Big Red: International Class 7 Crew Cab Pickup

In a class by Itself, the International Pickup could be the world's largest crewcab

By Tim Barton
Photography by Paul Hartley and the author

The universe of vehicles is huge. There's a car or truck for every imaginable demographic and every possible application. Some industry pundits may conclude that new demographic segments are an invention of manufacturers on the lookout for just one more chance to create the perfect hybrid. You may recall the advent of the crew cab decades ago, which seemed to stretch the definition of pickup to its limits. An obliging public quickly made the crew cab a staple of the truck market.

And while the crew cab grew into itself and evolved into super crews and crews with dualies, development took it up and out from the typical pickup. International's hulking new pickup, affably described by some as a "pickup on steroids," cuts through the clutter. We recently had a chance to drive International's Big Red in the Arizona desert. Just as automakers define their markets to suit their customers, commercial-truck manufacturers define their vehicles to suit their utility-minded operators by offering different gross- vehicle-weight classes.