Handy Hilux ute wood do the job

The Extra Cab, with an extended tray, is more useful than a double cab and leaves room behind the front seats for tools or other gear. Photo / Supplied

Some see a good-looking ute when an Extra Cab Hilux glides into view; I see a load of firewood.

Although customers all but queue to buy double-cab utes, perhaps a more useful light truck is the extended cab, whose cabin is longer than the basic standard cab but shorter than a double cab.

The beauty of the extended cab - or Extra Cab, as Toyota has christened it - is that its tray is usefully longer, yet there's still room behind the front seats for anything from toolboxes to people who don't mind being scrunched up for short trips.

In Hilux's case, the tray is 285mm longer than the double cab's. Coupled with a width of 1515mm and depth of 450mm, the wellside can easily take 1.5cu m of firewood for next winter, a load that won't tax its 900kg payload.

My firewood supply is from a property 200km away, two-and-a-half hours north on motorways, secondary roads and country back roads. So the bigger the tray, the more cost-effective the trip.

Hilux has been facelifted, but with a completely new model a couple of years away, it seems on paper to lose out to the just-released Ford Ranger and its Mazda BT-50 sibling.

But the $59,290 Hilux SR5 acquits itself well. An old ute with some new trim? I'd never have known from the firewood run. Its 3-litre turbodiesel is down on power compared with the Ranger, at 126kW and 343Nm of torque at a low 1400rpm, but it still flies, even with its load of firewood.

Here's an easy way to improve the ride and handling of a Japanese ute: drop a 700kg load in the back. Any load will do, but so much the better if it's next winter's firewood.

Hilux's suspension has for years struck a reasonable balance between loaded and unloaded ride and handling. But it's still a bit firm and jiggly running light, and there's an imprecision to the handling.

Put a decent load in the tray and those shortcomings largely vanish. The cargo helps front-rear weight distribution, the ute sits on the road better and the load-bearing leaf springs compress to their "sweet spot".

However, slippery roads betray a weakness of the Extra Cab. Double Cabs have marched into the electronic age with a full suite of stability and traction controls. Extra Cabs and Single Cabs will get the electronics - but not just yet.

It's still easy to get the rear end out of shape on slippery or loose surfaces, especially with all that torque available, barely a toe's quiver off idle. Not to worry - just drive with a big load of wood on the back; it works wonders.

Hoarders happy

It's not particularly people-friendly with its small, bolt-upright seats, but the "extra" bit of the Hilux Extra Cab is a great place to put stuff. The seat squabs can be removed to provide a flat cargo area and underneath are hidden storage areas, ideal for valuables.

Access to the back is by pulling forward either front seat, just like a two-door car. It's not particularly easy access, and some will find the small, clamshell-like doors on Ford, Mazda and Nissan extended cabs more convenient.

Oddly, Toyota makes a similar wide-access cab for some markets, but not New Zealand.

Extended cabs sales low

Talk about being under-appreciated; extended cab utes made up only 8 per cent of New Zealand's ute sales over the last year.

Single cabs comprised 11 per cent and double cabs 81 per cent, according to figures supplied by Toyota. Extended cabs made up 10 per cent among 4WD utes and just 6 per cent of 2WDs.