Buying 1st truck - advice on bed length

[spyder]

If you plan to actually use your truck for truck stuff, the 6'4 bed is barely sufficient and the 5'7 bed is near useless. If you can't park a truck with a 6 foot bed, you need to buy a car anyway.

 

[spyder]

Ideally, they'd build and I'd buy a Megacab with an 8' bed. That I would love.

 

[PetePA]

My personal preference from an aesthetic standpoint is the 5'7" bed.

From a utility standpoint, bigger is always better. There's always that situation where you wish you had a bigger bed. For me, 9" of additional space isn't enough added utility to justify. I'd go with 8' if that was available due to plywood and 2x4 sizes.

Maneuverability is also a small factor, though it can't be too much different considering only a ~9" difference in length.

Another factor is my ability to park the truck in the garage. These are nice trucks. If I got a tradesmen, then long bed. A Laramie, Limited or Tungsten? My preference is short bed.

In order of priority, for me:

#1 Aesthetic preference - 5'7"
#2 Able to park in garage - 5'7"
#3 Utility - 8' (if it were available on the trim I wanted)
#4 Maneuverability - 5'7"

There really is no situation where I prefer the 6'4" bed.

 

[devildodge]

Ideally, they'd build and I'd buy a Megacab with an 8' bed. That I would love.

Stretchmytruck.com

 

[Jmac509]

Even with the 8 foot bed, the bikes sometimes go in a hitch rack

You can still go to a 16' flatbed

 

[Pikeman_66]

I think we lost the OP.



Agree the longer bed looks good. Long and low land yacht.


View attachment 187593

oh my, that would not make it through the snow drifts here. LOL

 

[Nightowl]

I bought a crew cab short bed. I wish I would have gotten a quad cad with a longer bed. But I rarely have anyone in the rear seats though.

 

[Rock Crawler]

Ideally, they'd build and I'd buy a Megacab with an 8' bed. That I would love.

It‘s a reality. Time to bust out your checkbook. When I had my 2006 Ram 2500 MegaCab CTD, I thought about it for about 10 seconds. Then I thought, where the hell could I even park this thing? It would require two parking spots everywhere I went.

Longbed Conversions - Stretch My Truck

Mega cab long bed

stretchmytruck.com

 

[Jmac509]

Nothing gets the Ram community fired up midweek like a good ol bed length discussion thread. We lost the op days ago but our fire for bed lengths burns on.

Cheers Brothers! Have a great weekend!

 

[strinos]

Nothing gets the Ram community fired up midweek like a good ol bed length discussion thread. We lost the op days ago but our fire for bed lengths burns on.

Cheers Brothers! Have a great weekend!

Ha - That's the second time I've been reported lost!

I'm going to check out the truck in question this afternoon. I've decided to go with the 6'4" assuming the truck is in good shape. Parking isn't an issue at home and we have two other vehicles for commuting and normal family hauling. This truck will just take a little getting used to, but not really concerned as I like big vehicles anyway. As this truck is really for recreation, roadtrips and the ocassional Lowe's run, I am confident I'll be just fine.

Will provide an update on whether I buy it.

 

[Scram1500]

Off topic, anyone else watch that stupid show?

 

[BlueHemi1500]

Ha - That's the second time I've been reported lost!

I'm going to check out the truck in question this afternoon. I've decided to go with the 6'4" assuming the truck is in good shape. Parking isn't an issue at home and we have two other vehicles for commuting and normal family hauling. This truck will just take a little getting used to, but not really concerned as I like big vehicles anyway. As this truck is really for recreation, roadtrips and the ocassional Lowe's run, I am confident I'll be just fine.

Will provide an update on whether I buy it.

Enjoy the truck, you will find plenty of use for the longer bed.

 

[CalvinC]

If it’s not a daily, and you aren’t tackling the rubicon trail on the regular, then 100% I’d be getting the long bed. It is a truck after all.
The whole reason for a short bed IMO is to make dailying the thing easier. But in the case of the extra 9” it’s not a huge difference anyway.

I went from an 8’ bed to a 5.5’ bed and it was such a change I had to get another trailer. That’s another solution.

 

[Davidbt]

View attachment 187675

Off topic, anyone else watch that stupid show?

My wife is in the process of watching it over again, because she's bored with everything else. We don't pay for cable or satellite TV anymore, so it's Netflix or Prime.

 

[strinos]

Update: I checked out the truck and decided to not buy. I loved everything about it, except the interior was pretty trashed. Damaged center console, filthy carpeting, beat up doors with damaged stitching in some places. The retractable running boards were not present and it smelled pretty bad. It was clear this was someone's work truck. I was just surprised that, for a CPO on a CDJ lot for two months, it hadn't been detailed, or even cleaned, or even vacuumed... and that parts weren't installed.

That said - I definitely liked the 6'4" bed. Driving, maneuvering through the lot, parking in a tight spot were no problem.

Thanks for all the input, everyone.

The search continues!

 

[Willwork4truck]

That was a really dumb dealer, for the price of a good detail and a couple junkyard parts, he lost a sale.

 

[Davidbt]

Update: I checked out the truck and decided to not buy. I loved everything about it, except the interior was pretty trashed. Damaged center console, filthy carpeting, beat up doors with damaged stitching in some places. The retractable running boards were not present and it smelled pretty bad. It was clear this was someone's work truck. I was just surprised that, for a CPO on a CDJ lot for two months, it hadn't been detailed, or even cleaned, or even vacuumed... and that parts weren't installed.

That said - I definitely liked the 6'4" bed. Driving, maneuvering through the lot, parking in a tight spot were no problem.

Thanks for all the input, everyone.

The search continues!

I've found that a lot of dealers, whether automotive or RV, rarely clean up a trade-in until someone buys it. I've never understood it.

 

[Rock Crawler]

Update: I checked out the truck and decided to not buy. I loved everything about it, except the interior was pretty trashed. Damaged center console, filthy carpeting, beat up doors with damaged stitching in some places. The retractable running boards were not present and it smelled pretty bad. It was clear this was someone's work truck. I was just surprised that, for a CPO on a CDJ lot for two months, it hadn't been detailed, or even cleaned, or even vacuumed... and that parts weren't installed.

That said - I definitely liked the 6'4" bed. Driving, maneuvering through the lot, parking in a tight spot were no problem.

Thanks for all the input, everyone.

The search continues!

Red flags for sure. Not always, but most of the time the inside is not taken care of, neither is anything else. You probably saved yourself a lot of headaches down the road. Keep looking, you’ll find something eventually.

 

[HSKR R/T]

Update: I checked out the truck and decided to not buy. I loved everything about it, except the interior was pretty trashed. Damaged center console, filthy carpeting, beat up doors with damaged stitching in some places. The retractable running boards were not present and it smelled pretty bad. It was clear this was someone's work truck. I was just surprised that, for a CPO on a CDJ lot for two months, it hadn't been detailed, or even cleaned, or even vacuumed... and that parts weren't installed.

That said - I definitely liked the 6'4" bed. Driving, maneuvering through the lot, parking in a tight spot were no problem.

Thanks for all the input, everyone.

The search continues!

So see how it got a CPO designation being that trashed. There is a required inspection they have to complete to get CPO