Rear duals touching ever so slightly

So, I noticd when I have a load in the back, my duals touch ever so slightly. I know this is not an ideal situation and want to remedy it. I have looked for some thin spacers to separate them out, but I want some opinions on what you guys have used successfully. I don't want to cause more problems than I fix.

I was thinking some thin 1/4 inch spacers should do the trick. What do you guys think?

Theres not a whole lot of options. If you want to keep the same wheels you either have to run thinner tires or run a small spacer. Just make sure if you go the spacer route that they are very high quality. Don't skimp especially on a truck that is used as it's intended to.

I was hoping to just slide a small spacer in between the two rear wheels and not have the added studs and all that associated with the larger 2 inch and up spacers.

what size tires are you running,are they rated E and at what psi are you running them at?
the issue is,to keep hub centric you can't simply add a thin spacer because the hub tapers down so quickly.i take it your trying to run dual 235's?

the proper fix imho,is to buy the proper offset rim's like the ones the f350 drw,4wd,cab and chassis came with.those have the proper spacing to clear dual 235's unlike the rims that came on the 2wd dwr pickups.

no spacers.
dont ever run those things.

i have the cheapest idea ever.

increase the PSI, and lighten the load....

or get better tires.

I do have 235 e rated tires. Firestone transforce something's. So, wheels from a chassis cab will do it? That is a MUCH better idea. I did not know that, but now the hunt is on. I wonder if my chrome simulators will work.....

I checked tire rack I think it was the other day and the factory size option for the drw 350's I believe was 215. I was shocked at how small they were. I was contemplating the benefits of a summer time camper hauling swap to drw but... It seems like a lot of work for minimal gain.

I run 33'' general grabbers and have no problem, but I made a 2" metal band and increased the offset of my inside rim.

cpdenton said:

I do have 235 e rated tires. Firestone transforce something's. So, wheels from a chassis cab will do it? That is a MUCH better idea. I did not know that, but now the hunt is on. I wonder if my chrome simulators will work.....

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I own an 86 cab and chassis and recently worked on a 95. Both were running 215s. You will need to hunt more carefully for rims with the correct offset.

you can buy new.you'll need 4 but want all 6 so full tire rotations are not an issue.they are accuride 29578.they have the 5.35" offset as opposed to your current 5"
i dunno about the sims still working.probably they'll no longer be deep enough to work.going back to the 215's will probably be cheaper.
you can buy the rims here;
http://www.ricksontruckwheels.com/wheels-oe.php

cpdenton said:

I was hoping to just slide a small spacer in between the two rear wheels and not have the added studs and all that associated with the larger 2 inch and up spacers.

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You can do that, yes - 5/16" is as thick as the spacer can be and still allow you full engagement on all threads of the lug nuts. Anything more will leave a few threads hanging off the studs, you don't want that. You don't need the hub pilot flange to center the outer wheel on the hub, it can be done easy enough without it. The hub flange does not carry any weight, if it does then your lug nuts are loose and you got other (bigger) issues to deal with...

FORDF250HDXLT said:

you can buy new.you'll need 4 but want all 6 so full tire rotations are not an issue.they are accuride 29578.they have the 5.35" offset as opposed to your current 5"
i dunno about the sims still working.probably they'll no longer be deep enough to work.going back to the 215's will probably be cheaper.
you can buy the rims here;
http://www.ricksontruckwheels.com/wheels-oe.php

Click to expand...

If you're about to spend $600 on four 4x4-specific 8 on 6.5" wheels you might as well spend the same money on six 8 on 170mm Superduty wheels, then grab a Superduty Dana 80 rear with discs.

LCAM-01XA said:

You can do that, yes - 5/16" is as thick as the spacer can be and still allow you full engagement on all threads of the lug nuts. Anything more will leave a few threads hanging off the studs, you don't want that. You don't need the hub pilot flange to center the outer wheel on the hub, it can be done easy enough without it. The hub flange does not carry any weight, if it does then your lug nuts are loose and you got other (bigger) issues to deal with...

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back before i swapped in a dually axle i had spacers.remember that?
anyway,they were cheap and non hub centric.what happened was,the center hole eventually reamed out even with lug nuts fully properly torqued.
i had to buy 6 new rims after the true dually swap to eliminate the hoping while driving.
to remain hub centric,there is no room for a spacer of any thickness.there's just enough for the two rims.im not saying your incorrect.im just sharing my costly experience.

because of my sims i remained with the 5" offset rims.that and i knew id never want a wider tire on a dually.......least not an f350.

LCAM-01XA said:

If you're about to spend $600 on four 4x4-specific 8 on 6.5" wheels you might as well spend the same money on six 8 on 170mm Superduty wheels, then grab a Superduty Dana 80 rear with discs.

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but then you can't just run around without a spare (not that i should be lmao!) and be able tp just pull a rear off and put it on front (or just limp a flat on the back to the tire shop)
and you can't just do full tire rotations.you could only swap the two fronts back and forth.
kinda messy unless you had some pricey adapters made for the front so the pattern matched and could run 6 matched rims.then your in big bucks before ya know it.

FORDF250HDXLT said:

back before i swapped in a dually axle i had spacers.remember that?
anyway,they were cheap and non hub centric.what happened was,the center hole eventually reamed out even with lug nuts fully properly torqued.
i had to buy 6 new rims after the true dually swap to eliminate the hoping while driving.
to remain hub centric,there is no room for a spacer of any thickness.there's just enough for the two rims.im not saying your incorrect.im just sharing my costly experience.

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Your issue may have been caused by the fact that you had both wheels hanging off the spacer. With the thin in-between spacers you only have the outer wheel to center manually, it's a piece of cake if you know how to do it and get a bit of practice. I can see two wheels at once being much harder to center properly...

How did your hub pilot holes on the wheels ream out if the spacers were not hub-centric? That type of spacer has no lip for the wheels to rest on, if the lip is missing then what wore out your wheels? The 9/16 studs have a clamping load of over 18,000 lbs each, the max allowed load per wheel in a DRW axle is slightly over 2000 lbs - again if you wheel moved at all with 8 of these monsters tightened properly and such a tiny (in comparison) radial load you got much bigger fish to fry.

Regarding the Superduty wheels, that's why I said 6 and not just four - idk what it takes to get the front axle to metric bolt pattern, it could be as simple as swapping the hubs but I haven't tried it so I don't know for sure.