It’s like choosing to drive a tractor around. Those F150 are great machines in circumstances where they are needed, but to go food shopping, you don’t need that. I have a RAV4 hybrid (my work requires a large trunk space, and I have kids and a dog) and I get 50mpg and people are amazed compared to 12mpg of their truck. Go figure.

I haul more stuff with my little 4x8 utility trailer and small hybrid than most of the big F150 people around me. I routinely get full loads of compost from the municipal dump.

My parents used to have a 2008 dodge Durango that they were told would be good enough to haul their 3500 lb camper. (Needed 7 seats for 5 kids + them)

This thing did not do well hauling the camper. It struggled going up the mountains where we vacationed and it struggled just as bad coming back down because the brakes couldn't handle the dead weight.

Now us kids have grown up and moved out and they got an F150 that hauls their new camper, about the same weight (3700 lb) like it's not even back there.

I think there's a lot more to it than how much weight the car can actually pull. But I couldn't say since I'm not that knowledgeable.

I've seen plenty of small "Euro-sized" cars pull fully loaded horse trailers, so I suspect weight is not much of an issue. You need to get power on the road, and for that bulkyness of the frame is hardly the main factor.

Are they? As caravans are quite popular in Europe, I can't imagine we are missing something in a lighter caravan, so who do Americans have in theirs that makes the heavier?