I prefer the LB. ITS A TRUCK

 

Short Box for me.....

--
Gordon

 

Long bed for me.

My last two trucks were short beds and after you drop in an L shaped fuel tank, toolbox, and an air compressor there is zero room left.

 

I prefer the long bed hands down.
Mine did a GREAT job offroad (was able to keep up with my jeep forum buddys).
I found that because of the length I almost always had an axle or a tire on dry ground with good grip to pull my through any obstacle or mud/water/etc.

 

For towing a bumper pull trailer, longer wheelbase is going to help and nearly eliminate trailer sway. The shorter your drive vehicle wheelbase gets, the more trailer sway you will get.

I may be inclined to get a long bed next time I get a truck. I currently have these things to complain about with the short bed:

No room for fuel tank with a tool box and a fifth wheel hitch in the bed. Basically, there is no room for anything other than a cooler and a propane tank in this configuration.

I have to use a slider hitch for tight turns with my fifth wheel camper.

Stock fuel tank is small.

Towing the fifth wheel is a little less comfortable with the location of the hitch being so close to the rear of the cab. This is just a "feeling" though, not a true fact based on anything other than me paying attention to things and having clearance issues when turning.

 

Agree on all counts. Especially that "uncomfortable" thing. Whenever I go into a tight turn situation the blood pressure jumps up while I'm looking all sorts of directions behind me to make sure I don't crash the cab. And when I get out of wherever I was ... whew!

 

I know the referenced post is a couple of months old, but I am interested in the first comment..

I do custom cars as a hobby, building up a long term business. we tow one all over in a 20ft enclosed trailer. Behind our suburban (130in wheelbase) it was white knuckle all the time.. even with dual anti sway bars, and equalizer hitch.

We bought a crew cab superduty longbed dually, and it is AMAZING towing the same trailer.. and gives us the possibility to tow a gooseneck for 2 vehicles.

but the longbed & dually has started to interfere with daily life. Wife doesn't like to drive it, hates to park it, etc... our prius DD was down for a stupid tire mechanic mistake this week, and she had to drive the dually. not a happy camper!

so, we are looking at a crew shortbed. drove a 2012 yesterday.. and wow amazing.. our property is a lot more muddy than expected, and the dually is also only 2wd.. been stuck out back twice now.. so this interferes with needed function.

but sway is my major concern for the bumper pull trailers.. I had an empty dual axle trailer breakaway once and push the tow vehicle sideways across the highway.. we did 2500 miles last summer using the trailer to move daughter to chicago. and we put the dually on cruise at 70 and went.. not a care in the world (well fuel mileage on an 08 6.4 sucks). I don't want to lose that security.

the suburban wheelbase/length was 130/222 vs the sb 156/246 vs lb 172/263
so the sb is 2 ft longer than the suburban.

anybody have any experience on moving from long to short bed and bumper pulling? looking for a gooseneck, but shouldn't need it for one vehicle.

Sam

 

I think a sb crew is 162 or 165 inch wb. I tow a 30 foot trailer, no sway, with our without the sway bars. World of difference from a suburban. I like the lb for fuel capacity, bed capacity, but for towing a bumper pull, there is not much difference and my turning radius will allow me in and out of spots most can't with lb. I carry two 5 gal cans of diesel on trips in case. For pulling cars, so you can pull a car hauler, I would get a F350, so you can handle pin weight. Lb for fuel capacity and for the propert, you need 4*4 for sure. For true bush work, I would like to see ARB lockers front and rear, the weight of these trucks make em tough to get unstuck, other option is a winch. If I were doing a winch these days, I would put a receiver on front and have in tool box so I can pull front or rear, myself or someone else. Oh yeah, one more thing, my old house sb barely fit, new house has room for a lb, if I were buying, I would go lb just for the fuel capacity, added benefit is if I went to fifth wheel I would not have to pay more for slider hitch. I would learn to deal with it for car washes, drive tthroughs and parking in malls.

 

thanks.. that is exactly the info I was looking for.. Yeh, fuel capacity on the SB seems like a spot Ford just doesn't think about.. least there are options. altho costly..

on the dually I have a front brush bumper with a receiver, and have used it twice to connect the 10,000lb winch I have to pull the dually out of the mud.. (if only it was 4x4!).. the winch is normally in the trailer as I can't open the door of the cool cars once inside, so have to winch them in or out. Mounted a receiver to the trailer floor to mount the winch carrier into.

the 350 we drove last night was remarkably louder in the cab over the same road & distance traveled the a 250 exactly equipped. I want the 350 for the pin weight too.. but the 250 is amazingly quiet.. shouldn't be a difference, but 2- 350's were louder than 2 different 250's at two different dealers..

we live out in the country and have a 2 car carport at the moment and the dually almost fits.. (bumper sticks out) our bad time is summer heat, so least the cab is covered. the SB will easily be in all the way.

We've been talking about building a garage with doors.. and it will be 30 ft inside, so we can get a dually in and close the door if we do..

SB Crewcab wheelbase is 156.5

Sam

 

longbed truck for me..I can't tell you how many times i've seen people struggling to fit stuff into a shortbox..the only shortbox I would like to have is a mid-late 70's F100/F150...

 

My 2000 and 2003 were short beds. But Ford redesigned the front suspension in 2005, with that redesigned front end, The 2005 and newer Long Beds turn better than the 1999-2004 short beds used to. So in 2006 I switched to a Long Bed and never thought twice about it's turning radius, Since it was better than the short beds I came from.

Being a general contractor, I always have 8 foot boards in the bed of the truck. And I often have 12 foot shelving hanging 2 foot past the tailgaite or 16 foot trim ( which is usually stuffed through the back window into the cab).

Pulling a large GN horse trailer, I usually have several 15 gallon mini barrels of water and several bales of hay in the bed. I never seem to have enough room. The Long bed means at least one if not 2 extra bales of hay.

When I haul my ATV, in the short bed, I had to leave the tail gate down, With the long bed, I can shut the tail gate and not worry about stuff falling out. For me I'm committed to long beds.

 

home with the new truck!!

Sam

 

Nice truck...love the color!

 

I have an 06 cc/sb F350 and love it. I can see if people 5th wheel or haul a lot (like construction) then a lb would be the only choice but since i don't the sb is perfect. When our farm shop is full of tractors and equipment i can still fit it in to get it out of the sun/weather opposed to if it was a lb it wouldn't. Their are times that i wish i had a lb but for driving back roads, parking in the city/malls the sb is the way to go.

Those not looking to lose bed length with a tool box, I got a pork chop tool box from weatherguard and is perfect for keeping dirty straps, hitches, tools and fuel additive out of the cab.

All in all, which ever you choose you will find situations you wish you had the "other" bed.