regular cab towing

I started with regular cab trucks. Great for a single guy, or someone without kids. Then came the extended cab short bed truck. Even the wife was OK with that. Now, we have 2 crew cab long bed trucks (the wife drives a Highlander), and with 3 kids, that's where we're going to be for a while. Yes, its more difficult to drive around town and park, but we manage. But we also don't have a garage or any constraints in which we would have to limit ourselves to something less.

blacktop wrote:
I'm an old fan of regular cab trucks. I now tow a light-weight 7,000 lb, 5th wheel with a Ram 2500 crew cab and 5.7 Hemi, which proved to be a good match.
My wife likes the regular cabs because she finds them easier to drive with the improved visibility through the rear window. I like them for the same reason and also for the longer bed without a very long truck length. Other than us two we travel with a 14 lb mini dachshund.
Our next truck will in all likelihood be a regular cab. Does anyone else have the same idea?

I grew up with "regular" cab trucks, my Dad always bought regular cabs.. But back in the 1970s-80s there wasn't much choice..

While a regular cab can be nice, I have found that like a few other posters a "Super" or "extra" cab is a real nice compromise over the larger 4 door crew cab.

Even for two people, not having the cab rear window in my back makes for a very pleasant drive. The extra space allows one to move the seat back further when no one is in the back seats..

Long trips we can sit a small cooler behind the seats also.

We also tend to flip the rear seats up and put our groceries and any other purchases that we don't want sitting in an open bed when shopping.

An Super or extra cab with 8ft bed will still be shorter than a 4 door crew cab and you can easily see out the rear window easily.

xtech wrote:
We use a Tundra reg cab long box to tow our 5th wheel because it has 1820 lbs payload which is the most a Tundra has. We would rather have a double cab incase we want to take others with us but needed the payload. One thing to note is that the Tundra reg cab has much more room behind seat in cab than the other regular cabs so we find that useful as you can get groceries or whatever and still have room in cab. Most other reg cabs end right behind the seat.

My regular cab 2013 RAM 1500 has a cargo space/shelf behind the seat. I am 6' tall, and my seat is nowhere near my back window, or even that shelf thingy. I carry a tool belt behind the passenger seat (in that space) plus have room between the seat and that "shelf" for an emergency kit that includes jumper cables, etc...).

Found a stock photo from a 5500, but my 1500 has the same thing:



The reason you like four doors, is the reason I like two doors. I am never called upon to shuttle people---I keep the center console DOWN, and pretend I do not know that 3rd seat is there :)

Real trucks have 2 doors and an 8' bed--- My kid calls those four door contraptions "Convertible SUV's"

I blame the overbearing cost of trucks on the four door models. They have become the new family mobile, even amongst those who do not need a truck. Every soccer mom out there, "needs" a truck because they might want to stop and buy a bag of mulch. The popularity has about driven those who need (tradesman and RVer's) out of the market.

Send your complaints about the above statements to:

1 800 CRY BABY extension WAH WAH WAH.


I fully understand the need for the four door truck for the families that love to camp. We used to take two vehicles when the four of us would not fit in my two door truck (limited the amount of travel we could do if we wanted to tow).

I also understand that in some cases....dad's work truck is the family mobile.

Still, I own a two door truck....every day driver that is normally just me. Plenty of bed space, even with a 20" crossover box, with my 8' bed. Kids are grown, so plenty of room for the wife and I (plus dog) to hook up the TT and head out.

Sarcasm aside....to each their own, and the market is what the market is. Demand is driving the supply, and four door trucks are popular. You won't find many two door trucks on the dealer lot.

campingken wrote:
We recently purchased (from a member here) a 2001.5 Dodge 5.9 4x4 regular cab for my wife to use as a full time horse trailer puller. We have found that the lack of the rear seat makes it easier to see when we hook up the trailer. The truck has an 8 ft. bed and, because there is no rear seat, it is about the same length as our Dodge 3500 Quad cab short bed. That is a plus when you tow on forest service roads.

I had a truck VERY much like this for 14 years and found for a daily driver and towing it was great! Nice size and turning radius. Can't remember if we ground on the turning stops early on so it would turn a little sharper or not. On paper our new RAM is suppose to turn sharper, however it does not! Old blue was a fun truck to drive!

Chris

We use a Tundra reg cab long box to tow our 5th wheel because it has 1820 lbs payload which is the most a Tundra has. We would rather have a double cab incase we want to take others with us but needed the payload. One thing to note is that the Tundra reg cab has much more room behind seat in cab than the other regular cabs so we find that useful as you can get groceries or whatever and still have room in cab. Most other reg cabs end right behind the seat.

If available, I would buy an extra cab. The quad cab is more room than we need and a full size 4-door adds too much WB imo.

Yes. No longer own a fifth wheel, just a bumper pull TT. Don't need our 1 ton Quad Cab Ram to tow it. In the process of 'downsizing' our lives and that includes wanting to drop down to a single vehicle. Wife is not at all at ease driving the Ram, so a long wheelbase regular cab or super cab configuration with 6 3/4 ft bed appeals to me. An F150 with the 3.5L EB or 5L V8 comes to mind. Want the longest WB configuration I can find since that might help with towing stability.

We recently purchased (from a member here) a 2001.5 Dodge 5.9 4x4 regular cab for my wife to use as a full time horse trailer puller. We have found that the lack of the rear seat makes it easier to see when we hook up the trailer. The truck has an 8 ft. bed and, because there is no rear seat, it is about the same length as our Dodge 3500 Quad cab short bed. That is a plus when you tow on forest service roads.

I've had a couple in my younger days and I'm a fan too. Wife and three kids don't work too well with a regular cab, though, so I'll be in a crew for the foreseeable future.