Toying w/ a F350 dually

Don't know why, but toying w/ by looking at 350 dually's and from what I've seen on dealers web sites is that they all have 4.10 LS gears. No 3.73 LS avail? Read the post on mpg's w/4.10 and just a smidge lower than my 3.55 (9.0-9.5 @ 70 mph). Saw 2 that perked my attention, 1 has more options and 5th wheel prep, the other less options and no 5th prep. Price is about 8k difference. Spoke to the DW this morning on my take and really no reply/input on switching trucks potentially. Sure the cheaper one always sparks the most interest, but........ The higher priced one would mean another new hitch (just bought a new hitch last year, rail mounted). FWIW, both trucks were XLT's which is fine by me and even the cheaper one has options I wouldn't get if ordering it myself.

Anyways, what's your take on this? I know that dually's offer benny's over a SRW and truck is used more often as a solo vehicle than towing. Other advice?

Do you need it? What are you towing? Very happy with our '15 F350 DRW. We needed it cause we're towing 18k. It's our daily driver when we're not in the area where our second vehicle is. Bought it with 35k miles and now has 65k and no problems at all!


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NYSUPstater said:

Don't know why, but toying w/ by looking at 350 dually's and from what I've seen on dealers web sites is that they all have 4.10 LS gears. No 3.73 LS avail? Read the post on mpg's w/4.10 and just a smidge lower than my 3.55 (9.0-9.5 @ 70 mph). Saw 2 that perked my attention, 1 has more options and 5th wheel prep, the other less options and no 5th prep. Price is about 8k difference. Spoke to the DW this morning on my take and really no reply/input on switching trucks potentially. Sure the cheaper one always sparks the most interest, but........ The higher priced one would mean another new hitch (just bought a new hitch last year, rail mounted). FWIW, both trucks were XLT's which is fine by me and even the cheaper one has options I wouldn't get if ordering it myself.

Anyways, what's your take on this? I know that dually's offer benny's over a SRW and truck is used more often as a solo vehicle than towing. Other advice?

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Interesting, I have looked at about 6-8 F350 DRW’s in the past three or so weeks. And all have been 4:10 gear ratio.

NYSUPstater said:

Don't know why, but toying w/ by looking at 350 dually's and from what I've seen on dealers web sites is that they all have 4.10 LS gears. No 3.73 LS avail? Read the post on mpg's w/4.10 and just a smidge lower than my 3.55 (9.0-9.5 @ 70 mph). Saw 2 that perked my attention, 1 has more options and 5th wheel prep, the other less options and no 5th prep. Price is about 8k difference. Spoke to the DW this morning on my take and really no reply/input on switching trucks potentially. Sure the cheaper one always sparks the most interest, but........ The higher priced one would mean another new hitch (just bought a new hitch last year, rail mounted). FWIW, both trucks were XLT's which is fine by me and even the cheaper one has options I wouldn't get if ordering it myself.

Anyways, what's your take on this? I know that dually's offer benny's over a SRW and truck is used more often as a solo vehicle than towing. Other advice?

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OK - you'll get vociferous arguments on both sides of this coin BUT ... here's my tale and opinion (I've owned both). Right now, I have a Bighorn 3010RE and I certainly did not need an F350 diesel dually to pull it. However, that is exactly what I bought. Why? Well, I know me so I knew I'd eventually get a toy hauler, so now I am prepared to take delivery of the new Grand Design Solitude toy hauler that will be delivered in April. It has a MGVWR of 20,000 lbs and you need a dually to pull that. Here's what I've found using a dually. Obviously more capacity across the board because the weight is spread out over four skins. Extremely stable - absolutely no sway/drift even in windy conditions and with airbags a very level, controlled ride. Very low rear tire wear. AT 29K, My fronts will likely go to 35-40K. Right now, my rears look almost new. I have 3.73 rears and pulling my 15K trailer is a piece of cake. I expect very little difference with my 20K although if I could have gotten 4.10's at the time, I would have. On the hitch, get the one with the factory pucks and buy a new hitch. No rails, no installation and easy removal.

Driving daily was at first a pain, especially in the parking lots because I have a crew cab + long bed. A lot of places have parking spaces made for cars - and not very big cars at that. I just park out a ways and take two spots. I also look for space along the edge of the lot so I can back into the space and hang the bed over the grass. I always retract the mirrors to the folded position so as to not clip some poor schmo who is walking through.

One important piece of info to remember if you are a clean truck freak. A dually will not go through any automated car wash I have ever seen - the rears won't fit the tracks. Be prepared to manually wash the beast. There are truck washes out there for 18 wheelers, but I don't know if they would work because I've never tried one. I wouldn't drive through one with my fiver because of all the stuff on the roof.

Rearding XLT vs Lariat or King Ranch - the difference is all fluff. However, I like fluff so I got the Lariat. The only thing I'll say is that the seats in my Lariat are GREAT. If the XLT has the same (probably does), you'll be happy.

Oh yeah - one final thing. The 2016's came standard with a HUGE 27 gallon fuel tank (much sarcasm and a tongue poking through my cheek). The tank was a joke - it seemed like as soon as we hit the road, we were looking for a fuel stop. The Ford engineer who designed that must have come from the Escort division. First thing I did was yank that out and put in a 65 gallon Titan aftermarket tank. Don't know what the 17's are, but look at it closely so you can plan your budget accordingly. Second thing I did was install Air Lifts.

That's all I've got - good luck.

BigGuy82 said:

Oh yeah - one final thing. The 2016's came standard with a HUGE 27 gallon fuel tank (much sarcasm and a tongue poking through my cheek). The tank was a joke - it seemed like as soon as we hit the road, we were looking for a fuel stop. The Ford engineer who designed that must have come from the Escort division. First thing I did was yank that out and put in a 65 gallon Titan aftermarket tank. Don't know what the 17's are, but look at it closely so you can plan your budget accordingly.

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BigGuy82, they must have sent that engineer back to the Escort division and got one who actually uses these trucks, because the 2017s and 2018s with the long bed have a realistic 48 gallon tank.

The F-350 dually's come with either 3.55 or 4.10 rear ends. I have the 4.10 and am very pleased. Came from a 2012 F-350 6.7 and the difference is hugh. MPG difference between the gearing is about 1 MPG unloaded to almost the same loaded from what I have read. I get 9-10 towing 16K, 15-16 unloaded around town. On interstate I can get more, but once over 65 you can see the milage drop quick.

I have a King Ranch loaded up and like all the new electronics and think they are worth the price. I highly reccommend the trailer tow package because of the cameras. It makes driving easier. Adaptive cruise is great. Never used cruise before when towing and now use it alot. The LED lights, well as I get older they make night driving alot better. A big improvement from my 2012's lights.

As far as a dually as a daily driver, I think it depends on where you drive. I have had dually's for 11 years now, 5 as a daily driver. I had no issues as I don't live in a heavily populated area, big city. Never had issues with drive thrus either. I don't think the width is a problem as much as the length is. But as far as towing, I think there is a difference. I live in the mountains of TN and noticed when going down a mountain I feel more in control then I did with SRW's.

Since the wife is good to go, take a drive in one. I think you will really like it. The new ones drive and ride very nice.

BigGuy82 said:

Oh yeah - one final thing. The 2016's came standard with a HUGE 27 gallon fuel tank (much sarcasm and a tongue poking through my cheek).

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Weird. My 2016 DRW long bed crew cab came with a 36-ish gallon tank (as did my 2013 and 2002). Sounds like someone on the assembly line put the wrong tank in yours if it only had a 27 gallon tank. Granted, the short bed models did have a 27-ish gallon tank.

Thanks for the replies so far gang. Current ride is a '15 F350 SRW, 6.7,cc,4x4,sb,50 gal T-flow replacement tank, B&W Patriot (just bought). For some reason I thought that was in my sig.....my bad, sorry. Tho I'm a lil over on all 3 trucks weights (axle, truck, combo, not overly really worried about that as I'm sure Ford (along w/ GM & Ram) tested it w/a lot more weight than I'll ever have on it. At the time of purchase (off the lot & had a F250 SD 6.0 Lariat), we had a SOB 5er which was lighter and figured a SRW 350 would be sufficient. Well it was while we had that coach. Come last year we got the BC and the extra weight (and not from me drinking Pepsi). It tows the rig just fine, went to ME and no probs. However, looking at FL this summer and tires are the weak link.

They have a combo of 7300 lbs and I'm over that now by 300 lbs. Spoke to a tire dude whom I've known for 30 years and he knows his stuff on tires and he said I'm fine if over a few hundred. Get up to 1,000-2000 then another story. He goes onto say that if tires are like 1/2 worn they will run cooler VS new and max speed is 75 mph (18" tires), make sure aired up to 80 psi cold. My concern is not only heat generated by going around, but also ambient temp, heat from blacktop etc. So hence my toying w/ a dually when I've said all along "don't need a truck w/ training wheels". Add to this as well, I just bought an extra set of rims and snow tires for current truck last Nov and don't think they will fit on stud/bolt pattern of a dually.

Looking at Fords web site, w/4.10 gears it will most likely tow anything we have now and or in the future. MPG wise, we lost 1-1.5 going from old 5er to the BC so by sounds of things be about the same, but may have to slow down just a tad to get 9-9.5. FWIW, the bc weighs in fully loaded at 15,980 out of 16000. Man that's a lot of stuff!!! Just asking for opinions as I'll hopefully chat more w/the DW next cple of days.

On edit RE fuel tank. Stock tank on the '15 sb was 29 gallon. Replaced w/ the T-flow 50 gallon. Much nicer!!

BigGuy82 said:

Oh yeah - one final thing. The 2016's came standard with a HUGE 27 gallon fuel tank (much sarcasm and a tongue poking through my cheek). The tank was a joke - it seemed like as soon as we hit the road, we were looking for a fuel stop. The Ford engineer who designed that must have come from the Escort division. First thing I did was yank that out and put in a 65 gallon Titan aftermarket tank. Don't know what the 17's are, but look at it closely so you can plan your budget accordingly. Second thing I did was install Air Lifts.

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Ouch!! Glad mine has the 38 gallon tank. I also added 45 gallons via the Aux tank in the bed of truck!

MCTalley said:

Weird. My 2016 DRW long bed crew cab came with a 36-ish gallon tank (as did my 2013 and 2002). Sounds like someone on the assembly line put the wrong tank in yours if it only had a 27 gallon tank. Granted, the short bed models did have a 27-ish gallon tank.

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Nope. 27 was standard with the truck. 36 was optional and I bought my truck off the lot. I know this because I was going to order one but found this one.

BigGuy82 said:

Nope. 27 was standard with the truck. 36 was optional and I bought my truck off the lot. I know this because I was going to order one but found this one.

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Huh, didn't know that. Obviously all three of my DRWs must have had the optional tanks. Learn something new every day.

MCTalley said:

Huh, didn't know that. Obviously all three of my DRWs must have had the optional tanks. Learn something new every day.

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29 is standard in a short bed 38 in the long bed

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jnbhobe said:

29 is standard in a short bed 38 in the long bed

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I was wrong it's 26 and 37.5

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pegmikef said:

BigGuy82, they must have sent that engineer back to the Escort division and got one who actually uses these trucks, because the 2017s and 2018s with the long bed have a realistic 48 gallon tank.

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I have the 27 gallon tank honestly I have never had a real issue, I need to stop for bio break for either one of us or the K9.

BigGuy82 said:

One important piece of info to remember if you are a clean truck freak. A dually will not go through any automated car wash I have ever seen - the rears won't fit the tracks. Be prepared to manually wash the beast. There are truck washes out there for 18 wheelers, but I don't know if they would work because I've never tried one. I wouldn't drive through one with my fiver because of all the stuff on the roof.

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We took our F450 and rig thru a Blue Beacon Truck Wash, did just fine. Only thing we will do differently next time is take our Chihuahua mix for a walk while hubby drives the rig thru. She went crazy.

I have found two that my dually fit through one in Springfield, Illinois and one in Erie, PA I use all summer

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Not sure if you would be interested in a slightly used model. I stopped yesterday and looked at a ‘17 F350 DRW King Ranch. Immaculate condition. 30k miles. Price was good.

I really wish they had a larger tank in mine. Only 31 gallons and that doesn't seem to last long. Had a few times I didn't think I was going to make it. Once i hit 1/4 tank I get real nervous.

jnbhobe said:

I was wrong it's 26 and 37.5

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Actually, wrong twice. I have a 2016 crew cab, dually, long bed, Standard is 27 gallons (or whatever fraction thereof - you pick), The larger one is optional. I should know this pretty well as I am the one who had to fill t up every 200 miles, took it out and spent a grand to replace it. Folks can bounce back and forth on this as much as they want or you can just take my word that I know my truck.

The 17 DRW have a 48 gallon tank from the factory.

Rod