I am involved in converting my 59 F350 stakebed to a 9' flareside. I located a beautiful 9' box on a trip to Idaho last fall. It was already a titled trailer so all I needed to do was hook it up behind my 92 and drive away. I have just completed swapping a 10 1/4" ford dually pickup rear axle into this truck. Had to move the spring perches and all the usual stuff. I will be running 255 x 16s all around (33") on factory dually wheels. Not running the outer duals on the rear and will be perfect track width for this flareside, and a 4:10 ratio to boot. Besides, I love the full floating hubs sticking out for all the world to see. I shortened the driveshaft yesterday by telescoping the two driveshafts within each other with spacers on the smaller one. The spacers were 2) half inch long pcs of 2 1/2" pipe, which fit snugly over the 2 1/2" '59 driveshaft with a light deburring. I then 'chucked' the front u joint into the tranny splines and u-bolted the shaft up to a crossmember with a muffler clamp not too tight. I fired up the mighty 223 and let the clutch out in low. With my angle grinder clamped to a heavy floor stand I was able to turn the spacers down on my hillbilly lathe until they were a tap in fit into the '92 3" shaft with a brass hammer. The forward spacer. ring was left half overlapped so I could weld it all together.
I have a cummins '6AT' 6 cyl turbo diesel ready to swap in this winter. It came from a UPS truck. 120 hp at 3600 rpm. I already have one in a 54 gmc 3/4 ton, but it has a turbo 400 auto and it's a GM product. A friend built it and later sold it to me, so I just had to find another 6 at and put it into a heavy FORD pickup with a 4 spd man tran. Today I'm looking at a '56 3/4 ton front axle I can get. I think it is similar and will put dually adapters on it so I can have matching wheels all around. Looks like the ball end on the arm from the steering box has different kinds of fittings, but not insurmountable, and has same spring spacing, maybe narrower leafs. I already have the adapters and am also considering machining the existing front hubs to accept them. There is a 8 on 6 1/2 pattern for the drum and I just need to motorize the front drums with a washing machine motor and a belt and hook up my angle grinder lathe, cutting off the flared outer hub. Long studs or 5/8 grade 8 bolts with nylocks through the spacer, drum and existing flange should suffice, but first I'll look at this 3/4 ton axle. Any one else done something like this with front hubs? I read as much as I can find and people seem to say it's not possible.