I certainly can't speak for every landscaper in New England but here in Maine you most commonly see one ton, 4WD, 8' bed, standard cab trucks with a dump body (e.g. Rugby). The primary reason aside from financial considerations is that most landscapers plow snow in the winter and the sander is an easy drop in. Longer wheelbases/beds would unacceptably compromise manueverablity. During the season you need the dump box for mulch, soil and debris.
If I was buying a truck strictly for landscape hauling and had deep pockets I would probably opt for a 10' bed (possibly 12') on something on the order of a 5 or 6 class truck with a standard cab. If you stick to hydraulic brakes you have a larger pool of potential drivers.

I'm not sure what you mean by box dump. Do you mean a short steel sided dump body or a grain truck body?

I'm guessing you mean the steel sided dump body because that is the standard up here. The reason is that most landscapers have to be versatile. They have to be able to haul rocks that will beat the heck out of a grain body. They also use a lot of small skid steer loaders that do not go up very high for loading. They often build wooden boxes on them at clean up time and use big leaf vac loaders.

The biggest reason is the sturdiness of the body. A 1-ton can only hold so much weight, so the limitation is more a result of weight than volume. Another reason is mobility - getting into tight places and maneuvering a trailer.

Cab overs like Isuzu and Mitsubishi are taking over the Ford, GM, and Dodge. They are much more maneuverable.

Yama,
This may have something to do with hiway road compliance.

In what I would call the more 'progressive' states, such as Massachusetts and California , we have road rules that say that any open load in a truck must be covered. This is for the saftey of other drivers.
( Flying objects in your mirror are closer than they seem ,,, (a joke ))

As I am currrently learning , much of the South and areas in the upper mid west have a lot less safety and code compliance rules to abide by.

When one has a box or a truck with side walls it makes it very convenient for the landscaper to cover their load, which is required by law in most states that have the good sense to have some kind of laws on their books.

Additionally, both Massachusetts and California are rather affluent states to work in and consumers in those states are hiring landscapers to do much more in the ways of heavier duty landscaping projects such as masonry.
Any landscaper who does masonry or larger landscape jobs will tell you that a one ton is the minimum size truck to drive if you do this type of work regularly.

I mentioned the snow plowing and "covered load rule" to Mike when we discussed this recently. It's true that sided truckbeds are rare in the deep South, or at least in Georgia. I've never seen more than a few when there, while up here in New England, they far outnumber flat, sideless bedded trucks.

Thank you.
I had ford F450 before. deisel engin was much biger than Isuzu, Nissan,Hino Mitusbishi trucks and more Ford dealers and repair shop are near by.
The Flat bed dump had 12 ton hydaulic pump, I made 4 feet high side. The flat bed dump truck has more cargo space and we don't have snow here.
35 years ago I drove Isuzu 7.5 ton dump truck in Japan which had slightly smaller engin than Ford F450. time to time,I over loading gravel, house manure, then big engine helps.....

30 years ago most 1 ton, 1.5 ton Japanese truck already had exhust brake and paseger car like seat. but I like big Ford 7.3 Deisel engine.

Michell : Thank you ... I have send you e mail and web site of kamakura gardens. Did you get it?
Japanese regulation is much restricted than Cal or Mass.... I am going to miss wide, smooth Georgia roads and many sunny days and warm weather.
I have been thinking Ford F 550 or Mitsubishi, Isuzu.

Green hand:
Thank you for your time to responding to my question.
I visit to Korean Temple and chinese temple reguraly now.
If you need/want to have publication of Buddhism in English I may able to help you. Please visit to Japanese garden forum some time.

laag : Thank you for your time. It was very useful information.
by the way, majority stock holder of Isuzu is GM , Matusda by Ford , Nissan is controled by French campany. my ford F450 engin came from Cannada. ^-^ ..........

Cady :
The side less truck are for delivery, lumber, drywall brick etc, fork lift need to access side of truck to laoding, unlaoding to cargo. Landscaper's truck has side ^-^
I never had 4x4 truck before , cost $4,000 more . It is nice to have 4x4 . I have to figuer it out how I can carry 40 feet long bamboo with short bed truck. any idea ?
mike

Hey, sweetie, "Mitchell/Michael" is really "Michelle," but we call her "Mich" (or "The Whirling Derviss") for short. ;)

To carry 40' bamboo with a short-bed truck, you'll have to cut it in quarters, then re-assemble it later... Just kidding. Even though you didn't see many flat, longbed trucks here, they do exist. You'll see them carrying pre-fab houses or heavy equipment (backhoes, bulldozers). Also, tow operators use them to carry automobiles (instead of towing them). You probably can lease them here. I'll look into that.

Mike: what you do is buy your truck as chassis cab only and then you take it to somewhere like http://www.road-craft.com/Smalltruckshow.html to have a custom made body fitted. The site takes about a year and a half to download but you will get some idea of the possibilities. If you often carry long bamboo poles you may want to have a look at a trailer designed to carry kayaks or have this 'V' shaped thing fitted on your truck. A tipping truck without sides might present some problems when you tip loose material.

Yama, INK is correct about how you would want to proceed. If you go to http://www.rugbymfg.com/ you see what they offer. Under Products you will find their dump bodies with fold down sides which, I think, will give you what you want in terms of side access with forks. Take note of their landscape stake bodies too but as Laag noted the dump bodies hold up much better if you're frequently hauling large stones.
I have not used the cab over trucks. My experience is strictly with GM/Ford/Dodge. I did quickly compare the Isuzu NRR with a Ford 550 and it appears that you gain maneuverability but give up horsepower & torque. The maneuverability issue can be a big one here in New England even if you are not plowing snow. I would be reluctant to spec the F550 with a wheelbase greater than 164.8" (standard cab) as the longer trucks become too unwieldly on many sites. Good luck.

The word that I am hearing on the Ford F450 and F550 is that the engines have the extra power, but the weakness is the transmission. I'm seeing lots of posts on other forums that are rich with landscape contractors.

I hear a lot of happy guys with the diesel cabovers. They like the fuel efficiency, dependability, maneuverability, and ability to see. My brother has a gas powered Isuzu 9' dump or the same thing with the GMC logo (not sure) and a brand new Chevy one ton 10' dump. He is pleased with both, but the Chevy is a pig on gas, it pulls a trailer like it wasn't there. The Isuzu does most of the running around.

I worked with a company that had a big fleet that plowed a few years back with everything from pickups to ten wheelers. They felt like the best performance was their four wheel drive Mitsubishi one ton dumps for ability to push snow for their size.

I have a Isuzu diesel truck - says GMC on the front but the truck is totally Isuzu.

purchased the truck new in 1988 6cyl Isuzu diesel 7 metric tonne payload, now has over 550,000kms, I plan to make a shrine for it in my garden :))

~ian

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1160778}}

Ian,
Nice looking dude in that bed.

I wouldn't be kicking him out of that bed any time too soon

...bet you hear that all the time though.

I have lots of truck bed jokes, but they are not ready for prime time reading.

bottoms up

Whoa. Who chose those colors, man? Major 80s flashback. :)

At the time it seemed like a good idea for the photo.

I think I was in the truck bed to hide the plaid bell bottom pants, might have been a 70's show moment.

~ian

Well, I'd take those colors now that everyone seems to have white trucks. At least there is recognition and identity.