Has anyone had second thoughts on buying a dually?

[kdauto]

Originally Posted by 2upServant

KD Auto my truck has a 196 inch wheel base, you may not believe it but my freightliner cuts a substantially tighter turn than my old 2003 f-350 did. I navigate far better with it.

I believe you, but that is not a 1 ton truck for sure. Medium or heavy duty tractor i,m guessing.

[Todd727]

Originally Posted by Dave Pelletier

I don't know if it's just the difference in expectations but I find my dually to ride rather nicely. Yes, tire selection and pressures matter; I run 75 on the front and maybe 60 in the rear......I don't bother changing it when towing since I still have less than half the weight per tire on the back vs. the front.

Dave

I think you hit the nail on the head. Every 350 and 450 I've had since 2000 have ridden just fine. They are trucks and they can haul amazing loads. People decide to get into RVing and get their first truck and find that it does ride stiffer than their Lexus. BFD, if it didn't, it couldn't haul what they want to haul. And as others have said, when you use these trucks as intended, with a load on them, they ride very smooth.

[2upServant]

KD Auto, it is classified on the title as a class 5. which puts it in the medium duty category. as long as I have our fifth wheel I won't go to a smaller truck. the safety and durability is awesome. my 1-ton ate tires at about 30-40 thousand miles. oil change every 5 thousand, transmission rebuild at 135,000. my freightliner tires will rot before I wear them out 150,000 to 200,000 plus mileage. oil change at 10,000 miles motor overhaul around750,000 in frame. tranny possibly 1 million miles. the best part is fuel consumption. my f-350 when pulling got 6 MPG my freightliner get 9.5 to 10 MPG fuel capacity on f-350 was 37 gallons. freightliner is 240 gallons. Bottom line the cost per mile to own and operate is lower on the freightliner than it was on the f-350. the other thing you might as k is insurance. my insurance went up a whopping 25.00 every 6 months when i changed from the F-350 to the freightliner. and yes my wife will drive the freightliner it has an Allison automatic.

[4thgenceli]

There are times though...I like to make sure I park in a manner to not get a door ding.

[Jemdandy]

I decided against it recently and glad I did. I only pull my rv a couple months a year and since buying my truck I've noticed dually having parking spot issues being to wide and when doing dirt roads they don't get to follow in the other vehicles tracks.

[Toby Dog]

They don't even follow in their own tracks. At least on my 2 the front tire splits the rear pairs. One Dodge, one former Chevy. Never really cared.

[kdauto]

Never had an issue going through deep snow or even mud with 6 decent tires. There's a lot of false info out there. My 4 wheeled Suburban and my 6 wheeled GMC are both tractors. Never had an issue with following other people's tracks and don't need to either.

[Todd727]

Originally Posted by kdauto

Never had an issue going through deep snow or even mud with 6 decent tires. There's a lot of false info out there. My 4 wheeled Suburban and my 6 wheeled GMC are both tractors. Never had an issue with following other people's tracks and don't need to either.

Exactly, I didn't understand the point of the dirt road comment either.

[Dave Pelletier]

Originally Posted by kdauto

Never had an issue going through deep snow or even mud with 6 decent tires. There's a lot of false info out there. My 4 wheeled Suburban and my 6 wheeled GMC are both tractors. Never had an issue with following other people's tracks and don't need to either.

Ditto; people always say duallies are bad in dirt or snow.....but the people I towed out of the snow banks every weekend on the ski hill didn't seem to think so! ;-) .....I carried chains, but have never needed them.

Dave

[tuffr2]

I think it is proven that thinner tires are better in the snow to a point. Like a 205/70-15 will be better in the snow than a 225/70-15 right?

[Dave Pelletier]

Originally Posted by tuffr2

I think it is proven that thinner tires are better in the snow to a point. Like a 205/70-15 will be better in the snow than a 225/70-15 right?

The common wisdom is that the more PSI (contact patch vs. axle weight, not tire PSI) the better for the snow, but I don't think it's as simple as that and it depends on the actual conditions. a bit of a far out example but a snow cat has very little PSI on it's treads and yet can go up the ski-hill on slopes much greater than 45 degrees.....so it's not always about increasing the PSI load on the tires to the ground. I would guess that in light snow, ice and slush conditions, the narrower the tire, the better but in compact snow, heavier and/or deeper snow, I'm not sure that holds true.

I can tell you that with good tires (currently running Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac's) with limited slip and lower tire pressures, I've had excellent results in the snow and my dually was the weapon of choice for pulling all the lifties vans (they all seem to own 15 year old minivans with bald tires!) from the snowbanks. I'm sure the 8,400 lbs of the truck helps too but I was shocked with how good it works in the snow.

Regardless, after using the dually as a daily driver in the winter for the past 18 years, including weekends up at the ski condo, the idea that a dually is bad in the snow is an urban myth IMO and if there is a downside, it's minor to the point of being irrelevant. ......If you plan on severe offroading or rock crawling, yeah, the dually isn't the best!

Here's an excellent article on the subject: https://www.quora.com/Are-wider-or-n...er-in-the-snow

an excerpt;

In wet/snowy/slushy conditions the tire will be pushing a wedge of water/snow/slush ahead of itself. The wedge will have inertia and frictional forces that will resist the push of the tire. The tire will try to ride up over the wedge. Once it does this the tire will no longer be in full contact with the road surface, but will be riding on a layer of water/snow/slush. Adhesion will be compromised. In the wet this is called aquaplaning. ..not a good situation to be in.
A narrow tire will push less of a wedge in front of the tire, therefore reducing the tendency for the tire to ride up over it. Hence, the tire will remain in, at least, partial contact with the road and hence have the ability to maintain some adhesion. This is the what rally drivers (and savy road drivers) attempt to achieve. The greater pressure at the road-tire surface comes from the reduced lifting force of the wedge of water/snow/slush you are pushing ahead of the tire, not as a function of the contact patch patch size (shape yes, but size no). Now rally drivers are attempting to drive as fast as possible in the conditions, so they are looking to maximise grip. Narrow block treaded tires, particularly when fitted with studs, make sense in these conditions and deal with snow/slush and ice.
When the snow/sand or even mud is so deep that the tires can’t sink down to find something hard underneath, your only option is to try to ride on top of the surface. Now wide LOW pressure tires are the way to go. Lowering the tire pressure WILL increase the size of the contact patch, WILL reduce contact patch pressure, and WILL resist sinking down into the snow/sand/mud…which will eventually stop further progress! On the other hand, tracked vehicles are the best in this situation because they significantly increase the size of the contact patch and reduce contact pressure (they are not inflated chambers like tires but semi rigid surfaces). Note you can’t run narrow tires at the low pressures you need, as they will have a large flat spot which will result in other issues (heating, sidewall failure…). Now, again with aggressively treaded tires, you will gain enough adhesion to make progress, albiet not as quickly as the rally driver would like…but that is not the sort of conditions they drive in.

Dave

[Rhagfo]

Originally Posted by Jemdandy

I decided against it recently and glad I did. I only pull my rv a couple months a year and since buying my truck I've noticed dually having parking spot issues being to wide and when doing dirt roads they don't get to follow in the other vehicles tracks.

I just think you were justifying your choice, logging roads are run by duallys all the time. I haven;t found a parking spot less than the 8' I am wide.

[JIMNLIN]

Originally Posted by Jemdandy View Post
I decided against it recently and glad I did. I only pull my rv a couple months a year and since buying my truck I've noticed dually having parking spot issues being to wide and when doing dirt roads they don't get to follow in the other vehicles tracks.

Agree.
I have both and made a living with both. I'm rural out here on dirt roads some with little to no gravel. A DRW will not track deep ruts in mud like a SRW. In fact a DRW can very easily get you in the ditch.
I'll be 80 my next BD and have driven roads like this since I was 12 years old when I drove the old '46 Ford to school on un paved/no graveled back roads.

My DRW stays in the tractor barn when it gets muddy nor deep snow/ice.

We found that out when trying to use our one ton DRW pulling our GN trailers in and out of muddy worksites resulted in stuck trucks. We used a old 3/4 ton F250 4wd 300 ci inline 6 with 35" 16.5" off roads tires to pull loaded/empty trailers around muddy worksites.

My needs for a DRW come when hitch loads exceeds my SRW trucks axle/tire load ratings.
Other folks have their own needs .

[ardvark16]

DRW is awful to drive. If you don’t need it to tow I wouldn’t get one. I drive them all day long. They lose traction in the snow and rain and are annoying to park. There is a common thread on these forums where people seem to constantly tell people to get the biggest truck they can. It’s a foolish proposition. Get the truck you need. There are a ton of srw f350s out there these days. If you don’t need a dually I would not get one. There are also a lot of people who try to say that 3/4 ton and 1 ton trucks are not much different ride wise than 1/2 tons. Another joke. They are brutal to drive with no load. With the advancements that they have made with these trucks I won’t own a dually again. And if I need that much weight I’m not camping any more.

For the record I had a 99 Chevy 3500 dually, a 2012 F-350 dually, a 2014 ram 4500 dually, and now a 2019 ram 4500 dually. The Ford was the best riding. Chevy was garbage. The rams are fine but sit down much higher that they ride hard.