I realize that soon, I'm probably going to need more than a single cab and I'm going to need a back seat. I'm looking at 1 tons with the crew cab and 3/4 with extended. My main concern is that I'm not going to be able to park the crew at work and that it may not behave well off road with the extra weight. I'm not a big fan of the looks of the extended cab either but it may be more practical, just not sure how usable the back seat is.

Opinions?

 

Lets just say this we upgraded our 02 F250 extended cab to a 02 F250 crew cab. The 02s even have doors that open but getting back their is not very easy or comfortable.


After you have the extended cab for a while you will want to go to the crew cab.


Personally I would keep the truck you have now use it for off-roading and daily driving and get a crew cab 1 ton for the family if you want that big of a truck.
Trav

 

I had a '95 SuperCab for about 9 years (Extended Cab is the Chevy term), and I've had crew cabs for the last 7 years. Both have their advantages.

In the older Fords, the back seat in the SuperCabs is kind of small. It works well for young kids, but as they become teenagers you can't really take a SuperCab on family vacations. Also you may or may not be able to safely install a car seat for a very young child in the back (and it's a pain to get them in even if you can with no back doors). I was able to put car seats in mine (but that was back in the late '90s). I had to upsize when my kids legs outgrew it.

Crew cabs obviously are better for hauling people (at least the full size and very small ones). But I prefer the SuperCab for everything other than carrying people. It gives enough room inside to put whatever you are carrying in your hands, with the back seat folded down it's a perfect place for dogs to ride, and the shorter length makes parking and turning that much easier. Now that I'm an empty-nester I'm hoping to go back to a SuperCab sometime soon.

 

Crew cab if you are hauling your family, friends etc. I drive a super cab regularly and it's tough on my older kids to sit in that back seat on those slight occasions. I still have a crew cab truck and back in the day when it was being used regularly for an expensive hobby, it couldn't be beat. Short bed crew is the way to go if you are concerned about finding space to move around.

 

Expecting a child? Time to buy a minivan !!

A crew can pickup is a Monster of a vehicle.. do you really need 4 doors and a box or can you make do with an SUV and keep your pickup for pickup things?

 

I should clarify my post that I was talking about old Ford SuperCabs. A lot of the newer SuperCab/Extended Cab/Quad Cab/Xtra Cab... (depending on make) are a lot bigger and might be a lot more practical for full size or tiny people. But I don't have experience in any of them.

 

I have 3 kids 5-1 and the crew would be awesome for my daily driver but I drive my scf250, my wife drives the soccer mom a.k.a. Honda Odyessey , Car seats are a pain in ALL vehicles, if you are running a sc truck with bucket seats you will be fine the car seat buttons into the middle of the backseat. But if you have a bench the kids in the front with you. There is a small window of time that the toddlers can ride in thr back seat in their "Super seat" before there lil legs start getting to long then they either ride in the middle backseat or you have to pull the drivers bench seat so far forward your chin will rest on the stearing wheel. The bigger kids are fine in the back with their booster seats

 

I have 2 crew cabs. One long bed one short bed. The 1.5" is negligible unless you are trying to put something 8' in the 6.5 bed.

I didn't even want my second crew cab(short bed). I was going nuts looking for a decent SUPER cab short bed and stumbled across the crew. I still am not attached the the secondcrew cab and would even consider trading it for a SUPER cab.

It is just me and the GF. No kids, no dogs. So I REALLY don't need a second crewcab. I just like the seat to go back a couple more inches and have the extra cab space for stuff

 

Trade yuh brad

 

Is yours a short bed power stoke? Yeah, didn't think so

 

I've got a extended cab long bed, and it works. A single cab is just too constraining; even having one other person and you're hunting for room to put stuff.
With my extended cab, I have filled the bed and rear cab a few times up to the roofline, but usually it's large enough to only have stuff a foot or so deep in the rear.
If I could find a nice 4x4 crew cab long bed, manual, 7.3 idi for cheap, I'd take it. But it's really hard to find anything crew cab that's cheap.

 

I went with a crewcab, because of the space needed for the Kids. My two kids are both in booster seats so they could have fit in the Supercab I was looking at, But my Girlfriends son is 11 and no way he would ride in the back of a supercab for the 9+ hour drive we take to go get him or drop him off.

Now I could have used the supercab and made due especially with my little ones (I commonly have them in the back of my 911) And yes My GF's Son could have suffered the ride in the back. but then there is the space issue. When we travel and are towing usually it is in the winter so all the luggage is in the cab. And I was quite happy with the space in the CrewCab cause with three peoples luggage, then the tools I generally carry on a trip, and all the equipment to secure my load on the trailer etc etc the cab filled up quickly. I am thinking of putting a bed cover on the help with storage space, But even then I wouldn't want my luggage in the bed with the type of storms we have driven thru recently.

And Being a Long bed Dually Crewcab parking can be a little bit of a chore, but we made due even in San Fran, and Monterey CA.

 

IMHO No full-size heavy-duty pickup is going to behave well off road. They are too heavy and have a too long of a wheelbase, poor turning radius, etc. And most of these trucks have open diffs too. You want a light to medium weight vehicle with a short wheelbase, i.e. Jeep, Bronco, scout, or maybe a single cab short bed pickup. And a limited slip or locking rear diff is critical for offroading.

I had a '89 F250 super cab for many years. Having the backseat was nice but it sucked having adults in the back. Often we would sit three up front, rather than sitting in the back, even though it was stick shift. Luckily the front bench was huge and comfy. It was a pain to park and maneuver in tight parking lots but I did it anyways including towing and parallel parking a trailer in Chinatown in San Francisco). I think I would have preferred the F-350 with the crew cab, though they tend to be expensive and hard to find.

I now have a no frills 1990 F250 single cab long bed. A little bit better in parking lots but still a pain. I just use the truck when it's needed to haul. In my mind, that's what trucks are for. Other vehicles are meant for commuting, parking in tight spaces, chores, etc. Commuting with a F-350 Crew Cab is going to suck.

 

My first truck was a 4x4 4cyl Ranger and it was an awesome offroad vehicle, it fit down narrow trails, was light weight and had really good ground clearance. My next truck was a reg cab long box F150 and I immediately discovered it wasn't nearly as good offroad.. too heavy.. too wide, lots more power but a lot of good that is when it sinks into stuff the Ranger would float over. I can't imaging trying to offroad an extended cab or crew cab truck, and you're not going to see more than 10-12mpg from any older crewcab you're going to find. 4 doors and a back seat are the way to go when you have more than 2 people to move but there are lots of ways to get that.

 

It depends on what kind of off-roading you want to do. I took my '85 F-250 RCLB on some pretty rough trails in Colorado (below is a pic of my Jeep on one of the same trails). You don't need to worry about a big heavy truck sinking into rock! Yes it's hard to make some of the turns, but if it's what you have you can have fun with it. If I wanted to get a truck for off-roading I certainly wouldn't choose a crew cab. But I could see going off-roading in my crew cab if it was all I had (but I'll use the Bronco since I have it too).