Which truck for me?

[Martinjmpr]

A few years back I was in the mountains and came across a guy camping in a RCSB Silverado with a cab-high topper. What struck me most about his setup was how short it was front-to-back. I think it was probably only slightly longer than my 4runner, and yet it had a 6.5' bed.

If I didn't ever have to carry passengers (single with no girlfriend and no friends) then that might be the ideal vehicle. I will say that having no back seat can be a PITA. And with even one passenger it fills up pretty quickly.

If I even had such a vehicle I'd be tempted to put a topper on it and remove the back window, then put a shelf in just behind the cab so I'd have someplace to throw a jacket or other small items.

 

[nickw]

A few years back I was in the mountains and came across a guy camping in a RCSB Silverado with a cab-high topper. What struck me most about his setup was how short it was front-to-back. I think it was probably only slightly longer than my 4runner, and yet it had a 6.5' bed.

If I didn't ever have to carry passengers (single with no girlfriend and no friends) then that might be the ideal vehicle. I will say that having no back seat can be a PITA. And with even one passenger it fills up pretty quickly.

If I even had such a vehicle I'd be tempted to put a topper on it and remove the back window, then put a shelf in just behind the cab so I'd have someplace to throw a jacket or other small items.

How we did it back in the day...beats me! I think in general we had less stuff maybe? My dad had several std. cab pickups, the last being a really nice std. cab 79' 3/4 T Chevy...then jumped into a extended cab 3/4 T Chevy which allowed the family to travel instead of the Aerostar. I had a std. cab 1995 1/2 T Z71 and a std. cab early 90's Ranger.....never once did I think I wish I had more room as a kid or adult (at the time), I guess you don't know what you don't know. I'd throw my bag in the bed, two dirtbikes in the bed with all of our stuff back there, multiple road trips w/3 dudes, lots of trips up wheeling in the mountains.

I graduated to a extended cab Tacoma with a topper which worked well.

Then, decided to pick up a late 90's std. cab F150 6.5 bed, which was great but my bench seat was always full of gear. Did a moto / camping trip a couple years back, bed full of crap, cab overflowing with stuff, super annoying.

Decided on a Crew cab after that....

To your point, I think shorter cabs work great when you have a topper since it acts like a storage space buy you lose the bed...at that point, a SUV starts to make sense. Or a std. cab with a small trailer. Or just get rid of the friends