Should you get the higher gcvw

Buying the F250 with the camper package gets you the same capacity as a SRW F350 but without the higher GVWR paperwork and it will sit 2" lower in the rear due to the shorter axle blocks. GVWR concerning weight is only used for manufacturer warranty and personal liability cases. The only civil laws concerning GVWR have to with traction control device use in mountain passes and public parking and roadway limits.

My F250 was papered for 9800 lbs GVWR, but had much more capacity because of how it was optioned. You will notice the GCWR does not change between the SRW's if the same power train is selected even though there are various GVWR's you can choose. If you deal with fleet sales, they will be able to guide you through these options on a new truck.

Verify the gear ratio as mine GVWR is 1,500 lbs. higher (4.30 gears) than my buddy's truck with the 4.10 ratio.

Hi,

Several states like California require that "Commercial" vehicles not park on residential streets at night, and not drive on residential streets unless they need to make a delivery down that particular street. This keeps the very heavy delivery trucks on larger - wider streets that have thicker roadway base than the residential streets. A 4 lane highway might have 24" road base covered with 10" of asphalt, while a residential street might have 12" road base covered with 6" of asphalt.

So to make a long story short, the 10,000 GVWR is considered a "Personal Vehicle" by many states, while a 11,500 GVWR truck is considered a commercial vehicle by the department of motor vehicles. So it can not be parked on the street overnight in many locations. Who will check or not? Long Beach California started ticketing F-250's parked on the streets in 2005, and this is why and how I found out about all of these regulations. It seems that the city can ticket a vehicle over 7,000 pounds GVW if they want to - if parked on a residential street at night. Her F-250 had a factory shipping weight of 7,050 pounds. . The state of California regulation says that any truck over 10,000 GVWR must not park on a residential street. However Long Beach was enforcing a law they created restricting 7,000 pound GVW vehicles from parking on residential streets overnight. Later they changed, and now only ticket if it is a 10,000 GVWR vehicle parked overnight on a city street. Of course they do not ticket on truck routes, or commercial streets.

So there is one advantage of buying the truck with the lower GVWR option. However you might as well buy a F-250 for it's 10,000 GVWR. Yet I would much rather have (and recommend) that you get the normal GVWR of 11,500 for it's increased GVWR and much higher cargo rating.

The curb weight of both trucks will be about the same, yet with a 11,500 GVWR the truck can carry about 4,000 pounds of cargo and passengers. While the 10,000 GVWR will carry 1,500 pounds less cargo and passengers. So basically what you bought the truck for will be lost by selecting the lower GVWR.

One huge problem that you might run into with the lower GVWR truck is say you get in a accident, and they check the weight of the truck and what it was towing. If over 10,000 pounds, you could be in trouble with a 10,000 GVWR truck, while no problem if in the 11,500 rated truck while under 11,500 pounds of weight.

I plan on buying a dually F-350 regular cab, and installing a 92" sleeper cab behind the regular cab. Then install a wheelchair lift into the sleeper cab for my daughter. This will provide the ideal tow vehicle for me, with her having access to take along her 400# wheelchair and go on camping trips too! It would be able to tow a fifth wheel or any travel trailer.

Fred.

Since you are in MD. I would get the 10K version for registration and road use reason. Mechanically they are the same truck. In this case it is a paperwork/tax issue.

Will depend on what your're towing and/or what you might tow in the future. In our case, neither would work as we need approx 13K GVWR to handle our Redwood.

In another post I listed my dream vehicle. I overloaded a Ram 5500.

Overhead camper?
Fifth Wheel?
Bumper pull?

Overhead camper + bumper pull?

I think you mean GVWR, and as far as I've heard, the difference is for insurance/registering purposes where "over 10,000 lbs" is a cut off for rates to go up substantially.

I am not sure there are even any mechanical differences.

If you were buying a 2015 f350 would you get the 10000lb gcvw or the 11500 gcvw what exactly is the difference between the two.

Both numbers are very low for GCWR, they are more in line with GVWR. Are you sure you are asking about gross combined weight rating? Gross Vehicle Weight Rating is for the truck, Gross Combined Weight Rating is the max allowable for both the truck and whatever you are towing. If you are asking about gross vehicle weight rating you need to figure the weights of what are you hauling or towing that will be on the truck. This can be the weight of a cabover camper; hitch and pin weight of a fifth wheel; or the weight of a travel trailer tongue and hitch; plus all the stuff and people in the truck. The exact difference between the two is 1500 pounds. Take it from there. If in doubt go bigger.