DOUBLE DUTY; Toyota adds two doors to the Tundra to complete its truck lineup.(News)

Byline: MARK VAUGHN

Anyone remember when trucks really were trucks-a single vinyl benchseat bolt upright in a metal-lined cab with just two doors and an AM radio? Ha! What nostalgia. Nowadays, trucks are so comfortable they're almost like cars with big, lidless trunks. And they continue to evolve. The regular-cab pickup long ago made room for the extended-cab and is now being edged out by the monster double-cab, the latest iteration of which comes from Toyota. And is it ever big.

When Toyota engineers began doing research on the Tundra Double Cab, due in showrooms in late November, they wanted to see how big they could go.

"We investigated garage sizes and parking lot sizes,'' said chief engineer Motoharu Araya. "Nineteen feet was the maximum size, we felt.''

They made it 19 feet two inches. They figured the maximum width they could get away with and still fit into American parking garages was 80 inches, and they squeezed just inside that mark at 79.7 inches. It is three inches higher and four inches wider than other Tundras. This makes the Tundra Double Cab the biggest thing Toyota makes.

How big is it? It eats Toyopets for breakfast. It is so big Toyota consulted its truck partner Hino in Japan before going to work. Hino makes those big box vans and delivery trucks. Hino made drawings of the upper body, while Toyota engineers designed the underbody.

To make a double cab from the Tundra regular and/or Access cab, engineers added a foot of open C-section frame between the wheels. They originally thought of just adding the new, larger cab to the existing frame, but that would have meant either a foot less bed length or a bed that stuck into traffic like the end of a broom handle in a Three Stooges skit. So they stretched the wheelbase instead.