a_flyfisher wrote:
I had a 2008 F450, King Ranch version, for 3 years which was a pretty nice truck, that handled beautifully and was superbly comfortable to ride in, but it had trouble passing by gas stations. I drove it across the country the year we bought it, when diesel prices were right at $4.00 a gallon, towing our large Newmar 5th wheel and barely broke 4 mpg at one point in going across South Dakota. I told my wife if it got to costing us $1.00 a mile for fuel, we were going to park it. Fortunately, we never crossed that threshold.
In 2011, I bought a new 6.7L F350, which we still have, also a King Ranch. It gets much better mileage than the F450 did, and we have had zero problems with it so far. I have to admit, though, that I barely use it now, and have only run a single tank of gas through it each of the past couple years - it only has about 12,000 mile on it.
Rather than let it just sit in storage all year, I'm right on the cusp of ordering a new Northern Lite camper, which I expect to do today, for delivery late next spring.
One of the reasons I picked the F350 over the F450 in 2011 was that there wasn't much difference in the towing weight limits between the two, as I recall, and the F350 was several thousand dollars cheaper - something to keep in mind when you are truck shopping.
John
We traded our 2006 F350 KR for a 2011 F450 because the (at the time) new truck had more towing capacity. We have had very few issues with the 450. One of the reasons we paid more to get the 450 though, was turning radius. There was a HUGE difference in the turning radius - the 450 turns on a dime compared to the 350(different front axle).
I *think* the newer 350 towboss has the front axle of the 450, also giving it a much tighter turning radius. We really notice the difference, and wouldn't go back.
