Advice from the Dually guru's

Whats up guys, I'm John from tulsa. I'm trying to find me a nice Squarebody crew cab right now. But I want some advice, I'm planning it out. What I want is a static dropped Dually that I can put the family in. With a functional bed and tailgate, although I want Caddi tailights, and gas mileage that wont make me walk funny every time i get out of it. Which brings me to my first Question. I want to do an 5.3 Vortech Swap out of a 07 chevy truck. I have it already, friends son rolled his truck. I have everything i need from the truck for the swap, motor, tranny, dbw, tac, computer harness, radiator, fans etc.. So my question is, do you think that motor will be enough for that big truck? I wont be doing any heavy hauling with it. I'm just hoping maybe I can get 15 mpg or better. It got around 19 in buddys truck, but I know the dually is going to be considerably heavier. Second question is the drop. If I do the 6/8.5 drop am I going to have to worry about getting high centered in a parking lot or something? All feedback would be really appreciated. My dad had one of these trucks and he had big plans for it. We talked alot about things we were gonna do to it, had a 502 for it and all the bodywork done. But then he got sick and he had to let it go. He's been gone almost 20 years now. But everytime I see one of these trucks i remember the plans we had. So im gonna do it, oh and the Caddi tail lights..........yeah that was my dads idea 20 years ago

welcome aboard man. from northeast ohio. awesome story. love the inspiration you have. well, great choice on wanting a square dually. my fav !! as for the engine swap, especially since you arent going to be towing ect.., that 5.3 will do just fine. ive seen guys swap in everything from..chevy 305, 350, the 4.8, 6.2, 6.5, 6.0, 6.6, the 8.1 and the 7.4. . haha i know , pretty much all motors over the years. thats just a variety of whats there. some of those were stock in the dually. i love that drop on the squares. few questions you will have to answer is...what size wheel and tire combo you wanting ? do you mind notching it ? hope this starts to help ya. look forward to chatting with you man.

I can answer the getting high centered question, when i had my dually(a 1990 ext cab) i was running a 2-4 drop and almost bottomed out at the drive in, i was parked over a spot tht was the size of a large speed bump and had about 4" left before i hit the ground. but i think, that the squarebody's are up higher then the next gen's....

Not sure about the wheels and tires yet. The semis look sick, but I just can't justify the coin, not now at least. I'll either get some direct bolt 19's or maybe some of the ultra 16's. I was gonna got some advice on that as well. So while were in the topic, I'm confused about the 19's or even the ultra 17's. Since the wheels only come 4 to a set, what do
You do about the rear inner dually wheel? Also, I don't mind notching it. I assumed I would have to. Although I'm hoping I don't have to alter the bed any for the pumpkin.

Welcome to the site.

You will be fine with the 5.3 or a 5.7 in the truck and you can still do some light towing with it. We have gotten anywhere from 12-16 out of these in a squarebody truck.

As for the truck getting high centered on something, we had an '88 with a 6/8.5 kit with 19s and it only hit on very large speed bumps.

On any direct bolt 8 lug over sized wheel, you will use a 16" inner with a matched tire size.

My 86 was static dropped with 6/8, it was low enough as it was and even I made it lower and ended up with a 7/9. forget about puttin the crew inside with it that low, getting hi-centered on speed bumps was the least of my worries, knocking the road dots off the streets and freeway were horrid, plus fully loaded (with the fam) with the 6/8 the truck felt low. Also the front lower control arm ubolts will need to be replaced every 6 months or so cuz the front end gets stuffed everywhere you go. Whoopty woo's on the fre way would always throw sparks though it was cool just didnt make any sense. Having a 1 ton this low is cool as hell but costly. The factory 5.3 puts out sufficient power, remember a lot of these trucks are small block trucks, you can move the truck along and save with gearing in the trans and rear end. you may or may not need to trim/tub the front wheel wells or even get rid of them entirely. The tires I ran I forget but I got the same tires a pathfinder or 4runner use and it did fine. Either way to each thir own and Im sure you'll have it dialed in with your likes. Trial and error works best on this, every truck ios different even though we all run similar or the same stuff. The inners on allt he trucks are the stockers, nobody pops out the inner in aluminum unless yo rock the 22's or even 19.5's. Then you need to start changing rear ends or even hacking up the fenders. Good luck

Well, that could be a problem then. I need to be able to put the whole fam in it on a pretty regular basis. Have a sick mom that lives with us, she can't be left alone so she goes everywhere with us. Me, wife, daughter and mom. If I use helper bags and drop springs, instead of cutting coils, would that help?

The Belltech 4/6 is a good drop, you can buyfront springs in 1,2,3" in drop. There are several different makers for the spindles and you can get them in 1,2,2.5 and 3" drops also you can look into control arms, there many different ways to take it down low.. The rear you can either do a flip or the Shackle/Hangar combo and remove leafs since you will not be towing too much with it.

ive got a LS motor in my dually....check out my build thread....it was originally swapped over to carb and i drove it around a few times....my motor is a little 4.8 with a big cam and it pulled it around good....granted it wasnt a rocket but it done good(alot better than a original 350 ever did)....i have swapped back over to fuel injection to get better drivability outta it....been puttin the truck back together slowly and its almost back together so i might have some reports on fuel economy soon....i ordered a stand alone harness from Current Performance and if i was you id go the same route instead of trying to use the 07 truck harness...theres a ton of unneeded wires in it...all my motor needs now is my tuner to come tune it and turn the Anti theft off....truck will crank for few seconds at the moment but then AT kills it....im also running a 400 trans and 3.73 rear...if you already have the 5.3 use it...if not get a 6.0 just for the extra power....hope that helps any

lower it, and then use bags on the leafs in the rear. you get high centered, air it up.

by the time your at it, screw the drop and bag it all around. you will be happier in the end