Extended cab pickup with 7 foot bed?
Dances With Bikers
I'm looking for a pickup truck with an extended cab and a bed around 7
feet long. Does such a beast exist in the small or mid-sized trucks, or
would I have to get a full size truck to have that combination? A new
truck, or one 1-3 years old is what I'm thinking of buying.
Main use of the truck would be as a foul-weather commuter and weekend
dirt bike/ATV hauler, so I've mostly been checking into the smaller
trucks like Toyota, Nissan and the Dodge Dakota, in hopes of finding
something with good gas milage and moderate hauling ability. But the
complications I'm running into are my long legs (6'2", all of me, not
just the legs! :-), and the length of the bikes. At 6' long, the
Quadracer will fit in any of the trucks I've seen, but the DR250 is
about 7' long. While the motorcycle would fit on an angle, I'd like to
be able to fit in two cycles, or one cycle and the Quad, on occasion.
One magazine review I read claimed that the Toyota stretch cab was
available with both 6' and 7' beds, but a Toyota dealer says that the 6'
bed is the only one that's ever been sold.
I'm quite sure I want an extended cab so I'll have room for stowing some
gear inside the truck, and hopefully more legroom. (Though the Nissan
King Cab I drove yesterday was definitly too short on legroom.)
So what is the ideal weekend dirt bike hauler?
(Note, this has been crossposted to rec.autos & rec.motorcycles.dirt,
with followups set to rec.autos.)
--
Blaine Gardner @ Evans & Sutherland 580 Arapeen Drive, SLC, Utah 84108
blga...@javelin.sim.es.com uunet!javelin.sim.es.com!blgardne BIX: blaine_g
DoD #46 My other motorcycle is a Quadracer. FJ1200
Mike Baxter
Well Blaine,
My suggestion is to buy a small pick-up with a V-6 and a enclosed
trailer. It may seem more of a hassle, but it has some very good advantages.
Bikes cannot fall out of an enclosed trailer. The trailer can double as a
hardshell tent. It will keep every thing locked up safe inside while you
go into the restaurant <sp> for pizza and beer after a long days ride. A
trailer will also allow you to easily load the FJ if it should happen to need
to be hauled somewhere. Also in a trailer you can have a work bench. The
small truck with a V-6 is almost as good on gas as a 4 cylinder, but has a lot
more pulling power. Most of the small trucks have not changed much over the
last 5 to 6 years. I have a 1989 Ford Ranger with a 2.9 litre V-6 and a long
bed. It is a solid little truck, but leg room is a tight for taller people
because of the speakers behind the seat. I'm only 5'6" so I do not need that
much room. Although a full size truck and a trailer would work equally as
good except on maybe gas mileage.
Later,
_____________________________________________________________________________
DoD #359 '91 CR250 | Mike Baxter
AMA #607249 |
TCCRA #061 250cc int. class | bax...@spdc.ti.com
Texas Cross-Country racing series |
50 miles of off-road Hell | Texas Instruments, Dallas Tx.
_______________________________________|_____________________________________
Brandi Baros
>
> I'm looking for a pickup truck with an extended cab and a bed around 7
> feet long. Does such a beast exist in the small or mid-sized trucks, or
> would I have to get a full size truck to have that combination? A new
> truck, or one 1-3 years old is what I'm thinking of buying
84108
> blga...@javelin.sim.es.com uunet!javelin.sim.es.com!blgardne BIX:
blaine_g
> DoD #46 My other motorcycle is a Quadracer.
FJ1200
Have you given any consideration to domestic trucks? I'm pretty sure Ford
puts out a truck that's exactly what you're looking for. My father had an
81 Ford Ranger that has a regular cab and an 8 foot bed, and he wants a
new truck and says he's seen a ford that has the extended cab and a 7 or 8
foot bed. My brother MX's and our truck is our form of transport. With
the 8 foot bed we can fit all the gear in back so we don't have to crowd
the cab.
-Brandi Baros bar...@pellns.alleg.edu
Wayne Geiser
>In article <1992Apr17.2...@javelin.sim.es.com>
>blga...@javelin.sim.es.com (Dances With Bikers) writes:
>>
>
>Have you given any consideration to domestic trucks? I'm pretty sure Ford
>puts out a truck that's exactly what you're looking for. My father had an
>81 Ford Ranger that has a regular cab and an 8 foot bed, and he wants a
Your father's Ranger could not have had an 8 foot bed. The Ranger has
never been available with an 8 foot bed. The best you can do is 7
feet. I don't know if the 7 foot bed is available with the extended
cab.
>new truck and says he's seen a ford that has the extended cab and a 7 or 8
>foot bed. My brother MX's and our truck is our form of transport. With
>the 8 foot bed we can fit all the gear in back so we don't have to crowd
>the cab.
>-Brandi Baros bar...@pellns.alleg.edu
Certainly a full-sized truck will be available in this configuration
(with a usable seat in the extended part to boot!).
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Dances With Bikers
>In article <1992Apr23.1...@pellns.alleg.edu> bar...@reis58.alleg.edu (Brandi Baros) writes:
>>Have you given any consideration to domestic trucks? I'm pretty sure Ford
>>puts out a truck that's exactly what you're looking for. My father had an
>>81 Ford Ranger that has a regular cab and an 8 foot bed, and he wants a
>Your father's Ranger could not have had an 8 foot bed. The Ranger has
>never been available with an 8 foot bed. The best you can do is 7
>feet. I don't know if the 7 foot bed is available with the extended
>cab.
I guess it's time to follow up on my original posting. Other than one
response that said Toyota made one back in '88, the combination of a 7
foot bed and a stretch cab does not seem to exist on a small truck.
The Dodge Dakota is available with an 8' bed, but only with the standard
cab. All the other small longbeds seem to be 7' long.
>Certainly a full-sized truck will be available in this configuration
Well, yea, and Chevy makes a long bed 4-door pickup too, but I'm
planning on getting something I can afford to drive. :-) The truck will
be my only set of four wheels, so I want something comfortable that can
also do some hauling. Since the long bed and long cab are mutually
exclusive, I'll probably go for the extended cab to make the truck
easier to live with, and resign myself to pulling a trailer when I need
to haul more than one of the motorcycles. I've already got the trailer,
so that's not a big problem.
>(with a usable seat in the extended part to boot!).
I won't need the back "seat" area for people, I'm more interested in
simply having more space in the cab than a useful back seat. I used to
have a '57 GMC pickup, and having the cab end a couple of inches behind
my head always bugged me a bit.
Thanks to all who responded.
--