I'll be buying a new truck over the winter and it's time to start test driving. Mostly it will be used as a daily driver. I only put about 9K on my truck a year. Once a week in the summer I tow my 5x12 lawn care trailer that weighs maybe 2500lbs, so that's easily within Ranger capacity. But I'm looking down the road to a boat that's in the neighborhood of 7000lbs dry on the trailer and most people are saying around 8K on the scale loaded up. This will be towed a few hundred miles maybe 10-15 times per year, maybe once a year to Florida and back for 2000 miles round trip and a bunch of 10-20 miles trips to the river. My requirements are

-Crew cab
-6.5ft bed
-4x4
-9000+lbs towing
-Lariat
-6+ years of service

I've been doing a lot of comparing of 06+ F150s with 5.4, 3.73 gears, and 9200lb tow ratings and Super Duties with the 5.4 and 6.8, mostly of 05+. One nice thing is that all SDs get the 6.5ft bed with the crew cab. I also really like the tow command and 5 speed auto vs 4 speed in the F150.

I've found that the F150 has bigger brakes front and rear than the 04 and older SDs and .66 inch smaller fronts, but .7 inch bigger rears that 05+ SDs. The 3V 5.4 has almost as much HP as the 2V 6.8 and is only 60ft/lbs short of the torque. As far as engines go, I don't think I want to sacrifice the gas to go to a 6.8 for the few times I'll want the extra power. I've almost written diesels off as I don't trust them to be reliable, don't want the noise, the smell, or extra expense.

I'm leaning toward the F150 while keeping the 5.4 SD with 4.10s in mind if I can find one to drive. I also like some of the creature comforts of the F150 like the rear air vents and better ride.

What do you all think? It's the boat in the future that is even keeping me in the Super Duty market. I've heard that they aren't as bad to tow as say a travel trailer because they are more aerodynamic and you can run with less tongue weight. In either case I'll be using a WD hitch, sway bar, and electric brakes.

 

My opinion would be to go with a Super Duty. You have already spelled out several reasons for leaning that way, but the two that I will mention are:

1. The additional cab space makes a lot of difference on those longer road trips. And, let's face it, the Super Duty CC is a fair bit larger than the F150 CC.
2. Along with the boat comes other gear. Whether it is just a cooler or two, and extra fuel, or it is all of that plus full camping gear, you will rarely just be towing the boat. That means extra weight which pushes you a bit further towards needing a Super Duty's CGVWR.
3. With the additional size of a Super Duty, you are much less likely to have your boat & trailer push you around on the road...even without the dual rear tires of an F-350+.

As for motor, both the 5.4L & 6.8L are good motors. However, I will say that the 5.4L felt a bit anemic in my Lincoln Mark LT. I cannot imagine how it would feel in a Super Duty that weighs in close to a ton heavier...without any cargo or a trailer.

My current Super Duty has a 6.8L V10, and I love both the truck & the motor. After better than a year with the V10, I can say that it averages quite honestly within 1 - 1.5 MPG of the 5.4L, and the 5.4L was in a smaller, lighter, truck.

For years, I have followed threads here on FTE, and I have read countless V8 vs. V10 threads with a large number of comments saying that the V10 was not much worse on fuel than the V8. For many of those years, I kind of doubted those reports, but now that I have lived it firsthand...well, I know it is true.

So, if it were me....it would definitely be a Super Duty. If you are looking at used trucks, I would try to find an '05+, as they got larger disc brakes on all four wheels AND went to coil-sprung front ends (helps w/turning radius). And, I would definitely look for a V10. Be forewarned though that V10s are almost a rarity, and they are very much sought after. And, if at all possible, look for a V10 with 4.10 or 4.30 gears.


Failing all of that, maybe hold out for a couple of years, and see how the new 6.2L does in the Super Duty. I keep hearing that it kind of sits between the 5.4L & 6.8L motors in terms of performance & fuel economy.

 

Deluxe hit on most of the points as to why to lean more towards the SD's. In your situation I think you would be better suited for one of them. But what you want to do with the truck is more the able in the 150. If you want the bigger bed go to an 07 model in the supercrew they finally started putting the 6.5 beds on those.

If you are concerned about the ride in an SD one thing you could do is add some airbags to the suspension should cost about the same as a leveling kit would and this would really smooth out the ride on that truck.

 

I rode in an '08 F250 a couple weeks ago. The ride is great compared to mine (see below). Both this '08 and mine are used for everyday drivers. The '08 was a gasser and never gets better than 13mpg. I get about 20mpg on mine.