Camper Package or F350?
 

Hey out there in FTE world! I'm a new guy and got a question for you guys with the SD 6.2L's out there. I've been reading the ford brochure. What is the difference between the F250 SD with a Camper Package and the F350 SD equipped trucks? I read that an extra set of springs is added to the Camper Package but does this = the F350? I love the bigger trucks for the way the they handle a load while pulling through our typical daily western winds. However, when I buy a F250 or F350 I don't want a heavy duty truck squattin' like a 1/2 ton. We don't usually have to travel too far and these new 6.2L would fit the bill nicely. I'm not brand loyal, just want to bye what the best available is out there at the time. My current 2001 Dodge Cummins Quad cab is getting pretty tight with my two small kids. We pull travel trailers, goosnecks, horse trailers, flatbeads, snowmachine trailers and, frankly, the weight distribution hitch is saved for the travel trailer. Sometimes you just need to hook up to the flatbead and go load up 5 ton of hay, or tie yourself up to a 4 horse trailer and head to the mountains for a day of fun. The new ford diesels look fantastic but I do alot of driving down alot of our washboard county roads and old two track roads out playin' and all the diesels just keep getting heavier than what I already got. Thanks for your time. FYI, I've looked at alot of truck forums and this is the best organized of the bunch. Kudos to the moderators!

I have a 2008 F250 SC with 8' box, with the camper package. That provides the add'l overload springs and the rear sway bar. What it doesn't do is change the posted GVWR to that equal to the F350. Mine is still 9600lbs.

S

I have a 2011 F250 crew with the 6.2L crew with the camper package and when i put my sled deck on, lay flat toolbox and quad on the back it squatted bad i put 4inch blocks in the back and it helped make it level now.

Welcome to FTE!:-wink

The F250 and F350 are identical for the most part. The F350 comes standard with the 4" blocks out back, spring overload, and sway bar. That gives the F350 more room for squat down.

The F250 with the Camper package adds: spring overload, sway bar, and plus 1 front rated springs. The F250 can come with the GVWR at 10,000lbs. The F250 only comes with the 2" blocks in the rear.

IMHO...you would be better off with a F350. The squat issue is still there...but with the 4" block...you get that extra room. Usually...will level truck...rather with the F250...puts you noise high.

Good luck...


biz
;)

I don't see a reason not to get an F350 unless your state requires commercial registration when the GVWR of your truck is > 10k.

May be easier to sell down the road as well.

I have bought the wrong size (read too small) twice before. I now subscribe to the saying, "go big, or go home". And it worked out when I bought a 10,000 lb bumper pull toy hauler.

Thanks for all the comments! Great advice from all! I love that 'go big' saying too. You buy a super duty/heavy duty truck to look like its carrying THE LOAD - Not the load carrying you. I just shake my head when i see all these trucks and campers coming through town in the summertime with their headlights shinin' at the sky. And I don't think I should need to put airbags on a new truck designed to carry 3000#. Since were talkin' F350, does the F350 with the 6.2L develop its horsepower and torque a little lower in the rpm than the F250?

No, there is no difference between the F250/350 as to their respective torque/hp ratings vs rpms.

s

My 2011 F250 4x2 6.2L SB CC without the camper package has a GVWR of 10,000 lbs and a payload of 3,314 lbs. That's pretty impressive. I carry a 3,000 lb camper and I get zero squat/sag. If I had to do it all over, though, I would get an F350 6.2L 4x4. I went with the my F250 to keep costs down but wish I would've forked out the extra $2-3,000 for an F350.

In Minnesota, getting license tags for a 350 is about $700 per year cheaper than the 250. That had a lot to do with my decision to go with the 350, as well as the above mentioned pluses.

Great info - thank you. So besides having around an extra 900# of payload, is there any other reason you would have gone with the F350?

Having a 4X2 would make things much less complicated at times. Maybe someday I'll live in an area where all I'll need is a 4x2; lighter, more payload, and usually better fuel economy. My first truck was a 1972 Ford 4x2 Camper Special, no power steering, 4 speed manual, and 1st gear would get you up to about 1 mph than you needed to shift. My father and I pulled it out of a southwest Wyoming ranch for a couple hundred bucks, fixed it up, and it was my high school truck. That was back in '88. Summers were alright, but winter time was a pain with the 4x2. I had studded tires and a 8' long rail road rail in the back for weight, about 100#/ft, didn't even squat the tires with that thing. On the big bumps I could dang near whip that rail right up out of the bed!:D
Here in Wyoming, the regist. cost between a F250 and F350 is the same. Just need to have that commercial drivers license if your going to get into those 26,000# total combined weight loads.

Just to offset the weight increase of a 4x4.

Here's my review of the 2011 F-250 that includes experiences with my truck camper. You may find the info useful.

Mello Mike's Truck Camper Adventures: Review of the 2011 Ford F-250 XLT

Thats a great report Mike! That took some time to do a well thought out report like that with the pictures to back it up. Truck looks like it carries your camper well. Good shot of the crew cab backseat. My kids would have lots of room back there, plus, some extra floor space for my carry on goodies. I've have done a little lookin' throught my state and found some F250's with 4:30's and the camper packages available on the lots, but no F350's yet. Most F350 6.2L's are pretty basic work trucks I've found. The oil and gas operators around here seem to buy those things up pretty quick as they hit the lots. It seems in my part of the country you can find the 6.2's in the F250 fairly readily, whereas the F350 are mostly the 6.7L Diesels.

Sometimes you're better off ordering exactly what you want instead of spending months searching for something close. Just a thought.