Kid seats: Double vs Crew

I have a 2018 DC that I love. Don't have kids currently, but may in the near future if possible. I would just wait until that time comes if it comes at all, but given the new gen of Tundra coming out, I've been giving just slight consideration to moving to a Crew with a V8 while I can.

Does the typical modern child seat fit pretty decent in a Double or is it significantly nicer in a Crew? Years ago I had a friend with one of his kids riding in my truck and I seem to vaguely remember him having to move his seat forward a fair bit with that child seat in the back.

 

Way nicer in the crewmax… DC is more of a ‘work’ truck.

 

I don't have personal experience with it but I've heard you can do one car seat in the middle without too much trouble. If you have to do two, that's where you end up having to move the front seats forward in the DC.

I bought a CM because my wife and I want 2 kids within about 2 years of each other (our first is about 8 months now), even though I would have preferred the bed space. My wife actually rode in the back seat of the truck the other day and ranted and raved about how much space is back there and how confortable it is. That being said, I'm average height and can put the seat in my wife's Corolla in a spot that's confortable for me with the car seat behind me. Is there really more space in the back seat of a Corolla than a DC Tundra? Somehow I doubt it.

 

There is a significant difference in the more room you have in a CrewMAX.

I have 3 young boys in various stages of car seat life. As big and bulky as car seats are these days,if rear facing some of them you absolutely cannot fit in anything except a full sized vehicle or large suv.

The more room you have,the better. More width of seats,depth of bottom pads,and space between the seat and front row make a HUGE difference in the ability to fit a car seat safely and headache free.

CRewmax gets my vote every time

I am 6’4 and 235lbs and can have 3 huge rear facing convertible car seats in the backseat without it affecting anybody up front or having to adjust my seat forward at all.

 

Crewmax, had rear facing car seat on either side and didn't affect the front seat position at all.

Unlike in my wifes GS350, if the car seat is behind the drivers seat I can't drive it, and if it's behind the passenger seat and she's driving, I can barely fit in the damn thing, knees up in the dash.

 

The crewmax will obviously give you more room, but I have 2 kids with car seats in the DC. I came from a double cab Tacoma and the car seats fit fine in that but there was no other room. Since you have the DC I would wait and see if you have enough room instead of making an early decision. Plus, the longer bed is nicer once the kids get into bigger kid things.

 

For kids seat consider a crew max.

 

Yeah, I had no issues with both my granddaughter's car seats in the backseat of my 07 DC. The DC cab isn't that small. smh....

 

In a crewmax, a 6’-6” adult can sit in the front seat and a 6’-6” adult can sit in the back seat and both have plenty of leg room. It’s like a dodge mega cab.

The double cab rear seat is akin to what nearly all other “crew cab” pickups are built with (until other mfgrs started stretching them out after the crewmax came out in ‘07). It’s got more room than what I’ve seen in a lot of other “family rigs”

we fit two child seats in the back of a mazda protege without issues, then on to a mazda Cx-9 for the wife and a Tundra DC for me and never had an issue. We did 2-3000 mile road trips that way, with the space between filled with “in-cab essentials” and the rest of the luggage in the bed under my tonneau cover.

I bought my current CM because I’m not hauling kids anymore, but instead usually adults. Or filling the back seat with things I want more secure than bouncing around in the bed (like $35k robotic total stations).

so my vote is unless you just want a new truck, or have some other compelling reason for the CM, don’t let car seats worry you.

 

This is one of the main reasons I bought a tundra. I used to have a double cab Tacoma and with the rear facing infant car seat in the back you had to have the front seat up so far your knees were in the dash. I now have a crewmax and with the same car seat and front seat all the way back there is still 4-5 inches between the back of the front seat and the car seat. Side note my brother in law is 6 foot 5 and sat in the back with the front seat all the way back and had 3-4 inches of leg room.

 

long term crew max for sure, kids gonna grow up and they will need all that space.

 

I previously had a 2010 DC. Rear facing car seats were an extremely tight fit. The way the rear doors open, it makes the opening feel even tighter with the way it necks down the entrance to the back seat area. Lifting car seats higher up into a tight entranced truck was a PITA. So much so that I got rid of the truck for a SUV (Jeep SRT).

Purchased my 2018 Crewmax as a second vehicle and kick myself for not getting the Crewmax the first time. If I would have originally bought my 2010 Rock Warrior in CM vs. DC, I would still have that truck.

On a side note, I loved every mile in that Jeep SRT. Only got rid of it because the 7 year / 70k mile warranty was up, got remarried, and traded it in on the new wife’s TRD Pro 4Runner.

 

I think of the CM as business class and the DC as coach. My CM fits our three young kids and their various carseats just fine. That’s with a 65-lb Labrador retriever on the floor at their feet. No one is wanting for room.

I’ve hauled various loads in my shortbed…all five of our bikes, a cubic yard of mulch, and a dozen 16-ft cedar boards. I can make my 5.5ft bed work for any load that can go in a 6.5ft bed. It might not always have the tailgate closed though.

And I can haul several guitars, amps, and gear in the backseat, climate-controlled, when I’m headed to work.

Unless you want to sleep in the bed, haul a motorcycle or larger ATV with the tailgate closed, or haul 8ft boards diagonally in the bed with the tailgate closed, your family will appreciate the CM.

 

Borrow some seats and try it, depends on your tolerances. I sold my 2000 DC model Tundra because of kid seating, took a 4runner break, and returned with a CM. If you believe the paranoia, gas prices will be $10/gal in 2022 and today’s unicorn Gen 3’s will be had for pennies on the dollar

 

In 2014, I got my 2014 DC. My 12yo was getting too big to ride in the ex-cab of my Tacoma. A couple years later, we had our 2nd kid. I had him rear facing then front facing for 3 years. Then I got my 2019 CM. He could easily kick the back of the seat until I got the CM. The CM has 12" more space front to back, give it take the difference in seat back thicknesses.

 

Crew with kid seat is my vote

 

If more room is your goal OP than the crew max is the way to go. But a DC will be more than sufficient unless you are tall or your children are very tall. I know quite a few people that owned DC with children and they all recommended the DC prior to me purchasing.

I have zero regrets with my DC and it became the family vehicle. We live very far from the rest of our family, meaning no quick trips. The back seat leg room is only a few inches less than the 5th gen 4Runner. Additionally the Tundras seats are much deeper. It feels smaller because the way the rear door opens. Light years better than the 2nd gen Tacoma.

I loved the 2nd gen Tacoma DC but that was much much tougher with car seats...
However I never regretted a car purchase as much as I did when I had the 5.5 foot bed. Hence for me personally I was never going to buy a short bed Tundra. The simplest of tasks became difficult in a small bed.

Honestly even the adults that have been in the back seat, wife included, all said the found the rear seats comfortable.

Theses are the photos I took when buying my DC.

 

Crewmax is unquestionably better for kids. It’s less about leg room with them, more about space between the seats for coolers, diaper bags, bins for books/toys/blankets. My brother has the DC, it is workable of course but CM better for sure. You do sacrifice a foot of bed space, but typically if this is a regular issue for you (ie you often transport longer building materials) a utility trailer is probably in order as the extra 12” doesn’t make that much difference. Is a crewmax worth adding a 1k a month payment for the next several years acceptable when your 2018 will work just fine? That question only you can answer.

 

As an owner of a DC, I would vote for a crew cab. My salesman was 6'-2" and sit comfortably in the back of my DC. Car seats are another story. While the Toyota Tundra DC is the largest of any of the "extended cab" size pickups, it's going to be a tight squeeze once there is more than one car seat. Especially once you start hauling all of the crap that you bring anytime you go anywhere with kids under the age of 5. My kids are teenagers now and fit comfortably in the backseat of the DC. YMMV

 

I would say a crewmax for sure kids and / or gear. You won’t be disappointed. The DC is good option too for kids older than 2 in my opinion. At least here in IL / St where they have to be in a rear facing til 2.
I have never had a DC tundra but I came from a DC Tacoma and it was well worth it. I’ll send a picture here soon.

 

Here is a vote for keeping the DC. The only time you’re gonna be kinda tight is with rear-facing seats. In NC, that’s only the first year. Unless you’re very tall, you should be fine with the rear facing seat. And, you can always put it behind the passenger seat, assuming your front passenger is shorter than you. My 2 year old (car seat), 6 year old (booster), and 7 year old fit just fine in the back of my DC. Adults fit in the back of a DC. For me, the larger bed is worth the kids having a little less leg room.

Unless you have a good deal on a CM, you’re gonna pay top dollar to replace a 3 year old truck, if you can even find a CM.

 

Prior to purchase I test drove 6 different new Tundras. A mix of DC and CM with fabric and leather seat options. Hands down the best choice for family, dogs, and all the associated crap you need to haul is a CM with fabric seats and sway bars.

 

young kids.... Crew Max all the way. My kids are 6, 3, and 8 months. The rear facing car seats are take up the most room not to mention the kids kicking your seat.

The decision comes down to exterior cargo space in the bed. Do you NEED the extra foot of room back there? Or more room inside? My family needs said interior room.

 

My boys are 6 and 9 and their car seat and booster fit fine in my DC with plenty of room for them. I always figured if two adults would be riding in the back regularly then you would want a CM, but someone above mentioned rear facing car seats which you will need when you have an infant, so I would take that into consideration if you haven’t had kids yet.

 

With four boys, teen to toddler, I'm glad I went with the CM. The back-side of the front seats are out of range of the dirty little shoes that reside in the car/booster seats and are therefore very clean.

The back-side of the front seats in the Sienna are in range and look like a crime scene.

We also live in the sticks so there's plenty of dirt to drag into a vehicle.

 

I have an almost three year old and a seven month old, obviously both in car seats. Any time we travel, we take my truck over my wife’s 2020 Acadia just simply for comfort of space. It’s so nice to have room to lift the kids up into their seats or my for my son who’s the 7th month old who uses a car seat with a base. The other nice thing about the crewmax that I’ve found useful due to its size, if for some reason my wife needs to get in the back, there’s more room for her back there to do so. Also, not sure if there’s air vents on double cab, which was one of the pluses when I was looking at trucks in 2016.

 

I bought my crewmax Tundra from someone who thought the 4runner would be better for their singular kid because of lack of space in the truck. Not saying I'm agreeing with that, just something to think about.

 

I had a DC and got a CM as soon as my son was born. The rear facing seats just barely fit but the seats in the front have to be pushed way up. I love room in the CM.

 

I have a 2.5 and 1.5 year old, one in a forward facing seat and one in a rear facing. There is an incredible amount of room back there in a CM. You can easily move in between the front facing seat and the back of the front seats. The rear facing obviously takes up more space, but it never touches the front seats and there is plenty of space in the footwell for a few bags. You wont regret the swtich.

 

My kids are well past the car seat stage. The CrewMax would have been the obvious choice if we did have to use them.

My daughter drove us home from a recent family engagement, and I rode in the back and played disk jockey.

I got to enjoy my limo-like space and comfort. The weather was perfect, and I had the rear window down too.

CrewMax for the win!