Thank you for clarifying - I certainly will not argue as you know what is on the back of your truck. Puzzles me why Ford would put the 3" on a F250 with HCTTP and a 2.5" receiver on a F350 - which is exactly what I have. A friend has my truck in a dually and that has a 3" receiver which would be expected. Sometimes I wonder if it comes down to supply - if 2.5's were short they just throw 3 on to keep the line moving - your win in the end and cheaper for Ford then to slow production. From a truck capacity stand point, makes no sense.
You can see in my sig when mine was built and no sleeves either of course.
I went through this exact debate in my head over and over - F250 HCTTP verse F350 when I was in the build process.

 

 

That would explain a lot - I was just at the dealer for another project and looking at new stock. I saw a F350 they had there which was spec'd just like mine and it had a 3"; all the F250's had 2.5". Now that you mention that, I think the F350 was a long bed. That literally was the only difference between this truck and mine and I have a 2.5" All the F250 did not have HCTTP so they had the 2.5"

I just went and looked at my 2.5" Ford receiver and the label states the same for weight carrying and weight distributing: 1,500 max tongue weight and 15,000 max trailer weight.