…but we wish it would.

Short-bed single-cab pickup trucks were the foundation of hot rod pickups. Proportionally they were truck tough and car cool. Anyone hot rodding a long-bed pickup was considered a “farmer,” not that being a farmer is a bad thing. It was a derogatory slam on long-beds. And speaking of slam, no hot rod truck was any good unless it was slammed. From experience, we can tell you a slammed pickup was still plenty functional. But those days have been gone for decades. This is now way too cool for Ram trucks to ever make.

We still see cool pickup trucks in Cali but…

Living in Cali, we still see lowered new trucks, but the proportions now look truncated. And the huge wheel openings take a wheel and tire so big they look like they came off of a big rig. But look at this Abimelec Design rendering of a new Ram pickup the way we wish we could make them. 

What’s up with the “Lil Red Express Truck?” It was a limited-edition Dodge pickup back in the late-1970s. What Abimelec Design has done is to take the same concept and apply it to a pickup configuration Ram no longer makes. It’s their latest 1500, it is just that you can’t get it as a single cab or with a short bed. The good news is you could fashion one if you’re willing to cut up a brand new 1500.

You would have to really cut up a Ram 1500 to get this way too cool pickup

We mean radically cut one up. At this point, Ram is not even offering the 1500 as an extended cab which is strange. It’s either a crew cab or it’s off to Ford or Chevy you go. Or Toyota and Nissan. Chevy doesn’t even make a single cab in the US. It does make one for the Arab Emirates though. 

It just seems that traditionally trucks came as either single cabs or crew cabs until the 1980s when extended cabs showed up. You would think that with as popular as pickup trucks are Ram would offer different configurations to capture as much market share as possible. But it doesn’t. It’s playing this game where it makes the current 1500 and the previous version of the Ram pickup called Classic. The Classic offered an extended cab and regular cab in 2019 but it seems that those have been cut leaving only the crew cab, again. 

The pandemic is killing the chances for Ram to ever consider a single cab pickup

Unfortunately, with the coronavirus screwing up many aspects of vehicle manufacturing and marketing, the choices will be less than before January 2020. Those trucks and SUVs that are most popular will get the most manufacturing preference. 

Before the uncertainties of the pandemic, it was hoped that as manufacturers cut sedans from their lineups they would try to offer more pickup and SUV choices. This would allow them to make up for the killed sedans. In that atmosphere, there was a chance to maybe see a single cab pickup. As it stands now that looks like an impossibility.

For now, we’ll hang the Abimelec Design Lil Express rending on our wall

For now, we’ll have to enlarge the Abimelec Design rendering and stick it on the wall. This will satisfy what many hot rod truck guys and gals wish we could still buy; a single cab short bed pickup we could lower and customize to our pleasure. Yeah, we know those days are gone, but that doesn’t mean they might not return someday.