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Dick

I quit using pickups for moving years ago. The last three times I moved, I rented a 16 or 20 foot “U-Haul” type truck. $100 for 24 hours and I make one trip. No spending 3 hours loading/unloading and 5 hours on the road.

I *never* would have bought a truck, much less a short-bed quad-cab. I did when a confluence of dead tow vehicle (old cop sedan), available trailer, and a right-priced truck from the right person led me to get a big-ass Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab Short Bed 4×4.

I had outrageously under-valued the utility of a quad cab. It is brilliantly useful for hauling people, and as-importantly, cargo in a clean, dry, and locked area.

The short bed is still *WAY* bigger than the trunk of the sedan I had. It served me beautifully when I moved, and can haul 4×8 sheets with zero trouble. It perfect for all of my race-car tools and parts.

Since my truck is mainly a tow vehicle for my race car, it’s a huge added benefit to be able to keep my personal gear dry and clean in the huge cab, while keeping all my heavy, dirty, sharp-edged, and smelly racing hardware under the tonneau in the short-but-plenty-big truck bed. Then once at the track, I can unhitch and take five other people out to dinner with me (which I just did this last weekend). But thanks to the short-bed, I can still park the thing in /normal/ sized parking spots without having to go back-and-forth more than once.

So, HOT, HOT, HOT!

My Tacoma double cab short box with the occasional hard cover is primarily used for recreation: mountain bikes, snowboards, camping; 4 passengers and all the accompanying gear. I could see upgrading to a full sized version just for towing capability for a boat or trailer for quads but I don’t think I’ll ever need a “work” truck with a long bed.

AND…as a fellow toolmonger, with my tools, motorcycle, sporting equipment, shelves, and workbench in my 2 car condo-sized garage, there’s no way I can park anything longer in it. Thanks for pointing that out J. Laur. HOT in my book.

That said, really, a better question might be, “Commuter vehicle or truck?” If you need a truck, get one, but don’t squander money & resources on a quad-cab truck when all you really need to do the vast majority of the time is haul crew. Get a people-haulin’ commuter vehicle if that’s your primary need. Minivans ain’t sexy nor particularly manly, but they can’t be beat for shuffling folks around.

More often that not (at least from casual observation) guys buy trucks because of the prevailing attitude, which goes something like, “By God, if you ain’t got yerself a big dick truck, well heck, ya just ain’t much of a man, now are ya?”

There have been times where the extra seating was great to haul around laborers or to keep things out of the weather. There are have been times when the bed was full of old air handlers and the full 8′ was needed. Most of the time, we don’t need either the full bed or the extra seats and the length of the vehicle is a drag to maneuver.

I will say, however, that if you are going to put a truck box in the back for tools, you will almost certainly need to avoid the short bed.

I’ve got a F150 regular cab short bed. It’s about as small of a truck as you can get and still have a full size. It will haul my motorcycle perfectly. It will haul my friend’s motorcycle well. I’ve hauled sheets of gypsum no problem. Helped people move. Done all of that standard truck stuff. I’ve got zero reason to desire a long bed and I’ve never needed it.

I have a long box, it can fit my motorcycle on it. And that 1% is damn important to me. Long box is the way to go.

To throw a monkey wrench into this debate, what about camper tops? I’ve got one, and while the thing looks uglier than my mother-in-law, I can lock down all the gear I collect in the back, no worries. And everything stays dry. Any other opinions?

For me, if I can’t haul a motorcycle in it, it’s not going to do the job. My truck is just a little old ‘86 Toyota Pickup. Nothing fancy or heavy duty, but it was cheap and it has a full-length bed. I’ve hauled all kinds of bikes in it, couches, and all sorts of scrap metal from the junkyard. I’ve even loaded the bed over-full with old computers to throw away at the dump. If I was regularly hauling loads of dirt or concrete blocks it’d be real hard on this little truck. Maybe one of the short bed pickups with the heavy duty suspension would be more appropriate for that.