Well I got intrested in the subject. I have seen around town there are two F250 Heavy Duties, but they are both gassers. So I started looking into it. Threw research I found that if the truck has a GVWR of 9000Max (Above 8500) then its a Heavy Duty. So I looked into it more. My truck has a GVWR of 8800, so I looked into the weight of a 4X4 250 PSD and a 2WD PSD, and the weight diffrence, seemed to be about 200 (I did it in my mind real quick) I also stumbled onto a article that wasn't clear but it mentioned something about PSD's having diffrent leaf springs then Gassers. That lead me to think that the heavy duties I see, are pretty much diesel truck with gas engine replacements. (From the factory, these are stock trucks)

The reason I wrote this was to give people information. The information I used to write this, was from Wikipedia (Which stated a HD has a GVWR of 9000 while a regular F250 is 8500) then I used various 'Vehicle Spec' websites. If any of this information is wrong, please specify, and all proof is nice. I am not saying what I said is 100% right, but it makes up to be right from what information I have. I am also always willing to learn so I am open.

In closing, my understanding is that Most (Maybe all) PSD F250's are HD (Or equivalent) I hope this was informational/educational/interesting/fun. Thank you for your time.

 

if i recall, the "HD" reference was to differenciate the 97 light duty f250( which was an new bodied f150 on steroids) from the old body style f-250's.

 

Go to wikipedia and look up F150 (Takes you to F series) then 9th Generation, it says HD were available from 92-97. But yes I was told that before. Now here is a side note. I asked a friend of mine who works at U-Haul, and a certian trailer when you rent it you need a certian truck. Well 250 PSD's are allowed to use it, gassers aren't. She says there's a HD designation by them.

 

The heavy duty insignia was only available on 97's i believe, the classification is different.

 

my 97 f250 gasser was labled "HD" from the factory, its not a diesel specific thing.

 

As I understood it was what somebody else said. It was for 97 only, to designate it from the light duty f250 which was the same body style as the F150. Ford has sometimes made heavy and light duty both in the f 150 and the f 250. I had a 95 F 150 that was a heavy duty, it had a higher gvwr than the standard duty F150. It had more leafs in the springs, the gvwr was a little higher (7700) I think, um.. lets see what else did it have.. Been a while... had factory trailer brake wiring, limited slip rear end, and a few other small differences. My buddy also has a 84 F250 that was a LIGHT duty f250. It had a half ton rear (8.8) in it with semi floating axles, and a lighter gvwr than standard f250s. He was bummed when he discovered that.

So Ford still does strange things. I believe they still did the heavy halves (Heavy f150) all the way into the 2000s. You can identify them with the badge on the tailgate. I believe it says F150 then under that it says 7700. I believe that is what it means, but don't quote me.

 

Well I did more investigation and I found a PDF of Ford's designations. And any F250 with a GVWR of 8500 is a Heavy Duty F250. And I never said HD was a diesel specific thing.

 

this is what i was refereing to. just saying my last truck was a 97 f250, gas motor and it was labled "heavy duty" under the f250 badge as well as on the HBOM from ford.

 

I was just specifically saying that it was 97 that there was a "badge" on the truck.

my 95 f150 was almost heavy duty.

The GVWR is what determines if it is a HD.
My 96 with the 460 was also a heavy duty. no badges on them


The f150's had 3 GVWR's.
4500 to 7700 i think.
you can always tell the cheepie ford f150's with the low GVWR. They have the cheepie bumper and generally are XL's, they also tend to sit lower than the rest of the fords and bounce around a lot on the road due to soft springs.

 

I'm confused, my 96 has top and bottom overload springs, 3.55 gears (open), a F350 rear axle, GVWR of 9600. Now the only place that my truck says heavy duty is on the tailgate, which I believe isn't the original, however...

My coworker has a 97, that says heavy duty, but it only has the lower overload springs, 4.10 LS F250 rear axle...

Plus, I thought I read on here that ALL heavy duties had 4.10 LS differentials some time ago.

 

Well my point lol was just so some information could be out there so people can get a hold of it. But this is very interesting.

 

it goes by GVWR.

Only the 97's had the badges to differentiate them as mentioned earlier.