Double cab owners with children

For those with kids, how well has the double cab treated you? I'm not talking day-to-day schlepping around, as any vehicle can do that. But more for camping/road trip type of outings. Did the kids find the room in the back lacking? General level of comfort on long trips?

I'll have 2 kids in the back soon. Both in car seats. We may, on occasion, have an adult back there as well. I've always had Toyota trucks, so I want to stay loyal. But the rear seat space concerns me a bit.

I looked at Tundra's as well, but they just don't fit in the garage.

 

I go on multi-day camping trips with a four year old and my wife back there (daughter insists on someone sitting next to her). Works fine. @Crom has two daughters in the back and wife in the front on big long trips to. Check out his build thread for lots of trip reports with the four of them.

 

We love the Tacoma for our outdoor excursions. My two children are 9 and 11. It is plenty of room for us, and all our junk. Of couse there are no carseats anymore ( thank goodness). We use the Highlander for long road trips.

 

I have a 2014 DC SB. I have a 7 year old and she loves it. There is plenty of room for her. We drove 6.5 hours over Thanksgiving and we had no issues. The other side of the seat was full of stuff so it was like we had a second child back there.

As far as adults- my daughter is still in a booster and we have had her and two adults in the back with no problem. We find the Tacoma has more room and is more comfortable than our 12 CRV.

As far as car seats and an adult, I do not have experience with that.

We looked at both the tundra and the Tacoma before I bought mine , as it was Toyota or nothing, and for me the Tundra was more than we needed.

 

Two kids, now 11 and 8, had my '05 from new. Kids both came home from the hospital in it (through snow storms) and have been growing up in it. Nothing better than a double cab pickup. Regular 2+ hour drives to go skiing, camping etc. Never had a problem fitting in over a decade. I'm 6'. The 11 year old is now 5'.

 

We have two car seats, kids aged 6 and 4 now. We've done 12 hour road trips in a day when they were small and baby was eating mush. Now we can go same distance in 8 hours.

In a nutshell, we make the Tacoma space work for us.

They were being silly with their blankets in the photo!

 

We love our Tacoma as well. Our son is 1 with a rear facing seat. My wife is 5'2 so no problems with front seat. Other than that day to day is good. And over summer we went to Maine. All was good on long ride, and love having the bed to throw stuff in. With the cap on it . It's like having an SUV with fold down seats 24/7. Thumbs up!

 

I haven't had any opportunities to take "long" trips, but we did a ~4 hours light off-roading trip with 3 adults and 2 kids (both in car/booster seats) It was fine, after about 2 hours I was the only one awake so it didn't really matter.
4Runners and Landcruisers have the 3rd row option and are very capable off road. We took my moms stock LX450 (FZJ80) from Dallas to Colorado with all 7 seats occupied and did Tin Cup Pass in it (as lifted FJ Cruisers turned around)

 

My boys are 8 and 11. They fit fine, even on long trips.

I also drive boys on scout campouts/camps. No problem.

I did however, purchase a UWS truck tool box for any extra cab type items since I do not have a tonnou or a shell.

 

We take the truck on all road trips. Got a 9 y/o and a 22 y/o. Haven't heard any complaints out of either one. Longest has been a 6 hour trip.

Take the truck to Arkansas every year hunting with 4-5 adults in it. No complaints there either and it's a 9 hour trip.

 

I just sold my double cab because it was cramped with my 2 car seats. Doable, yes, I did it for the last year and a half, but it leaves almost no extra room, and the passenger seat had to be slid very far forward, luckily my wife isn't tall.

It's personal opinion though, lots of people will say there's plenty of room, when in reality there's only enough room for it to work. You just need to be honest with yourself about if you can accept that. I did it for as long as I wanted to, I'm much happier in a full size now.

 

Kids can easily fit in the back as long as the front seats aren't pushed all the way back.
Throw anything not needed in the bed of Tacoma and you'll be good to go.

 

We've done one camping trip and one long (3 week) road trip so far with a 3 year old in a rear facing car seat mounted in the middle. My (admittedly small) wife would ride behind the passenger seat for entertainment/feeding, etc. They both had plenty of room. Now we've got a 3 1/2 year old and a month old, both rear facing. The younger is in the middle position, the older is behind the passenger seat. My wife still prefers sitting in back where she can keep an eye on them. The toddler is getting close to the weight limit for rear facing. Right now there's not much room in the front passenger seat, but that will change when we turn her around.

I have a couple of friends who traded in their Tacomas for F150's. The amount of space they have in back is palatial. I'm not sure which cab model they have, but there's enough room to install the car seat and then pass between the car seat and passenger/driver seat without turning sideways. I do get a little envious of the amount of space they have, but the Tacoma is about the biggest that will fit in the garage. FWIW, both buddies regret letting go of their Tacomas but couldn't justify multiple vehicles.

 

I actually just bought a double cab Tacoma in November for a field service job I just got in Michigan.

Long story short, I'm a Texas native as is my wife and we have 2 boys (2.5 and 1.5), I bought the truck in Texas as I transitioned out of my previous job and we packed the bed up and loaded a U-Haul trailer up as well and moved up to Michigan from Texas in one shot.

The boys rode in back and my wife and I up front. We ended up taking 36 hours to get here including naps, gas and baby-related stops. All in all, though the drive was nightmarish in and of itself, the Tacoma was comfortable for everyone all things considered.

We plan to spend some time in the northern part of Michigan for camping/off-roading come Spring, but based on the moving trip I think the truck will be plenty spacious for that purpose even with the whole family. It's definitely smaller than a full size but it's more spacious by far than the little Taurus we were driving before.

 

I'm with you. I've got 2 in car seats and it's like a can of sardines. I don't have any plans of getting back into a Tundra, but I'm definitely not going to act like there is plenty of room on the inside. Both front seats are as far forward as comfortably possible to make room for the ridiculous size of the car seats compared to the minuscule amount of room in the Tacoma.

1 kid was great. 2 kids crossed the line.

This is my opinion. I understand others feel there is plenty of room.

 

I absolutely miss my Tacoma, but I don't regret selling it. I will be back in a Tacoma one day when it fits my needs better again, it is after all the best truck out there, but in the meantime I certainly don't regret letting go of it for something that fits my current use better.

Exactly. When I had 1 car seat in the middle, there was plenty of room all around. As soon as you put them behind the front seats though, it is instantly cramped.

Again, it's totally doable, I just get tired of so many pretending like there's so much room even with car seats behind the front seats. Let's just be honest, no matter how doable it is, it's cramped!

PS, this is exactly why I said that the OP needs to decide for himself if he can accept the fact that it's cramped. I realize not everyone wants or needs a bigger truck, obviously plenty of people are content with the amount of space the Tacoma offers.

 

Access cab is where it is at. Is it too late in your state to change your mind?
















(Kidding)

 

I have '13 DCSB with a 3 year old and 9 month old in the back. It's perfect for the two of them with enough separation that they can't touch each other but still enough room for a diaper bag or extra duffel inbetween.
We have a cabin 2.5 hrs away and oftentimes we'll load my mother-in-mother-in-law in the front seat and my wife will sit between the kids. My wife rarely complains once she's back there. Occasionally she'll kick up her feet up on the center console.
I actually pulled the trigger on this truck after we found out we were having a second kid and don't regret it a bit. However, it wouldn't be possible without our topper (tonneau at minimum). Hope this helps.

 

I have a 3 y/o and 1 y/o. The Tacoma is our primary road trip vehicle. Mainly due to the storage capabilities with a tonneau cover. It's great. I am 6'2 and my wife is reasonably tall. It suites all of our needs. Very thankful for the truck!

 

Tacoma DCSB is definitely more than enough room for my family of 4. My go to vehicle for more room.