Thoughts on the Cap

Between Zack and me, the cap is a hotly contested subject. You see, on my Toyota, I have a cap and I love it. I can’t imagine living without it. Zack, being from the South and thus being concerned with maintaining his farm boy image does not have a cap on his Chevy. I would never argue that a cap looks better than a bare bed. At best, a good cap can be acceptable. At worst, it can make a nice lookin' truck ugly and an ugly truck hideous. For an example of the latter take this step-side Ford Ranger:

Now I realize, of course, that the designers of this cap had quite the challenge before them: designing a cap for an already hideous truck with just weird lines. And perhaps they did their best to incorporate the flare of the step-side into the cap. Despite all of this though, their cap is still unforgivably ugly.

But let us ponder, for a moment the very idea of putting a cap on a step-side truck. The point of a step-side is to allow easy access to stuff at the front of the bed. You can stand on the step and get to your toolbox or whatever. You see the conflict I’m getting at? I suppose that Ford does refer to their step-side trucks as “style-side”, so perhaps this owner bought the truck thinking that it looked good. It doesn’t.

It’s hardly difficult to find examples of nice looking trucks that have been ruined by hideous caps. Here’s a typical example:

In my last post, I condemned the “Maryland truck” for having a cap. That’s because, even I, a true believer in the cap, believe that caps just do not belong on some trucks. Any four door, for example, becomes an SUV when you throw a cap on it. Who hasn’t caught a glimpse of a four dour F-250 with a cap and not for a few seconds thought he was looking at an Excursion? In a lot of ways a cap can strip a truck of its “truckiness” for lack of a better word.

But who can argue against the utility of a cap on a compact or midsize truck? I’m talking, of course about your Tacomas, Frontiers, and Rangers. These are trucks that already have been stripped of their “truckiness”. I think a nice cap on a 4X4 fits well. It says “no I’m not using this truck on the farm, but I’m still using the hell out of it”. A cap adds a certain practicality to the casual truck owner.

I know I made fun of the “Maryland truck” for being practical, but that was because of the sheer irony of turning a heavy duty work truck into a suburbanite's mall runner. Putting a cap on a compact adds practicality to a compact truck that is appropriate for its size. No one that owns a foreign made compact truck is trying to prove anything. He owns it because he needs a truck, and wants to be practical at the same time. A cap just fits.

Perhaps Zack will counter this or at least lend some thought to this debate…