Pro's vs Con's of a Camper Shell on a Double-cab Short Bed

Interesting, which one do you like better?

 

I got mine almost a year ago and have no regrets. Ran one on my previous taco for years and found it to be more useful than not. Yes, you can't haul anything tall, but for me it's not a huge deal. I have a set of windoors on mine and although it's not the best thing when it comes to looks, it's 1000000 times more useful to me than the cap I had on my 1st gen with no side windows. With the windoors I can easily get to the stuff up near the cab without having to crawl my old ass inside the back of the truck! I like caps on trucks. I say go for it!

Here's a pics of my old taco and my current taco with the shells on.

 

From my memory, the Softopper was overall easier to initially install and also raise/lower once on the bed. I like the look of the Bed too though which is why I picked it up for the Taco. I bought both during Groupbuys on message forums, so to some extent it was circumstantial...

 

Adding a cap was the best modification and money spent on my truck.


And you can get creative with storage

 

You've got a tiny 5' bed with virtually no carrying capacity compared to full size trucks. You ain't gonna put anything big or heavy in there anyway. But most (at least mine does) Tacoma's have around 6500lbs of towing ability. I keep gear, luggage etc. in the back and carry heavy, large loads in the trailer. I can carry more payload in my trailer with my Tacoma than you could put in the 8' bed of a 3/4 ton truck. And heavy stuff is easier to load since the trailer has a ramp and the load doesn't have to be lifted as high.

My truck's are our primary travel, vacation vehicles. My wife and I often go on long road trips and camp. We've been everywhere from Miami to Montana in either the current Tacoma or other trucks with caps on them.

 

What are you using to mount the axe and such on the wall of the bed?
That set-up looks great!

 

You can see everyone's DIY mounts here. https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/diy-hi-lift-and-tool-mounts.260147/

 

Dont think anyone has mentioned it and it might not apply to you, but if youre planning on sleeping in the shell, its most likely going to be a tight fit if youre 6ft tall.. Ive seen some people sleep diagnolly in them though so it is possible. Another con i noticed was already on here was the loss in visibility. While its not significant as far as changing lanes goes, i find myself checking my surroundings much more now when backing up. And backing up at night is truly a pain due to the window tint on my back window and on the shells windows. These are just a couple minor downfalls though. I love my leer (even though my trucks a long bed and this threads about short beds) and id recommend a shell to anyone thats on the fence about it.

 

6' here and have slept diagonally a couple of times. It's not very comfortable, and my legs cramp up by morning. I wanted the long bed exactly for this reason, but a long bed truck would not fit in my garage, so the short bed won out. In the future, I'll just have to sleep with the tailgate down.

 

I'm assuming you're referring to me...those are Quick Fist mounts but the axes I ran a screw through the plastic sheath that comes with it.