising but it will probaly not happen,its just not in the interest of certain groups for the gas mileage to increase 30-50% on full size vehicles,I dont think they will sale enough 50K diesel trucks to really drive down demand for petroleum even if the price of a barrel of oil was what it should be the fundalmentalists would still be wallowing in money(do a little checking-you would be suprised as to who is on the dole of the biggest OPEC producers,its time we weaned ourselves off of the oil habit and take our country back,its a sad state of affairs when this once mighty nation is steadily being reduced to puppet status.I feel the pince and I bet alot of you all can too,black gold makes certain groups powerful(money talks,BS walks)so Americans its up to you,ride or be free-Kevin
I have also noticed that the parking lots need to be revamped now and respeced,the average vehicle now will just barely squeeze in the parking slots of yore-Kevin
I like the Idea of front wheel drive truck. 90%+ trucks we use would be just fine in this arrangement and actually gains to be had by getting rid of the rear drive-line. http://www.frenchclassiccars.co.uk/citroen-hy-van/
Gotta fundamentally disagree with you
Not to mention that most US drivers don’t want a FWD truck
They stopped selling them years ago, at least in the US
Don’t take this the wrong way, but I think your opinion doesn’t represent the majority
Maybe FWD trucks would be acceptable in other parts of the world or in the U.S. in selected applications but around here they just flat won’t be able to do the job required of most trucks in almost all cases.
The trucks were offered by VW, Dodge, etc, etc; few were buying.
The VWs with the diesel had 0 to 60 times measured in minutes with an empty bed. Throw 800 pounds of junk in the bed and that measurement would require use of a calendar.
Perhaps Guys if a revamped decent FWD truck was availible,maybe the public would accept them,hauling weight has little to do with it,a cat 621 scraper with sideboards will haul around 40 tons with little problem(and its FWD) I think a lot of it has to do with what people are used to,most people in urban areas haul very little in thier “trucks” and boy are the vehicles getting huge nowadays,wait till OPEC lowers the boom again-Kevin
Another thing that bothers me nowadays is the fact,that semis grossing 80K can get 11 mpg.and my little Dodge weighing about 5K is lucky to get 19-20 mpg under ideal conditions,were are the engineers?
Seems to me we need to think outside the box a little-Kevin
Long haul trucking mileage on average is 6.5 mpg from what I read though I am sure some in some situations may do much better. Still, They have very few emission requirements compared to personal vehicles. 6.5 mpg may seem poor but compared to the cargo they carry vs the weight of a car,they do very well.
As far as fwd trucks are concerned, look around at all the trucks used commercially and as emergency vehicles, fire, transportation, etc. and tell us where you see anything but rwd. Physics dictated the best way to carry lots, of passengers, weight and cargo in general.
From the trailer’s point of view, it is a fwd vehicle. Right underneath the fifth wheel are the front driving wheels and they drag around 60k pounds of stuff and more. A fwd pickup would work provided that the rear wheels are located all the way back and the owners don’t have heavy items protruding outside the tail gate.
Dag,truckers I have talked to,do better then that,my RD 690 Mack does at least that good and the truck I was referring to is the experimental rig with all the aero bells and whistles on the level 6.5 is a bit too little ,when you idle and have to drive in an urban ,your mileage goes waydown,as one of my old collegiate friends said “an average tells you nothing” you might live in an area with an average winter temp of say 38 degrees ,then freeze to death when a “clipper” drops it to 23 below zero,
No there is a lot of new technology on the board for OTR trucking a CSX train can move a ton of freight over 400 miles on a gallon of fuel.My little Dodge struggles to average 15 mpg,the aforementioned RD 690 Mack usually averages at least 26 tons(according to certified scales) and I get a pretty good idea of the fuel mileage when I top the tanks everyday,when these things sit and idle and just do short runs on site you can easily go 2-3 days on a hundred gallons(that being said I do not let the truck idle for any extended length of time) so I think " John Q" grade can be a little better,even the 6 wheel heavy duty haulers run in FWD mode most of the time-Kevin
Oh Dag,I missed part of your post,new trucks meet pretty strigent emission requirements(praise the Lord) and Mr Obamas refusal to waive the TIER 4 emission requirements,pretty well put Caterpillar out of the truck engine business any Cat engine you get now for a truck has generally got other manus parts mixed in-Kevin
Would the public be willing to deal with 0 to 60 times of 1 minute plus? The power to weight on the semis puts them in that range. And even the most powerful engines are unable to ascend the 6% grades without downshifting and slowing to <45 mph. If we were willing to deal with significantly less performance might we enjoy 100 mpg?
Hi Kev
You are absolutely right. There is a lot if new stuff on the horizon but as you well know, it takes a while to filter down as most of these beasts are replaced as needed not as wanted. Still, everything will get better. I have felt as far as Toyota is concerned, there are technologies out their like direct injection that they are reluctant to jump into on all vehicles because of the cost and reliability factor. The new Colorado with direct injection v6 gets three more miles per gallon highway then the Toyotas 11 year old v6 truck motor. They could use the dual vvt on the 4Runner and a six speed trans mission and make up the difference without even trying…and still not affect reliability.
And to your point, car engineers balance a lot of factors vs absolute best economy. They seemed well versed with the hybrid but so far, hybrid technology has not caught on with trucks. That plus the price of gasoline is dropping and if it continues, you could see another mini wave toward gas guzzlers, relatively speaking if course.
@chunkyazian
Everyone “arguing” in favor of fwd trucks are continually omitting one factor that completely compromises their use, as it does with ordinary fwd cars when they carry much weight…HILLS.
and flat landers seem completely oblivious to the fact…even lengthening the WB and keeping the weight between them does not alter this fact. On a hill, the percent of the total weight still shifts AWAY from the drive wheels instead if toward them making hill climbing tougher regardless of any magic act you attempt. It’s a lost argument for fwd trucks.
The other factor completely forgotten by fwd advocates is drive train reliability when handling substantial weights. Splitting the burden between a dedicated set of turning wheels and a massive differential on a different axle does much to add long term reliability to every part of a drive train in a rwd vehicle.
and flat landers seem completely oblivious to the fact
I grew up in the Rocky Mountains. I live in flat country now, but consider myself a hostage and will escape back to my mountains as soon as possible. The idea that FWD is bad in the mountains is crazy.
Again, if FWD loses traction in the mountains because of weight shift to the back, then RWD will lose steering in the mountains because of weight shift to the back. And then you will launch yourself off of a cliff because you have plenty of traction and no steering.
That there are not thousands of cars and bodies piled up at the bottoms of mountains indicates that the notion of lost front-wheel grip on a hill has been greatly exaggerated.
Now, if you’re talking about entering a hill climb competition in which contestants try to go up the steepest dirt hill possible, then sure, I’ll grant you that RWD can be an advantage - they don’t have steering when they’re going up, but they don’t care because they don’t need it. On regular mountain roads actually meant for travel by street legal vehicles, it’s not an issue.
As has been said before, unless you are dumb, and load, say, 1,000 pounds of lead onto the tailgate so that the load is behind the rear wheels, you will not lift the front wheels off of the ground by dint of having a load in the bed. I have never seen a pickup bed of any size on any drivetrain configuration that allowed you to easily shift the majority of the vehicle’s weight behind the rear axle.
Plus, to your point about drivetrain reliability, that directly contradicts the idea that you are going to be shifting weight off of the front wheels. If you’re worried about too much weight on the FWD drivetrain, and loading the bed pulled weight off of the front wheels, then heavier loads would increase the drivetrain longevity as it would be subject to less weight. 
Also what seems to be getting glossed over is that you objected to two different concepts: FWD trucks, and small trucks. Not all or even most small trucks are FWD, so those of us who are advocating for small trucks are not necessarily advocating for FWD trucks (because while I do not believe that they have any particular safety hazards associated with them, I also do not believe that FWD is an optimal drivetrain for any vehicle driven by a competent driver).
I prefer RWD myself, but because of the extra control it gives you and not because I’m afraid that I won’t be able to go anywhere if the road curves upward.
@shadowfax
We are talking about trucks. Small trucks is one debate ( I like them personally for some uses) but fwd trucks is another. It doesn’t matter how you load a fwd truck, they are, please read my lips, USELESS ON INCLINES with reduced traction. 
They don’t make fwd trucks because at some point, someone will load er up to the gills, and try to drive up a low traction hill only to loose streeage while the front wheels spinn, then kill himself backing down sideways. They don’t make fwd trucks because loaded, they are dangerous and accidents waiting to happen regardless of the precautions you use…I guarantee my good friend that should you ever go back to the Rockies and someone is foolish enough to market an fwd truck, that will be the farthest from your mind. There are third world exceptions I suppose because in third world countries, they just don’t care about safety.
With rwd, you never loose steerage under power like you do with fwd. this isn’t something we are making up, .this is the entire automotive world saying this ! Drive train reliability carrying heavy loads inerrant in rwd trucks ? Not even a debatable issue. It’s a fact !
Kevin, if you want better gas mileage, buy a new truck. Mileage is up dramatically in the last 3 years.
I agree JT,it will be awhile before I can indulge in the crumbs off the table(if ever)-Kevin
@dagosa First, they do make FWD trucks. Just because something is not sold in the USA does not mean that it is not made, or that it sucks. There are plenty of vehicles that I bet you and I would both agree are fantastic, which are not available here for one reason or another.
I guarantee my good friend that should you ever go back to the Rockies and someone is foolish enough to market an fwd truck, that will be the farthest from your mind.
You’re absolutely right about that, but that’s because I already have a RWD truck, and because I will be so busy rejoicing that I will never see lutefisk again that I probably won’t be thinking about vehicles at all
With rwd, you never loose steerage under power like you do with fwd.
Sure you do. You just lose it under different conditions. Talk to someone with a Lamborghini Countach some time and ask them how well it steers at full throttle. When the front tires get lifted off the ground, you lose steering, no matter what drivetrain you have. The point I’ve been trying to make is that putting a bunch of bricks in a pickup bed is not going to lift the front tires off the ground, and if it did, then it would be dangerous no matter what the drivetrain. RWD does not magically balance weight. If the truck is tipping backwards due to a load, it’s going to do that no matter which wheels are driven.