Here’s a 4” lift. The long bed just looks so proportionate to me. I completely agree with you about the cab size and how it looks goofy with the short bed.5thGenRams Forums
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Why is the crew cab with the 6.4 bed not a popular option?
- Thread starter cevans6318
- Start date
Here’s a 4” lift. The long bed just looks so proportionate to me. I completely agree with you about the cab size and how it looks goofy with the short bed.
Selcher
Active Member
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Yeah see, that just looks right to me. Nice and proportioned. Beautiful truck man!
mikeru82
Legendary member
Looks are definitely subjective. I used to think the short boxes looked a little wonky too. But that was back when I was driving extended cab Chevys. The CC short bed look has definitely grown on my over the years though. And I really like how it looks. I think part of it is the changes they made for 5th gens, in making the bed height match the height of the rear windows. This balances out the hood with the bed more, and to me looks quite balanced.
In my opinion, this imbalance is more pronounced on 4th gens, where the bed height is lower than the window height.
Thanks!
Threesuns1
Ram Guru
I would have bought a Crew Cab with an 8-foot bed if it was available in the 1500.
Jako
Spends too much time on here
3" wider and 8" longer than my 2001 (2nd generation?). I notice the difference.
CMil527
Spends too much time on here
Looks odd proportionally to me with a 6'4" bed... dealer in long island had 2 identical night editions in white and black when i purchased and wanted $10 less a month than i pay and i passed them up I guess its nice to have options ..too each his own!
long or short won't fit in my garage; barn has room for either. And while I don't haul often I know I'd miss the longer - heck, I'm annoyed to be giving up a couple inches over the f-150; my bikes may not ride as well. That and the hotly debated idea that longer tows better led me to order the 6'4".
They used to make Bob Tails like that for use at the Airports to tow the Baggage carts around.
Malodave
I think it comes down to looks. They look...ungainly...with the longer bed. AND, most people only need a 5.7 bed. I had the 6'4" bed in a quad cab in 2013 and liked that length of bed but not the longer truck.
AND, having had a 2013 Quad and a 2015 Crew with the 5.7, they were very large trucks but I was used to them. The Gen5's are monsters. I'm still NOT used to it in parking lots after six months. It is NOTICABLY larger. It's nice on the inside, but not so much in close parking lots.
All a matter of opinion....and needs. I think the 5'7" bed looks a tad odd on a Crew cab. The 6'4" looks more balanced, to be at least.. Although I don't haul my motorcycles anymore, it was tight but possible on a 6'4", not possible with the 5'7". Also, 8 foot long wood moulding will just barely fit diagonally if I need to keep my hard cover on. Downside is the noticeably bigger turning radius. Tight U turns at traffic lights can be challenging.
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Idahoktm
Spends too much time on here
You can definitely haul motorcycles in a 5'7" bed. You can't close the tailgate, but I don't care about that.
Threesuns1
Ram Guru
Thats what the rear slider is for. I hauled 3 lvls 2x12x20 in my f250 extended cab that way.
AdamChandler
Ram Guru
Customer's spoke with their dollars. Trucks weren't used like they are today. Trucks were fixtures of the farm. It was single cab, bench seat and 8 foot bed for 50 years. Then people started putting their kids in the cab versus in the bed. I grew up as a 'bed kid' I hung out in the bed of the truck everywhere because there wasn't enough room in the front. If I sat in the middle of mom & dad, the extra tall floor shifter would hit me in the leg when dad went to reverse gear in our Chevy. so I'd be in the back with the dogs.
The world changed and people started optioning 4-door models. my dad got a RAM quad cab back in the 90s. the back seat was really small but it was more comfortable and he got a topper on his 6-7 foot bed for hauling stuff around to and from job sites and complaining that 8 foot 2x4s would hang out the back but I was no longer getting rained on or used as a weight to hold down a load of insulation on the way back from the lumber yard.
Safety, standards and trucks as luxury items basically made the American truck the top selling vehicles in USA and Canada. Everyone was buying them and expecting car amenities, comfort and 'hauling' became a one a month ordeal. You need to grab some plaster and paints you can pop off the tonneau cover and take what you need but the other 25 days a month, you'd be hauling the dog and kids and all of their crap with airbags, seat belts and sunroofs and heated seats.
You can still purchase a single cab 8 foot half ton truck and it comes in white and. you wrap it in your contractor company vinyl and you buy 10 of them and their work trucks. These still exist but no American family is buying them.
If you run a focus group, every single RAM customer is going to say they want 4 adults comfortably seated in the car versus an 8 foot bed. Smaller group but still majority want that over a 6.5 foot bed. Americans would rather seat 4 adults of 3 kids in the back than have a foot longer bed.
So if you scour the country for Big Horn / Laramie / Limited trucks for a 6.5 foot bed, you'll find less than 10 of them. a 21 foot long truck won't fit in a garage, won't fit in most parking spaces and won't work if you have to go into the city for any reason. It's a special truck size for people who still need to fill up a bed and need as much space as possible and those people aren't buying Limited trim vehicles.
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I own a 6.5" bed Limited and I fill it up with motorcycles and wish I could close the tailgate with 3 bikes in the back but I can't. I also live in northern New Hampshire. There is never a time when I have an issue parking it ever. I'll pull through parking spaces and hang over 2 feet in another spot but I've never had to navigate a full parking lot before. 80% of my miles are interstate and I don't have a garage.
I'm not most Americans and so I'll have to accept the fact I may have a hard time selling this thing in 10 years because most people aren't going to want a truck this long.
Most Americans now live in cities that's why the Tacoma/Maverick/Ranger sell so damn well even though they're only a few grand cheaper than a base model half ton.
The world changed and people started optioning 4-door models. my dad got a RAM quad cab back in the 90s. the back seat was really small but it was more comfortable and he got a topper on his 6-7 foot bed for hauling stuff around to and from job sites and complaining that 8 foot 2x4s would hang out the back but I was no longer getting rained on or used as a weight to hold down a load of insulation on the way back from the lumber yard.
Safety, standards and trucks as luxury items basically made the American truck the top selling vehicles in USA and Canada. Everyone was buying them and expecting car amenities, comfort and 'hauling' became a one a month ordeal. You need to grab some plaster and paints you can pop off the tonneau cover and take what you need but the other 25 days a month, you'd be hauling the dog and kids and all of their crap with airbags, seat belts and sunroofs and heated seats.
You can still purchase a single cab 8 foot half ton truck and it comes in white and. you wrap it in your contractor company vinyl and you buy 10 of them and their work trucks. These still exist but no American family is buying them.
If you run a focus group, every single RAM customer is going to say they want 4 adults comfortably seated in the car versus an 8 foot bed. Smaller group but still majority want that over a 6.5 foot bed. Americans would rather seat 4 adults of 3 kids in the back than have a foot longer bed.
So if you scour the country for Big Horn / Laramie / Limited trucks for a 6.5 foot bed, you'll find less than 10 of them. a 21 foot long truck won't fit in a garage, won't fit in most parking spaces and won't work if you have to go into the city for any reason. It's a special truck size for people who still need to fill up a bed and need as much space as possible and those people aren't buying Limited trim vehicles.
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I own a 6.5" bed Limited and I fill it up with motorcycles and wish I could close the tailgate with 3 bikes in the back but I can't. I also live in northern New Hampshire. There is never a time when I have an issue parking it ever. I'll pull through parking spaces and hang over 2 feet in another spot but I've never had to navigate a full parking lot before. 80% of my miles are interstate and I don't have a garage.
I'm not most Americans and so I'll have to accept the fact I may have a hard time selling this thing in 10 years because most people aren't going to want a truck this long.
Most Americans now live in cities that's why the Tacoma/Maverick/Ranger sell so damn well even though they're only a few grand cheaper than a base model half ton.
AdamChandler
Ram Guru
You also can't close the tail gate on a 6'4" bed either if you're hauling more than 1 bike.
I can put my GS sideways by itself and close the tail gate but 2 or 3 bikes and I still can't close the tailgate.
monkeypunch
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This is why I got a truck. To haul kids and a dog. But I need the storage space in the bed for road trips. We have out grown the Atlas with 2 kids and the dog, we need the biggest Thule rooftop carrier they make. It will also get used as a daily driver and driving pastures for hunting. I wanted the extra bed space, and a 5'7" bed won't fit in my garage anyways. The Atlas barely fits. People drive around in 2500s and F250s with no issues, the 6'4" isn't that big of a deal to me.
AdamChandler
Ram Guru
Hauling was my reason too. My last 4 vehicles were Volkswagen Golfs. My wife has a Golf Wagon and it's enough for her + the dog and family and friends. The issue with us we're going to a lot of motorcycle events these days A LOT and we were pulling a light weight moto trailer behind her wagon but it was very bad for the transmission to do that and fuel economy was dropping drastically. With the RAM EcoDiesel, we can haul both motorcycles in the bed and still get 23 miles per gallon and the drive is much more comfortable and saver (hauling versus towing) and the truck is built for it. Diesel is also still cheaper than medium grade gas which the VW required. Economically, buying a truck was best for us and if we have kids, we have space for them too. I still have my Golf and she has hers.
mikeru82
Legendary member
Sorry to veer off-topic a little here, but why do we need to have a reason for driving a truck? Luckily for me we still live in a free (for now at least) country. Where we're free to choose what we want to drive. There are no rules that say you can't have a truck unless you want or need to do "truck things". My lady and I both drive trucks. We each have our own Ram 1500 Limited. Neither of us tows anything. And we almost never need to haul anything. I don't go off-road anymore, although I like to have the capability to do so. My reasons for driving what I drive are my own. I can afford to drive pretty much what I want, and what I want to drive at this point in my life is a truck.
AngelPhoenix
Ram Guru
Playing devil's advocate here but, there is something to be said for the excesses of western culture. There's people out there that would be happy for a decent pair of shoes, never mind anything with a motor, never mind a $70K truck that is being used for things that pretty much anything with a motor could do, and spend less resources (i.e. gas) while doing it.
Could maybe think of it like ordering a 40 oz porterhouse steak that you know you're gonna eat less than half of, but because of the cut of the meat, it tastes better. Rest goes in the garbage. That's wasteful, and the idea of taking something perfectly useable (i.e. the bed and/or towing capability of the truck) and rendering it useless is counterintuitive; it's more of an emotional standpoint to purposefully render something useless that has a use.
Could you get around in a Toyota Celica and take the $40-$50k you didn't spend on the truck, and buy a couple of cars for people who otherwise wouldn't be able to get a vehicle at all? Probably. Would that be an objectively better and more morally "correct" thing to do? Obviously I don't believe that, or that's what I would have done.
So don't get me wrong, I pretty much agree with you, this is our life, our time, our hard work, our money, our resources, our choice to do with these things what we will. But I can see the other side of the argument too.
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