I'll agree 2wd is better suited for long haul towing......

But I have been stuck and had to be towed up one to many Boat ramps to use a 2wd again.

It sounds like in general everyone is for the longbed compaired to the Shortbed, Why???

Hmmm.
Maybe the bigger rear axle is an option on the 450...
We were buying a truck... I think it was the tail of '03...
Dealer had two trucks sitting side by side... 450 and 550. I was after the 450, as I knew we wouldn't haul enough weight in the truck to need the 550...
These two trucks had the identical rear axle...it was easy to tell because neither had a body on it... The 550 had an additional "overload" spring.. That was it.
We wound up with the 550 simply because it had a longer chassis to work with the 14' flatbed we needed...
The cost difference in the two was only about $1000 if memory serves...

That 550 worked like a bizatch... 4500lb on the bed, 12,500 trailer...and it could have easily taken another 5,000 on the truck..

I'm going to maintain about the speed though.. That truck didn't want to run any more than 65... Hit 75 to pass, but you can't cruise at 70+..

I pull with an 05 f450 4x4 an love it my father pull with a f650pickup both were bought from extremesupertrucks.com he loves his as well The 450 pulls a 42 fountain with no problem has pulled my dads 47 fountain with no problem the 450 for 05 turns sharper than 05 350 but 450 is alittle harsher ride but I drive mine daily

I could not get www.extremesupertrucks.com to come up?????

try www.f650pickups.com that is how I found the link