Im looking at getting a powerstroke, and i definitely am decided on crew cab, but im a little worried about getting a long bed. Right now i have an extended cab short bed, so its for sure gonna be a jump in length. Im just curious if its as bad as i really think it will be, i do a decent amount of driving in town and just want to know if its gonna make that complicated. having the long bed would be nice just for the extra bed space, but i would definitley take a short bed if its gonna be complicated to drive a long bed.

 

Have had mine......01 F350/LB/CC/4x4 for a long time and have never had a problem.

 

I went from extended short bed f150's to a crew short bed super duty to a long bed extended cab cummins to a crew cab longed super duty. All I can say is prepare to back into any parking spot because you can not pull straight in. Usually I just back in a few spots away from everyone else and generally don't have a problem. As for parrellel parking, if you find 2 empty spots you can do it, and still get out when someone else parks in front of you.....it is my daily driver. I was looking fir a crew cab, wasn't looking for a long bed, but it's what I got a deal on. YMMV.

 

I have a ccsb, but I've had a cclb dually. Driving isn't going to be an issue. Tight parking lots and parking in general can be a pain, a lot of times because of others stupidity. Just plan on parking at the bottom of the parking lots a lot.

 

I roll crew cab longboxes as I need the room they have. Driving around in town is no problem but parking is a bit of a bitch. I always park way back in the parking lot at malls and grocery stores. I do lots of off roading and those tight dead end roads can be a bitch as well! Nothing the 18 point turn doesn't get you out of though! The benefits of the long truck are the storage capacity of course, and the smoother ride the long wheelbase give you.

 

The only time you will notice a difference is around town, especially in parking lots. It just means you are going to learn to allow a couple more feet for maneuvering.

 

I have a CCLB and have had it for almost a year. I am in college at Penn State so I deal with crowded towns and super tight parking lots every day. It isn't easy or fun, but eventually you get used to it. As said before, backing in is your only option. I would definitely say go ahead and get the CCLB, the extra use outweighs the parking. Once you get that "feeling" as to where your corners are, parking isn't that bad.

 

CCLB is big, ugly and awesome--love mine.
Roll son.

 

its a truck.
I went from a 2 door short bed Dodge.

no big deal..

when I am towing .. its almost 55 feet long.

just to park my truck in my car port.. its NOW a 3 point turn.. the dodge turned right in.

Oh, some drive thru's maybe out of the question... some Yes, some NO.

in general parking lots. I use both lanes to park.. so the rear of truck in NOT sticking out in the drive lane.

with trailer.. I park with the semi-tractor-trailers......

 

Your 04 is leaf springs up front, anything newer will be coil spring. The coil spring trucks have a much tighter turning radius so I doubt you will even notice. I help a friend and often drive his 2012 crew cab long bed. Despite being longer wheel base it easily turns several feet shorter than my 2000 super cab long bed.

 

I have had a CCLB for the last 21 years.

The first thing you will notice is you do not turn short. Let the truck roll a few feet further into the intersection before trying to turn. You have to give the rear room to come around the corner without being on top of the curb.

Be prepared to get a note under your wiper about taking up two spots in the parking lot. I generally park out a ways to avoid people and their butthole ways plus the exercise will do you good.

As stated above, easier to park within the spot if you back into the spot.

Otherwise, you won't notice much difference in driving it. The truck is maybe 24" longer than a regular cab LB.

 

I had a CCLB (non Dually) for years. Like said above, you just park in the last row and watch your mirrors a lot.
I just recently went to an extended cab short bed because it fits into my heated shop, no more scraping windows in the mornings!

 

I've driven 40' school buses for over 6yrs and have watched a lot of trainees come through the doors. My opinion is that just about anyone can learn to drive a long vehicle with some practice.

Here's a few things I've found useful when I was learning and over the years in general:

-Set up your mirrors properly. They're not just for looking for traffic anymore, but also for helping you keep tabs on where the rest of your rig is in relation to the road and obstacles.

-Check your rear tires, it will take you a bit to adjust to the new turning radius, so check them frequently while you're driving and make sure you aren't dragging over the center line/fog lines. Eventually, you'll know by the swing of your nose what the back end is doing. If you can't quite see the back tires (duallies are easier) adjust your mirror until you can see a point on the body that is right next to it, usually the wheel well. (I used to place mine in the bottom corner so all I had to do was glance over to see where my tire was...even though I couldn't actually see the tire itself.)

-Learn your reference points for backing and turning. You're not always going to be able to see where your front end is, much less your back end, but knowing your reference point for how the turning radius on your rig works helps a lot. Once you know these, you can back up in pitch blackness around a corner after only seeing it from the front when you passed it the first time. It's a lot of fun.

Back up cams are nice too, but they won't keep you from curbing it, so you'll still need to know what your sides are doing.

All of these are best learned with an empty parking lot and some traffic cones, but if you don't want to go through all the trouble a couple of large rocks can work too. Regardless of how you do it, you will definitely want to practice and get comfortable before you take it out into busy areas.

Less driving and more thinking ahead:
-Adjust for other drivers. As others have alluded to, people who haven't driven larger vehicles tend to not be aware that they can't turn as tight as smaller ones and generally require more room for everything. If you're parking somewhere, leave enough room to get out, but if possible, not enough room for someone to park close enough to block you in. Sometimes this may mean parking a bit further out than you would prefer.

 

A crew cab, long bed seems intimidating to drive and park at first, but you learn fast. The Ford mirrors are great, and I'd recommend getting the back-up sensors and rear camera. Between the convex mirrors and the camera you have really good situational awareness, sides and rear, for backing up.

Funny story - had to go into city for a Dr's appt. and their lot was full. So I ended up having to park on the street. I found an open space adjacent to a fire hydrant, (so the spot was a little bit longer,) and jockeyed myself in there on the first attempt. I got out of the truck and to my surprise, two folks on the sidewalk applauded my parallel parking. They compared it to docking a ship and asked why I didn't wait for the Tug Boats to come help me! LOL?

Another story. Was at a Home Depot, early morning, doing a special order. Since it was 7 am and no one was there, I had parked right in front of the store. I pulled all the way forward, but I took up about a third of spot behind me too. It took way longer than I expected, so when I came out 90 minutes later, the lot was packed. A genius guy in Volvo tried to park in behind me and didn't see my 3-ball B&W hitch. He impaled his grill on my hitch, and punched out his radiator! He called the Cops because he said I was "improperly parked." But the Officer informed him that in this instance "the parked truck wasn't wrong." I wiped the coolant off my tailgate & bumper, and drove home while he fumed and waited for a tow.

Lesson learned: Even though I was "right", I almost got assaulted in that situation, so I don't park in front of a retail building even if there is an open space....

 

A little story here! Whem my wife's son and family lived in Phoenix, we were there visiting wuth the F350 DRW. Well, to make a long story short, we all went out to dinner one evening and the son and I had 2 or 3 beers each, so that left Heather (the Daughter-in-Law) to drive, and biggest vehicle she had ever driven was her Prius!! It took her about 30 seconds and she had the biggest grin on her face one could imagine!!!! She was having the time of her life driving the big dually in Phoenix traffic!