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Standard Truck Bed Sizes
If you drive a pickup truck, then you know how important it is to have a bed that’s big enough to suit your needs. Maybe you just use your truck for the weekends. Or, maybe, like a lot of other people, you use your truck for work. If you’re used to carrying big and heavy loads, then you need to have a truck big enough to carry your cargo.
When you go to buy a new or used car, you can ask the salesman what size the truck’s bed is. This information is provided by the manufacturer. Plus, the dealership can always measure the truck to make sure the information is correct. They don’t want to sell a car with a promise of a large truck bed only to find out that it’s smaller than they claimed it was.
Here, we’ll talk about the standard truck bed size. We’ll also talk about why it matters and how you can measure the truck bed size yourself.
What are the 3 Types of Truck Beds?
There are three main types of truck beds: short, standard and long. Usually, you can tell by looking at a truck what kind of bed it has. But, if you’re not sure, there is a trick you can use.
You want to look at where the gas tank flap is. Then, check to see how far it is from the rear fender. The general rule is, the farther away from the gas flap, the longer the bed. Here is a guideline to follow:
- if the gas flap is on the fender, you have a short bed
- if the flap is near the fender, it’s a standard bed
- If there is a noticeable gap between gas tank flap and rear fender, it’s a long bed
While each manufacturer is different, there are standard sizes for all 3 types of truck beds. Here is the general rule. Just keep in mind – Ford's short bed may be an inch or two longer than one made by Chevy. (There is a reason for this and we’ll talk about that later.)
- Short bed – 5'8”
- Standard bed – 6'5”
- Long (Extended) bed – 8″
Why Do the Measurements of the Truck Bed Matter?
When you’re shopping for a new truck, there will be a lot of things important to you. For example, you may be more concerned with the price than anything else. If that’s the case, you’ll probably opt for a short-bed truck. If you carry a lot of cargo, you may want to focus on getting a truck with a long bed. Finally, if you need to make sure your whole family can sit in the truck, than seating will be more important than the size of your truck’s bed.
Once you have your truck, however, you may need to buy accessories for your truck. To do this, you’re going to need to know how big your truck bed is. There are all sorts of things you may want to buy that require these measurements:
- Replacement panels for your truck
- A bed liner for your truck
- You may want to order a cover for your truck
You may also want to install a hard-tool box on the back of your truck. If this is the case, you’ll need to know how big your bed is. If you don’t have this information, you can always get it.
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How Do You Measure Your Pickup Truck’s Bed?
If you don’t have the measurements for your truck’s bed, then you have two choices. You can call the dealership or manufacturer and ask for the information. Or, you can measure it yourself. Since the only way to know for sure is to measure your truck (and not a random truck online), we recommend that you measure it yourself.
There are 3 easy steps to measuring your truck bed:
- Take the tape measure and place it at the bulkhead of your truck bed. This is the spot where the bed meets the truck’s cab.
Extend the tape measure all the way to the inside edge at your tailgate. It’s important that you only measure to the inside edge. If you extend it to the outside edge, it’s going to be off by about an inch. - Write down the total number of inches and divide by 12. This will allow you to convert your measurement into feet and inches.
- It’s also important to know that most manufacturers round up. So, if something is 5 feet and 6 and a half inches, round up to 5-foot, 7-inches. Once you have this information, you can go online and order any sort of accessories for your truck. It’s also the information you’ll need to order replacement parts for your truck bed.
Why Do You Need to Measure the Bed – Can't You Just Get the Information Online?
Remember when we said earlier that manufacturers intentionally use different sized truck beds? Well, let’s explain why. If all truck manufacturers sold cars with the exact same truck bed, then you would be able to buy component parts from anyone. By making sure they’re all slightly different, you’re forced to buy replacement parts and accessories from the manufacturer that made your particular truck.
The other reason it’s important to measure your truck instead of relying on the information you find online is because they change. Every year, truck manufacturers release new models of their pickup trucks. The size of the beds changes almost every year. Again, this is so that you can’t transfer parts or accessories from one model and use them on another. It really comes down to making sure you have to buy from the manufacturer or a licensed distributor. It’s always better to just measure the truck bed yourself and keep the information in the glove compartment.
