Hey guys,

I was wondering if this can be done. If I were to take 2 wheel spacers on the 5 x 5.5" bolt pattern, could I then feasibly put 2 tires on each rear corner w/o having to change anything else? I'm not doing this to carry any extra weight, ( I have just found a Cool lookin'g '79 F150 done with the Sterling 10.25 Dually rear-end ) could it be done my way? Custom dually truck accessories say it can be done with the 8-bolt pattern, why couldn't it be done on the 5-bolt-pattern and just make some fenders of some kind? Thanks for any input.
AlBrit

 

You'll need custom wheels with the proper deep dish to face each other. You'll need to replace the stock wheel studs EVERY TIME YOU DRIVE IT. You'll need to up your insurance to $1,000,000 due to the risk of the new much heavier highly leveraged wheel assembly snapping the stock studs off when you hit a curb or pot hole & killing someone.

IMO this is not a worthwhile modification.

 

Just watch for a D60 rear and swap it in and use some dually rims. Should be that easy.

 

Another thought, you are saying then that a D60 would be an easy change-over, right?.......no need for spring changes, etc.? ......does it have to be from the same year truck? I could even use my 15" tyres, yeah?...trying to do it 'on the cheap'.

 

The only way you are going to do a dually conversion on the cheap is buying a used Factory F-350 Dually.

It's not feasable on a F-100.

 

Arrowcraft - Dual Wheel Conversions has adaptors for adding a second wheel-using standard wheels, their stuff is very strong, your F100 will not be able to carry more weight than originally spec'd to, but it would look kind of cool I think.
There are still some places that have the dually fenders for '73-'79s available, I think Arrowcraft has discontinued them, might ask anyway.....

 

if you want fenders for the back just order some flareside fenders.

 

my first dually truck was a toyota . i built the truck up to eventually have a 302 ford v8, dually rear diff,toploader 4 speed. it was a trial and error deal. i first fabbed up spacers to put 2 rims and tires on the 5 bolt axle. they were not strong enough to hold the dually assembly,they cracked and broke. then i was shearing wheel studdes. eventually i lost a right side outer dually wheel on the highway at 60 mph !!!. i got the wheel out of the ditch,went home and parked the truck until i had a dana 60 8 lug bolt axle fabbed up and put under the rear of the truck. so the answer i have is NO its not a CHEAP conversion to do. i was very lucky no one was killed when the tire sheared off on the highway. i was young when i built the first dually set up.it was not a good proto type. after the highway incident,i went over kill on the next convertion,it held up for 15 years. that truck is long gone,but i still have the rear diff from the truck. it cost me a lot of money to make that dually rear diff work on the small toyota truck. thats why i still have the diff. if you want dually rear wheels its better to buy a dually axle and put that in your truck,or buy a f 350 dually. just the opinion of a guy that has had dually trucks for 25 years, they are not cheaper to build than they are to buy from the factory.

 

Thanks for the input so far guys .....I can't afford another truck...so I guess I'll just find a d60 & 4 wheels/tyres somewhere, would all brake lines, driveshaft, etc. hook right or would I need a good machine shop? ...........and yes supercab, it does look kinda cool, this guy I have the pic of his truck used a sterling 10.25 dually rear & the tyres/wheels even tuck under the bed of his truck {It's a '79 F100}

 

If you swap in an 8-lug D60 from a similar year truck the spring pads should be the same width. You will have to use different wheels (dually & 8-lug). There are plenty of 3/4 ton trucks sittin' around that could be had for cheap. You just have to watch and be patient. I have access to probably 90% of the parts to do this swap if I wanted to.

As far as springs go, it depends on if you want to increase load capacity or just want it for looks.

It is possible to do, you just have to do your homework and know what you are getting into. Lots of parts will interchange, but you have to really know what changed and when. You will need to some mechanical skills and lots of tools, probably even some fab skills. I don't know if this could be done for cheap.

 

The driveline will probably need to be shortened, the ujoint will possibly be different. They make dual pattern ujoints that could work though. The briake lines I would guess should hook up. When I D60 swapped into my F100 they did. I had to build a new driveline and ran a dual pattern ujoint.

 

if you plan on using a 3/4 ton diff (dana 60) when you put the dually (or also known as "budd" style wheels) on the truck, the back spacing of the inside wheel will possibly have clearance issues on the brake drums, and the inner tires may not have enough clearance for the leaf springs and the frame rails, wheel tubes. so to run duallies on a none dually rear diff, you will need to figure out how thick a spacer to install. then you may need to tub your inner fenders inside the box of the truck too. then you will be forfiting the 4 feet between the wheel tubs. this will not matter unless you are putting a slide in camper on the truck,or putting 4x8 foot sheets of plywood ,drywall etc. if you are to really do this the easiest most cost effective way,buy a dually pick up rear diff a dana 70 or sterling dually pick up diff and put it in. then you know it will fit,and wheel clearance,frame clearance etc will all be correct. dually pick up diffs are different width than a cab/chassis diff width is too. duaully pick up diffs are wider to compensate for the clearances i have already mentioned. if you look at my dually in my gallery you will see that i have built a few in the last 25 years. i dont recomend you build one if you think its a cheap build.its cheaper to buy dually diffs and swap them in complete. i learned this the hard way .-hope this helps you decide on what approach you will take. good luck-billy

 

if you plan on using a 3/4 ton diff (dana 60) , or a d70, sterling gm 14 bolt etc. you will need to also address the for mentioned u joint issues too. those are not really to hard to remedy though,jut measure the cup diameter on the pinion yoke,and your drive shaft.and measure both widths of the crosses on boththe pinion yoke and driveshaft .