Your Chevrolet Suburban was too small. The Ford Excursion didn't do it for you. The GM Hummer just wasn't sufficient. You need the International CXT.

The CXT is the most pug-ugly "pickup truck" ever seen by human eyes. Based on International's 7000-series commercial service trucks, commonly used for cement trucks, it's also the largest pickup truck ever made. The standard engine delivers only 300hp, but 866 ft-lb of torque. It can tow 17 to 22 tons and can haul about six. Amusingly, the picture under "work" on the website shows someone fiddling with a bobcat mini front loader which you could tow behind a half-ton truck, let alone the three-quarter-ton truck generally required by a rental outfit before they'll let you pull a trailered backhoe out of their lot. The CXT is also four wheel drive with a two-speed transfer case and on-demand 4WD. The transmission is made by Allison and is a five-speed automatic. Brakes are air brakes, but they are also four-channel ABS.

In terms of doing actual work, the CXT is actually quite reminiscent of the Hummer, which has seen extremely limited employment in actual labor. Like the Hummer, the CXT is generally a toy of rich contractors and architects. Though it is suitable for some types of specialized, heavy work, its list of amenities is longer than its list of working features. It's a four-door, five-seat truck with air-suspended cab and seats, and available with a "prestige interior" package including a DVD player with a 15" screen, and front leather seats.

The vehicle is overall 258" (12.5ft/6.55m) long and 108" (9ft/2.74m) tall at the cab, with a 58" (4.83ft/1.47m) bed height and 11R22.5 tires. The bed itself is a standard eight-foot-long dually pickup bed, just over eight feet long about (96in/244cm) and you can get it with a tilting rear bed, like a dump truck. The bed is actually the thing that looks most out of place (besides the whole damned vehicle) as it is utterly dwarfed by the gigantic cab of the truck.

The CXT is offered with a choice of two inline six-cylinder diesel engines. Under "Power Offerings" on the CXT website, the DT466 is listed as providing 245 hp and 660 ft-lb of torque, while the DT570 puts out 310 hp and 950 ft-lb. Meanwhile, the specifications chart above claims that the vehicle is powered by a DT466 putting out 300hp and 860ft-lb. It is difficult to know which statistics to believe.

Of course, all this hugeness comes with a huge price tag. First, let us discuss fuel mileage. The CXT gets a whopping 8 mpg. It has a 70 gallon fuel tank, so that's an effective range of 560 miles. Given current fuel costs of about $2.20 (average) per gallon of diesel fuel, that's a 154-dollar fillup. Anyway, let's get to the sticker price; It's over US$90,000. That's right! You too can pay almost a hundred thousand dollars for a vehicle that gets 8 mpg, won't fit in your garage or a parking space or even down many roads! What a bargain. With a full set of options, the CXT is over US$110,000.

The CXT has been joined on the market by a slightly smaller brother, the RXT, and they are considering an even smaller version, the MXT. The RXT is only eight feet tall, and can tow only about 9 to 12 tons (as opposed to 17 to 22 for the CXT.) The MXT is based on a platform normally used for military vehicles, and is in turn only seven feet tall - just a few inches taller than the Ford Excursion or the Hummer H2, which itself is actually a rebadged and rebodied Chevy Tahoe.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.