Ford F-350 vs Jayco Swift

What's the difference?

If you’ve got something really heavy to tow and you have the budget to do it in grand style and with minimal effort, then a Super Duty could be just what you’re looking for. Its gargantuan proportions make it impractical for daily driving in Australian city and suburban traffic, but as a heavy-duty tow vehicle, particularly for long-haul open highway work, you’ll feel like king of the road.

Vehicle supplied by Harrison F-Trucks.

Overall, the Swift is pretty good value. It’s got a sensible layout, a clever process to set up and offers quite a lot of comfort within a cosy package.

Given the price and the layout, it’s worth considering if you’re also shopping for a forward-fold camper-trailer, which likewise offers an internal living area.

Our F-350 test vehicle with its F-250 downgrade results in a 700kg decrease in both payload and tow ratings. In other words, based on Harrison’s figures, in full F-350 specification it has a 1700kg payload capacity and 9700kg GCM, which means it can legally tow up to 4510kg of braked trailer with a full payload or up to 6210kg without. In our F-250 form it offers a 1000kg payload with 9000kg GCM, and can legally tow up to 3810kg of braked trailer with a full payload, or 4810kg without.

The huge cargo tub has a load floor length of 2080mm and width of 1700mm, with 1283mm between the wheel arches allowing ample room for a standard 1160mm-square Aussie pallet. There’s a total of eight tie-down points, overhead and internal lighting plus key fob operation of the tailgate, which houses a handy fold-out step and grab handle for easy cargo tub access.

The sumptuous cabin has plenty of storage options, including a single glovebox, and a bottle holder and two storage bins in each front door. The centre console has an open storage cubby at the front, another open storage bin and two bottle holders in the centre, a cavernous box behind that with a padded lid which doubles as a comfortable armrest, and two more bottle/cup holders at the back.

Those in the rear seat also get a fold-down centre armrest with two pop-out cup holders and each rear door has a bottle holder and two storage bins. There are also flexible storage pockets on the rear of both front seats and the 60/40-split rear seat base cushions swing up through 90 degrees and lock into position, revealing a huge full-width storage area underneath.

The camper’s interior is quite cosy, but there’s room to move around or to relax in the dinette, and the beds will become de-facto play areas for young children.

The dinette converts into a small bed, but if you’re thinking about using it as a full-time bed for a child, opt for one of Jayco’s larger campers.

You sit up nice and high in very comfortable seats, with a commanding view of surrounding traffic and the road ahead. We quickly adapted to the width and height of the Super Duty, but the major issue in city and suburban driving was its oil-tanker length, which required later turn-in on tight corners to provide kerbside clearance. We also needed to check that there was ample reversing room when choosing a space in a parking lot, to ensure we didn’t get wedged when trying to leave.

With the big turbo diesel V8’s 1267Nm of torque being tapped at only 1800rpm, it provides spirited getaways from traffic lights, and easily keeps up with normal city and suburban traffic flow with your big toe barely touching the accelerator pedal.

The ride quality without a load is quite good on smooth surfaces, with its massive 3.5 tonne kerb weight feeling like the tyres are leaving indents in the bitumen. However, over rougher roads and larger obstacles like speeds humps, it starts to bounce around more and can feel quite ponderous at times. However, this is to be expected in an empty vehicle with such high payload and tow ratings.

The steering is surprisingly direct and firm in feel. It’s also quite linear in turning weight regardless of road speed, without the more noticeable changes evident in its little brother Ranger, which is very light at parking speeds but gets noticeably firmer as speeds increase.

Braking is reasonably responsive but like other giant US pick-ups we’ve tested, you have to get them quite hot to make them really bite. That’s because their pad compounds tend to be on the hard side, given they have to cope with the high temperatures generated by heavy-duty towing.

The engine exhaust brake is surprisingly quiet and very effective at slowing the vehicle, aided by more aggressive downshifts in the six-speed auto.

Because the Swift Touring is so small and light, modern utes and SUVs are able to tow it pretty comfortably. With the Ford Ranger, for instance, as a tow vehicle I can see over the top of this camper-trailer to the traffic behind, and because it is so narrow, vision back along the side is quite generous, too.

The Swift’s weight has little impact on a dual-cab’s performance, and there’s only a slight rise in fuel consumption as the Swift doesn’t have similar aerodynamics to a large caravan.

Also, as its ball weight is so light, the Swift doesn't cause too much rear-end sag in the tow vehicle, even if it’s behind a passenger car.

Another advantage of the Swift’s slightness is that it’s easy to move around at camp, or drag onto the tow-ball if you have to hitch solo or don’t have a reversing camera.