Hi all! I have been wanting a pick up truck since I was 16 and am now on the way to getting my dream vehicle. I will be purchasing a used (2012 to maybe 2015) F150 Crew Cab in the next 6 months or so. I dont necessarily have a preference on trim style - some style and years I have a preference for but not really. I do prefer the short bed but am having a difficult time doing searches for Short Beds or the specs on the search dont even indicate the bed size. Is the longer 6.5 bed standard across the board?? I was wondering if there are Trims that just flat out dont have the short bed size as an option and therefore I could rule out that Trim and continue with my search. I have tried to search with key words but that was not much help. Car Gurus DOES give me a bed-size option for search but I also found it wasnt very reliable (a lot of unindicated beds). I have just started to visually check out the photos but that is obviously very clunky. I could call a dealer but I dont want to purchase a newer one. Any suggestions??
thanks!

 

Welcome to the site..

At a glance when shopping,, easy to tell..
Looking at any profile images,, look at the beds 'rear wheel opening'.. The bed panel 'spacing' just in front of the wheel opening on 6.5" bed config is nearly the same measurement as the rear portion of the wheel opening. On a 5.5" bed config the wheel opening spacing is visibly/noticeably narrower at the front.
Between 5.5 and 6.5, the smaller bed is made by shortening the forward portion of the bed, seen in the spacing differences..

Since your staying with a Crew Cab the waters aren't nearly as muddy..
If wheelbases specs are given in the ads, or vehicle description, the wheel base will always tell which bed config it has (as long as you remain with Crew in your searches as Standard and Super Cabs will offer 6.5 and 8.0)
A 2015 w/5.5 bed is a 145" W/B and 6.5 bed is 156.8" (157),, or a 2012 5.5 is 144.5" (145) and 6.5 is 156.6" (157)

This site is a great source for info on the specific MY builds, weights, and measure etc..

https://www.fleet.ford.com/truckbbas.../techspec.html