Double Cab vs Crew Cab: Why Toyota's Double Cab and Chevy's Double Cab Are Different Trucks

Ask around and you get two confident answers: a double cab has four full-size doors, or a double cab has smaller rear doors. Each one is right for some trucks and wrong for others. The word belongs to the maker, not to a door layout.

One seller shows the problem in two titles. COMNOVA writes "Double/Crew Cab" for a 2005-2023 Tacoma^* and "Double Cab" with "Extended Cab" for a 2007-2018 Silverado and Sierra^*. Same seller, same word, two different groups. Check your exact year and cab on the listing before you buy.

What is a double cab? Where each one lands

This is the ARIES cab guide, as we read it on November 2, 2026. ARIES says plainly that its groups help explain the three basic types and do not mean the trucks share a design.

ARIES describes the groups in general terms. A crew cab is the largest of the three, typically with four full-size, front-hinged doors and two full rows. An extended cab has at least two full-size front doors, and you reach its back seat by moving the front seats or through smaller rear doors.

Read the table one row at a time. A Tacoma owner with a Double Cab is already in the top group. A Silverado owner with a Double Cab is one group below the Crew Cab on the same truck.

GM has several names for one slot

The Silverado column is messier than it looks. ARIES says Extended before 2004 and Double from 2014 on, and it names nothing for the years in between. Other paperwork fills that gap with different words:

• The COMNOVA title for 2007-2018 trucks says both Double Cab and Extended Cab.
• N-Fab's install sheet for 2007-2013 Chevy and GMC trucks writes "quad/extended cab".
• LUVERNE's 2023 catalog writes "Ext" on its Silverado rows and keeps "Double" for its Tundra rows.

So on a GM truck, shop under Double and Extended both, then match the doors. We could not open Chevrolet's or Toyota's own pages, because both refused our reader. Nothing on this page rests on them, and we print no door or legroom dimensions.

Why counting doors does not settle it

Cars.com shows the 2026 Tundra SR5 Double Cab as a 4-door, and its spec page puts that truck under a Crew Cab Pickup heading. Its overview of the same model year calls the SR and SR5 trucks with the 8.1-foot bed "extended-cab trucks". That is one site using both words for one cab name.

The useful detail is rear door width. A search excerpt of Tyger's page warns that its 2007-2021 Tundra CrewMax part is "NOT for Double Cab with 2 full-size front doors & 2 narrower rear doors". We could not open that page directly. The 6-inch aluminum Tundra title^* comes at it from the other side by saying "4 Full Size Doors". Check your exact year and cab on the listing before you buy.

1. Get the maker's name

   Your window sticker or a dealer with your VIN gives you the exact cab name. Listings use that name.

2. Compare front and rear doors

   Rear doors clearly narrower than the front point to the extended group. Doors of about the same size point to the crew group.

3. Find your truck in the table above

   Use your make and model year. Do not carry a meaning over from another truck, even another Toyota.

The full routine is on how to tell which cab you have. Every cab name across makers is on the truck cab types overview.

What it does to running boards

A board has to span the doors it serves and bolt to the mounting points along that cab. Each part is built for specific model years and cabs, sometimes bed lengths. The makers show the split in numbers.

Look at the second row before you pick up a saw. Take 10 inches off 79 and you get 69, which is what the newer guide says. The 2019 guide's 62 does not add up, so ask RealTruck before you cut.

Westin's table has Crew Cab rows only for the Silverado 1500, and a Double Cab Pickup row only for the current Tacoma. So a Tacoma owner and a Silverado Double Cab owner read that one table and get opposite answers. That is why we state fit only by listing or maker. How we verify fitment has the rules we use for it.

If you are still choosing a truck

The door question is about rear seat room, and the bed usually pays for it. ARIES says crew cabs often have shorter beds and that extended-cab back seats are often tight for taller riders. On the Tundra the trade shows up plainly: Cars.com says the 8.1-foot bed comes only on the SR and SR5 trucks it calls extended-cab, and its trim list shows that bed with the Double Cab.

On a Tacoma, ARIES lists nothing above the Double, so the choice there is between that and the smaller extended-group cab. On a Silverado or Sierra, a Double Cab buyer gives up the Crew Cab's group, and our data has far fewer parts naming it.

That last point is worth weighing if steps matter to you. Crew cab running boards and extended cab running boards sort the parts by cab. Other naming traps are on extended cab vs crew cab and quad cab vs crew cab.

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