We bought a new slide in camper and it really is too much for our 2006 f350 SRW. I added air bags, aftermarket rear sway bar, and 19.5 wheels and tires. It seems to do ok, and with some more tweeks it cold get better, but I know I will not be comfortable until I have a dually truck (again).
I was planning keeping this truck for a long time and I put a lot of work and money into it. My wife LOVES the camper so it will stay, so the truck needs to be updated
I really don't want to convert this truck to a dually, but if I found a good deal on OEM parts I would do it, finding the correct color bed is a REAL longshot, so by the time all the parts, wheels and tires, and paint is totoled up it might be more than its worth. Also, resale value would go down due to being a modified truck.
So the plan is to sell or trade in our present truck. It's a well optioned Lariat and has excellent maintenance and lots of new parts. I have it for sale for $10500, so far no one has looked at it. Trade in I gave been offered $6000 and $7500. The miles are 218,000, and I know that hurts, but I can't believe I can't sell it. I have not seen any 05 to07 6.0 that actually runs for less. Just fustrating me that my truck is not worth anything. When I sold my Dodge/Cummins there was never a problem, people willing to pay WAY over book price for them, and they went fast. Am I really out of line with my price? I am starting to miss my Cummins powered trucks, at least they held their value.

 

My experience is a used 6.0L can be a great buy if you know how to check them, a great buy because so many people are nervous about their reliability. Selling them your going against the tide because of that concern. My ex-neighbor was in the used car business and he would not touch them due to the hard time flipping them, despite getting a good price at the auctions. There are exceptions, Excursions, hard to replace when you want one.

The dealer trade in value reflects that auction price.

Unfortunately the guy with the recent bitch thread only promotes the poor outlook, as every person he encounters during the rest of his lifetime will hear about how Ford built a bad product, they are criminal for not giving everyone's money back, and the mechanics will rape and pillage if you are the unlucky person who bought one, especially used. With no acknowledgement of his own passive-aggressive causation. And two levels away will be telling, I knew a guy .....

A dually conversion is something that you need the capability of doing it yourself if your not trying to get too deep into the piggy bank. There is a member here on the site, although not in the 6.0L forum, I would contact, Y2KW57. I've known him from another site years ago and if you want to know details of what this would take with insane details from an engineering and historic perspective, he is it.

 

What is the length/weight/hitch style of the camper? What cab size is your truck?

 

It's a 11.5' truck camper, truck is crew cab long bed.

 

What's it weigh? I looked at those a while ago and it seemed like the ones without a bathroom would be no problem, and ones with a bathroom would be near the limit of the rear axle, and make me unable to tow a trailer, too.

So your truck weighs about 8000 lb, and your camper weight is probably limited to 3500 lb minus cargo, passengers, etc. due to the rear axle rating.

(I read your post wrong and thought it said "slideout" like a trailer with slideout rooms... you said "slide in"...)

 

Its an Lance 1181 DRY weight is 3500lbs. With it on the truck it is 8500lbs on JUST the rear axle, about 13,500 total on the truck when all loaded up ready to camp

 

I feel your pain, Bob -- we had a Bigfoot 10.6 with dry bath and we absolutely LOVED it! We bought our current truck hoping against hope that we could keep the bigfoot and pull our horse trailer -- our situation is different as my Wife would NOT even consider a dually (now go figure, because she is driving a 33' class A MH, and towing a 3H trailer ).

Anyway, I did likely what you did and scaled the rig -- the F350SRW would handle the full ready-to-roll weight of the Bigfoot and all camp gear, but that was it, we were at the rear axle limit. So we bought a Bigfoot 9.5 and I have never really liked it -- too short for me.

I personally would not do the conversion on my truck to a dually, the dual wheels don't increase the axle capacity, but that is me...

So on selling your truck: are you listing all the bullet proofing you've done in your ads? Folks that ARE in the market for a 6.0 understand that term and then what the things are you've done (for the most part). And it seems like prices are rising for clean 6.0s that have had the work done...

Good luck to you whichever way the road takes you...

 

I really don't see a gain doing a conversion, adaptors, 7 tires and wheels, rear fenders, then paint to match, lots of money and still have the 10.5 rear axle. Then what is a bastared truck worth?