I have a 2015 F350 dually that I use to tow my 46ft TH. Right now I am at a minimum 6" clearance between the bottom of TH and the bed rails on the truck with the TH level. It appears from what I can gather that the 2017 F350 dually will be 1 inch higher floor of the bed and another 1 in taller sidewall making the bedrail 2 inches higher. Please someone tell me I am wrong since this would require me to raise my 5th hitch another inch to maintain minimum clearance which combined with the 1" higher floor will result in lowering the rear of the TH causing clearance problems with driveways at restaurants and gas stations.
Is there a way to lower the truck 2 inches without loosing function or capacity? My only other solution would be to go to 2wd which I would rather not do...Thanks for your input.

 

There are many of us with similar worries. The bed rails are actually shorter than the 11-16 though and the pics Josh posted with measurements last month alleviated some of my concern as to bed height. My big issue is I am out of adjustment. With my current truck I have my hitch all the way down and my pinbox all the way up and I'm just level now. So, I really can't tolerate much of a height increase. The new trucks are supposed to be 1.5" taller so what I may do is go to the DRW 3" block to loose an inch. Since you are already going to get the 3" block, perhaps you could go with a 2wd 2" block to loose an inch? (I'm just guessing that the 2wd trucks are getting 2" blocks as no one posted any pics of a 2wd suspension yet...)

 

The information from Ford Fleet lists the ground to tailgate down for the 4w dually as 35.6" for 2016 and 37.2" for 2017 making it 1.6" taller meaning to remain level I need to loose 1.6" at the hitch and pinbox. I have this much adjustment but the kicker for me is the inside height for 2016 is listed at 20" while the 2017 is listed at 21.1 reducing the clearance by 1.1 inches.
total reductions of 2.7" will only leave 3.3" clearance and we both know that will not work. If I change to a smaller block on the back how can I lower the front a similar amount?

 

You likely wouldn't need to lower the front. These trucks have a ton of rake and you'll probably still set level after a swap. There is no way to tell what's necessary until you hook up though...

As to Ford's measurements, take them with a grain of salt. Going off Josh's tape measure pictures, you may not have as much of an issue as you think. Again, no way to tell for sure until truck meets RV...

 

It is hard to spend 80k hoping it is not too much trouble to use it..the inside height bothers me more since I will have no other way to change this on the truck, only by raising hitch an inch to maintain clearance..I wish the designers that decide on body line had to actually use these trucks.

 

I agree completely. This is one of many reasons I didn't order for this year. Too many questions with none in the wild to get real world info on. That said, I know my bed rails on my 2012 are taller than in the incoming ones. I also saw that the 2017 bed floor on a comparable truck measured within 1/2" of mine. Josh measured them on the new trucks and I compared that day. I hope the reality of my delivered truck next spring aligns with the measurements he took...

 

My camper front overhang is 59" up when sitting level. The rails of the 2017 4x4 f350 srw are 58" (not sure about the drw). I figure it will squat 2" if I get a f450 and 3" if I get a f350 srw with a 2500# pin. That means my camper will ride 2-3" nose high when hooked up. With a 40' trailer, I'm not worrying about being a few inches high.

I plan to get one of the metal rolling covers instead of the roll up soft covers to avoid raising the rails any more.

 

Yes, I have concerns in this area as well. I just went over to local dealership and looked at an F-250 Lariat FX4 CrewCab and parked it next to my 2011 F-250 Lariat FX4 CrewCab. Wow - are these 2017s taller.

Here is a table I compiled with the published 2011 vs 2017 key measurements:



I believe I will be ok on bedrail clearance as I have one more adjustment left on my B&W Hitch so this should compensate for the 1.1 inch taller bedrail. However my other concern is that my 5th wheel camper is not going to be level. My 5th wheel is going to be nose up I think. I am not sure how big a deal that is...

So with the floor of the bed being 2.9 inches taller on the 2017, I hope that it is going to "squat" maybe 2 inches when my 5er is hitched up. But I doubt it is going to drop 3 inches. Then with the 1 inch taller bedrail, I will most likely have to raise my hitch height. So now my 5er is sitting 2 inches taller. My 5er is already tall at 13 feet 3 inches. So now I will be roughly 13 feet 5 inches high. There are a couple of low railroad overpasses here in Texas. The one in Dalhart to be specifically is 13 feet 6 inches if I recall correctly. This causes me concern!!!

I would definitely like to hear from others on this topic. Would be nice to know what the Ford engineers say as well. In all of the various promotional videos, pictures, and reviews, I have never seen them towing a 5th wheel trailer/camper - always a gooseneck which typically has much more adjustability. You have to think they have worked through this.... Man I hope so.

Regards,
Chris

 

Chris, these are exactly my concerns and I will address them with my dealer tomorrow. There is nothing wrong with my 2015 so may answer may be to just not get the latest toys and keep my current truck.... I have a hard time understanding the logic of making the truck taller.

thanks for the input

Dan

 

It sure seems RVers, and 5th wheel owners in particular, were given very little consideration. The lack of back up camera port in the bed and the overall height of the truck both come to mind. It would seem when they say "we own work", that they are declaring where there target market is. While I can understand that is where their biggest numbers come from, we RVers need some love too. You'd think that Josh's group making the videos would have included one RVer but not so....

 

Please share what you learn.

BTW - I am skeptical the dealer can help Very few truck dealers are also experts or even knowledgeable in 5th wheel towing. The answers need to come from Ford Corp.

-Chris

 

Not that it affects me but a lot of RV people use single rear wheel trucks, they are another inch taller so will be even more of a problem.. maybe I will have to go with 2wd to get the truck back down where I need it.

Dan

 

Going to 4x2 is not an option for me and the other places I go in my truck. I am not sure if this is a show stopper or not... I am going to post this info on the RV forum that I frequent and get their opinion. Lots of smart and experienced people over there.

-Chris

 

Dan, that's me with a SRW. However, changing the blocks is a 30 minute job so I'd never go with a different configuration truck (2x4 or DRW) when the answer is so simple and inexpensive.

 

Karl, what do you mean by "changing the blocks"?

-Chris