New Buggy

The 225/70R19.5 tires are about 32" tall, so the diameter may not be that far off from your 17's. I needed the wheel capacity for the payload I carry and previously drove a F250 running 245/70R19.5 tires.

I have put over 13K miles on the 5500 in less than 16 months just with camping trips. I think I will have sufficient mileage on the tires before they age out to justify the cost per mile. I was only getting 30-35K on the OEM Continentals before replacement and my 19.5's barely showed wear after the same amount of miles on the F250.

I suspect your 5500 has 19.5" wheels and bigger diameter tires, the 350 I bought has 17" wheels. Honestly I avoided the f450 because I didn't want the higher cost of those tires and knew I didn't need it.

My 5500 has 4.44 gears and is very comfortable at 65 mph. I don't drive faster with it otherwise I would have considered the 4.10's.

I have a 38.5' 15k lb 5th wheel, I can still look in the mirrors and know it is back there.
Honestly my 2011 f250 with the 6.7 and 3:55 gears did fine, it was a crew cab long bad which might have helped, but yes I am expecting a big improvement with the new beast. I did have mixed feelings about getting 4:30 gears as it is my daily driver 70 miles a day November through April. However after driving it I found it to be ok, I wont be doing 75mph down the highway and expecting 17mpg!

Wow nice truck , colour me envious! You wont even know that rv is back there!

Hate to tell you but you are wrong. F350 drw 6.7 diesel with the heavy tow package and 4:30 gears. It is rated to tow 26k lbs, look at fords website if you don't believe me or this weekend I can post you the window sticker. Btw it also has the same wide track front axle as the f450.

Btw the dealer I bought from has 5 others with the same option. Prime ford auburn ma.

I might be wrong, but I doubt it, when I say "if your new truck has the Powerstroke engine and if it is a F350 dually it will have the 3.73 rear end ratio. The 4.30 is in the F450 and you definitely don't want 4.30 gears unless your planning on always towing very heavy. Anyway nice.

Beautiful truck, congrats! Beware that a bigger camper usually follows soon after!

My current truck is a 2011 f250 with the 6.7 so I am familiar with this engine, just turned 100k miles and was great, hope the replacement goes longer.

Congrats and that truck looks like a jewel.

BTW...Be prepared to have that permanent grin on your face when you pull that camper. :B