New Guy in Saint Augustine, FL

Hey! just going over my new-to-me 1947 Ford flatbed dually. Though the knobby, military tires all hold air, it's apparent by the split rings/rims that I'm going to run into some trouble finding new tires, as well as someone to mount them. In that it's probably somewhat easier to change out the rear end with a more modern one, than to struggle with the questionable and aging rims, I thought I would start learning about how I'm going to swap all this out, over time. This, or course, will not rule out changing the tranny as well as the engine. Again, over time, as I dont have the money do just do it all at once. I still have to eat, and it's just a trophy after all...
BillyD

It's leaf sprung in front with a single I-beam axle right? I think that's a ton and a half truck.

Pull the front and rear ends and adapt the Dana 80 rear and drop I-beam front from a 1991-2002 Chevy 3500HD, that gets you the 10x7.25" bolt pattern, and score a set of 19.5" Alcoa's (along with the 2 inner steels.) They're fresh! Or if you're trying to keep the old look, the stock 3500HD 5 hole steels would not look out of place.

Richard

Thanks, Richard, the thing is all original right now, I'm not so quick on making huge alterations. It's relegated to light duty for here on. It is a 1.5 ton though, and yes, it's 5 lugs on like 4 and 3/4's or something. I'd be happy to find tires that just pop right on to replace the denman 7.5x20's. A guy nearby has a Dana 70 for my dually back end I may go look at for 200 bucks...

welcome to the site from just north of ya in jax!

Thank you, bigfuggly!!
Richard, on my 55 mile drive home from work, I came up with a better answer to your reply. Thank you for the advice, I'll look into that. I still havent let it sink into my head that if I change to back axle for different tires, then I'll need to do the same to the front. Yes, I just looked, the front axle is a dropped i-beam. Pretty simple looking at that. Like most of this stuff from 1947, simple, well thought out.
And while I wont likely be driving this daily to work, I would like a drivable on command truck, so I need to consider what that make take...
Thanks, both.
BillyD

any other plans for the truck? cool to see an older dually on here! one day i'd really like to build an old COE flatbed truck.....its on my bucket list!

Well, Big, I havent owned it but for a month. Once I got it running again(13 yrs sitting still in Dad's yard), I thought I should get it mechanically sound. I've changed out 95% of the wiring, now I'm replacing almost all of the brake system. After I drive it around my neighborhood for a while, I'll think about having some body work and painting to the cab. I'd like to put some headers and dual exhaust eventually so it breathes better. Probably rebuild the Stromberg 97 soon. Narrow up the flatbed soon. More cosmetic stuff, etc...
None of that is major. just trying to get it to a usable state right now. May go off on it in the future, but I have a lot of other projects too!!

Nice project.

Worth all the blood sweat and tears!!!!

Wasssupp from Deltona Fl.