IS THE F-450 WORTH IT? | GAS MILEAGE PULLING FIFTH WHEEL | PAYLOAD CAPACITY

So, what’s going on everybody, thank you for tuning in to the channel today today we’re going to talk about all things. F. 450! So, are you ready? Let’S roll, hey!

What’S going on everybody thanks again for tuning in to the channel, i really do appreciate it and if you haven’t subscribed, we would love for you to subscribe to our channel so hit that subscribe button and then tap the bell and every time we post a video. You will be notified and, as always, please leave us a big thumbs up that helps rv content get out there in the logarithm. So today, like i said earlier, we are going to talk about all things f450. This is our f450 behind me. We named it blackhawks.

So if you hear us talk about blackhawk in our videos, we don’t own a helicopter, maybe someday, but not no. We don’t want to own a helicopter this. This is enough maintenance behind us and with gas prices again who can afford to own a helicopter. So before we get going into breaking down the 450, because you know what it has been, our number one, video the most views on our channel, we’ve gotten a lot of questions, and we really do appreciate all those questions and i’m going to get to those today. About the 450 and how we liked it what’s been the gas mileage uh how we like towing with it things of that nature, we’re going to get to all that.
So we made a video that we put out like i was alluding to earlier, and we did f350 single rear wheel versus f450 dew rear wheel and which one do i need, because at the time um, when we purchased our fifth wheel, we purchased a riverstone legacy. 39 fkth 5th wheel. It is a toy hauler, front kitchen floor plan version, it’s 44 feet, long, 13, feet 4, inches tall and uh. You know when all these numbers were being thrown at us. We just couldn’t wrap our head around exactly good enough.

You know like what kind of truck we needed to pull that beast and we’re part-time rvers, so we thought well, we don’t want a dually as an everyday driver. So when we went to the dealership you know he and along with our little bit of knowledge of the numbers, we ended up all going. Oh, you know we’ll be fine with a single rear, wheel. F350 super duty truck and long story short with that we just didn’t have enough payload capacity for the weight that our fifth wheel is, and although it could pull it, fine, stopping power, sway power. You know uh in the bed of the truck.

It was a short bed truck, so we had a slider hitch, just just lots of things. It just was not enough truck to pull the fifth wheel, so we ended up trading it in after only owning it. For i don’t even know if it was six months, so we kind of paid the price for that mistake and not knowing our number is good enough when we were purchasing and kind of thinking. You know that we didn’t want something like this as an everyday driver. So i know all of us are passionate about trucks.
I am by no means a professional truck guru, i’m not a super duty mechanic, i’m just a guy who loves trucks and i’m learning about trucks like maybe a lot of you are. But i’ve also come to learn that all of us are really passionate about our trucks and whether you’re a dodge guy chevy, guy gmc, guy, a toyota person or whatever. It is, and that’s great because you know what you should be passionate about your brand. You bought it because you love it, so we happen to be forward people and that’s what we have, and so we love our ford. So i just wanted to give you guys a little bit of a background into why we ended up with this f450.

Okay. So now i want to take a little time to crunch some numbers. Now these are our numbers, but you can make them applicable to your current situation, whether you’re getting ready to purchase a new vehicle um and an rv, or you already own, an rv and you’re. Like you know, i didn’t, i don’t think i have enough truck to pull our rv. I would say this, you know from learning from our mistake.

The number one understanding that i wish i would have had was the payload capacity of the truck versus the pin weight of our fifth wheel. That’S the one mistake that we made in in the number crunching aspect. So for me, if i was going to give somebody advice, that’s the first thing i would give know what the payload capacity of your truck is before you purchase your rv. So if i would have known that number better and really really understood it um, we probably wouldn’t have bought a single rear, wheel f350 to begin with um. So the f450 has a payload capacity of 4711 pounds and the pin weight of our fifth wheel is 3950 pounds.

So we have like 471 pounds left over and then you have to include a full tank of gas yourselves and any gear you put the back seat or maybe you have in the back of the truck. So your payload capacity is a super important number to know. If you’re a fifth wheeler, then you got ta, you know what is the pin weight of my fifth wheel and, if you’re pulling a pull behind or a bumper pull? What is that weight going to be on your hitch and then once it’s on your hitch? What are you throwing in the bed of your truck?

Do you have any gear in your crew, cab, etc? So it’s really important to know those numbers and like the dry weight of our fifth wheel, is 17 726 pounds and that dry weight means that, just as it sits in the parking lot with none of our gear in it and then with ours, we can have A gross vehicle weight load of 21 000 pounds, and so that includes the stakes in the freezer, the burger, the hot dogs, all the way back to your to your clothes and for us we have a golf cart that we tow that weighs about 800 pounds itself. So we have to include that so we’re rough left with, like 3 273 pounds between the golf cart and any other gear that that we stow or goes with us in our storage compartment. So you can see where you know you can. You can run out of room really fast.

The next question we get asked quite frequently is why you chose the f450 over the f-350 and number one. Is we really liked the wide track front axle and if you’ve ever you know, driven or test drove the 350 versus the 450, both great trucks? But i tell you what, when you get the turn radius of this 450, it’s almost a seller all and of itself. So it was a wide track front axle. That was the first thing that sold us.
I liked the heavier disc brakes that are on the f450 and then in the front. It does have a heavy duty axle in the front with an extra coil, and then it also came with the commercial grade tires. So those were the things that we really liked about the f450 versus the 350. Although i can tell you this, the f-350 does have more payload capacity roughly. I think it’s around 900 pounds more.

So it’s a give and take you know we did give up payload capacity. You know to get these things. The f450 is just a heavier truck than the f350 is and again you know, you start crunching numbers and every little thing adds weight um. Even we added some more weight, essentially by getting an f-450 with a moon roof, because that adds more weight to it. So it’s that’s that numbers game you know, but but those are the reasons why we went with the f450 over the f-350.

So another question we get asked is: how does it pull your fifth wheel? Have you have you liked that? Well, let me tell you: we have seen an incredible change in the pulling of our fifth wheel by having the f-450 number one. I alluded to the heavier disc brakes. Well, let me tell you that right.

There has also been a game changer the stopping power and just feeling more in command. You know when you’re driving and you’re pulling something that big and that heavy um. We had the opportunity to really put blackhawk here uh through through its paces. We did a drive from greensboro north carolina all the way up to prior lake minnesota, so i really got a chance. You know to see how it did, how it pulled um and man i’ll tell you what game changer all the way.

So the other thing you know having that wider rear end. You know those four tires in the back stability, wise too, in the back man. I tell you what you know night and day difference, because i you know i talked about earlier about sway in the bed and and if you have a single rear wheel, truck and you’re pulling something kind of heavy you’ll understand you as you’re driving you just kind Of feel that shifting and uh, sometimes even when semi trucks, you know, are blowing past you you just you can feel that that rear end just sway a little bit. You know and not that you don’t always feel it a little bit when you’re passed by a semi truck, but i’m talking about the actual swaying of the bed. You know when you have that larger footprint wider footprint in the back yeah, it’s it’s definitely a game.

Changer, the the other thing in the polling department that kind of goes along with it is. You know i went from a you, know, six foot bed to the eight foot bed and we had a slider. You know in the short bed – and i tell you what i know the sliders are great um for what they do, but i can tell you this. I don’t know if, if you really ever adjust to that clinking, you know that you’re here when you pull away from a stop light and then, when you stop that stop light the fifth wheel kind of lunges forward. I think that still always made chris kind of jump every time that that would happen, so the eight-foot bed loved having an eight-foot bed and then we switched hitches and we went with the bw companion, 25.
000 pound hitch. That’S on a puck system uh, as you guys know, if any of you own a slider like they’re, really heavy, and you know a lot of work if you have to pull them out of your truck so having a puck system so having the 450. You know and pulling it has just been a game changer versus the single rear, wheel and yeah. We’Ve just enjoyed it um and then let’s talk about gas mileage because that’s another thing, uh people ask us what kind of gas mileage are you getting? So when we’re pulling the fifth wheel and towing it, i noticed uh on that trip that i alluded to.

We ended up getting. I averaged about nine miles to gallon. You know i mean we went through mountains and stuff and then you’re down in the eights and but overall i’d say we got nine miles to the gallon, pulling the fifth wheel. Now, if we’re just around town or we’re just you know running running around with it, you know on the highway. We probably get about 19 miles to the gallon.

So man i’ll tell you what you know gas. It just is what it is. You know i mean it’s the nature of the beast. You got a big vehicle, you got a big big truck and you got to have a big gas tank and that’s all about being a truck owner, so it is what it is so which trim package. Do you have we have the platinum trim package which we really like we didn’t set out to get the platinum?

We actually wanted to get the lariat package um, but we couldn’t find any. We could find any hilarious out there when we purchased this truck. The all the coveted stuff had just started to hit where trucks – just you know, ford quit. You know uh the production and it was really difficult. You know to even find this one, so we couldn’t find a lariat, but they had the platinum package.

So we did have to pay a little more for that, but you know what we’re glad that we got the platinum package. It’S been really nice, so the other. The other question we get asked is um. How does it ride and that’s a very good question? So you know coming from the single rear wheel f350 into this.

We had heard things like man, the ride of the f450 and the f350, but not as bad this one, though you know, was supposed to be the stiffest of the duals and uh. So we kind of went and think it was going to feel like we’re going to ride on a bunch of bricks. You know, and so when we got in and we took a first test drive, you know we were bracing ourselves and you know what we were pleasantly surprised, that it actually is not as bad as what we thought. It was going to be i’ll, say this, though, like in the future, if we ever start to full time rv, you know, we’ve talked about maybe putting airbags on it, just just to kind of make it a little bit better than what it is. But you know what really it’s not as bad as what we thought and you know chris what she loves about the platinum package.
It comes with those massaging seats. So if it starts to feel rough, she just turns on the heat, massage she’s good to go. So the other question we get asked to as well is: what upgrades have you done to it since you’ve owned it and we haven’t done a whole lot to it other than just a couple months ago, but i did tint the front windows and put a tonneau Cover on the back and that’s that’s all we had for quite a while until just recently we upgraded the wheels and tires, okay. So now i want to talk to you guys about that upgrade of tires and wheels. So we went, there was nothing wrong with our factory tires and wheels chris, and i both love black vehicles, her highlander’s black we’ve purchased a black truck.

We love the blacked out, look her highlanders blacked out, so we knew at some point. We were going to black out the 450 as well. We were just kind of doing some research out there on wheels and tires and and kind of what’s the best to go with i’ll say this if you’re a 450 owner, it is a 10 lug and there’s not a lot of wheels out there for for 10. Lux so we didn’t have a ton of options: uh, we ended up going with the the fuel brand and they had two options, and we just chose one of those styles that we liked the best. And then we ended up going with the nitto ridge.

Grappler tires they’re 35s and then we lifted the front end two inches because, as you all know, you know most trucks come with that natural slant. So now the truck just sits level which i know is probably going to affect our gas mileage. But that’s okay. You know the price you pay um, so how does it ride since we’ve got that? That’S that’s another question: how does it ride on those tires, and is it noisy so when we first pulled up to outlaw to pick it up that day?

First of all, i just man, i couldn’t believe the difference in the looks of it. You know with this uh versus what we had with the factory and just so you guys, uh, know two rims wheel size. I should say we only went up to a 20 inch wheel from a 19 and a half to a 20

You can do 22s, but if you start doing 22s, your tires start getting thinner and i didn’t want that. You know for for weight purposes, so uh noise. You know i was expecting to hear some noise and some hum because obviously there’s more of a tire footprint.

So to speak, uh more of a tread pattern and you know what i was pleasantly surprised that it actually was quieter than the tires that came with it from the factory and it was smoother so yeah i mean i was pleasantly surprised with that and the other Question that we could ask is how is it towing now and what’s that feel like and because we’re just now coming into spring and we’re part-time rvers, we have yet to pull. We haven’t taken big blue out yet, but we are chomping at the bit to get out there and so i’ll make a future video on that as how did it tow with these new tires and wheels on there? So i would say, if there’s a if you want to say, there’s a you know some downsides to doing an upgrade like that on your truck. You know number one. I did call ford and i asked if it was going to avoid our warranty by going.
You know with an upgrade like that and they said nope. It won’t void your warranty, so we’re still good with with all the warranties, but you cannot rotate your tires um once you get this style on your truck so once they’re on they’re on – and this is a 60 000 mile tire, so they will stay that way And they’re all at 80 psi so yeah so that’d be you know, one of the downsides. It’S a little bit harder um to put air in the dualies in the back to get to the second tire than the the factory one that’s on there. Those are just some of the downsides that i’ve noticed uh since we own it and if there’s any more, i will definitely let you guys know so, as i bring it down to a close here. I forgot one of the upgrades and it’s a little upgrade, but we actually went with the custom mudflaps by duraflap and we have our mk logo in them, so i’ll put a link to them below so that you guys can.

If you want to check that out and make up your own custom mud, flaps they’ve been great, we haven’t had any issues with them and i definitely recommend them for a custom mudflap. So with that being said guys, i really appreciate you tuning in. I hope this has helped um. Just let you know what we think of the f450. So is it worth it?

Is it worth it to have the f450? I say yes, that’s my personal opinion, i’m glad we went with that. I’M glad you have the truck that you have. I hope that you love it um we love it. It has been a big difference for us.

We feel safe. We understand you know the numbers uh better now, and i hope that this video has helped you with that. If you have any questions uh, please leave comments. Uh below and i’d be happy to answer them again. You know i’m not a professional truck guru.

I am not a mechanic uh, i’m just a truck guy that loves trucks and i’m still learning about them as well myself, but i want to thank you guys for all tuning in today. I really really appreciate it and again, if you haven’t subscribed, please subscribe and hit that notification button, and with that we say, god bless and safe travels.