Long bed vs. short bed

I have a long bed crew cab. It's really long - about 22'. The freeway joints seem to be perfectly spaced to beat you up with that wheel base. Parking lots or parking the 5th wheel at the RV lot can be tight. I'd prefer shorter bed for overall shorter wheel base, keeping the crew cab - for better maneuverability when parking the trailer.

I got a LB because of the crazy rating games. I wanted something with a minimum of 1600 lbs TW capacity, and my options were:
- Any HD RAM
- LB HD GMs (SB was only 1500 lbs)
- DRW Fords (SRW was ~1250 lbs)

Anything bigger than a Miata won't fit well in our garage, so everything is outside all the time. I will say that a LB CC will pretty much guarantee that you'll be backing in to spaces wherever you go.

We bought a S/B because it fits our needs and, to us, when you get a quad cab they look better. We live on 6 acres with a 65x36 barn and a 60x30 garage so parking the truck wasn't an issue.

ppine wrote:
I am a long bed man. Much better for towing and hauling. I slept in the back of my truck last week. My diesel gets better mileage in a one ton truck than all the smaller trucks.

Somehow a short bed 1 ton diesel truck gets worse mileage, I didn't know that, mine is only 19-21 empty . That long bed must be fantastic :R

I am a long bed man. Much better for towing and hauling. I slept in the back of my truck last week. My diesel gets better mileage in a one ton truck than all the smaller trucks.

On Ford's Super Duty Towing Guide it looks like there is a trade-off in hitch capacity and bed length. If you have a longer bed it looks like you have less hitch capacity I suppose because the same motor has to tow more truck. Is that accurate?

Ford's Super Duty Towing Guide

travelnutz wrote:
My wife calls a short bed (6.5ft) pickup a "half truck" and says she never wants one!

Our long bed crew cab diesel truck fits in our garage with room to spare behind but we never keep it in the garage as there are other vehicles and things that need the spot more. Therefore, it's only been in the garage once to see if it would even fit and it sure does and just fine. Some people must have tiny short garages. The kind usually found in tight jammed together housing developments with postage stamp sized lots and most often have HOA's so your home is not really your castle as it's actually controlled by others!

I guess :h , but I have no use for a long bed pickup. I enjoy half a truck, to each his own. :B

Dealer told me he wouldn't say a slider was needed, or not, without seeing a FW mated to the truck. Kind of hard to do if you don't have the truck yet. I've only owned short bed trucks. With my 38' Wildcat I rarely needed to slide. My 40' Montana requires sliding almost all the time so I bought an auto slider after the front of the FW and rear of the cab took to kissing.

Durb wrote:
My previous truck was a Titan crew cab with 5 1/2 ft. bed. My current truck is a long bed. Here are my observations:

5 1/2 ft. bed - useless
8 ft. bed - useful

Agreed on 5.5' beds being useless, but I do find the 6.5' beds a nice middle ground for inner city construction sites.

Also if your 5er fits fine (which most modern ones do) then there's no point having an 8' bed if you're never going to carry full sheets of plywood (like 99% of pickup owners never do)

I noticed that travelnutz posted that after happy hour. :B

Only thing I could think of. :h