Community Forums

Quest · 06-27-2011, 02:03 PM

Hello
We currently have a Sun Valley Apache 8.65 in a 1994 Dodge Ram 2500 and we normally tow a 24 Ft boat behind.
We got the Firenstone AirBags and you can even feel that the camper is there except for the fuel economy and temp going up the hill.
We had a couple of flat tires experiences and it wasn't funny at all and we are seriously thinking to make it dually for the sake of safety.
Does anyone has any experiences at all on this? We are aware that it will be a challenge to find the dually fenders. We have the front dually adaptors and the guy on the dealer told us to just get dually studs since we have the Dana 70 and that was also used on the 3500 those years.
So, Any inputs?

RustyJC · 06-27-2011, 02:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quest

....and the guy on the dealer told us to just get dually studs since we have the Dana 70 and that was also used on the 3500 those years.

You might want to do some more checking. I believe the 3500 duallies used the Dana 80 even as far back as 1994 - see HERE. I know for a fact my 1996 3500 dually did.

Rusty

Paul R. Haller · 06-27-2011, 02:33 PM

Rusty is correct. The 3500 used the Dana 80 rear. The Dana 80 axle tubes are 3 times as thick as the 70 tubes. You would be better off finding a wreaked 3500 and pulling the bed, drive shaft, rear axle and brakes, springs, and wheels. Come to think of it after all that you would still have a cobbled together truck because the frame is slightly different and front wheels not interchangable with the rear. You are just better of selling yours and buying a 3500.
-Paul R. Haller-

Full.Monte · 08-25-2011, 01:58 AM

Go to a weigh station and weigh your front axle, rear axle, total weight of the truck and the total weight of the truck and boat/trailer. Then calculate how much weight is on each tire. You will likely be overweighted...most truck campers are. A friend of mine has a similar rig and he upgraded to 19.5 inch wheels and tires from Rickson. He has had no trouble since. If you decide to stay with 16 inch wheels, buy your tires by the weight of the tire, not by the price. I have a F350 dually and learned that the most expensive tires (the heaviest weighted tires) are the cheapest when you count the damage to the wheel wells and undercarriage done by cheap tires. No more of that for me...twice is enough.

Midniteoyl · 08-25-2011, 03:33 AM

Agree.. problem is the tires.. you need to find a way to go up to the next load range.

1STGENDAR · 09-01-2011, 01:42 PM

The guys are right the D80 was used from 94 on up, i did a dually conversion on my 93 and made spacers in our machine shop, on the 93 the W250 and W350 used the same frame and D70, however the drum to drum was i believe 6 inches wider.

if weight is not a problem you can get a dually conversion kit from Arrowcraft with everything you need including fenders.

you could also do 19.5's with load range F's or G's as already mentioned.

my conversion worked out well and i am well pleased with it now.

Dar

Ray,IN · 09-01-2011, 09:54 PM

That is a great looking truck 1stGendar. I'll bet the conversion did wonders for stability also.

BCooke · 09-02-2011, 07:50 AM

Looks good and nice looking truck.

Paul Beddows · 09-05-2011, 08:13 PM

You can try to contact Redneck Express on this forum, he just did it (dodge). If you can't find him here he is an admin on http://www.truckcamperforums.com.

His conversion is well documented there, just search for "dually conversion".

Xtreme244tug · 10-23-2011, 07:55 PM

A buddy did a conversion on his Ford years ago, he just used spacers from Alco wheels for the rear and actually ordered the front hubs from Ford for a dually. He used a complete "take off " box from a truck that someone had put a welder deck on. One weekend and he had a dually. I would think that a 2nd gen dodge would be as easy. Just add fenders rather than ANY dually that does not have lights on top of the cab...

gcsprayjr · 10-26-2011, 10:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xtreme244tug

A buddy did a conversion on his Ford years ago, he just used spacers from Alco wheels for the rear and actually ordered the front hubs from Ford for a dually. He used a complete "take off " box from a truck that someone had put a welder deck on. One weekend and he had a dually. I would think that a 2nd gen dodge would be as easy. Just add fenders rather than ANY dually that does not have lights on top of the cab...

Personally, I would find a rear axle from a dually pickup, primarily due to the fact that if you use spacers, you will extend the center of the weight past the center of the outer wheel bearing. Even a full floating axle is designed to have the weight fall between the inner and outer bearings. Then if you want to you could add the factory dually adaptors to the front hubs so that all of your wheels are interchangable. Add a dually bed, and the truck would be a 3/4 dually with a heavy duty rear axle. I would probably leave the front axle alone, carry the original spare incase one of the front tires failed and don't worry about a spare for the rear. Lots of dually's don't come with spare tires. The truck will look funny, but should run well with minimal problems.

Xtreme244tug · 10-28-2011, 06:41 PM

Based on the experiance that my friend has had the bearing concern has not been an issue, in over 400,000 km. He has never had either stud breakage or bearing failure, and this truck has been severely overloaded. An axel from a dually is typically a very expensive find as every guy who overloaded his one ton flat deck ,tore the bearings out and bent the housing needs one!

gcsprayjr · 10-29-2011, 12:25 AM

The issue that I have seen was with the studs on the OEM hub breaking and letting both wheels go along with the spacer. It happened on a Ford years ago. Ford had some problems with studs breaking in those models, so it was well documented weakness in the truck.

The mechanic said that is was a matter of time before the bearings failed, however that was his opinion, and it was never validated.

I found a diff from a dually pickup in a wrecking yard, swapped it out, and did not worry about it any more. On that truck the diff's mounted exactly the same, so it was remove and replace, no mods at all. The truck already had a dually bed from the earliler conversion. The brakes were larger which was a nice side effect, and the gear was a 3:73 vs the OEM at a 3:55, so a swap of the speedo gear and it was ready to roll. I swapped the sway bar from the dually also, which was twice as thick as the OEM bar.

Jigger · 11-24-2011, 07:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1STGENDAR

The guys are right the D80 was used from 94 on up, i did a dually conversion on my 93 and made spacers in our machine shop, on the 93 the W250 and W350 used the same frame and D70, however the drum to drum was i believe 6 inches wider.

if weight is not a problem you can get a dually conversion kit from Arrowcraft with everything you need including fenders.

you could also do 19.5's with load range F's or G's as already mentioned.

my conversion worked out well and i am well pleased with it now.

Dar

.................Very good looking wheels ! I can't put air in my dually wheels on my '03 3500 chevy dually , so was wondering where your purchased your wheels ? And , do you have easy access too your valve steems ? Thanks , jigger