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Old 03-10-2006, 02:23 PM   #21
rvfirefighter
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I have a longbed dually so I have all the room for whatever. I have a 50 gal. saddle tank behind the cab, toolbox behind tank, still have room behind hitch for portable blue tank an other stuff. I also made a bike carrier that I mounted to the hitchbox of my Montana for 2 bikes. Still have room to make 90 degree turn without worry of hitting truck cab.

That is why I have a longbed.
 
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Old 03-11-2006, 03:43 AM   #22
Montana_5274
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Hi every one:

We had a 97 Fleetwood with an F250 and heard the popping sound, not once, not twice, but thrice, so wife said fifth or truck had to go. We opted for a 31 ft pull McKensey. Traded it in on factory ordered Alumascape 34' pull and then found a 2006 3500RL. It's beautiful and wife is really happy. Which makes me happy, but our vehicle is a 2005 F350 sb 4x4. Now, my Mont is a early 06 so I think with the new model, Keystone ordered frames with very short pin box, but couldn't waste the old front caps they had left so they put one on our 3500.

Now, with the new short pin box and the old nose cap and my short bed, I became very nervous, my wife is very nervous and even our cat Bennie. So I ordered a new trailair extended King pin air ride box. We are making our Winter home in a rv park in Yuma and returning to our home in Lake Powell in April and will let every one know how this works. Keep the wind to your backs and drive safe.
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Old 03-11-2006, 04:25 AM   #23
Kathi
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We didn't like the view in the rear view mirror when turning!!!!To close for us....We park in disabled so parking isn't an issue for us. Just have to angle it. For those of you who know what In-N-Out is, I took our truck through the drive thru....The guy at the window was shocked that I did it without taking anything out. You just have to do everything slower and watch all the mirrors at once...LOL
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Old 03-11-2006, 04:49 AM   #24
Sweetfire
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I loved my 2001 GMC 2500, SB, extended cab, but hated the suicide rear doors and the fact that I had to leave the tailgate down when I trucked my motorcycles. The make of the truck doesn't matter to me. I've owned Chevy, GMC and Ford (haven't owned a Dodge yet). There are things I like and dislike about each. We got the 2005 Ford F350 LB, PSD, this time because it fit our needs and pocket book at the time. I love the Crew Cab. The long box has advantages and disadvantages but for us the +'s outway the -'s. If I was buying one today it would probably be a GMC 3500 LBZ Duramax. What I would like is a Chevy transmission on a Ford Superduty frame with GMC seats and a Cat diesel but I wouldn't want to see the price tag for the mods.
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Old 03-11-2006, 12:13 PM   #25
Bob Pasternak
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We each have reasons for our choices; Mine was ride and stability. Longer W/B-long bed, more lateral stability and by getting 2 wheel drive instead of four, better ride. In over 3 years I've never needed a 4WD to get in or out of anywhere. And the long bed is a work truck when you get ready to sell it. SB's are toys. When we traded our '01 Dodge Laramie QC with 50,000 miles on it for this one, one of the appraisers ticked me off. Gave me a ridulously(sic) low price. I asked him what his problem was. He said the truck was too long. I did get the price up to where I wanted it later. A few days after we took delivery of the new one, I was in their parts dept. picking some things up and there was a guy in there complaing that all they had on their used lot were short beds. I asked him what he wanted, told him what I'd traded and gave him the salegirls name. Talked to her later and she told me the guy bought my truck before it was ever put on the lot.
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Old 03-11-2006, 01:42 PM   #26
yvonnenid
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Quote:
quote:Originally posted by gcrane

Hi every one:

We had a 97 Fleetwood with an F250 and heard the popping sound, not once, not twice, but thrice, so wife said fifth or truck had to go. We opted for a 31 ft pull McKensey. Traded it in on factory ordered Alumascape 34' pull and then found a 2006 3500RL. It's beautiful and wife is really happy. Which makes me happy, but our vehicle is a 2005 F350 sb 4x4. Now, my Mont is a early 06 so I think with the new model, Keystone ordered frames with very short pin box, but couldn't waste the old front caps they had left so they put one on our 3500.

Now, with the new short pin box and the old nose cap and my short bed, I became very nervous, my wife is very nervous and even our cat Bennie. So I ordered a new trailair extended King pin air ride box. We are making our Winter home in a rv park in Yuma and returning to our home in Lake Powell in April and will let every one know how this works. Keep the wind to your backs and drive safe.
We have a Dodge 4x4 250 cummins diesel sb. We have a 06 Montana 3570 with the old cap. We put the reese slider hitch on. However, now we are wondering if the new short pin box old front cap theory is true. Would Montana really make a decision to use the new pin box knowing the old cap would be in peril with every sharp turn? Even with the slider in our cul de sac we sure come close to our window! Should we be asking Montana to change our pin box?
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Old 03-12-2006, 06:06 AM   #27
DarMar
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Dave, you mentioned that a rumour is about that GM is working on a shortbox dually. Were did that come from, my dealer says he knows nothing about that. Is there anywhere one can seach for any new specs on the 07 chevy's? Back to the subject though, we have always had short box trucks and really have no reason to go to a long bed. Now that we are looking for a dually we really have concerns about going to the chevy long box, a short box chevy dually would make my wife VERY happy!
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Old 03-12-2006, 10:10 AM   #28
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Dear Yvonnenid:

Yeah, I believe Montana would do that, but I don't think they really thought about it and did it maliciously, It's just dollars and cents (mostly dollars).

My third pop! was caused by pulling into a service station for fuel in heavy traffic and I simply didn't have time to extend the hitch. It still was my fault, but this time I think the extended hitch will solve my problem. I also believe the rid will be improved enough to justify the cost. Go to Trailair's web siteand read what other owner's have to say.

Good luck
G.Crane
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Old 03-12-2006, 10:50 AM   #29
D and M On The Road
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We chose a short bed truck because it's also Doug's vehicle when it's not pulling the Monty. The shorter turning radius, easier parking, and plus the salesman at the RV Center where we bought the Monty told us because of the unique design of the Montana's nose we'd never have any problems with the truck & Montana hitting. Well, we proved them wrong with that!...*LOL

We'll still go with a short bed when we replace this truck. We just aren't sure if we'll go dually or not as we'll be traveling much more when we retire. That's another whole topic.

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Old 03-26-2006, 12:51 PM   #30
sreigle
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Our earlier trucks we bought the shortbed so it would fit in the garage. We don't have a garage anymore so the last purchase was not for that reason. Rather it was for maneuverability. The '05 and later Ford F250/F350 4x4 models have a new frontend that allows the truck to make much tighter turns than the 4x2 and prior year versions. So, we were able to go to a crew cab shortbed and have a decent turning radius. Not as good as a car but tremendous for a crewcab 3/4 and 1 ton trucks.

Also, we have a slider hitch, just in case, but have only used the slider 4 times in 11 years. The nose on our Montana allows a much sharper turn than most fifthwheels. The slider is there if we need a sharper turn. I undertand the nose on the brand new Montanas eliminates the need for a slider hitch but I'd have to see it for myself to say if I agree or not.

As Don said above, the shortbed comes with a smaller tank (in the Ford). Mine is 29 gallons vs the 38 gallons in the longbed. I find 29 gallons in the diesel version to be plenty. Neither of us can go that long without a potty and stretch stop anyhow.
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