tattoozzz
+1y
Hello,
My name is Zac. I live in Cincinnati, Ohio. I own and operate a hotrod & custom car shop here in town. I recently acquired a 93 Chevy 3500. It is a crewcab longbed dually. It has a decent 454 with NV4500 5 speed manual. It is 2wd and completely stock at the moment. My plans are to bag it front / rear. No bodydrop, no semi wheels. Just a stock truck slammed on bags that I can still drive everyday and pull my car trailers with. I have also been building a 12v 5.9 Cummins that I am going to swap into it after the suspension is done but that will be a different project! I've been customizing cars and trucks for a while now and have had my shop open full time for the last 7 years. I am a hotrodder so fabricating and making what I need is nothing new. Anyhow, I have never bagged a dually before. I have done plenty of air ride setups but mostly in classic restomod or 50's custom style cars and trucks. I am about 95% certain of the methods, materials, etc. that I am going to use to do the suspension on the dually but have a few questions and am hoping some of you guys can help.
1 - what size tires are you guys running? I am wanting to keep the stock 16" wheels that are on the truck. I am also wanting to maintain a 10ply HD "dually rated" tire if possible. I've done some preliminary measuring and it looks really close in the rear as far as the outer tires rubbing the inside of the dually fenders when it's laid out. I really don't want to do a cab&chassis rear axle or narrow this axle if I can avoid it. Just trying to keep it very basic. I am wanting to run an 8" notch with a simple bridge. Bag over axle with a parallel 4-link along with a watts link so the axle should not shift side to side at all during suspension travel. As long as the tires tuck, I am good. I am also planning on raising the entire bed floor to clear the notch so it remains flat and smooth. I slide a lot of hotrod bodies, axles, parts, etc. into the bed and don't want to have to deal with a hump in the middle like I see most trucks have.
2 - Will I need to redo the front inner wheel wells or can I modify/use the factory existing ones? I am doing 3" drop spindles and Dominator 2600's up front. Again, using a factory 16" wheel and tire. The tire size will be determined after question #1 hopefully gets answered or I get into it and start test fitting tires.
I am wanting to get all the parts ordered that I am going to use ahead of time so that when I tear the truck apart, it's only apart for a few weeks at most. Just trying to get it planned out before I begin the project and eliminate as many suprises that I can so It's back together and out of my shop, so I can get back to customer cars that pay the bills. Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Zac