Truck silliness and F250 diesel weights

[Txfivver]

Anyway, off the soap box! But wanted to let you know, my screen name isn't my truck woes.

Haha ok got it. I feel your pain though, I pay upper 5 figures in taxes every year and it chaps my rear end to go to the grocery store and see very well dressed family's use a food stamp card for 500 bucks in food and go out and get in an Escalade! Somethings wrong with that picture!

[Txfivver]

FYI ..... the steering gets better after about 2k or so on the 450. 70 psi in rear improves some of handing and is plenty for the weight they carry.

Thats interesting, wonder why? Maybe the tires wear in or something. I have one on order due in March so I'll test that out. I intend to put on the Ford required 1000 miles on it before towing so it'll see some quick road time before the summer season gets here.

[tamrick]

well after many years of watching that educational series called NASCAR, , my guess is that they get stiffer with use and don’t flex as much when they are new. The new 450s have the new HD3 tire so don’t know if the wondering will be as bad when new. Overall, the 450 is a great truck. I really look forward to the reviews of the new 10 speed paired with the 4:30 gears.
Overtaxed, nice review of new truck. From experience, it will also stop your rig pretty fast when needed.

[Drolaw]

Thats interesting, wonder why? Maybe the tires wear in or something. I have one on order due in March so I'll test that out. I intend to put on the Ford required 1000 miles on it before towing so it'll see some quick road time before the summer season gets here.

@Txfivver - Do you use your 350 as a daily driver? I ask because I'm on the fence about SRW vs DRW. I drive about 24 miles one way (New Braunsfels to San Antonio) for work. If you do use it as a daily driver, what mpg do you get with your DRW without the 5er?

[Overtaxed]

@Txfivver - Do you use your 350 as a daily driver? I ask because I'm on the fence about SRW vs DRW. I drive about 24 miles one way (New Braunsfels to San Antonio) for work. If you do use it as a daily driver, what mpg do you get with your DRW without the 5er?

Well, I realize I have little to offer here, but I do daily drive my truck too, although the vast majority of the miles are hitched up. I'm getting around 16-18 in blended driving on the 450. Not great, but not awful (not that different than the 250 was). Honestly, if you're on the fence, drive both. I let all the horror stories (not here, just in general) about how "awful" duallies are to drive color my opinion far too much buying a truck. I should have just bought a duallie from the get go years ago, it's honestly a non-issue for me. I've put about 4K miles on the truck now. Of those miles, about 3K of them, I was thrilled to have the duallie (towing), and the other 1K, it didn't matter one way or the other (around town driving). There are some situations where a duallie is a PITA, and I'm sure I'll run into them and/or have to take another car. Car washes, drive thrus, etc. That's like <1% of my driving that I'm dealing with things like that. Having the other 99% better (towing) or the same (driving around unloaded) makes duallie an easy decision.

The decision tree should be like this, IMHO:

Towing heavy/big rig/often/in tough situations? -> Duallie
Not doing those things? Then start thinking about SRW vs DRW.

[dalek77]

Bought a 2020 Sierra 3500 I will be using to tow a 351M. I'll be towing with a Harley in the rear or a golf kart almost all the time. TV hitch weight is 3180 on the sticker, with a total payload capacity of 3735. I'll also be using an anderson hitch, so I expect to be 3-400 lbs under my hitch weight capacity in the TV.

I'll post numbers from the CAT when I get the 351M, but it's still on order.

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[Txfivver]

@Txfivver - Do you use your 350 as a daily driver? I ask because I'm on the fence about SRW vs DRW. I drive about 24 miles one way (New Braunsfels to San Antonio) for work. If you do use it as a daily driver, what mpg do you get with your DRW without the 5er?

Jim I do not have to drive the dually as a commuter, have an Explorer for that. Now having said that I have used is daily several times. It probably gets 13-14 mpg in city driving but on trips w/o the trailer to Houston to see grandson it will knock down 17-18 on the highway. It's really not any harder to commute in that my previous F250 was, just can't use drive thru's and have to park a little further out. It's worth it to me to know I have enough truck. I ordered a 2020 F450 recently for the comfort of always having MORE than enough truck lol!

[Overtaxed]

Your gonna be tight, look at the weigh tickets I got from a 351M. It's about 3K on the pin, IIRC (it's in the beginning on this thread). You will probably be under, but you'll have to pack carefully (water, especially) to keep it within sticker.

[Overtaxed]

It's really not any harder to commute in that my previous F250 was, just can't use drive thru's and have to park a little further out.

Exactly my experience. It's just not very "different" unloaded than a 250 (my previous truck) was. Yeah, it's a little wider; but within a very short period of time, I got used to that. No drive thrus and no automatic car washes.

Honestly, having gone through nearly all the Fords now in my life, if you're thinking about towing much, just get a duallie. It's not that much more money, it's significantly better at towing, and it's not significantly worse at anything I do regularly. Yeah, if you stop at MCD for drive in every day, it's going to be different for you. But for me, the duallie is better in 99% of the miles I do and worse in 1%. I'll take that trade.

[dalek77]

Your gonna be tight, look at the weigh tickets I got from a 351M. It's about 3K on the pin, IIRC (it's in the beginning on this thread). You will probably be under, but you'll have to pack carefully (water, especially) to keep it within sticker.

I think I'll be ok thanks to you guys and the amazing research you all have done. Your goosebox was 230 lbs. The trail air rotaflex it comes with is 115 lbs plus the 30 for Anderson so I'll save a little there. I expect to be around 2800 with my golf kart in the back. I never did check the water tank location, but fuel is in the back I believe.

Look forward to the 351m!

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