I have a '02 F-350 crew cab 4X4 long bed DRW PSD with Builly dog 6 pos, AFE intake, heavy duty valvebody springs, full gauges. Bought with 13k miles and now have 110k. I now only use this truck for pulling and my loads are mostly around 25k pounds. This has been a good trouble free truck so far but feel I am running the crap out of this thing and might be better to upgrade to a heavier truck. I get 8.9 mpg and am running 1100 on the egt's with 10-12 psi of boost most of the time while towing. That's just running it hard. Granted I'm doing 70mph @ 2k rpm (3.73 gear) but if I run slower the motor just lugs to much and want's to downshift with any grade change. I like the idea of getting a 450 either a 6.0 or 6.4 but feel that I will still run the crap out of those and might be a better idea to go with say a '05ish 650 with a cummings or cat. I mean enverything is bigger, brakes, rear-end, tranny. Things I would not like with the 650 is driving around and no 4x4 and possible no crew cab but I take 2 vehicles on trips now due to having 4 children plus wife and I have captains. I would like air brakes if I went to a 650 and yes I have a class A CDL but then my wife could never take it if she needed. What do you guys think or have experienced? Oh, and another thing I added to my truck is an extrernal tranny cooler, running as hard as I do temps never exceed 180.

 

You are pulling 25k lb with F350?
Isn't that thing rated for like 12k?
I use my F450 hardly and had it at total well over 30k few times. The engine did handle it just fine, although some grades on Nevada desert were on 3rd gear.
Than last month the differential blow up.

 

Maybe I stated that wrong, my truck and trailer together empty comes in at 16k plus either 8k bobcat with 2k attachments or 2 3500lb Bronco's and a 500lb 4- wheeler. So all together weight is 25-30k. Trailer is a 30' low-pro goose by load-trail tandem dual. Thing is my 12k 30' camper seems to pull harder? Must be from dragging all that extra air but there are many campers I see going down the highway bigger than mine!

 

With a 25k-30k GCWR your 02' is grossly over Fords recommended GCWR rating. A properly equipped F-450 would handle your loads fine and would probably fit your family much better. That said for a workhorse you would get better service out of the F-650. If you do get a 6.0l I would keep like 5 grand in an account for any future repair bills.

 

He isn't grossly overloaded. My 06 350 drw has a gcwr of 26,000 and my 03 is higher than that since it's a C & C truck. A 450 with 4.30/4.88 has a gcwr of 26,000, with 4.88 it's 30,000. The 550 with 4.88 is good for 33,000. 450's and 550's suffer from bad mileage. Install a Gear Vendors over/under and fix that.

 

If you can afford it id go with the F650 since you pull all the time. If you cant the F450 would work well for you. The F550 is going to go into production soon with the new 6.7L if you want to wait a little longer to pickup on one of those. Specs arent exactly out yet but i know it should be able to handle more weight. I heard a rumor the tranny is just being duribility tested for its ratings.

 

The 450 should be fine for what you need.

 

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but with his 02' F-350 yes he is. The max GCWR on the truck configured like his is 20k lbs. Maximum recommended trailer weight is 12,400lbs. The 04' and earilier SDs do not have the GVWR and GCWR capacities close to what the 05'up SDs do. http://www.profleetsales.com/pdf_fil...uides/03TG.pdf Page 19.

 

A '05+ F450 or F550 would be plenty for what you need. We towed that kind of weight with a '05 F350 and it handled it but if you did it all the time it could get to be a problem. We traded it for a '09 F450 and it handles it much better. GVWR of the truck alone is 16,500lbs, can't remember what the GCVWR is but it will be at least 26Klbs. IIRC the F350, which was only a SRW, was around 22K GCVWR.

Also the F450 actually turn sharper than a F250, the wide front axle is a major plus on them. I am betting it turns a hellova lot sharper than a 650+