Possible solution to carrier bearing woes

[ThreeQuarter]

Apparently the little "hanging" carrier bearings in these pickups aren't quite enough for some of us, and I may have found a solution. I thought the little "hanging" carrier bearing that so many of you have was a half-ton thing, but it turns out that my '67 3/4 ton has one, too. I remembered that my '72 had the heavier-duty "horseshoe" type carrier bearing in it.

If you want to see pics of the bearings, check out this web page (thanks to rage'nrat638 for posting it in another thread):

http://www.iedls.com/bearings.html

The hanging one is the one on the right (mine is mounted upside down from that pic) and is labelled as being for '72 and older pickups, and the horseshoe one is on the left and is labelled as being for '73 and newer pickups.

And that got me thinking...

If you can find a pickup that had a horsehoe type carrier bearing in it, then you can bolt that bracket right onto your crossmember. The crossmember even has holes already there, ready to be used. Look at the pics below to see what I mean.

The first one is on my '72 GMC 3/4 ton (leaf) bed trailer. It shows the front side of the carrier crossmember. That is the bracket for the horseshoe type.

The second pic is the best I could get to show the front side of the hanging carrier bearing in the crossmember of my '67 Chevy 3/4 ton (w/ coils). The arrows show where the horseshoe mounting holes are located. I'm pretty sure the horseshoe bracket will clear the two diagonal braces above it.

I'm almost certain that you will not be able to use the same driveshaft if you convert to a horseshoe carrier bearing. I think the diameter is larger, and it is located an inch or so forward of where the hanging type is located. Also, if you want to hunt for one, I can't say whether the bearing type has anything to do with model year ('67 vs. '72), rear suspension (coil vs. leaf), or manufacturer (Chevy vs. GMC). All I can say is good luck.
...and my bracket is not available.

***I have not actually installed the horseshoe bearing setup in my '67 yet. If you try it, you could run into a snag I haven't come across yet. But I think it can be done.

If any of you know more about this then please speak up. And if you find a pattern for which pickups got horseshoe bearings instead of hanging ones, I'd love to hear it.