I apreciate your opinion Conanski. I have heard mixed ideas about the strength of the D44 and wondered about that, but then I have heard mixed ideas about the strength of the D50 too. Could I simply bolt a D50 from a TTB F250 into my TTB setup? I know the two TTB systems use different knuckles but if nothing else I could always build hybrid axle arms with my inners and D50 TTB outer ends. As you said, I could always just pull and swap in the whole D50 TTB system in but I like my coil springs and longer axle arms, not that I'm not open to all ideas. how different are to knuckles and brakes on the D50 TTB verses the D44 TTB on my truck? What about the D44 TTB on the 3/4 tons?

Is some kind of spacer the only thing different about the front axle on a DRW truck verses a SRW truck?

 

You want the larger ring gear and drive axles of the D50 not just the hubs, so if you're going to modify anything it should be to convert a D50TTB to coil spring and to use the longer radius arms that you have, somehow I don't think this would be much of a challenge.

 

The TTB D50 still has 30 spline inner shafts. They aren't much stronger than the D44 shafts. The upside is the D60 sized ujoint.I thought The ring and pinion in a D50 and D44 where the same size.

Also only on some DRW front axles have a spacer. A lot of the Ford stuff used different hubs on the DRW front axles.

 

Yeah I knew about the bigger axle shafts on the D50. When I talked about making a hybrid front end I meant bolting a D50 diff along with the shafts into my TTB and and then splicing the D50 TTB ends onto my D44 TTb axle arms for the sake of the brakes, spindle, etc.

Also my understanding is the D50 and the D44 do not have the same size ring gear, I think the D44 is 8.5" and the D50 is like 9".

I probably could convert the leaf spring TTB to use coil springs and radius arms but i don't know if that would be much less work.

Hav24 you said the D50 had 30 spline inner shafts, what about the outer shafts? 30? 35?

 

Its been awhile since I did any research on the TTB stuff. As for witch way would be more work its hard to say, I would say easiest to do the 8 lug swap on what u have than if u have breakage issues, up grade than.

 

The D44TTB uses a 8.5" ring gear with a 1.375" pinion shaft, axle shafts are 1.18" diameter with 30 splines.

The D50TTB uses a 9" ring gear with a 1.375" pinion shaft, axle shafts are 1.21" with 30 splines. These axles also have larger U joints.

 

Yeah I like the idea of going to a D50, i'm just wondering what the best way is to integrate it into my current suspension setup. I guess even with a D50 with the 30 spline shafts you wouldn't be able to turn a D60 hub.

I guess I could always just go find a J-yard f350 and swap over to a solid axle front, I just hate to waste the work I've done on the front I have but I think I would rather do that than swap my ttb setup with a 3/4 ton ttb.

Any other ideas? Any more info on D44 vs D50 knuckles, spindles, brakes?

I did notice that the D60 spindles only has 5 bolts holding it on and I think my D44 spindle has 6. I'm guessing then that the D50 spindle probably has 5 bolts as well. I also noticed that GM d60 spindles have 6 bolts, I'm guessing that's part of the reason guys are using GM hubs to do 8 lug conversions on there D44s

Also I have seen Solid axle front setups using coil springs, when this is done how do you controll the lateral movement of the axle (left and right). I assume with leaf spring systems the springs themselves controll the lateral movement (or lack of). Is this right?

 

Probably won't work, the new Dodges have permanently locked hubs and the Dodge dually adapter is built to clear those, it will not slip over Ford's manual locking hubs. Someone on OBN tried it not too long ago, that's how I know this - granted it was a D60 they were working with, and the D44 has smaller locking hubs so there is a possibility for success there, but IMHO it's all just too much guessing and the strength benefits really ain't there in the end. Ford did use a similar setup on some DRW 4x4 trucks in the '90s tho, so finding a pair of those adapters would work. Or use good aftermarket adapters.

There is a panhard bar that attaches to the axle on one end and to the frame on the other, that's what keeps the axle in place and prevents it from shifting sideways. When the bushings of this bar wear out driving the truck on the freeway can become a living hell.

 

LCAM,
Thanks for all of the great info.

I realize now that I couldn't realy run a dually axle in the rear and run only one Humvee wheel either. Running one wheel would put the bearing load farther in than it is suposed to be and I would have allot of hub sticking out unprotected. So If I could make a spacer inteneded for the front of a DRW truck work on the rear that would probably be the way to go there as well. Plus witht he spacer I could always take it off and run a normal 8 lug wheel.

 

Just an update.
As I've done more research I have learned a few things.

I keep seeing that 8 bolt ford wheels are lug centric and not hub centric but I'm still not sure. What I'm pretty sure about is that the hub base at the wheel mounting surface on ford 8 lug hubs is 4.93" in diameter so unless your wheels have a center bore that big or bigger they will not bolt onto a ford hub.

I think the hub center bore on most dodge 8 lug hubs is aprox. 4.77"

Chevy/GM center bore is aprox. 4.56

Dodge is the only manufacturer that seems to have regularly used an adaptor on the front of DRW trucks instead of a dedicated hub. Obviously based on the bore center a Dodge adaptor would not fit a Ford hub or a GM wheel.

I assumed that the hummer wheel bore would be the same as the GM but today I took a rough measurement of one while I was at work and while I'm sure that there is some discrepancy in this measurement it looked like the hub was about 4.71 inches and the wheel bore was about 4.8. I don't know what to think about that now. Can anyone confirm this?

I know there are several companies making spacers for these hub up to 3 inches and that may be the simple way to go. Whether or not you can find a spacer to fit a ford hub and humvee wheel I'm still not sure.

Yes I know there are many other options for running humvee wheels I just wanted to know if there was a managable way to run un-altered humvee wheel on an F150.

 

Pictures by dollar298_2006 - Photobucket

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/2...-a-ford-2.html

 

I keep seeing that 8 bolt ford wheels are lug centric and not hub centric but I'm still not sure.

Full floaters are hub centric.

 

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/6...ml#post7403548 there too