half ton dually?

I have an extended cab half ton and enough spare parts laying around to make it a short wheel base dually. But not sure if the rear end will work. Can anyone help me out?

Sure. Just need a conversion style (50/50) u-joint as the bearing cups are bigger on the 14 bolt rear.



That's my bud's old '88 that started life as a half ton stepside V6 and he built it into a 502 big block with dually running gear including the front end stuff too - upper control arms and spindles, rotors, calipers, and 14 bolt full floater rear. All the dually parts came from my old shop and I helped out a little bit but he did the bulk of the work.





Drop springs with coils cut as well, drop spindles, flip kit, and a bunch of leafs removed (from the 1 ton spring pack, his 1/2 ton leafs were toast) is how it got that low. Shit I even convinced him to grind the bump stop pads off the rear axle because they were hitting the notch.

Pretty much the whole write-up is on my old shop site, click the "truck shop projects" link in my sig, ton of pics.

Richard

Thanks Richard. Still on the fence if I should do it or not.

My opinion - extended cab shorty dually probably has slightly less visual impact than the regular cab, because the couple feet extra length helps "hide" the shortness of the truck and disguises that it's something custom. Still, would be a pretty cool ride, and not a difficult job at all. In fact I'd say in many cases the hardest part would just be getting a pair of dually fenders that aren't all F'd up.

Richard

Well I have a pretty good set of fenders.

Can you send me your # just in case I need some advice.

No way dude but I'm more than happy to answer whatever I can, here on the board. Others can help too. That way everybody wins and it's here on da webs for others to benefit from too. Plus I work crazy hours and don't need my phone ringing any more than it already does.

Richard

my buddy dillon done that swap several years ago....also an extended cab shortbed.....junkyard 1 ton front suspension bolted right up on his truck.....used 1/2 ton rear leafs and built flip kit.....shortly after he bagged it then shortly after that it became a crew cab short bed lol

Lol @ Richard. The swb extended cab looks good.

Strangely enough I dig the truck as an extended cab vs. crew cab; you can buy a crew cab shortbed dually in this body style so going to the effort to make one yourself seems less cool (to me.) Also dig the traditional Alcoas vs.the Freightliners... but that's just me. Cool truck anyway and especially with the stock grille. The blackout between the door and ext cab windows is a nice touch too.

Richard