Long bed owners- what’s your experience with maneuverability and parking in urban places?

Considering a long bed SR5 mainly for camping and off-road, with occasional daily/city use. Would have preferred a xtracab but lack of “suicide” doors makes the space not very usable. Wondering if double cab long bed is too much truck for me. (It’s gonna be my first truck)

 

It's a noticeably wider turning radius but, as long as you're aware of it, it's pretty easy to account for. I park mine in a fairly tight airport parking garage every week. I usually back in. You just get used to doing it that way and it becomes a non-issue. It definitely gets made out to be more of a hassle than it actually is. For me, the fact that I can sleep in that long bed and also store my mountain bike in it makes it worth it. The hassle of maneuvering it around is far less than the hassle of only having a short bed.

 

You should have no problem maneuvering the long bed. I too always back into parking spaces, it’s easier than pulling in… safer exiting too.

 

Driving around the city I never had a problem, done plenty of driving through both the New Orleans French Quarter and NYC. Parking in a lot is fine, sometimes yes it requires a 3 or 4 point turn if the space and isles are tight. Street parking is where is a pain, not for the turning radius but for how large of a spot you need, there have been times I've spent over 15 minutes looking for a spot I could fit, passing many that my wife's honda civic would easily fit into.
If I still need a midsized truck when I replace my current one I would have no hesitation getting another dclb.

 

I test drove a ‘24 long bed and it was long enough to confirm I won’t buy one. It was inconvenient to maneuver, but not Austin Powers bad. It wouldn’t fit in the garage either, which was a deal breaker. Very comfortable though.

 

It's not the bother for me as it might be some via real truck driving experience and it's probably about same size as our station wagons when I was a kid. Not getting the long bed is more mystery to me - pickup that can't carry what our minivan did LOL.

To the OP, if you want off road performance and trips consider the TRD OR jump for the electric locker and seating, but if you mean drive on dirt or gravel roads, a minivan would work too. I might be an exception among many here because my Tacoma is mostly a work/task/specialty vehicle and we prefer driving our car for most. However, it is very comfy when driving our car is not an option.

 

I'm in the same boat, thinking about my next truck. Would love to go extra cab to get the long bed, since my kids will be out of the house, but the new extra cab is so lacking that I'll have to decide between DCLB or another DCSB.

All I can say is it's such a personal thing that I'd just go drive one. My last truck before the Taco was a 1.5 gen DC 6.5ft tundra and that thing was awful to drive in town... And off road, for that matter. Feel like I'm driving a Corolla now in my DCSB.

I might just look for a 2023 V6 AC with super low miles when the time comes.....

 

Sounds like you don't currently have (or have had) a truck so you don't regularly move a lot of oversize cargo. Most of the time most people have empty truck beds. If you occasionally have to haul a couple 4x8 sheets of plywood/drywall, you can make the 5' bed work (with the tailgate down or angled gate mod). If you're just loading up coolers, tent, and grill for boondock camping then the 5' bed should be sufficient unless you really like to glam it up.

 

You get used to backing in everywhere

 

I don't glamp but I really find my SB lacking when it comes to camping. I miss pulling into a spot late and just sleeping in the bed (with a cap). There are options, but they aren't great IMO, or at least not as convenient.

 

My only gripe is it looks like a wiener dog

 

2nd gen here.. but what I've found is even though the truck is longer it's still not any wider than regular Tacoma. I've squeezed through tight spaces that a normal full-size couldn't handle

The length is only like a foot longer. In the big scheme of things it's not that bad

 

Convenience: "let me setup camp." *activates parking brake*

 

Someday.... But then I'd still need a daily lol it's never-ending! That camper looks awesome though

 

5 minutes to drop it, 10-15 to load it! My only problem is the dang cell booster. I have to strap it down to a ditch light to get in parking garages.


But to OPs question, the long bed would be fine. I see full sized trucks in parking garages all the time up in the Seattle area. Even F350s (non dually) with short and SOMETIMES long beds.

 

Same here. Longbed looks awkward.

 

I realized I should specify for my truck I have a 16 inch deep truck box and if I had a short bed with the truck box the bed would be next to useless but with my dclb I still have almost 5 feet of bed space available even with the tailgate closed

 

Current Double Cab Long Bed at 226.2" almost 4" shorter than a current F150 SuperCrew shortbed (232")
Look around your area and see if they seem to have problems.

Camping - if you're planning to sleep in the truck bed, then 6ft could be real handy. Otherwise I'm not sure it makes a significant difference unless you're hauling a lot of stuff where the extra ~8cuft of bed capacity would be a help.

Offroading - with the longer bed comes a 10% longer wheelbase, 145.1" vs 131.9" - that may or may not be impactful depending on where you're offroading.

I currently have a 3rd gen - when I bought it I considered the long bed but chose the short bed. There's only been a few times in the past 9 years that I've wished I'd had the LB - and most of those were matters of convenience such as fitting something under the closed tonneau cover vs. having it stick out. For stuff like the occasional sheetrock, plywood, or a kayak - a hitch-mounted bed extender does the job just fine.

That said, I don't really go camping much since we got a rural weekend cabin. I did use a bed tent a couple times and it was fine since they set up with the tailgate down.

When I do buy a 4th gen, I'll consider the longbed. I don't think the extra 13.2" length will be a big deal in the places I drive / park. I already back in to most parking spots, though not at places where I'll be loading stuff into the bed.

That said, I may not have a choice. Toyota doesn't currently offer a longbed OffRoad Hybrid, and there's presently no long bed non-hybrid OffRoad w/ Premium package within 250mi

BTW - as this is a first truck,

$25 GreenMade InstaCrate Collapsible Storage Container, 12 gal, Black

Instacrates are great for groceries and other stuff in the bed.

 

I say go for the long bed, not much difference really. Hell, my 1st truck was a 2001 Dodge Ram 2500 Diesel 4x4 8ft bed. I drove that around everywhere. Even parked in an underground garage - but good lord it was a loud freakin truck!

 

I have always bought Long Beds. (my Tacoma is my 3rd) My trucks have to be multi-purpose. So they are a family trip vehicle, but also hauling lumber, or appliances... or helping family move. Even at work I am sometimes utilizing my personal vehicle. Ive taken both my frontier and a tacoma longbed up and all over Hollister hils SVRA which is an offroad park in my area. Sure, on real ttrails im going to suffer. But I dont do that often, like almost never.

I dont think there is a noticeable difference in city driving its still a truck. Spaces are being made smaller and smaller in dense areas to fit more parking spaces.. itll be tough regardless.

Really comes down to you and what you need.