Tacoma DCLB vs DCSB Garage Parking

Have ACLB, and my biggest problem is every time I park, most places today. the parking space is for a small vehicle. Not everywhere you go has the accommodation for a longer truck.

 

Those short bed votes are catching up! I have just put a hold a long bed in ice cap. Pretty stoked. Hope it fits!!

 

DCLB would be a very long vehicle for daily use. A DCSB plus a utility trailer (in my case, a 6x10) works well for me. I've transported lumber, brush, drywall, construction debris, trees from the nursery, insulation, dirt and mulch (on a large tarp), and other items larger and heavier than could safely go in the bed. The trailer has heavy-duty tiedowns in the corner stake pockets, with the rails also serving as tie points. Long lumber (16 feet) transports with the gate folded down, a few feet on the tongue, and a few feet hanging off the back with flags. Unlike with the truck bed, I can really cinch the tiedowns tight on the trailer.

Its main limitation is the 3.5k max gross, which means I can only transport half a yard of gravel at a time. I'd get a brake axle or tandems and a 6x12 if I were to buy another, but it transports a yard of dirt or mulch easily. I place a large canvas tarp on the trailer when I arrive at the material yard, get the load, and tie the tarp up over the load with bungee cords before leaving.

Backing up 10+-foot trailers is easy with the DCSB. Shorter are a bit twitchy. 6-foot between the fenders tracks only marginally wider than the truck, so it isn't nerve-wracking to pull.

I use the trailer several times per year, so it's been worth it.

(Pic is not of mine, but same model.)

 

Interesting I always thought the short beds looked that way. Even my 1990 Chevy S-10 had a six foot bed.

 

You think a six foot bed is long try a Tundra extended cab with an eight foot bed. The DCLB makes the bed much more useable if you are using the bed to haul anything.

 

Off topic but what kinda flooring is that?

 

No disagreement on the bed length. I felt a bit silly a few months ago transporting a stepladder with the tailgate down. I'd have an ACLB, were it not for needing that back seat on a regular basis, to keep overall length down. DCLB excluded the manual transmission, so I went with the SB, but the tailgate is often down.

The ones I really don't understand are the unibody Maverick or Santa Cruz type vehicles with a "bed" that barely exceeds 4 feet.

 

it's all a matter of perspective.

my dclb is about 8" shorter than my dad's dcsb f-150.

i grew up driving a full size suburban, and at work, daily drive a full size gmc savana work van. with all of that, my dclb is still 'small'. so i really don't even notice it. it's nice that it fits in places the suburban or savana don't always fit.

 

My folks used a tennis ball to achieve the same thing. A little heavier and fuzzier than a ping pong ball. LOL!

 

I guess a question is how often do you think you'll need that extra foot of bed space.

I know for myself just in the last couple of days on a road trip was eyeing some Mavericks and Santa Cruzes, thinking how they'd probably meet 80 percent of my needs and would be easier to drive in crowded places.

But then remember the frustrations I used to run into with my old five foot bed and never wanted to deal with that again. I might consider a five foot bed in the future but don't know if I could go smaller than that.

I originally misread the thread title and thought you were talking about garage parking in public, ie at retail stores or whatever. Even with my previous truck, it'd often hang out of parking spaces or fit just perfectly in one. And with no backup camera I'd often tap the walls by accident when backing in. With my DCLB Tacoma now, it's just a given that it will hang out of the parking space and sometimes when I find a place to park I notice there are other trucks hanging out of the parking space too. So figure it's just a given if you want a truck.

As others mentioned you learn to adjust and adapt to things. ie figure out a way to stop just at the right place, adjusting to not being able to access the other side when the truck is in the garage, adjusting to parking outside, try to find spaces in a garage that don't back up to a wall, etc.

As mentioned, I personally like and prefer a six foot bed and find it hard to give up. But know that in previous threads on here, others posted that they're perfectly fine with their five foot bed. So part of the question is if it's something that you'd really need/use and then how big of a deal is it for you to park in your garage.

 

I went with DCSB to be able to park in the garage, among other things like being easier to park in general, easier to maneuver in traffic, shorter wheel base for off roading, and looks too. I also have a side door in my garage that leads outside to my trash cans and shed, and it’s on the far side of my truck. So I needed room to be able to walk in front of the truck to access that door. That was the big deciding factor for me.

I don’t usually haul long stuff very often anyway, and when I do, I just leave the tailgate down and pull the ratchet straps out. I’ve always been able to still get the job done, whether it’s a big couch, a king size bed, or a bunch of 10’ long 2x8s. I haul a lot of gear around for work every week, but nothing is more than about 3-4’ long, so my solution was to get a camper shell (with side windoors) so I can stack stuff more vertically back there (that I couldn’t do with an open bed without risking things falling out). So the shell increased my carrying capacity by a lot. It’s also a huge plus to be able to lock everything up back there when I’m on the road. I am 100% happy I went with the DCSB.

 

Garage looks bad a&&

 

sorry just saw this. It’s Swisstrax. Great stuff and holds up great. Easy to install as well. Got during Father’s Day 2 years ago as they usually have a discount code.

 

Can you post the link to this setup

 

Mine is the ribbed smooth.

https://www.swisstrax.com/ribtrax-smooth-pro-flooring-tile.html

 

If Toyota only still built a regular cab Tacoma. It's the best size for a garage or parking garage. Driving in reverse is almost the same distance as driving forward because of the short wheelbase.

 

Whats the total Length of a dclb?

 

225.5 inches, keep in mind the front license plate holder if you have it.

 

Company always thinks I’m crazy when I park it thinking it won’t fit and not in far enough.. haha. I don’t even check before closing anymore got a solid 5-6 inches clearance. Easy peasy.

 

I kinda like having something that is a bit more rarely seen, and the extra bed room has proven very useful.

However, I do tend to agree the LBs look a bit disproportionate when stock.
IMHO, the LBs look much more proportional when lifted with larger meats on them.