Thought I'd start a thread for my dually conversion. I'm doing my 4 inch downpipe and 5 inch exhaust at the same time, so will throw in some pics of that too.

I started saturday, here is what my poor truck looked like after the day was over. Took a while as I had 2 toolboxes to unload and remove, hide-a-ball plate, plus the normal stuff to remove the box. I was able to save all the bolts so that was nice.



Sunday I didn't work too hard. My 300 dollar dually axle has almost new brakes which was great to see. The bad thing is it is an older generation axle, so I am putting my ring and pinion in it. I THINK a guy could have just switched the ujoint in the driveshaft to make it work as it is only 1/2 inch shorter, but the tone ring in this one was chipped so I just decided to pull my gears and put them in it. I'll have to spend the time to set it all up, but that's ok. I had a bearing on my ring gear carrier that was bad so I just ordered a new bearing kit for the center section to replace them all, including pinion. I also had a seal leak on the dually axle, so I ordered new bearings and seals for both sides of that too. Those parts should be here by the weekend, so we'll see if I can get it put together then. Ordered my wheel spacers and chrome lug nut covers too (thanks for the link Bill!). Here's where i left the axles sunday.

SRW axle


DRW axle


My dually hubs, thanks to Bill and Corey Lasalle! They are all cleaned up, ready for new bearings. I put new bearing in my hubs a couple years ago, and as long as they look ok I'm going to pull them and the races and put them in these hubs.



Here's a few pics of my new exhaust. It's a 5 inch cat back diamond eye kit. The dp is a 4 inch SD diamond eye dp. The little box has new clamps, universal hangers (I modified mine for the straight pipe exhaust so got a couple extra), 4-5 inch adapter, and a 5 inch 30* elbow.







My plan is to work on the exhaust tomorrow afternoon and new years day.

 

Looks good! I like my Diamond Eye kit, though I have the 3" dp to 4" exhaust, and mine has the muffler, no cat. On a side note - Diamond Eye didn't give me any stickers in the box, so I called them the other day (even though I've had my exhaust for over a year now) and told them that I liked to have stickers from the places I buy things for my truck and never received any with my exhaust kit, then asked them if that was something they could do. To my surprise, the lady said "Sure! What's your name and address?" I got them today...they're nice! Good luck with the conversion. That should work really well for what you use it for...now you just need 2 more doors!

 

Lol! 2 doors are enough for me! There's only two of us that go anywhere in the truck. My dog sometimes goes along, but she is fine in the back. There is definitely no cat on here, I just got that kit as I'm building the rest myself from that point forward. I am putting the muffler on though.

I don't think I got any stickers either, I may have to do what you did! Thanks Tyler!

 

Ahhh...you can never have enough doors. I often think I'd like to have 6 on mine! Heck, if I have any more kids after this one pops out, we may have to do that so I can haul them all! LOL.

 

Ya, you need more doors! Bill any good at body work? Maybe you can get him to graft a couple more on there after a frame extension! I am not dealing with a family like you! LOL! I have me and dad traveling in my truck. It's big enough. Plus I've owned it for 14 years, its a part of me.

 

I know you already ordered spacers, but I'm posting this anyways. This is the picture I tried to text u twice, but for some reason you never received it. Lol

 

FYI, that is a 3" DP

Progress is good

 

Do u have any pictures if Drw complete? Also are those the front hubs?

 

why spacers?

 

No, it is a 4 inch dp Brad. May look like 3 inch, but it's not.

Thanks Travis, that is what I ordered.

Doug, I don't have any pics of the axle complete. Those are the front hubs too. I'm running spacers because I'm going to use my 265/75 tires and just buy 2 new for the front. With those spacers they will be about the same distance apart as the stock skinny tires are.

 

I am curious as to why you went to a SD 4"

 

Got it Darin. Figured it was something like that.

 

I have a few reasons. My stubborn self figured the more air I can move out the cooler it will run. Although probably very minimal, it won't hurt. Another reason was because when I put the 3 inch dp in that came with the turbo kit, I did some serious mangling to firewall/floor area to get it in there. Although nobody can see it, it bothers me knowing its all cut up and pushed back, looking like crap. I'm going to cut it all out and form in a new floor piece around the dp. The last reason is kind of along with the one before, but the dp is hitting the bellow on that side too. So more clearancing is needed anyway.

 

Truck is looking good Darin. I run 265/75 on my dually with a 1/4" spacer what size spacer are you going with. I like the look of the 265's better than the 235's. Here's some pic. before and after.


235's


235's






235's



265's

 

If you run Factory 4wd rims(5.35 offset) you can run 265s no problem

2wd rims are only 5.00 offset