dually wheel question

[mopar346]

Not all 82 and up are 16s, mine were 16.5s, Chevy and Dodge rims fit, most Ford rims have a different size lug since these are lug centered they wont work. In 97 Ford changed to a metric spread so anything that wont work either. I also have a problem with my calipers being too big for the 16s to fit up front and have some concerns about the rear due to the size of the drum. Mine is a 88 Square C&C so if may have bigger brakes not sure. I actually have a harsh vibration after pulling my flat bad yesterday so I am gonna do some wheel swapping today, I will double check the brake concerns. I use mid 90s Chevy rims on mine had to cut the nub off with a die grinder to make them work.

[Dooley]

Originally Posted by mopar346

Not all 82 and up are 16s, mine were 16.5s, Chevy and Dodge rims fit, most Ford rims have a different size lug since these are lug centered they wont work. In 97 Ford changed to a metric spread so anything that wont work either. I also have a problem with my calipers being too big for the 16s to fit up front and have some concerns about the rear due to the size of the drum. Mine is a 88 Square C&C so if may have bigger brakes not sure. I actually have a harsh vibration after pulling my flat bad yesterday so I am gonna do some wheel swapping today, I will double check the brake concerns. I use mid 90s Chevy rims on mine had to cut the nub off with a die grinder to make them work.

The standard equipment tire/wheel on the 30 series pickups beginning with the 1982 model year was 235/85-16. If you are having problems with caliper and rear brake drums then you have a wheel that was not original to GM square body 1 tons. I have had GM dually pickups consecutively since 1975, 2 and 4 wheel drive, and never had wheel/brake interference.

[GCncsuHD]

Originally Posted by BigBlocksRule

Dually rims are 7" wide. Those super swampers are going to look like balloons on 'em. I've tried to find wider dually rims but haven't had any luck. I need some 10" wide ones if anyone knows where to find some...

Stock dually wheels are 6" wide. If you measured 7" you measured incorrectly by measuring outside the bead, or your wheels have been widened. Wheel width goes off the measurement between the beads which is 6". No one makes any 10" wide dually wheels although there are some aftermarket 6.5" wide ones. Steel dually wheels can easily be widened though, there is a member on this site that had widened wheels on a dually, 8" I think. I have 35x12.5 tires on my 6" wide dually wheels, they are ballooned slightly, but proper tire inflation reduces tread crowning.

Although note that a 33x12.5 will experience more severe crowning than a 35x12.5 tire due to the shorter sidewall. My smaller 285/75R16 tires appeared to crown worse than my 35x12.5 did on the same set of 6" wide dually wheels. Also you will need 2" spacers minimum between the duals so that your rear tires will not touch and possibly overheat and cause a blowout. I run 2.5" spacers on the rear between my duals.

Originally Posted by andrewmp6

Only other option i know is h1 bead locks but you will lose the dually in the rear.Those bead locks are 16.5x9 i think.

They are 16.5x8.25". They have 7" of backspacing, which actually makes them great to run on the front as a wider option, while keeping similar to stock track width up front with the dually hubs, but on the rear they will sit far inside the rear dually fenders and possibly cause leaf spring interference unless recentered.

Originally Posted by mopar346

Not all 82 and up are 16s, mine were 16.5s, Chevy and Dodge rims fit, most Ford rims have a different size lug since these are lug centered they wont work. In 97 Ford changed to a metric spread so anything that wont work either. I also have a problem with my calipers being too big for the 16s to fit up front and have some concerns about the rear due to the size of the drum. Mine is a 88 Square C&C so if may have bigger brakes not sure. I actually have a harsh vibration after pulling my flat bad yesterday so I am gonna do some wheel swapping today, I will double check the brake concerns. I use mid 90s Chevy rims on mine had to cut the nub off with a die grinder to make them work.

These wheels are not lug centered, they are hub centric, although the lug "plate" has conical seats for the lugs, it does not center the wheel. Chevy uses a smaller 4.56" hub center on all dually wheels year 2000 and older. In 2001 they went to a larger 4.60" hub center. Dodge wheels used a 4.77" hub center, and I learned the hard way before I researched and learned that this will cause vibrations. I was able to "center" the wheel by hand before torquing the lugs, which reduced any vibrations, but ran that way only temporarily until I got my new wheels. Ford has an even larger center bore, 4.8X" or 4.9X" I do not remember exactly. As mentioned, in 1998 Ford did go to the larger metric bolt pattern and those wheels will not fit at all.

Most all aftermarket aluminum dually wheels are lug centric with a large enough hub bore to fit all three, so the hub size is not a concern on those.

I went from the stock 16.5s on mine to a set of stock Dodge 16s from an 01. This is where I discovered the vibrations caused by the incorrect hub bore. I then picked up two steel GM 4.56" hub bore 16s for rear inners and 4 aluminum aftermarket 16s and have had no issues since.

[wwj75c30]

if i cant find anything thatll work im just gonna put my fleet bed on.. but ill beo n the look out for 16s so i can run these 33x11.30s i found

[BigBlocksRule]

Originally Posted by GCncsuHD

Steel dually wheels can easily be widened though, there is a member on this site that had widened wheels on a dually, 8" I think.

Do tell...I've done several searches and can't find it. I have access to a turntable welder which should help...

[GCncsuHD]

Originally Posted by mopar346

Well, I found the source of my vibration this evening. When I got to the point of removing the rear tires Ipot to the last nut on one side and I heard a clunk as it the wheel dropped - uhoh. Did the other side same thing. I got my digital caliber out and sure nuff the originals measured 4.55XXX and the 16s I had picked up measured 4.875XXX. .

Sounds like you were given Ford wheels.

Originally Posted by BigBlocksRule

Do tell...I've done several searches and can't find it. I have access to a turntable welder which should help...

A steel dually wheel is just like any other steel wheel with a center welded into a hoop. Cut out the center from the wheel, cut the wheel in half at the proper place, chuck it in a lathe to true up the edges, get a proper width piece of a hoop to add in or roll a piece of flat bar, weld it, true it, weld the other half of the wheel back in then weld in the center where you need it for proper backspacing. Remember backspacing is very important to keep the duals from touching, to keep them from sticking out to far, from rubbing leaf springs, and to get the stance you are looking for. It sounds like a lot of work, but any machine shop should be able to do it.

Here are a couple pics of widened dually wheels, both by the same member on this site, you can see the obviously different offset of the wheels. It appears he actually bought completely new 16" hoops and threw the old ones away and welded the original centers into the new hoops judging by the step in the wheel at the bead. I don't know how wide his are, but they appear to be 8" if I had to guess.




You can compare that to my dually with the normal narrow 6" wheels, although note that I do have 2.5" spacers between the duals to give room between the larger tires and 1.5" spacers up front for a wider more aggressive stance to somewhat match the rear.