Long-bed vs Short-bed

OK, “Medium” cab, compared to the 6 Door- saw one rolling down the highway in Utah a few weeks ago, really felt like I was driving a Tonka truck next to it in my DCSB! In fact, I saw a lot of them in Utah, then I realized that yes, we are in Utah.

 

This CCLB already has the turning radius of a school bus, I can only imagine how much more of a turning radius it would have with another set of doors.
Unless that truck had coil springs up front. Mine has leaf springs, so they limit how far I can turn the tires.

 

Leafs and a solid front axle, too? Nice! I used to drive “Heyduke”, our 78 CCLB dually dodge work truck for a rafting company back in the 80’s. Everyone called it the “road barge”, and it was fun to drive on narrow winding back roads.

 

Yup straight axle up front, and manual hubs!

 

Lol how is your old ford even relevant to a short bed vs. longbed debate! It’s just another old ford

 

I think he was making fun of us by pointing out that both of our Tacoma’s came with Tupperware boxes for our toys.

 

There is always a bigger fish...

 

While reliable, the 7.3 is even slower than our turd gens. I bet towing that load is flat out scary

 

They can make good power though.

My uncle has one in his flip nose Navistar bucket truck, they are made to do that kind of thing all day long...

 

My 6.7 powerstroke had 800/1300 to the wheels. Driving a 7.3 felt scarier than towing with my taco lol

 

I got that . Just having fun. I really like the old body style on the fords !

 

That is 2-3x the power semi trucks used to have.

 

You know, that long bed does add more weight and therefore reduces the Tacoma's meager payload capacity. Short Bed Wins!

 

Short bed vs long bed ?

I drove a Frontier "DC" 4wd 6sp manual for the past 10+ years. It was a short bed version.

It handled everything I needed it to do. I used the bed extender in it only a couple of times.

Normal use for hauling my climbing stand, coolers, fishing gear, gun cases and etc it worked great.

I decided to replace it with a 3rd Gen Tacoma once I finally test drove one.

Went with the same cab & bed config that has served me well.

When I finally get around to getting a new kayak, I'll get a T-Bone receiver mount kayak mount:

















Personal preferences are just that......personal.

We all have our reasons why we drive the trucks we drive.

I've caught a lot of grief from two guys at work for my driving smallish trucks. They each drive lifted full-size trucks with badass wheels & tires. One of them I'm certain has never ventured off road other than the two times he got stuck and called for help getting pulled out. I'm 6'4" and these two both happen to be a foot or so shorter. It's always funny to me watching them climb and scurry up into their trucks. They probably laugh at me sitting down in mine.

One thing is for certain.....don't think a long bed would've made enough difference for my son to be able to sleep in the bed of it. Here he is goofing around the day I brought it home, lol.

 

You damn right.

 

We are talking trucks, not sports cars (or am I on the wrong forum).

This old Ford has been back and forth across the USA a couple times with the camper on it, and while not "fast", it has done the job very reliably.

I am never in a hurry, so "fast" doesn't mean anything to me.

 

You can have 2000/4000 to the wheels and that doesn't change your load carrying capacity in the 8 foot bed one bit.

You'll certainly get up to speed faster, and pull hills faster, but covering ground and pulling hills has never been an issue with this 7.3. That, again I am never in a hurry when driving.

 

The thread was started talking about “Tacoma’s”. The original Q was how did everyone decide on longbed vs. short on Tacoma’s.
Not sure how old ford trucks have any berring on this thread ?
You could possibly check out an (old ford) forum ?
I myself think your body style ford truck is kind of cool.

 

You are right, we completely strayed away from why we chose the Tacoma bed we chose when it eventually turned into a "mine is better" contest.

A few LB'rs decided to try and make a useless point about how their truck is more of a truck because of how much more stuff they can haul in their beds than the SB'rs. It just made sense to bring everything back into perspective.

 

You get what you need. There is no right answer, everybody is going to have different needs.