im trying to remove the inner dual on a 05 e450...so far ive pb blastered, pounded from behind the tire, tied the wheel to a jeep and ended up just dragging the van...lastly, ive tried heating the rim with a mapp torch

should i be worried i might have roasted the bearing grease and lube?

 

Does that have the flat flange lug nuts, or the cone ones? If the lug sticking out has a square end, it needs to come off since that is another lug holding the inner on.
I am finding a listing for a duplex nut for that truck-

 

the lugs are the two piece swivel and they come off no problem...the rim is definately seized on the hub and has normal wheel studs

 

put the lugs on 1/2-3/4 the way on, set the truck on the ground, pull forward, slam on the brakes... rev do it again faster and harder till it breaks loose. You will probably sheer off the locaor pin but it wont hurt the studs even if it breaks loose and you move it 20-30 ft with the lugs loose

 

riding around and braking hard with loose lug nuts didnt help at all...there was no room to make a bottle jack work and mine doesnt work horizontally...i bought the biggest 3 jaw puller i could find and i just fit over the hub and hooked in the rim...went to town and it still didnt budge, but after using a bf sledgehammer on the back sides of the tire it ever so slightly budged...after repeatingly tightening the puller and beating the **** out of the tire i got it off!!!

there is practically no clearance between the hub and wheel opening that it has to come off perfectly straight

the inner brake pad had about 1/16" or less left before metal on metal...tried to do the other side but the puller snapped, but the pads are not critical on that side...im going to order new calipers and hoses so i will change it all next week...should i go with phenoic or steel calipers?

btw, they make a nice tool for this and they dont use locator pins anymore in the hub or have nubs on the wheels

Kiene Diesel Wheel Grabber For Seized-On Wheels K-1350

 

Welcome to hubcentric wheels :-)

I started putting a liberal amount of anti-seize on hubs and surfaces ever since I started removing tires on Explorers with sledge hammers.

I would go with steel, the plastic ones on the light trucks always seem to seize eventually. Since you are handy and will be doing a brake flush ever year or two (right?) then the steel is fine.

Looks like that wheel grabber you listed is $1200+ new from Ryder Fleet Products - Starting Page. I would have to be in pretty bad shape to pay that much

 

ive been working on hubcentric duallys for a long time but this takes the cake for being seized on there...for our older trucks i didnt have to do nearly as much work and usually a couple whacks with a mini sledge does the trick...dealer told me they have this problem all the time with the f450/550 and use heat which i regret doing...cant be good for the bearing grease or lube...our fleet is too small for that wheel grabber but perfect for a truck shop...i have a tire shop catalog and that tool was primarily designed for fords

the oem caliper is phenolic and felt like i had to use too much force to reset them which probably explains why the pads only lasted 23k mi