What is the average size of a half-ton pickup truck?

Whether you need it for work or your lifestyle at home, or you just want to have one of the biggest non-commercial vehicles on the road the pickup truck can do your job. A lot of the time when you look at purchasing your first pickup truck you can be intimidated by the size. But that begs the question is this truck just big or are they all that size? The average size of a half-ton (full size) pickup truck is the question we aim to answer in this article.

The average width of a pick truck is  79 inches (6 foot 7 inches). The average height of a pick truck is  75 inches (6 foot 5 inches). The average length of a pick truck is  233 inches (19 foot 5 inches). The average weight of a pick truck is  5000 lbs.

These numbers are just an average and some trucks are going to be bigger or smaller than others in certain areas. To get a clearer picture here is a list of 7 popular trucks with their respective measurements for your reference:.

• Ford F-150: Height ~76in, Width ~80in, Length ~230in, Weight ~4,800lbs
• Honda Ridgeline: Height ~71in, Width ~79in, Length ~210in, Weight ~4,200lbs
• GMC Sierra: Height ~76in, Width ~81in, Length ~235 in, Weight ~4,900lbs
• Nissan Titan: Height ~75.9in, Width~80in, Length ~228in, Weight ~5,600lbs
• Ram 1500: Height ~78in, Width ~82in, Length ~235 in, Weight ~5,000lbs
• Toyota Tundra: Height ~77in, Width~80in, Length ~238in, Weight ~5,400lbs
• Chevy Silverado: Height ~77in, Width ~81in, Length ~235in, Weight ~4,700lbs

7 Popular Half-Ton Pickup Trucks

Ford F-150:

The F-150 is the best selling vehicle of all time for the last 3 decades and has been the best selling pickup for 4. In its largest engine, this machine gets 450 horsepower and a towing capacity of up to 8,000 pounds. Without a haul, it can achieve up to 22 mpg in the city and 28 mpg on the highway. The 2020 version will cost you from $28,745 to $35,285 depending on the version that you want. It features automatic high beams so you won’t be blinding the drivers around you if you forget to turn them off.

Chevrolet Silverado:

Chevy’s most popular pickup truck by far and away is the Silverado. Depending on the version it will achieve up to 420 horsepower with a towing capacity of 9,800 pounds with the right package. Empty it can get you 23 mpg in the city and 33 on the highway. A new Silverado will cost you between $28,300 and $34,600 based on your cab size and features Adaptive Cruise Control with a camera to keep you a safe distance from other drivers.

Honda Ridgeline:

Honda came onto the pickup scene with the Ridgeline in 2005 and since then has made some significant improvements to their model. This truck is on the lower side on horsepower with around 280 which is not made up for with their mileage as it gets a 19 in the city and 26 on the highway mpg. The towing capacity is up to a maximum of 5,000 pounds with the price running between $33,900 and $36,670. 2020 is the first time we will see a nine-speed transmission in the Ridgeline instead of the more common six-speed.

GMC Sierra:

From GMC we get the Sierra 1500. It brings up to 420 horsepower to the table and an excellent mpg of 23 in the city and 30 on the highway. If you select for the option you’ll be able to tow up to 9,800 pounds. The Sierra sits in the middle of the pack on price with $29,600 on the low and $35,900 at the top end. This truck features a corner step on the rear bumper to make it easier to get in and out of the bed.

Nissan Titan:

The Titan is Nissan’s offering to the world of trucks and has been around since 2003. This truck will get 400 hp and a fuel economy of 16 mpg for city and 22 for the highway. It has the highest base towing capacity on the list with 9,210 and can be improved to 9,400 pounds with a package selection. Titan’s will run you $36,190 to $38,890 and come with Nissan’s “Safety Shield 360” as a standard option.

Ram 1500:

From Dodge, you get the Ram 1500. Ram’s best selling truck will get you up to 395 hp with 22 mpg in the city and 32 on the highway. The towing capacity will reach up to 7,730 pounds with their towing package installed. The Ram is middle of the pack when it comes to price with $32,145-$34,945 being the range. It features a multi-function tailgate that opens in a variety of ways to make it easier to get your load into your bed.

Toyota Tundra:

Toyota’s full-size pickup truck is called the Tundra,  with a maximum output of 381 horsepower and a max towing capacity of 10,200 pounds it has one of the best ratios on the market. This does sacrifice the mileage as it only gets 13 mpg in the city and 18 on the highway, by far the worst of our list. It will cost between $33,575 and $37,850 and come with a deck rail system with four adjustable tie-down cleats.

Does bigger mean more hauling capacity?

If you are looking to get a pickup to do some work for you the question of hauling capacity will inevitably cross your mind at some point. This can lead people to question whether or not to get a bigger truck because it makes logical sense. The bigger the vehicle the more it can haul right?

By looking at some of the specifications of the trucks we have gone over we find that this is not the case:

• The two biggest trucks on our list have lower towing hauling capacities than the Ford F-150
• The Honda Ridgeline has the worst hauling capacity at 1,586 pounds
• Size of the bed and type of engine have a greater impact on hauling capacity than the size of the truck
• The capacities listed are the maximum that these trucks can do
• The base packages fluctuate a bit on who has the best hauling capacity

Bed length greatly affects hauling capacity: The factor that makes the most impact on a pickup truck’s hauling capacity is the size of the bed. It stands to reason that the larger area you have to pack things into the more weight it is going to be able to haul.

How does size affect towing performance?

 

Towing is different than hauling: it means you are pulling something behind your truck as opposed to putting the weight directly into the bed and thus relying on the truck to bear that weight. This is another common concern amongst people that want to buy a pickup truck.

This question actually arrives at an interesting conclusion. As previously stated one of the biggest trucks on the list is the Toyota Tundra. It also has the best towing capacity by far and away with a maximum of over 10,000 pounds. Something no other truck on the list can achieve with their half-ton models.

Smaller trucks can have worse towing capacity: Similarly to the hauling capacity the smallest truck, the Ridgeline, has the worst towing capacity with the mark set at only 5,000 pounds.

This point, however, does not hold true for the rest of our trucks, given that again the F-150 beats the Ram by nearly 300 pounds but remaining smaller and lighter than the Ram.

This would suggest that something else entirely is more responsible for towing capacity than the size of the truck involved that is making a greater impact on this overall towing capacity.

There are other contributing factors to towing capacity: By having a quick look at the torque outputs from some of our popular trucks on the list it is easy to see that it has a much more significant effect on the towing capacity than any other aspect of the truck’s features.

Conclusion

Pickup trucks are the best-selling motor vehicle in America and have been for quite some time, it also does not appear that the trend will be breaking anytime-either with newer and better trucks being produced every year.

The average size of half-ton pickup trucks is just over six feet tall, over six and a half feet wide, nineteen and a half feet long and weigh in at around 5,000 pounds. Most half-ton trucks do conform fairly well to these averages

Regardless of the similar size all of these trucks have some significant differences in things like mpg, hauling and towing capacity, and pricing.

The size of the pickup truck does not come into play when looking at these specifics and is mostly going to be an afterthought when looking at purchasing a truck unless you have a personal preference.