Back in the dark ages, when most pickups only came in regular cabs, a substantial little industry developed around extending them with “sleeper cabs”, so called because they resembled the ones on big rigs. Well, at least I called them that; I don’t know about anyone else. But there’s no doubt that they were once quite common, and a number of companies got in the act. It involved cutting and extending the frame, and adding a fiberglass cab extension. And they’re getting rather rare these days, except here in Curbsidelandia, of course. Here’s another:
This one is even older, a ’77 to be precise, and because I talked to the owner, I even know that the conversion was done by Cortez, who also built the famous Cortez motorhome (I assume, although I wouldn’t take that for granted). Needless to say, it was a relatively short-lived phenomena, like so many other things from that era. Pet rock, anyone?
I don’t remember ever having seen one of these in person, only in magazines. Maybe it was a west coast thing?
They were pretty popular in CA. It seems as though the people who made them didn’t have a relationship with Toyota so they did them for individual dealers or someone after they had purchased the truck.
Whaaaa!?
That red one is pretty rare, great find.
My brother had an 84 or 85 for awhile, pretty unwieldy to get into the back area particularly on a lifted 4×4 which many of them seemed to be.
Remember that in the late 1970’s, everyone was still on the downward slope from the custom van binge so these type of conversions ~made sense~ in a way to get a Japanese small truck with a bigger passenger capacity. Heck, the Ford F150 only got a consumer available club cab in the mid 1970s with 4 door crew cabs typically being a special order for a business.
I do miss seeing these kind of customs.
On the other hand, I’d hate to get in an accident in one.
At first I thought the teal framed window was part of the “mega-cab.” Then I realized it’s part of a minvan behind it.
I remember seeing these around a lot during my high school days during the 80’s. Most of them seem to have disappeared, but I still see a handful of these putting around nowadays, usually loaded to the gills with gardening equipment, scrap cardboard, or junk.
If I were old enough to afford one of these back then, I never would have bothered. I’d have bought an extended cab Dodge or Ford instead.
Why did the original japanese double cabs never arrive to the US? These conversions show that there was a small demand for little double cabs back then… I always thought americans would never be interested in such a small d-cab. I know, original versions might have a shorter bed, but they are big enough to carry a motorcycle or a lawn mower. They are still very common down here: