Hello: MY first post, although I have been reading from this forum now about 2 months. Two months ago I bought a new 2012 F250 crewcab 4X2 with 12 miles on it. It is a XL model. It came equipped with cloth seats, cruise, am/fm cd, pw, plocks, trailer brake control and chrome bumpers. It is white with no carpet. Looks like a government truck. But this is exactly what I wanted. I installed nerf bars and had the bed sprayed with Line-x. So far I have put a little over 600 miles on it.
I have a 28 foot travel trailer (5400 lbs) that I will tow in a month or so. I have been towing it with a 05 Chevy 1/2 ton CC with a 5.3 and 3.73 gears. It did ok, except last Christmas, when I was heading into a 30 mph wind. The only way I could maintain speed was to draft a semi. That decided me to get something more heavy duty and with a little more oomph.
My impressions so far: It is very different from my Chevy. It is heavier, bigger and steers a lot different. The gas mileage is the pits, but in all fairness my driving so far has been all stop and go traffic.
I can't wait to pull my trailer to test the truck and see how it compares to the Chevy.

BB 8

 

I bet it'll be a nice improvement for ya.

What gears did you go with on the new truck?

 

It has the 3.73. A 4.3 was impossible to find that was within my budget. Paying 28.4 or 30.4 (with tax, title and license fees) was too good of a deal to pass up. As a matter-of-fact, the dealer had 4 other trucks just like the one I bought, all 2012's. I even got a 1500 rebate by financing thru Ford and got their best rate of 4.9%. A month later, I refinanced thru my CU and got 2.15%. I feel as though I got a good deal. I admit I am a little nervous in buying a Ford because the 2 Chevy trucks I have bought in the last 10 years have had almost nothing go wrong. Except two steering shaft replacements and one temp gauge, all under warranty.