Some food for thought

Dually front hubs are 6" longer than a single wheel axle(PER SIDE)

a dually rear axle is 6" wider OVERALL than a single wheel axle

 

I was going to suggest running the spacers out back and the hubs in front. Then I read Brad's post. I think when I do mine I'm going to use the spacers WITH locktite on the threads.

 

I know it's a chev, but it's best example I could find right now (with little effort, anyway)

Dually 60/14B

Stock bs on h1's is something like 7"

 

Unfortunately the guy never called me back on those Outlaw II wheels, so I can only assume he must have sold them. I didn't measure the front hubs on the War Wagon, so I'll just take your word on it... There's no way I would use just the front hubs, six inches is way to much... I only need three inches to maintain the current tire position... So that would mean I would need both front and rear dually axles. That would cost around $450 with tax, plus all the time involved in changing them out... For the cost and labor of slapping dually axles under the truck, I might as well just recenter the wheels or go with different wheels altogether...

So here's another idea I came up with... In order to maintain the current width for the front and match the rear to the front. I would need three inch spacers up front, and four inch spacers in the rear... Granted I know that would put a lot of stress on the OEM wheel studs. So my idea is to make a lug centric truck partially hub centric. The idea consists of using custom made bushings that slide between the hub and the spacer, essentially making the spacer one with the hub. I have a really good machinist that's reasonable on cost, so I'll talk with him and see what he thinks. If I want the truck to look the way I have it envisioned in my head, this is the way I'll go if the price is reasonable. Otherwise I'll just run two inch spacers just so I can install the wheels on the truck...

One last thing... If none of the above works out, I'll probably just get different wheels. So the question is this, how do you guys think a 37" tall tire would look on 9.75" rims. My friend said he had the same size military tires on some 9.75" Soft 8's once, and they looked good.

 

I run 16.5x9.75 rims on my 2000 7.3 superduty, looks good on the truck. The military tires are a great price for 37's. $4-500 here in Tucson for 4. I'll post a pic in a bit.

 

 

If I put 12.5" wide tires on anything, they get rims that are ~10" wide.
Getting the right rims the first time is going to save you a lot of time, money, and energy. You don't need to re-engineer half the truck to fit the wrong rims, that's just foolish. You can get the right rims for dirt cheap, I'm 100% sure of it.

 

I agree with your notion of getting the right rims. The military tires ride on rims about 8" wide. I don't know the exact width though.

 

I've been out of town for the past week with bad cell reception, otherwise I would have replied sooner... Well I pretty much decided to just get new rims... I'm thinking about getting the Eagle Alloy 058 series wheels. (AR Baja style)



I do still like the style of the 055 wheels, (AR Outlaw II style) which is what the Beast has currently. But I think after over ten years of the same style, it's not a bad idea to alter the style of the wheels since I have to change them anyway... The military wheels are actually 9" wide, so I could easily use 9.75" wide wheels. Since it's only a 3/4" difference, the sidewalls will still have a slight bulge... (I like some bulging in the sidewalls)

I would have liked to run the HMMWV wheels, for there double bead lock functionality and durability. But to be honest, I prefer polished or chrome wheels over matte black... I also probably wouldn't need the bead lock capability anyway... Though I have to say, if I did need / want bead lock functionality, and kept these wheels... I would install pressed centers and have the wheels chrome plated.

 

I am reading that the military rim width is 8.25" but don't take that as gospel. I and others have posted pics of these tires on 9.75" wide rims.

Part of the reason why mine look balloonish is the tread is worn on the outside edges, making the tread also curved. Maybe with fresher tires this wold be more squared.

I like the cleaner look of the 58s over the 55s.

I think we are all glad you talked yourself out of spacers.

 

I thought they were 8.25" as well, but on Trail Worthy Fab's site they say it's nine inches... That may be the overall width and not the bead width that their measuring though...

 

Well a couple weeks ago my friend found a listing on eBay for a set of used AR62 16.5" x 9.75" wheels in really good condition. I won the auction last Thursday, and they just came in today. I would have gone for new wheels, but apparently I would have had to wait at least 1-1/2 months for the series 58 wheels to come in... They don't even make the series 55 or AR62 wheels in that size anymore... So I had two options, pay $558 for a set of new wheels and wait forever for them, or see how high the auction went and get the wheels I ended up with...

When they just came in.


On the truck. Try to picture a 37" tall tire...



So now I'm trying to figure out which style and length lug nuts would look best with these wheels... I'm looking at two different styles right now. The http://www.ebay.com/itm/32-Bulge-Acorn-Lug-Nuts-9-16-Thread-7-8-HEX-2-38-Tall-For-Dodge-Ram-2500-3500-/181760356129?hash=item2a51c2ef21&vxp=mtr is very similar to what the truck has now. (At least on some of the nuts on some of the wheels, dumb PO... It has flange nuts and some acorn nuts, it's been like that for over ten years...) Then there's also the smaller 3/4" hex nuts that are 1.9" long.

 

I used the longer of the 2 on my truck, they look fine with the float axle sticking out as far as they do.

 

Those rims look good on your truck.

 

Get the longer ones. Your lug studs are so long that the short ones are likely to bottom out and break before they meet the rim.