American trucks are nearly the same size as WWII tanks

Monday, 26 July 2021

Trucks like the Ford F-150 are roughly the same size as the tanks sent into battle during World War II.

Ever heard the phrase “Yank tank”? Well, it turns out that might not be too far from the truth in some ways.

Graphic designer, Andy Arthur, took to Twitter recently to compare the size of a 2021 Ford Ranger Wildtrak with a World War II-era Sherman tank and found that there’s really not much in it between the two, at least in terms of length. Obviously, the Sherman is taller and would weigh a lot more.

He also compared the Ranger, the BMW X7 and the Range Rover Autobiography, discovering that they are roughly 90 per cent the length, 80 per cent of the width and 70 per cent of the height and footprint of a “common, mid-war, mid-range WWII tank”.

But, speaking to Motherboard, Arthur said he only concentrated on vehicles sold in the UK, rather than the behemoths sold State-side.

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Motherboard compares the size of North American trucks to World War II tanks.

Discarding obvious differences like weight and gun length, as well as power/performance, Motherboard compared the more well-known WWII tanks (the American M4 Sherman, the German Panzer Mk III, and the Soviet T-34-85) with the top-selling light-duty pick-up trucks and large SUVs in America.

As you can see, there really isn’t much difference. All vehicles compared were close to one another, with the T-34 tank being the smallest.

The Ford F-150, Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra all measured around the same length as the M4 Sherman. The SUVs were also comparable in size to the WWII death dealers.

However, the three tanks were all wider and taller than the passenger vehicles.

“I think it says a lot of people just don't care so long as they feel they/their family are ‘protected’ and hang the others,” Arthur told Motherboard.

“And much like tanks got ever bigger and heavier and more powerful to protect their occupants from other tanks, so SUVs are doing exactly the same.”

So, Yank tanks driving like tanks? Not so much a metaphor anymore, it seems. It’s also interesting to see that the Ranger (and by association, other utes like the Hilux, Triton, BT-50 and D-Max) aren’t all that far behind.