F550 Flat Bed Size

I initially started out planning to go with a travel trailer to work out of but honestly could not find a large enough travel trailer with no slides that would sleep 2 comfortably and provide an office. Have found some fifth wheel options however so now I am doing a size out on truck, bed, hitch, and trailer. Looking for some recommendations and experience.

The 5th wheel will be in the neighborhood of 40 ft and on the lighter size due to no slides and much of the space being used for office space.

I?ve decided to go with a 4x4 F550 diesel with a flatbed. It will serve as a good tow vehicle and for working out of (oilfield).

I will probably go with a B&W turnover ball system so I can also pull gooseneck equipment trailers as well as drop in a B&W Companion made specifically for flatbed trucks. The positive to this is CM Truck Beds build their flatbeds with the B&W turnover ball already installed so I would just have to buy the Companion.

This leads me to my questions.

1 - For those with F550 (or any flatbed truck for that matter) pulling 5th wheels what wheel base, cab to axle, and axle to bumper lengths do you have? Any issues specific to the flatbed (ie need the angled rear corners, etc)?

2 - What is the typical distance on 5th wheels from the trailer pin to the front of the lower portion of the 5th wheel?  Finding this measurement online is more difficult than I anticipated and I keep forgetting to measure it when looking at them at dealers.

3 - What else am I not thinking of?

The reasons for my questions is with a F550 if you go with long bed (203? WB) the only bed from CM is 11?4? long with a cab to axle of 84? giving an axle to bumper of 52? (Im guessing its a little longer due to dead space between cab headache rack). The width of the bed is 97? so doing a little trig the absolute minimum distance from pin to lower portion of the 5th wheel will need to be ~72?.

Thanks in advance.

that bed/deck length is going to be too long with a 8 foot box there is maybe 27-30 inches (just enough to drop the tailgate) but you would have no turning radius there are litterally hundreds of flat deck makers in North America who will make any size deck with features you want -ie tool boxes headache racks etc. there is no standard to your question 2 ive seen them long and also so short its crazy

Steve,

Thanks for the replies.

I followed up with CM and they confirmed both the RD (flat) and (ER) hauler beds have a hitch to bumper length of 56? and a hitch to corner of 67?. Only difference between short bed and long bed is the cab to hitch length.  I was leaning more twoard the flat bed initially but am considering the hauler bed as it gives more vertical flex room with the sloped rear.

Do you know of any other bed manufacturers that incorporate the B&W hitches directly into their beds? That was the main driver in my interest in them so that its easy to drop the Companion in. I should add we already have a 2500 Chevy with B&W as well so it keeps everything compatible.

The main question now I guess is the 5th wheel clearance length which Ive emailed the manufacturer for.

just about all of them have a gooseneck ball under the deck

check out these decks - it depends where your located? google bandit flat decks there are lots of  options

Steve,

Checked them out and went down to Ford dealership today with a tape measure. They only do Commerical Trucks so they had everything from 350 to 750 with all the different wheelbase combinations, deck choices, etc. What I found is with a F550 Crew Cab, or any long bed Ford (ie 84? cab to axle) chassis cab for that matter (other than a couple oddball really long regular cab trucks), the minimum bed length is 11?4? to cover the frame rails.  If you go to a short bed the cab to axle shortens but the axle to end of the chassis remains the same. Therefore it doesn?t matter which you pick the shortest axle to bumper is going to be 56?. Now I think the key point is the angle at the rear corners is the key point.....this is where picking the bed to not have interference will be key.

After I left the Ford dealership I went over to a large RV dealership (primarily Forest River) and measured multiple 5th wheels. The shortest I found was ~ 69? and most were all 72?.

Im curious...I see you have a F350. Can you measure your 5th wheel to bumper length and 5th wheel to rear bed corner length and report back for comparitive purposes?

Thanks

sorry my trailer is in a storage lot 20 minutes away (city bylaw ) but you can go to any ford dealership  and do the measurements yourself - most will have a truck with the 5th wheel package and the pucks are in the box 4 perimeter ones for the 5th wheel hitch and the center one is for a gooseneck thats the same as where the pin on a 5er would sit if hitched up - sorry misunderstood question i will try later its pouring with rain right now

I had a Ram 4500 and had zero problems towing our fifth wheel all over the country. I had plenty of room behind the bumper but not as much as with a pickup. The biggest problem I had was getting insurance on the 4500. If it has CC (cab chassis) on the title instead of PU (pickup) it will be harder to get insurance. I had to go with National Interstate as Progressive and some others wouldn't touch a commercial vehicle even though I wasn't a commercial driver. I now have a Ram 3500 dually and like it much better and have standard insurance. The extra wheel base of the CC also makes it harder to back into tight RV sites.
Also another thing to consider. Ford, Chevy and Ram all detune the diesels on CC trucks. I had about 85 less HP in the 4500 than the PU. I may have lost a little suspension with the 3500 but the extra 85 HP and torque are noticeably different especially in elevation. I have a high output Cummins with Aisin tranny and 410 gears and this thing is a beast! Pulls much better than the 4500 we had.

Falconhunter,

Thanks for reply. Yeah I knew about the detune. Im hoping this will give me more longevity than a typical F250/F350/F450. Im ordering my F550 with a one higher set of gears (4.3) to keep same tow rating as F450 but with higher hitch / bed rating. 

Backing in wont be an issue. Ill mainly be parking at rigs which have HUGE space typically lol. If you cant back in there you dont deserve a drivers license lol.

Commercial insurance isnt big deal as I am buying it for work. I already run commercial insurance on two Tahoes for work so Ill just trade one in for it. You are right though....commercial insurance rates suck. So far Ive done best with State Farm for base vehicle insurance and then add on the vehicles to my General Liability Umbrella.

Spent a lot of time last night researching. At this point Ive about decided a nice gooseneck toy hauler will actually work better for me. They lack a little in amenities but the frame, axles, etc are much better built plus they have room for building out office space.  Functionality is more important to me than asthetics.

For comparison purposes I measured our 2500 Chevy today running a B&W Gooseneck / Companion. It is
52? hitch to tailgate
64? hitch to corner outside of bed (diagonal)