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Old 07-10-2021, 02:39 AM   #31
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Well, no real surprise here. They now show not being delivered until the 13th. Thats after speaking to them on the phone yesterday and being assured that they were on a truck on the way. Clearly they havent moved and are still sitting in St Louis, Missouri since the 7th. Looks like i will be calling the CC company later today and doing a charge back. I guess im just supposed to believe it takes 7 days to haul 6 wheels 432 miles. Apparently im not supposed to notice they havent moved since the 7th.
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Old 07-12-2021, 08:45 PM   #32
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Trac bar bracket is welded in place. Now if those wheels show up tomorrow i should be able to get this thing underneath the truck.
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Old 07-14-2021, 03:47 PM   #33
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Six new wheels and tires finally showed up.
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Old 07-14-2021, 07:39 PM   #34
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I have seen RV's other people have done where they utilized a standard front axle and regular wheels on the front and i just dont like the way it looks or the fact i would need to carry two spare tires or risk being stranded with no spare.

Reading through this reminds me of me in 1990... I feel your pain.


I took a brand new shortbed 1/2 ton Nissan pickup, mounted a new 1500lb 6-pack cabover camper on it, with the goal of using it for summer family camping and fall/winter hunting.



A spare tire in case of an 'off the beaten path' was a must, as was keeping with more or less factory parts, in case an out of town repair was needed.



The camper was great, but the ride bordered on dangerous. Scratch that, it WAS dangerous. The factory passenger car tires were not up to carrying the load, with under rated sidewall stiffness, too soft leaf spring pack that helpers couldn't help.



Rather than sell everything off in defeat, I made an improvement plan, setting off on an ambitions journey to turn my 1/2 ton Nissan into a dually. A minitruck that could safely carry the camper that I now owned, on the brand new truck I was committed to.



I ordered aftermarket conversion dually steel wheels, aftermarket fenders and matching 2-stage paint, 6 new 14" E rated M&S aggresive tread tires on their way. It all sounded good, until parts started showing up.



I sent the first set of fenders back, the mounting flange covered the factory gas door, a non-starter. The wheels were weird, the inner bolted to the factory non-floater rear axle, and outer wheel bolted to the inner wheel using some goofy proprietary bolt pattern. Wheel bolted to a wheel, bolted to the axle flange. This meant my truck would have (3) different types of wheels. This meant if I wanted to carry a spare tire, I'd need to come up with something that would either fit three different bolt patterns and offsets, or carry three spares! Even when you plan, this stuff isn't easy.



Regrouping 2.0: 1 Ton dually trucks existed, I'd seen a couple of them, they used a true full floating rear axle and 'normal' dually wheels. I located one 400 miles away on a Thursday morning. The guy swore it was taken from a low mileage wreck, they supposedly opened it up and inspected the 3rd member reporting "it's awesome, bro!" which he felt justified in asking the $800 'I won't budge' selling price, a little high I felt, for a used truck axle.



I loaded up my wife and 6mo old baby in the camperless truck and drove all night, stayed the in a fleabag Riverside motel (near wrecking yard row) and picked up the rear end Friday morning. We made the turn-n-burn 400mi drive home that same day. Oh, it gets better...



In my case, the wrecking yard saw me coming. A week into the project, I more closely inspected the inners of the axle, realizing they sold me a completely abused POS. The ring and pinion were toast, same with the bearings, 1 hub was bad and needed replacing.



I later shamed the wrecking yard into replacing the 'beat to shit' 3rd member they'd sold me at a premium price, with one 'he just happened to have in stock, bro'. It arrived via Greyhound Bus with beautiful gears and a limited slip differential. The patina of the replacement 3rd member was an identical match to that of the rear end they just sold me... hey, wait a minute



My parts list now included new wheel bearings, brakes, 3 replacement wheel studs and a replacement Nissan dually hub $$... the slope kept getting more slippery by the minute. I wound up machining the one used hub, salvaging it as the axle face had been hammered on, and wasn't going to seal properly


I sent the aftermarket wheels back, and found 7 genuine Nissan dually steel wheels. 7.



At the end of the day, I had a great camping rig that I drove and camped out of for 10yrs, that had a rebuilt LSD rear axle using Nissan parts, factory Nissan dually wheels in all locations, great tires, a dually spare common to all 6 locations, carried in the factory underbed location, and a new leaf spring pack that held up the camper, exactly what I set out to build.



But man, just like reading my account, was it ever painful
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Old 07-14-2021, 08:32 PM   #35
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So youre suggesting maybe a cliff notes version would be better?

The only reason i went into detail about lug patterns is because there isnt any real information out there about doing a 4x4 conversion on a dually chassis. Half of what is out there is not correct.

They have issues that are unique to the dually chassis. Just thought someone might find the information useful down the road. Even the wheels are a major issue that has to be addressed, and not just because of the rotors being to large for 16 inchers.

My plan was just to explain the process as i progressed with each step so that once im finished it would all be here for the next guy.

I was going to share todays story about what happend picking up these wheels from the truck freight terminal earlier today.
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Old 07-14-2021, 09:23 PM   #36
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I work in the shipping industry and can tell you the quickest path to unhappiness is to ship something LTL. They can screw up a wet dream, but hey, at least they make it last a few months.

Good luck
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Old 07-14-2021, 09:36 PM   #37
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These came Central Transport and i have never witnessed such ass hattery in my life. I was told to pick these wheels up today so i drove there and they only had one guy working. The tires/wheels were still in the trailer buried. I literally watched that guy destroy 4 pallets of products before he got to the wheels/tires. Never witnessed such incompetence in my life.

It was certainly a carnival act but i would rather not have witnessed it.

Each time he destroyed a pallet and the product fell off and onto the floor he would stop the forklift, take out his cell phone, dismount, and snap pictures of the damaged goods and then spend the next 20 minutes moving damaged goods and picking up the mess.
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Old 07-15-2021, 03:30 PM   #38
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So youre suggesting maybe a cliff notes version would be better?

If that was directed at me, I'm not suggesting that at all. You have a lot to say, a lot of experience to pass along.



Doing what you're doing is hard, detailed, tedious, and goes the extra 5 miles to get what you want. Something I know about, I put an intercooler on my 1995 7.3 E350



I was kinda poking fun at myself, my wordy style of writing, that can be tough for some to read. And lightening the mood at the same time. No matter, I enjoyed reading it.


Quote:
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The only reason i went into detail about lug patterns is because there isnt any real information out there about doing a 4x4 conversion on a dually chassis. Half of what is out there is not correct.

They have issues that are unique to the dually chassis. Just thought someone might find the information useful down the road. Even the wheels are a major issue that has to be addressed, and not just because of the rotors being to large for 16 inchers.

My plan was just to explain the process as i progressed with each step so that once im finished it would all be here for the next guy.

I was going to share todays story about what happend picking up these wheels from the truck freight terminal earlier today.

Keep on sharing, you have an audience
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Old 07-15-2021, 04:03 PM   #39
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ok, thanks Tom for clarifying. I wasnt sure, some folks dont seem to like my stories or explanations i think. We had rain today so i wasnt able to work on it. Forecast shows more rain next couple of days, but i may try to get started inbetween showers tomorrow.
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Old 07-16-2021, 09:27 PM   #40
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Well the centerbore of the Dodge wheels are 1mm smaller diameter than the hubcentric shoulder on the ford dually adapters. Decided to take the dually adapters to a machinist and have the shoulder machined to fit the wheels. They are supposed to be done first of next week.
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