Quad Cab vs. Crew Cab in a Pickup Truck? See What the Differences Are

Toyota

Article QuickTakes

• Complete list in table form
• Differences for each truck-maker

When shopping for a pickup truck, it becomes clear that different manufacturers love to come up with different names for the same feature. Take the cab of the truck for instance: RAM calls its two variants Quad Cab and Crew Cab, and it definitely isn't clear from the name which one is bigger.

Here's a look at the difference between a quad cab vs. crew cab, as well as the other variants from other automakers.

Longer and Shorter Cab Sizes

Regardless of the truck you end up considering, know that typically there will be only two or three cab sizes. One will be a full-size cab with four doors like a car or SUV might have. The other will be smaller and typically aimed at folks looking for a less expensive work truck or the long bed that a shorter cab allows. When it comes to comparing quad cab vs. crew cab, you'll find it's often just marketing.

Here's a table showing how truck makers label their different options:

Ram

For the RAM 1500, the Quad Cab is actually the smaller truck cab—though it does have four doors, hence the quad name. The Crew Cab is bigger, with larger doors and more room in the back—room for your whole crew, as it were.

Ford

Over at Ford, truck cabs come in Regular Cab, SuperCab, and SuperCrew configurations. The Regular Cab is a truck cab with two doors, aimed at simple, less expensive work trucks. The SuperCab has a backward-opening half-door, while the SuperCrew is a full-sized four-door cab equivalent to the RAM's Crew Cab.

Chevrolet/GMC

The Chevrolet Silverado comes in three different varieties: a Regular Cab like the Ford, a Double Cab like the RAM's Quad Cab (with four doors but smaller rear ones), and the full-sized Crew Cab. The GMC Sierra uses identical cab names to Chevrolet.

The Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon are both available with an entry-level extended cab, without rear doors but with two rear seats, or as a four-door Crew Cab model. The Crew Cab seats five, and features front-hinged rear doors that are similar in design to the Double Cab of the Toyota Tacoma and Crew Cab of the Nissan Frontier.

Toyota

Toyota has its own names for cabs, too. The Tacoma pickup is available with an Access Cab, roughly equivalent to the Ford SuperCab, with a backward-opening rear door. It's also available with a larger Double Cab that has four full-size doors.

The larger Toyota Tundra has a Double Cab that's more akin to the RAM Quad Cab and the Chevy Double Cab, with four doors but with rear doors smaller than the front. Finally, the CrewMax has four full-size doors and plenty of room in the back seats.

Nissan

Nissan has both a King Cab and a Crew Cab for its Frontier and Titan pickups. The King Cab is smaller, while the Crew Cab is the same as the RAM Crew Cab, Ford SuperCrew, and Toyota CrewMax.

Crew Cab models feature front-hinged rear doors, like many of the trucks on this list, but Frontier King Cab models don’t have rear doors. Titan King Cab models have wide-opening rear-hinged rear doors.