C30 GMC Dually

[GODFATHER]

Shes a 1986 pretty nice actually has some things that need changed as most do when you first get them. Im really looking for a bed or maybe ideas on making a custom flat bed for it! Shackles and leafs have been done in the rear and im pretty sure springs were just cut in the front so need to look into that also. All of this was done by previous owner. The big tank on the back is full of water for weight LOL! I guess what ever floats your boat. I actually like the stock wheels might get some spike nut covers and call it a day there although I do like the semi wheel look.

Thanks
Jim

[mongocanfly]

Here's some pics of the bed I built for mine. Got about $1000 in materials in it plus labor. It looks like you have a cab and chassis truck not a dually. A dually axle is wider. On my 1 ton chassis truck the brake backing plates are almost touching the leaf springs. Had I gotten a true dually truck I was going to do a more swept style bed side vs the straight look it has now. I thought about lowering but I use this truck to pull a lot .

[GODFATHER]

So explain to me this cab & chassis you are referring to.

Thanks

[mongocanfly]

The axle on a cab/chassis is narrower overall width than on a dually. If you were to put a dually bed on a cab/chassis truck the tires would be way inside the fenders. A dually usually comes from factory with the pickup style bed. A cab/chassis usually comes bare frame and these are the ones you normally see with a service truck bed or flat bed of some sort on it or in my case mine had a fire truck bed on it. I think all cab/chassis came with gm 14 bolt and duallys came with dana rears. On mine its a cab/chassis and the backing plates for the brakes almost touch the spring pack. A dually will have a couple inches space between them. If you build your own bed it won't matter which one you have but you would need to know which you have if you ever need to buy parts for the rearend.
Also I can't really see it good in the pic but make sure you have a gap between your rear tires. And I don't mean at the top ,check it on the ground side. You may need to get narrower rear tires or put a spacer between your rims. Tires touching each other generates a lot of heat and will blow em all to pieces.

[GODFATHER]

Gotcha so a dually bed will look stupid on it then. Im sure it had some sort of service bed then its also got the 4spd transmission with granny low which I'd like to swap out.

[mongocanfly]

I put a nv4500 5 spd in mine and love it.

[DesertFox00]

Are you leaving it 4x2 or going to make it 4x4?

[GODFATHER]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

I put a nv4500 5 spd in mine and love it.

Is that a direct bolt in I really don't want to have to mess with shortening driveshafts and such.
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[GODFATHER]

Yeah I'd say service bed of some kind.

[mongocanfly]

No .. sadly that 5spd is not a exact swap. Need bellhousing clutch swap and drive shaft shortening

[mongocanfly]

From that pic it looks like you got a little more clearance than mine.

[GODFATHER]

I don't think it could be any closer without hitting.

[Chevy3+3]

Hey Godfather where abouts in Kansas are you located. Your dually looks like a good project. The shifter doesn't appear to be the normal shifter arm for the sm465 tranny. I'm not really familiar with manual trannys in these trucks but your shifter looks really similar to an NV4500 shifter. Its hard to tell though. Maybe theres a way to change out shifters. The factory sm465 usually has several bends in it where yours appears to be straight.

[mongocanfly]

Chevy 3+3...I didn't catch that straight shifter. You are right the factory muncie shifter does have 3 bends in it but he did say it was a 4spd with granny low..kinda rules out the nv4500..its a 5spd and no granny low..looks like somebody may have changed the shifter.

[mongocanfly]

Godfather here is a pic I took of my clearance..I can't stick a paint stick between my spring bolts and the backing plates..less than 1/8" clearance.. that thin looking thing coming from top of pic is the paint stick.

[GODFATHER]

Originally Posted by DesertFox00

Are you leaving it 4x2 or going to make it 4x4?

Its staying 4x2

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

Godfather here is a pic I took of my clearance..I can't stick a paint stick between my spring bolts and the backing plates..less than 1/8" clearance.. that thin looking thing coming from top of pic is the paint stick.

Man that is stupid close!!!!

[jdf915]

I got about 3/16 of an inch of clearance. My plans with mine are to put a fleet side with tubbed fenders.
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[mongocanfly]

JD..That might would work but your still going to have a lot of tire sticking out past the bed side if you keep the duals ...there's only a few inches of width difference between the two axles. Your idea of tubs might work if you put something like bushwackers on outside of bed but im not sure about it .the best thing would be to get you a outside of the tire measurement and then compare it to outside bed measurement of a fleetside. Then you'll know what you got to work with. My truck measures 81" outside to outside of tires. My flatbed is 84" wide..a fleetside bed width is going to be around 72"..so that's about 9" difference or about 4 1/2" per side between my tire measurement and a fleetside bed. But that all changes some based on tire size and whhel offset.

[GODFATHER]

I have an old bed out at the farm that is a trailer its from a 50's truck of some sort im thinking of grabbing it and doing some crazy **** to make it work like cutting and stretching the bed sides I need to go measure it still may do that today.

[jdf915]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

JD..That might would work but your still going to have a lot of tire sticking out past the bed side if you keep the duals ...there's only a few inches of width difference between the two axles. Your idea of tubs might work if you put something like bushwackers on outside of bed but im not sure about it .the best thing would be to get you a outside of the tire measurement and then compare it to outside bed measurement of a fleetside. Then you'll know what you got to work with. My truck measures 81" outside to outside of tires. My flatbed is 84" wide..a fleetside bed width is going to be around 72"..so that's about 9" difference or about 4 1/2" per side between my tire measurement and a fleetside bed. But that all changes some based on tire size and whhel offset.

Check out this guys thread post your comment in my build thread so this one does not get derailed. http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=264802
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[GODFATHER]

Originally Posted by jdf915

Check out this guys thread post your comment in my build thread so this one does not get derailed. http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=264802
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No im fine with all the comments and that is a good thread only problem is my truck is lowered so that bed wouldn't work it would be awesome if I could make it wor

[mongocanfly]

JD that's interesting and looks good. I'm basing my measurements off my 81 truck..but that 68 looks good.

[jdf915]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

JD that's interesting and looks good. I'm basing my measurements off my 81 truck..but that 68 looks good.

My current issue is finding a bed, you would not believe how hard it is to find a good bed here in the south, it doesn't help that when GM went from 80 to 81 they changed the wheel placement by 4 inches.
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[mongocanfly]

JD check out this craigs ad..may be gone. http://chattanooga.craigslist.org/pts/4980697157.html

[jdf915]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

JD check out this craigs ad..may be gone. http://chattanooga.craigslist.org/pts/4980697157.html

Mine is a long bed.
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