I have a 1964 F250 with a Chassis Mount Camper on it. The frame has been stretched by 24" to accomidate the camper which is 13' long with another 5' over the cab. The guy I bought it from said that it use to have a set of duals on it but he sold the dually setup a while back. With the single wheel in the rear it is not the most stable and looking to upgrade the brakes at the same time. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...50-camper.html
I have been looking around and have found a Sterling 10.25 on a mid 1980s F350 cab and chassis with a welding bed on the back end. I did some measuring between the 1964 F250 and the welding truck both have a frame width of 34". Both use the 2 1/2" wide springs. Both have a stack of springs 6" tall. Measured center of spring to center of spring was 40 1/2" on the 1964 and 40" on the welding truck. Both have welded in place spring perches. I have 48" between wheel wells on the camper and the inside distance between the tires on the welding truck was a 49 1/2". My wheel wells are 21" x 34" and built of wood on the camper.
Do any of you guys or gals see any problems with this swap? What are the size of the brakes on the Sterling axle? What size yoke did Ford use on the F350s and will it match up with the yoke on the Dana 60 in the 64?
Come on Triple Frame, Number Dummy and the rest of the crew, lets hear your opinion.

 

Any type of dually rear end will require a lot of fabrication work, which I would try to avoid. I think your problems can be solved with the wide base rims and 12-16.5 bais ply tires. This was a tried and trued factory set up used on mid 70's F 350 Super Camper Specials rated for 10,000lbs. I believe your large radials (most radials have a problem of sidewall flexing on heavy high center of gravity loads) on narrow rear rims are the reason for the instability. The only axle swap I would consider would be to install an axle out of a '66 F 250 Camper Special. I am pretty sure it would be a bolt in without any fabrication. This axle would have the larger rear brakes and the 4.10 ratio vs. your smaller rear brakes and 4.56 ratio.

 

Your F250 has been modified from its original configuration.

1961/64 F250 2WD's were available w/a 7 leaf rear spring pack w/a load rate of 1,450 lbs., and 2 different 10 leaf rear spring packs. One w/a 1,950 lb. load rate, the other w/a 2,450 lb. load rate.

These springs were 2 1/4" wide, 24" > eye bolt < 28" / All Ford trucks have the spring hangers riveted to the frame rails.
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Ford did not offer an F250 with DRW's until 1985.

All 1953/65 F250's have 12 1/8" x 2" front/rear drum brakes, as do some 1966/72 F250 2WD's.

Introduced in 1966: 12" x 2 1/2" front/rear drum brakes were standard equipment on F250 Camper Specials, F250 2WD's with 7,500 lb. GVWR & F250 4WD's.

1968/72 F250 2WD's with optional dual piston caliper disc brakes also have 12" x 2 1/2" rear drum brakes.

Spicer/Dana 60 rear axles: Some 1953/54 F250's, all 1956/72 F250's, some 1973/85 F250's, 1979 F350 4WD's. Some 1973/79 F250's also have Dana 61-1's.

Sterling 10.25" rear axle introduced in 1985 F250/350, the rear drum brakes on both are 12" x 3."

But be aware that 1985 F250's could also have Dana 60's, Dana 61-1's and Dana 70's. Dana 70's were introduced in 1980 F250's.

 

His problems will be solved with those wheels

 

Well, I'm back again. We had enough snow around here that they opened up the snowmobile trails for a couple of days and i had the old Ski Doo out for a while.
Your right. It would be a lot easier to to go with with a 12" wide tire instead of changing out the axle. I already have 10.50" tires on the rear and from the back it looks like my Aunt Emma pulling weeds in the flower garden. Narrow, tiny feet and ankles then ballooning out above ankles. If I could find some rims with a 1" or 2" offset that might help the stance but the wheel wells look empty. See pictures. It is just screaming to have a set of duals in it again. I found some pictures of the F350 Camper special with the extended frame and huge tires. They look nice but they all seemed to be for a slide in camper. I have the cab and chassis mount camper with an extended wheel base of 152". The brakes on the Sterling rear end are 12" x 3" and it has a 4.10 gear ratio. I think that the cab and chassis frame was the same width from the 1950's up thru the 1980's.
Now I could be stupid but the trails are closed again so I'm going to keep looking at swapping the axle. There are worse ways to spend the the Wisconsin winter days then work on an old Ford truck.

The wheel wells are just about empty with this setup







1964 Ford F250 Chassis mount camper.

 

If you use the 2.5 in wide springs you will have to get the hangers as well.


Another issue is if the donor has an OD tranny, the rear end will be geared lower and that will hurt you at highway speeds.


Another option is to find a rear end out of a 77+ E-series van. They are 69.25in wide compared to your 61.25in wide rear end. Thats 4 more in per side, combined with wide wheels should put you where you want to be without busting the bank.


You will have to relocate the spring perches and may have to mod the driveshaft as well.


If it were me, I would give the dually rear a go since the perches are in the right place and it has bigger brakes, get the driveshaft and see which one will work best. Chances are you will have to mod either of them to work.

 

A dually axle out of most any F350 up to about '97 will be very close to bolting in.

 

I'm going to go ahead and give the axle swap a try. Picked up the axle at the local auto salvage yard and brought it home. It will need tires and I picked up three more rims. Had to hammer to get the drums off but the brakes look good. No seals leaking. Both star wheels froze up. Going to get new brake hardware, wheel cylinders,





seals and cleaned up before it goes under the truck. Now if it would just warm up a bit.It has been about -10 below for the last couple of nights. Highs in the single digits and the pole shed is not heated except for a LP torpedo style heater.

 

I like those 10.25 Sterlings.

Did you get the anti-sway bar too? If not, you should get it. It will held stability a fair bit.

 

No I did not get the anti sway bar. I don't even remember that there was one on the rear axle when I was crawling around it getting the measurements. I'll stop in next week and ask about it. Have you heard of an anti sway bar for the front end? I have found them as far back as a 1965 but I have the old straight axle under my truck.