we have a slide in camper that is about 7 feet tall. we measured and that ultimately is going to make the total height of my truck about 6 inches over the height of my CB antenna. we thought it might be a good idea to throw on some duals when hauling the camper around just for the added stability since she will be so tall and top heavy

we picked up some dually rims outta a garage i haven't seen them up close yet i glanced at them once i know their just steel wheels

what kinda hardware do i need to put dually rims on my truck? ive got the 10.25 sterling axle....

ive never had to pay attention to how the rims go on before because ive just driven dually's never worked on um

 

copy from another recent reply of mine on obn;


Welcome - Arrowcraft :: Helping You Handle the Road for over 30 years!

alternatively;
rear;
rear pickup dually axle swap or adapters(pickup dually axle only.NOT C&C.)
front;
d60 4x4 specific dually hubs w/brake rotors(these will only be found on C&C's because ford never offered a 4wd dually "pickup" until '99 super duty.so kinda rare,but not overly.)

you'll also need;
6 budd rims (7 if you want a spare.)
flat/utility bed conversion or dually flares/or factory dually bed.
2 more tires,or all 6 if you plan on changing tire size.otherwise,depending on the offset budds you find,you may(most likely will) need spacers for the rear to safely run 235's.

its gets costly no matter how ya do it(especially if you do the full conversion which includes the front that is.)trust me i know.worth every penny if you have the need for it.worthless waste of money if you don't though imho.
traction suffers greatly compared to SRW (don't let anyone tell ya otherwise. )
fuel economy takes a little hit as well.you can right 1 solid mpg off the board,if not closer to 1.5.
stability and payload are greatly increased (though not technically legal payload.hehe.)

 

so i have the 4 rear wheels they look just like the gray steel wheels in the kits on that website. exactly like them. i don't have those adapter things though.... is that something that is a "need to have" to make them work??? i do know on our 5-ton's at my unit there are 2 different sets of lug nuts with the inners being larger and the outers are smaller.

 

Are you sure you need the duallys for a slide-in camper? My Dad's 03 F350 SRW crew cab long bed 2wd has made 3 trips cross country and between 30 or 40 trips within an 8 hour trek of MA. Our current unit is a monster, made in 1972...11' long and very wide. We have had NO issues with the SRW's doing their thing.

We went cross country with the first camper, which was only 8' long and didn't overhang the bumper. We towed my grandparents tandem axle (24' or 28', can't remember) camper at the same time. No issues there either.

Another thing is fitment of the dually pickup underneath the camper. If the camper jacks are setup stock, then a daully pickup won't fit under it.
They make aftermarket brackets that extend the camper jacks farther away from the camper so the truck can fit under it. The ones I saw were bought, not hame-made...and they scared me. All that extra leverage ont he camper made me cringe... If you've ever torn apart a camper, you'd understand about the wood framing rotting out right around those jacks...very convenient!!

Another thing to consider when buying the steel wheels...there are specific 2wd and 4wd rims. The 2wd wheels have a shallow offset and you can run 215/85R16's with no issue. But you can't fit 235/85R16's without rubbing. The 4x4 wheels have a deeper offset and you can run 235/85R16's. That's important to you because you'll need all 6 tires to match since your rig is 4x4. I remember F250HD had a heck of a time finding those 4x4 wheels. He was calling aroundt o all the junkyards and asking them to read off the part numbers on the wheels. Hang on, LCAM had a thread about the wheel differences last summer...I'm gonna see if I can find it. LCAM would also be the one to ask about the camper and dually's. He has a dually pickup and often carries a slide-in as I recall.

As for the rear adapters, I don't know about those...but F250 should. I don't think you can put dually wheels on the SRW pickup axle only because the inner tire will hit the leaf springs.

As for the lug nuts, there are specific dually lug nuts. I have a ziplock bag with about 90 of those buggers. I traded DRW lug nuts to Festus last summer and he gave me SRW lug nuts...so cool! The dually lug nuts have a built-in washer. The dually wheels are hub-piloted and the lug nuts just clamp the wheel to the axle. On a standard SRW wheel, they're stud-piloted...the tapered acron lug nuts center the wheel on the axle.

This is a dually lug nut:

 

if i remember right the wheel's we picked up are a pretty deep offset. and thats what i was worried about is the springs hitting the inside.... so i will need those adapters i guess if i do it..... i have 4 265/75/16 tires or somethin of that sort that i replaced on my truck laying around i currently have 235/85/16's on the truck i hope to run the 265's on the duals and if its not possible i'll have to probably abandon the project and just run it as single.... though i was enjoying the idea of the extra stability im confident in my driving ability.... i know when to go slow and be a defensive driver....

im not sure what this camper is far as year or anything but my flatbed is 8' long and the thing still overhangs 3 1/2' and my flatbed is about 4 inches wider than my cab and the camper overhangs another 5-6" i think on both sides. the flatbed raises my bed floor about 4-6"" higher than what the stock beds are and the top of this thing really is sky high lol im lucky we don't really encounter bridges on our route to the lake lol

im not concerned about the 4x4 because i'd only have the duals on when hauling this thing and its pavement all the way to the campsite and gravel on the site where we park.....

but if it turns into a serious investment just to use duals 1-2 weeks outta the year im not up for that

 

Got it:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/9...-on-those.html

And also found this one from LCAM, dunno if it may help or not...but it's got more info...
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/9...ns-anyone.html

 

Yeah, that's true! For only a couple weeks of the year, as long as you don't need the 4x4 you'll be in good shape for relatively cheap!

 

Before having the motorhome, we had a big old 1977 Shamrock 12ft. Slide-In camper in my F250. Running singles, 265/75 tires Load Range D. On the scales, just over 10k pounds, sure did have alot of road wonder in higher winds but did fine other than that.

I'd go anywhere with that thing!


I have heard that Duallys do make a good difference in stability. But you won't be able to safely run Duallys with 265 tires as they'll be to close together and will heat up to much.

 

sad to say,there is no cheap way to do it.
you can't just put budd wheels on a srw axle truck.
it is for sure not worth doing for a week or two out of the year.
consider your idea scrapped.

 

I have a 4000lbs truck camper, I have had it on my 94 f-250 4x4 it handles it ok not good in high winds though. I also have my 87 f-250 dually conversion which I carry it on 90% of the time, it is alot more stable and more comfortable to drive. I doubt you can run 265s on dually rims, they are close enough with 235s. I built my dually from parts I got from a rotted out truck, changed rear axle,and sway bars, front rotors and hubs. Also salvage the rear fenders and mounted them on my with a little of work. The other way is buy the adapters and fenders from arrowcraft. either way its money. I guess I would start with is what does the camper weights,the biggest problem is your rear tires 6084lbs for 235s. Todays campers are alot heavy and wider and taller than stuff built in the 70s and 80s I have had several since my first in 1974.

Frank

 

I got a 1600 8 ft bed camper, never had any issues with that when we would throw it in my dad's 86, it stuck up over the top of the bed, but didnt overtake the bumper or anything. I personally dont like SRW because DRW in the middle of the winter in montana is a bad idea. My dad threw on E load range tires for some extra peace of mind. He also threw in a overload spring kit and increased his leaf spring to a count of 7.

 

I just got an air spring kit from jc whitney for an Excursion. Havent installed it yet but it seems to be made well and from what I've read they work great. I opted for the compressor kit also that comes with a pressure gauge that mounts under the dash and has a switch to turn comp on and a button to bleed pressure. Total cost was +- $425. I think that would be ideal for a removable camper, as adding more leafs is going to make it stiff when empty.

 

At the time I didn't have money for air bags, compressor etc. so this is what I have on my F250. Sure doesn't ride as nice as air bags when loaded, but sure did keep the front wheels of the truck on the ground, and the axle off the frame in the back

 

time for some new shocks there bubba. when they been on long enough to be rust rotted then they are ready to be replaced

 

Those arfe Timbren "springs", If anyone is wondering. They are popular with the snow plow crowd. Price is right and there's no air lines to leak.