Dually to Single

[bearqst]

I'm thinking about converting my dually to single rear tires. Yeah, I know everyone is converting their single rears to dually's, but dually just aren't worth a darn on the ice.

 

I don't want to do a new axle (so I can go back when I want) and I understand that there's a conversion kit that would align the rear tires with the front, anyone know where to get one ?

 

Or maybe point me in the right direction to find one.

 

TIA

[ZZebes]

I'm guesing the kit is just a spacer, search for Dually Spacer i think

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Just remove the inner wheel?

[bearqst]

I think I'll need a standard 1 ton rear wheel. If I just remove one of the rear tires (inner and outter wheels are the same) then my wheel base will be off.

 

The rear tires won't align with the front ones. I got this from a buddy who use to remove his inner rear tires on his dually. Said it works but then your front and rear tires don't line up and you lose carrying capacity.

 

Since dully's have deep well rims, I'm hoping by using a standard 1 ton single tire rim they'll align. I'll post the results after I get a chance to try it out.

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I don't see how wheelbase has an effect.

 

There isn't much of a reason to have your wheels line up, AFAIK. Single-rear-wheel vehicles have a narrower track in the rear than in the front. (I don't know the reason, but I've got some theories.) One of the reasons the dually rear wider is for stability.

 

BTW, I think I just figured out that you meant offset, not wheelbase. The dually wheels have high offsets, where as the single-wheel wheels are no offset. I don't know if that is important on the dually. I think the bearings are spaced wide enough that the load will still be close to centered.

 

I was assuming you wanted to keep this simple.

 

If you use a non-dually wheel you will need tapered lug nuts. You will need to have two spare tires or carry an extra set of lug nuts for the spare. The wheel will sit centered in the wheel well, which means that it would contact the sheetmetal of a standard bed.

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BTW, I know a smaller contact patch is helpful on snow, but I don't think anything is going to be good on ice. Use studs or chains instead.

[bearqst]

Yeah, I did mean offset, my friend's experience was that with the rear and front wheels being offset to each, he tended to have less stability and also less carrying capacity.

 

The contact patch is what I'm trying to lower. Less contact less slippage on ice, as with snow, it makes a big difference (lots of experience on this one).

 

I've been running all 6 tires with sipped and double studs and still have to much slippage on the road unless I add about 250 pounds of weight for traction. Even at that the traction is less that my old 4 wheel 1 ton.

 

I hadn't thought about the tapered lugs or spares lugs for spare tires, but that's fairly inexpensive to handle. I am curious about your comment

 

The wheel will sit centered in the wheel well, which means that it would contact the sheetmetal of a standard bed.

 

Why do think it would contact with the sheetmetal ? I have a full size (8 foot) bed and planned to use the same bed, just swap the wheels and see how it handles. Or were you thinking this would only be an issue if I swapped beds, which I don't plan to do.

 

It'll look a bit wierd with the dually wheel well so empty but if I like it better and decide to do it for the long term, then I'll get into those issues

 

I just about came to end of my time last winter when when I hit some ice and had unloaded my winter weight bags from the truck, since then I've been thinking about trying to go SR tires, at least for the winter months, which up here are much longer then the summer months.

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I had meant the non-dually beds.

The outer fender of a non-dually bed is cut for clearance, and the flared fenders are placed over the area on duallies.

In your case you don't need to worry.

 

I'd say try it the cheap and easy way-just take one set of tires off and see how you like it. Try changing from inners to outers and see what the difference is.

 

With single rear wheels you have less carrying capacity than with duals, but I'm not sure you'd really have less with a single Budd wheel in place of a non-offset wheel.

FWIW, the MGVW is 9,900 lbs on a 1-ton SRW, and something like 12,000 on a 1-ton DRW.

[bearqst]

Switch done and the alignment isn't bad.

 

I replaced the 2 rears with a standard 1 ton rim and wheels to match my front's (LT235/85/R16's). The rear tires have about 3/4 to 1 inche wider spread (center to center) then the fronts. Which I kind of like and think it might add to the stability overall.

 

It sure turns easier I plan to try the front's next. Basically see how the front aligns with a standard rim without removing the axle extension, if they align, great, if not I'll try removing the axel extension and measure them for track alignment.

 

I did find a nice site on tires, worth a read if your thinking about changing your tires over. http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/tiretech.jsp

 

Negative side; doesn't look as nice But works for reducing my contact patch concerns on icy roads.

[STPETEBLUE]

I plan to try the front's next. Basically see how the front aligns with a standard rim without removing the axle extension, if they align, great, if not I'll try removing the axel extension and measure them for track alignment.

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

That wont work! The wheel and tire will be too far out of the fender to turn (steer). And it will put too much tension on the hub for the contact area to be that far out. Either remove the extension, or use the stock wheel.

[bearqst]

Won't work either way with a standard rim in the front. I did re-measure my off set between front and rear tires using the OEM front rims and the standard rims on the rear.

 

My front to rear tire tracking is off by 3/16th of an inch on each side. Not to bad.

 

FYI. The standard 1 ton rim on the front axle with the extension was 2.5 inches out and without the extensions was approx. 2 inches in. So the best tracking alingment was to keep the stock front rims and use standard rims in the rear to go from dually to single.

 

Only other option would be to change out the axles. So I guess I'll have to pack 2 spares in the winter.

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FWIW, the stock setup has a narrower track on the rear than the front. In other words, your front to rear tire tracking is supposed to be off.

I do not know why.

[bearqst]

FWIW, the stock setup has a narrower track on the rear than the front.

 

Interesting, out of curiousity, do you know the offset difference betwen the front and rear.

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No, I don't. FWIW, almost all four-wheeled vehicles have a narrower rear track than the front.