Igooz

Hello folks...
I am looking for a little recommendation here.
I have a 2008 F450 crew cab with an expensive Scheid Diesel 1000lbft+ engine. I use this truck to tow one of 28' Featherlite (enclosed), 26' (Sundowner aluminum enclosed), or a gooseneck 4 horse Sundowner trailer with living quarters. Pulling any of these is like nothing.

But I have been thinking about getting a new F350 Supercab/Long bed so make the truck a little more practical. We don't need crew, and I like the Ford Supercab with long bed. The new 6.7 Powerstroke makes enough power. My wife hates my F450 since she smells the diesel and sees a "little black puff" here and there! She worries that the smoke makes the horse sick; I am not sure! We will also be switching to a 2 horse trailer.

A new SRW will be more civilized and will keep wifey in the truck a bit longer. But I am little worried coming down from an F450. Stability, ride, wide track front axle, GAWR, etc...
PS: I have had my CDL for 36 years and so I know a little about tractor/trailers..

thanks in advance...

PGas32

Go with a new 450 if you’re going to upgrade to a new Ford. With the wide track front end it’s significanty easier to daily drive than a SRW or DRW 350, and you still have all the safety benefits of a dually.

Igooz

Thanks PGas32.
Of course F450 is the way to go, but I was trying to downsize and I am hoping that some folks have done some heavy haul with the F350 SRW... Anyhow, I think that I am overthinking this.

nxfedlt1

We have both for work, the SRW longbed tows ok, but the 450 has a better turning radius, and better brakes, plus heavier duty tires (17.5s vs 16" wheels). The 350 longbed is still a big truck and if you can fit the mirrors in the space, then you can fit the DRW as you know. For the car trailers, the 350 or even a 250 with airbags is plenty. The horse trailer, I would think hard about the need for a DRW. Not knowing your distances, speed or weights you're towing on the horse trailer I can't say for sure. Rare you ever wish for less truck when things go bad!

PGas32

FWIW, I have a Sundowner with livings quarters (except it’s a 1 car model instead of your 4 horse ) and one tow with my SRW 350 prompted an upgrade to the dually. I didn’t like the idea of driving around with my family knowing that I was well over my payload limit, never mind the fact that I couldn’t see anything at night because the headlights were pointed up toward the moon

And in my opinion, there’s no reason for the 350 dually to exist given the advantages that the 450 holds.

Igooz

Closing the thread on this one...
I wasted a lot of time thinking about my application and getting a smaller truck to tow my enclosed car hauler. I even thought about a Tundra to pull my car trailer and keep my old F450 for the horse trailer. I read all the specs about tongue weight, GCWR, GVWR, GAWR, ...

At the end, I sold the F450 to a Rancher that lives in a no emission area and I bought a new GMC 3500 dually.

I decided to stay with a dually because: while running northbound towards Cheyenne a few weeks ago I watched a guy in a suburban pulling a trailer develop a problem with his trailer. And I watched this thing fish tail at 70mph. The tail was definitely wagging the dog, and the dude was lucky to not roll over. He slowed down and pulled over and I drove past saw the horror in his face. I think that he may have lost a hub/bearing or something.

I think that I will stick with a dually for the additional stability for those 0.1% of time. I always read about guys hauling their enclosed trailers with lightweight SUVs and I always wish them a safe journey...