...... Domestic trucks are garbage. You could not give me a domestic 3/4 ton or 1 ton pickup unless it was to sell for parts or scrap.
....Long rant...
Gosh I'm sorry I got you so worked up.
Very interesting to learn your opinion of what you have available over there; I had no idea they had gone downhill that badly. In France even the modern stuff is portrayed as indestructible, reliable and exotic (a friend sold her Suburban for almost twice what it was worth in the States - shipped free as part of the work contract).
Funny thing is the Jap and Korean small cars here are much much better than anything the french motor industry can cough up (the french don't know how to make big ones-they're just incapable).
So the Orient wins on reliability; however you did identify Dana axles, Allison gearbox and the Cummins motor as good things to come out of the American motor industry; is there not a platform that already combines all of these good elements onto which a Jap cab could be grafted?
I can see how homebuilt is an attractive idea, if you have the skills.
Do the big US products have open or closed section chassis? Open section chassis are astonishingly twisty. So much so that you can articulate like a 4-point on simple leaf springs, but it does make the vehicle feel "loose" compared to a closed section chassis.
*more virtual beer here please!*
The Rally Fighter Open Source design project actually produced a fun vehicle; I wonder if there's a market for an open source forward control daily drive adventure vehicle.
The size and configuration of the Tatra 805 is actually pretty good too. Bigger than the tiny Pinzgauer, (which is a direct copy of the T805) a modern version would be a good size to play with - about the same width as a Fuso.
The land rover 101 is also very obsolete now, but again almost as big, and has been popular in the past for its FC position.
So, years ago there WAS a market for medium sized FC go-anywhere vehicles; where's everyone gone?
There seem to be a few here