I would vote for a long bed every time, smoother ride. Parking problems with a long bed are overstated, my dually is easy to park.. Make sure you get enough truck for the fifth wheeler. I could tow my 5er with a single rear wheel truck, but I'm MUCH more comfortable pulling with the dually...If you ever get into a strong cross wind you'll LOVE the dually for its stability...

 

Thank you for the replies everyone, I really appreciate it. You see I am like a lot of you out there that try to PLAN for what truck I will need. For some reason the wife just can't seem to understand that. I do all the research I can and want to make the best decision for the possibilities down the road. She would just rather worry about it when we can afford the new truck.

Currently the only thing I will be pulling is a 20' ski boat which is only about 3400 lbs. Most trucks would pull that easily, I currently have a 2001 Toyota Sequoia doing that job quite nicely. At first I was thinking maybe I should look at the F150 Ecoboost and just live with getting a smaller trailer. The F150 max towing is 11,300lbs.

We then were saying there would be no way to do both, pull a trailer and a boat at the same time. (yes I am aware it can be done with a certain length and a class A drivers license but um...no thanks!) So I talked the wife into just "window shopping" to see what trailer she would be ok wih. Naturally she gravitated to the Destiny which is like a small modular home!! We did look at the RV's they had on the lot thinking we could have the best of both worlds, be able to camp and also pull the boat. The 32-36 foot RV's some were just OK inside and could barely pull a boat, others were just plain ugly and could pull a boat but are about the size of a bus.

This is where I have the problem, with an RV you cannot just unhook and have something to drive around, you would have to launch the boat with it etc. with a trailer you can unhook the truck and use it to drive around but then how do you bring the boat?? Who knows maybe we won't end up with that size of trailer but I would rather have more truck capacity than not enough. Oh now you can see the turmoil I have been in for months trying to figure out what to do.

Sorry for the long post everyone

With DRW wouldn't it also be classified as a commercial vehicle and you would pay more for registration every year? I would really like a SRW if I can get away with it.

 

I would always get a long bed . The longer wheelbase makes for a better ride. The long bed makes hauling longer objects easier. The larger fuel tank is a must if you don't want to spend the extra money on a aftermarket fuel tank. I have a crew cab long box and as others have said sometimes it is easier to back in. I usually park my truck very defensibly at the outer limits of the parking lots anyway (less door dings).

 

I'm part of the long bed crowd... I avoid trailering whenever possible because in my opinion, I feel it is easier to manage payload when it is part of your vehicle than when it's hanging off the end of your vehicle. I got the HD pickup because you can't get a crew cab long bed in a 1/2 ton class truck.

First vehicle I ever drove was a CCLB truck (the '04 in my sig) so there wasn't anything to get used to. It's only 24' long. The extra space determines if you close your tailgate or not, and I always want to be able to close the tailgate.