Hello Everyone,

New guy here, so be gentle. LOL.

I have a 2017 F-350 Lariat DRW that I've owned for about three years now. I bought it with 90k miles and now have 176k. We are full-time RV and we're hauling a 45' fifth wheel, but now downsized and probably going to go back to a brick and mortar house. I have a Bowen Customs flatbed on order for my truck and will be building out a cabover camper to fit. With the miles I have, cost of trucks, knowing my truck and it's idiosyncrasies, I am not wanting to sell and buy another vehicle. If I did that, I'll end up with a 550 and super singles and the wife will probably leave me. HAHAHA!

With all that said, my question is this...I'm having one heck of a time finding info on doing a DRW > SRW conversion. Some say just swap the wheels and take the spacers off the front, others say you need a whole new rear end (thus ending new gearing as well, which now becomes cost prohibitive). I've researched the heck out of the Dana M300 rear end and can't find any info that helps my quest. I'm not a mechanic by any means, so I really don't know what all is entailed. So I turn to all of you and your expertise. Please help me understand why you are stating your opinion, that way I know the technical reason and not just preferences. I truly that you for your time!!!

Sincerely,
Brian

 

I don't know much about the DRW's, but as far as I know, the front is no different than a SRW. No spacers, or if they do I imagine they are easy to remove. The rear I would find out what the width is from wms to wms and compare to a SRW rear.

 

That's what I thought, just remove the 6" spacer in the front. I can't seem to find any info on lengths of different assemblies. For example, if I measured the width of the front end, shouldn't the rear end match for an SRW? If not, at least close enough that a spacer or wheel offset could make up the difference?

 

Now you got me curious how big the spacers are on a 450, if the 350 DRW has 6" spacers. Anyway, the track width is usually about 1" wider up front on most SRW vehicles. Once you get those wms-wms numbers you might find that all you need is a small spacer on either the front, or the rear to make it work for you.

 

Brian,

If your plan is to build a camper on the back of that truck, I'm not sure why you'd want to go SRW? Sounds like additional expense that you really dont need to take, especially if that camper you plan on building gets heavier than you expect?

 

Basically, I'm building an overland vehicle and the dually is not a good option for that. I actually just priced out a new 2024 cab & chassis and it'll cost just about what these 2018-2019's are asking. Who knows, maybe I'll go that route. I just didn't want to wait a year to start this build. LOL!

 

They actually look closer to 4". It does seem that I could just take off that spacer and run a wheel with a slight positive offset and be able to maintain the same track. However, I have no idea what's going on in the rear.

 

The rear axle is longer on the DRW than on the SRW to account for the high offset of the dually wheel, it doesn't use a spacer in the rear.
You could bolt a single wheel to the DRW hub, but it would stick further out than it would on a SRW axle, but if you are building a custom camper for it, then just take that into account as you design it.

 

I wouldn’t waste your time or money…

 

I've converted DRW pickups and DRW chassis cabs to SRW, and the above post is right on the money.

If you convert DRW pickup to SRW, the rear tire track will be noticeably outside the front tire track (as said above, the axle for DRW pickup is lengthened to allow clearance back to the frame for the dually wheel/tire).

Since the frame of the DRW chassis cab is narrower, it can run a shorter rear axle than does the DRW pickup and the front and rear tracks line up well after SRW conversion.

One downside of this DRW to SRW conversion is when you switch the rear end to SRW wheels, the rear brakes will not be tucked into the wheel, but are instead well in board of that position, so they are exposed to damage from flying debris, or trail damage.

 

So would the rear wheel track with the front if I removed the front spacer? When I look at the rear of the truck, the inside tire appears to be inline with the bed. Not sure how that equates once I take the tires off though.

 

You will have to find a Sterling 10.5" or a Dana M275 rear axle.

 

Yeah that is the quickest way. What is your gear ratio?

 

It's got a 4.10 ratio

 

That was only available in drw so it would be hard to swap the complete unit as suggested