• Welcome to The Truck Stop! We see you haven't REGISTERED yet.

    Your truck knowledge is missing!
    • Registration is FREE , all we need is your birthday and email. (We don't share ANY data with ANYONE)
    • We have tons of knowledge here for your diesel truck!
    • Post your own topics and reply to existing threads to help others out!
    • NO ADS! The site is fully functional and ad free!
    CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!

    Problems registering? Click here to contact us!

    Already registered, but need a PASSWORD RESET? CLICK HERE TO RESET YOUR PASSWORD!

Dually conversion

If you want the LOOK ONLY- yes.
if you have a donor truck for parts expect about an additional $1,500.


If you want to actually load the truck with weight or have it tow with ABSOLUTELY NOT!

The body is the same but the frame, suspension, steering, brakes, basically everything else is different.
 
Will L. said:
If you want the LOOK ONLY- yes.
if you have a donor truck for parts expect about an additional $1,500.


If you want to actually load the truck with weight or have it tow with ABSOLUTELY NOT!

The body is the same but the frame, suspension, steering, brakes, basically everything else is different.
Click to expand...
I tow a 7500 pound 5th wheel rv, was looking for some extra weight capacity
 
daddydrive1 said:
I tow a 7500 pound 5th wheel rv, was looking for some extra weight capacity
Click to expand...
Technically, the stability might increase, but the capacity does not. Tandem axles would help, but Dodge tried that and it didn't seem to be a big seller.

I took quite a bit of time and money to put into a 1990 K1500 that came factory with a 4.3 v-6. I swapped in a vortec 350 and the power difference was night and day. The rebuilt transmission was done by the best transmission guy in our area. It seemed obvious that I had the ability to do so much more, so I loaded up a slide in camper in the bed, hooked up to a tandem axle trailer and loaded up 4 full size ATVs and headed for the hills of southern Ohio. After bringing this trip up on an old forum back when I had first discovered the internet, someone named "Dean Darwin" gave me some things to consider and one of which was something to the effect of having all the power in the world means nothing if a person can't get it shut down and someone gets hurt or killed. It may have been the same guy that mentioned a broken rear axle in floating rear means you normally roll to a stop, but with a half ton, the wheel falls off. After playing out that image in my mind 100 times, I surmised that my "forever truck" wasn't going to do what I needed in a way I felt was safe. A couple flew up from Georgia to buy it and I drove to Tennessee to pick up an ugly red truck with a much more suitable chassis.

It was a hard decision for me, but I believe it was the right one.
 
daddydrive1 said:
Would but hate to pay more than I paid for my house for a truck
Click to expand...
No way I would do that.
You can find a truck same year and condition is yours for $5,000 difference.
Smart way is to buy the other first so you aren’t without the truck. Probably have to geta loan, sure. But then sell your current truck and pay off almost the entire loan.

To “convert” your half ton I am sure you understood it would be near $5k in parts if you diy all the labor yourself anyways. So you either would come out of pocket for the 5k or go on a credit card, right?
This isn’t going to cost you more money to swap trucks than it would to swap the parts on your truck. Well, maybe $1,500 if you have a lot of well stocked junkyards near you.

Because it isn’t like you will sell your old parts for anywhere newr what you pay for the others unless you are a master at Craigslist or something.

But for $1,500 to have the proper rig rather than jerry rigged rig- that is worth some cash for sure.

I used be part owner of a truck equipment shop. We would outfit trucks- modify little things like add air bags or helper springs to do amazing customization. I have taken a Nissan and made it into a dually 4 door rolling stereo for a radio station.

I get what is involved in beefing up a 1/2 ton. Had plenty of customers that i put timbrens or goodyear bags on to do just what you are trying. Had people do the adaptive spacers to just add dually wheels and a outside fender added. One guy had foose wheels make him a super single set of rear rims and add a spacer behind it to get the width. Even had a guy adapt from 5 lug to 8, then 8 to 10 and run low pro semi rim/tire super single.

It is always a comprise and never rides or handles as nice as just a plain ol dually.

It is far better if you only tow occasionally but use the truck daily and want a nicer ride- to remove most the leaf springs of the dually and add in air bags. A couple of leafs are kept for the suspension geometry and simplicity, along with the empty weight of the truck. The low pressure for daily driving creates a nice non-bouncy ride and air up when loaded. People that have no clue about semi trucks using air ride for 80,000+ lbs being the better system will say it’s dangerous because the bad might blow. True after 20 years they fail. But neevr saw one blow out- it isn’t a tire hitting a nail in the road. You being to notice the air compressor needing to run every few days for a couple months- then it gets to every day. Plenty of “warning time”.
Not getting the cheapy bags is the key. But this would be money on top of the $5,000 difference in trucks being swapped.
 

Used Chevrolet Silverado 3500HD for Sale in Edenton, NC - CarGurus

Save $17,065 on a used Chevrolet Silverado 3500HD near you. Search over 7,100 listings to find the best Edenton, NC deals. We analyze millions of used cars daily.
www.cargurus.com www.cargurus.com

Used Chevrolet Silverado 3500HD for Sale in Edenton, NC - CarGurus

Save $17,065 on a used Chevrolet Silverado 3500HD near you. Search over 7,100 listings to find the best Edenton, NC deals. We analyze millions of used cars daily.
www.cargurus.com www.cargurus.com

Used Chevrolet Silverado 3500HD for Sale in Edenton, NC - CarGurus

Save $17,065 on a used Chevrolet Silverado 3500HD near you. Search over 7,100 listings to find the best Edenton, NC deals. We analyze millions of used cars daily.
www.cargurus.com www.cargurus.com
 
Welcome to TTS!

Definitely do *not* need a dually for 7,500 pounds. Some current production SUV's can handle that weight and remain stable.

Only advantage a dually gets is reducing the need for 4WD as there are already four wheels doing the work. But the costs are two more wheels when it comes time for replacement, slight reduction in fuel economy, parking turning into a bit more of a challenge, requires more attention to avoid hitting things, and reduced ability to rotate tires.

Oh, and fun fact. When placing a tire in a dully configuration, its weight rating goes DOWN.

And then there is the fun of making sure that each of the twins has the *same* pressure as the other. If we are going to to do it correctly, that is ;)

Others have already touched on the 'do it right' aspect, and I am going to drop an anvil on it. Lawyers make some serious money off of collisions that result from faulty brakes on pickup trucks while towing. For a while, dually collisions were easy college tuition makers as the OE configuration was insufficient. Point is, don't be *that* guy :cool:
 
JayTheCPA said:
Oh, and fun fact. When placing a tire in a dully configuration, its weight rating goes DOWN.
Click to expand...
This requires clarification. The rating for a dual wheel configuration goes down per tire.

For example, a tire might have a max. load of 5070 lbs. as a dual, but max. load of 5510 lbs. as a single. The single tire is able to safely handle 5510 lbs. at the recommended pressure at a given speed (in this case, 568 RPM). The dual setup can handle 10,140 lbs. but is obviously not 2x the 5510 lbs. single rate. If one of the tires fails in a dual wheel setup, then 100% of the load is transferred to the remaining single.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top