Big pickups always cast long shadows. But they loom especially large these days as growing truck sales suggest increasing grass-roots confidence in the economy.
Sales of full-size pickups - which plummeted three years ago in the depths of the recession - were up 10.9 percent in the U.S. through July, or by nearly 100,000 trucks.
"A paint contractor can't run his business out of the back of a car," said Pat Lobb, who owns Pat Lobb Toyota and Scion of McKinney, Texas.
The recent low point for pickups came in 2009, when sales fell nearly 50 percent in the U.S., to 1.1 million.
They have risen steadily since then and are on pace to hit 1.7 million this year - a 54 percent increase over three years.
The resurgence has been spurred largely by people who need to replace aging pickups or those attracted to the new trucks' better fuel economy.
"You've seen the data that the average vehicle in the U.S. is more than 11 years old," said Doug Scott, truck group marketing manager at Ford Motor Co. "On the truck side, the average age is 12.7 years. We have a lot of people who have deferred and deferred and can't defer a purchase any longer."
Ford and other manufacturers welcome the bounce back. Pickups remain some of their most profitable vehicles, with high-end versions generating profi ts of $10,000 or more, analysts say.
They also sell in volume. For decades, the Ford F-Series and Chevrolet Silverado have been the best-selling vehicles of any kind in the U.S.
Moreover, the renewed truck momentum may continue through at least next year, some analysts say.
All of the domestic automakers have invested heavily in new engines and transmissions to improve pickup economy, giving potential buyers another reason to buy now.
Ford's entry-level V-6- powered truck is rated at a segment-best 17 miles per gallon in the city and 23 on the highway - or roughly a 20 mpg average.
Ram says its 2013 pickup arriving this fall will top that, thanks to a new V-6 engine, eight-speed transmission and better aerodynamics.
"Traditionally, any uptick in pickup sales will be seen as a harbinger of improvement in the economy," said Jesse Toprak, vice president of market intelligence for Truecar.com. "Businesses generally make better buying decisions than consumers. They wouldn't be buying if they couldn't make a pretty solid case for doing so."
Although Toprak expected truck sales to be even stronger, he thinks they probably hit their highest market share this year in August - something in excess of 10.5 percent.
"We're just marching up," said Scott of Ford trucks. "We think, long term, that fullsize trucks will get back to around 2 million sales. That would be the fourth-largest segment in the industry."
Most of the sales appear to be for well-equipped midlevel trucks. But Ford and Ram are getting buyers at the high end as well, where prices start at $40,000.
"We are hitting it in the high end and hitting it in the middle," said Fred Diaz, CEO of Ram Trucks. "When we opened up the Laramie Limited for orders, we sold out in three days."
For the most part, General Motors' Chevrolet and GMC - which have some of the oldest trucks in the segment - have not prospered as much as Ford and Ram.