I've got a line on a '94 2wd DRW parts pickup. Now I don't see a lot of 2wd's in my country. The rear axle should swap straight into my '94 4wd F350 to convert to a dually as far as I know. What about the front axle adapters? Will they bolt on my D60 front axle or will I need something different. Also I'm sitting pretty heavy at about 12K when fully loaded and the brakes really aren't quite enough. What are your opinions of rear drum or disc conversions? Is there a stopping improvement worth the disc conversion? I run a lot of bad gravel roads (I got 17k miles out of my last set of TOYO M55's) and the drums are a lot better protected from the rocks. Since I did my hydro brake conversion my brakes actual application time is really delayed if I stomp the pedal in a panicked stop. So, I need some opinions on the rear disc's and what the issue with my hydraboost is. I suspect my rear shoes could be loose and that my possibly be the cause of my delayed braking feel.
ATTN: dually experts
- Thread starter War Wagon
- Start date
79jasper
Chickenhawk
Should bolt in long as it'd not a cab and chassis.
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Delayed pedal with hydroboost, from my personal experience, will go away when you adjust the rear shoes up properly.
Also, they get out of adjustment much quicker as they are actually being used.
2wd dually adapters for the front actually bolt on the rotor through the rear. I don't believe there is a way to adapt 2wd adapters to a d60. However, I could be wrong.
Also, they get out of adjustment much quicker as they are actually being used.
2wd dually adapters for the front actually bolt on the rotor through the rear. I don't believe there is a way to adapt 2wd adapters to a d60. However, I could be wrong.
LCAM-01XA
Full Access Member
Rear axle you're good to go. The DRW brakes are 1/2" wider at the shoes and also have bigger wheel cylinders, should improve your braking some. Also, not sure how exactly you did your HB swap, but if you are running the 1-5/16" F-Superduty master that thing pushes out so much fluid there should be no delay whatsoever in brakes engagement. Actually, there should be no delay regardless of master size, so keep your rear shoes adjusted tight and she will stop well.
Front axle, not happening. The 2wd doesn't actually have dually adapters there, the wheel hub itself is shaped in such a way that the rotor bolts to the inner flange and the wheel to the outer. The 4x4 dually can go either way, typically they follow the 2wd style setup, but sometimes you run into what is essentially a single-wheel D60 with hub extenders bolted to its studs instead of the actual wheels. The integrated hubs (with rotor on one flange and wheel on the other) does not interchange between 2wd and 4x4, however the bolt-on hub extender should be swapable... So to make your current axle accept dually wheels you'll need to either swap its hubs and rotors for the dually-specific ones, or procure hub extenders. Extenders are readily available albeit not cheap, integrated hubs usually get sourced from salvage yards or folks parting out their trucks.
Drum vs. disc, for what you're doing I wouldn't touch disc conversion kits - they have flimsy brackets, undersized calipers, and usually aren't even available for DRW axles. If you want good discs consider a DRW axle out of a E450 bus or cargo van, but you will have to relocate its spring perches. And on top of that you have to regear it as well.
Front axle, not happening. The 2wd doesn't actually have dually adapters there, the wheel hub itself is shaped in such a way that the rotor bolts to the inner flange and the wheel to the outer. The 4x4 dually can go either way, typically they follow the 2wd style setup, but sometimes you run into what is essentially a single-wheel D60 with hub extenders bolted to its studs instead of the actual wheels. The integrated hubs (with rotor on one flange and wheel on the other) does not interchange between 2wd and 4x4, however the bolt-on hub extender should be swapable... So to make your current axle accept dually wheels you'll need to either swap its hubs and rotors for the dually-specific ones, or procure hub extenders. Extenders are readily available albeit not cheap, integrated hubs usually get sourced from salvage yards or folks parting out their trucks.
Drum vs. disc, for what you're doing I wouldn't touch disc conversion kits - they have flimsy brackets, undersized calipers, and usually aren't even available for DRW axles. If you want good discs consider a DRW axle out of a E450 bus or cargo van, but you will have to relocate its spring perches. And on top of that you have to regear it as well.
Why not just run the DRW axle and leave the front alone? You'll get the added GVWR of the rear axle, and the front tires will be in the same position as a dually setup would, just wont have the dually front rims. I'm not dually savvy so maybe i'm missing the purpose of the front dually hubs. Also, I know on some axles, the only difference from SRW to DRW are the hubs, which are interchangeable. So you could possibly save some time if the gears aren't the same by just swapping the hubs.
LCAM-01XA
Full Access Member
As far as the rear axle housings go, the DRW in this case is altogether wider than his current SRW axle. Oddly enough tho, the wheel hubs are the same for both SRW and DRW. That's why SRW hubs have such ungodly long wheel studs - cause they're actually DRW hubs, apparently it was the cheaper to just keep cranking the same thing out by the thousands and just switch the housings as needed.
Now for your front axle suggestion, you are 100% correct, he can leave his current axle alone. The downside is that front and rear wheels will not be identical, meaning if he carries a spare he will not be able to use the same wheel on both his axles, instead he'll have to carry a spare wheel for each axle. Which really shouldn't be that big of a deal, especially if one stays in the factory location under the rear tank, and the other goes up front on the bumper (with a suitable rack of course) like how some expo trucks carry theirs when they got nowhere else to put them.
Another thing to keep in mind, and I know I'm sounding like a broken record here, but a 2wd dually wheel is only rated at 2200lbs load and 65 psi air pressure. The largest tire it can accommodate without funky wear (235/85R16) is rated at 3042 lbs at 80 psi for the E range. In comparison, a factory single wheel is rated at 3045 lbs load and 80 psi air pressure, and is a perfect match for a 3400-lbs 80-psi (LT265/75R16E) tire. We've had the 3400-lbs tires on the 2200-lbs wheels on our steer axle, they wore out too fast cause the wheels are just too narrow. So if one wants the strongest setup possible with factory parts, singles on the front and duals on the rear would be it. And if anyone ever questions that choice, you just whip out the numbers I just mentioned, and they immediately go like "whoa, darn that one really knows his stuff"
Even if your real reason is that you simply couldn't find the right DRW hubs for a good price 
when towing a trailer, I'd rather have a dually than a srw truck. all sorts of bad things happen on a regular blowout, with a trailer, your odds of being just plain dead multiply exponentially.Another thing to keep in mind, and I know I'm sounding like a broken record here, but a 2wd dually wheel is only rated at 2200lbs load and 65 psi air pressure. The largest tire it can accommodate without funky wear (235/85R16) is rated at 3042 lbs at 80 psi for the E range. In comparison, a factory single wheel is rated at 3045 lbs load and 80 psi air pressure, and is a perfect match for a 3400-lbs 80-psi (LT265/75R16E) tire. We've had the 3400-lbs tires on the 2200-lbs wheels on our steer axle, they wore out too fast cause the wheels are just too narrow. So if one wants the strongest setup possible with factory parts, singles on the front and duals on the rear would be it. And if anyone ever questions that choice, you just whip out the numbers I just mentioned, and they immediately go like "whoa, darn that one really knows his stuff"
LCAM-01XA
Full Access Member
You misunderstood, I was talking about keeping his front axle on singles, not the rear. Basically two single wheels are stronger than two dually wheels, so for the front axle a pair of singles is better for load capacity. Two single wheels vs. four dually wheels (rear axle config), hell no, dually wins hands down, duh! Our IDI's rear often pushes 7k axle load, no way in hell are we gonna trust that much weight on a pair of any single wheels that are not commercial-grade (so like 19.5s or larger). And quite frankly even with 19.5s I'd still much prefer to have four across the rear, as you said yourself safety margin in case one goes **** is much greater. And from what I've seen they fairly rarely go **** cause of overloading, usually it's something on the road that takes them out...
Get the correct dually hubs for the D60 it is worth doing it correctly for safety. Do not mess with wanna be dually adapters
JM2CW
JM2CW
there is one very good (and possibly better than oem too imho) to front dually adapters.
here is what i used to convert the front of chip truck.
quality grade, hub centric front adapters made by arrowcraft.AA-4 series.
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79jasper
Chickenhawk
Yeah, those look a bit beefier.
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LCAM-01XA
Full Access Member
Yeah, except Dodge has been using bolt-on hub extenders on their dually trucks for at least 10 years. And they're not even quite as beefy as the AA-4 style.
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