dually wheel question

[wwj75c30]

what year dually take offs can i put on my 75 c30? i wanna be able to get cheaper tires then searching for 16.5s what years did they put 16s on? i wanna get some that bolt right up any help appreciated

and how wide are my factory rims 16.5x??? can i fit a 12.50 wide tire on them?

[Dooley]

Originally Posted by wwj75c30

what year dually take offs can i put on my 75 c30? i wanna be able to get cheaper tires then searching for 16.5s what years did they put 16s on? i wanna get some that bolt right up any help appreciated

and how wide are my factory rims 16.5x??? can i fit a 12.50 wide tire on them?

Don't mess with the 16.5's.
GM started using the tubeless one piece 16" dually wheels for the 1982 model year.

[wwj75c30]

i want to run 33x12.50 swampers on it if i can find a set of 16.5s ill get them, so any 82 up rim will work?

[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...

[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.

[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.

[mopar346]

Definite possibility, they are mid-90s. It is also possible in my haste if first fitting them to get the truck driveable off the property where I bought it that I didn't have them fully seated. As mentioned I am gonna jockey some tires around this afternoon and will try them again fully seated. I will also see if I can get some numbers off of them for ID purposes. Again, mine is a C&C if that makes a difference in the brake size.

[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

[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. I was running a set of the originals with new 16.5s on the front, so I grabbed a set of the old 16.5s I was using to test for the vibration and bolted them to the back. Guess what no more vibration, go figure. Fortunately the yard I got them from are friends so if they have the right ones they will swap me. The rims had Firestone stamped on them, I didn't see anything that looked like a part number to me but there was a 6X16 marking on them, but the caliper don't lie. Good news is I found my problem, bad news is I am searching for rims again.

[Firebirdjones]

Good reading.

I may at some point in the near future take the 16.5's off my single axle 1 ton and look for a 16" wheel (preferably aluminum) that will fit and hopefully clear those massive brakes.

I've seen the forged aluminum wheels that come on the 01 and up chevy 3/4 ton trucks installed on older squares that don't look too horribly bad. But it still hasn't grown on me yet.

[wwj75c30]

idk what ima do yet lol gotta find some rims and a axle

[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.

[BigBlocksRule]

The project I need 'em for is a shortbed 1-ton 4X4 dually. I'm using the rear frame from a C&C, I'll have about 24" of tire room between frame rails and dually fender. I really want to run 15" rims so I have access to all the drag radials, etc. that are made in 15" size. I know that I can buy 15" hoops from wheel companies, hoping to find a place that will sell dually centers along with a 15" hoop with the correct inside diameter. That would make it a lot easier.
BTW, this rig will sport a pump gas 565, looking to make something original that'll get traction, period.

[rs74]

GCncsuHD, does having those spacers have any ill effect on anything. I have never run any spacers but have heard they may be hard on wheel bearings on some vehicles.

[rs74]

Who owns the brown and the black dually in the photos above. I like the black one and are those wheels chrome plated. I am sure it cost a bit to have them resized and then chrome plated but I am sure it would be worth it.

[GCncsuHD]

Originally Posted by rs74

GCncsuHD, does having those spacers have any ill effect on anything. I have never run any spacers but have heard they may be hard on wheel bearings on some vehicles.

Anything that increases track width will cause more wear on the wheel bearings, but look at it this way, it is no more leverage on the bearings than if you bought wider wheels with less backspacing. If you are afraid of wheel spacers creating more leverage, then forget buying wide offroad wheels because it will have the same exact result. I have ran 1.5", 2", and 2.5" spacers on 3 different trucks now and have had no issues with any of them. One of them being a 01 2500HD with 135k mi on original bearings in the rear axle, and the front hubs were replaced at 80k mi when the lift went on. For the last 55k mi the truck was on 38x15.50 tires with 2" spacers in the rear to match the front track width and regularly towed 10k lbs or more with no issues.

Originally Posted by rs74

Who owns the brown and the black dually in the photos above. I like the black one and are those wheels chrome plated. I am sure it cost a bit to have them resized and then chrome plated but I am sure it would be worth it.

I couldn't find the owners name. He is a member here, that is where I found the trucks months ago when I was looking around, but I actually had the pictures saved.

I think around here widening a wheel runs $50 or so for just widening/narrowing, or around $75 if the center needs to be moved as well.

You can buy just the outer hoop from MRT racing wheels for around $75 in any width you need and just put your center in it, or they also sell centers, but I am not sure if they sell one concave enough to work for dually applications. Stazworks can build you a complete wheel in any width you need with many different center options for around $300. Of course you are getting to the price of or beyond aftermarket wheels now but keep in mind you are getting something one off, no one makes 16" dually wheels any wider than 6.5" in the aftermarket, although I think there are some 7" wide 17" dually wheels out there.

[rs74]

I was thinking maybe some 35's, so I didn't know if they would fit on a factory rim or not. I also had the thought that maybe having a set widened would be about as much as an aftermarket set but wasn't sure. I was kind of going for this look.

[GCncsuHD]

Originally Posted by rs74

I was thinking maybe some 35's, so I didn't know if they would fit on a factory rim or not. I also had the thought that maybe having a set widened would be about as much as an aftermarket set but wasn't sure. I was kind of going for this look.

Those are on 6" wide wheels as well...It looks like his is only on 2" wide spacers due to the width between the rear tires. His setup looks very similar to mine with 35x12.50s.

Within reason, there is nothing wrong with mounting wide tires on narrow wheels. The taller the tire is, the less noticeable it would be..i.e. 35x12.5 will be better than 33x12.5, but 33x11.5 will give about the same effect as the 35x12.5. The only concern with the wider tires on narrow wheels is the crowning of the tread, but by keeping the air pressure a little lower you can limit that, only air them up when you know you will be hauling something heavy.

My tires are rated at 3860lbs at 65psi. If I had them aired up that high the tread would be crowned significantly causing the middle of the tire to wear faster than the outer lugs and the ride would be terrible. I run mine at 35psi in the rear and 40psi up front. This keeps my tread nice and flat and a much nicer ride. At that pressure my tires are still rated to hold roughly 12,000lbs, much more than the truck, and even with a 7,000lbs trailer behind it and pretty heavy tongue weight the tires did not appear to sag or heat up at all so I didn't even air them up for that load.

Here you can see that the tread is still nice and flat, with no sidewall sagging or irregular wear, and they still have nice tight handling (as tight as you can expect with a 35 year old 1 ton truck )


And here it is on my old tires, 285/75R16 which works out to about 33"x11.2"

[wwj75c30]

Originally Posted by GCncsuHD

Those are on 6" wide wheels as well...It looks like his is only on 2" wide spacers due to the width between the rear tires. His setup looks very similar to mine with 35x12.50s.

Within reason, there is nothing wrong with mounting wide tires on narrow wheels. The taller the tire is, the less noticeable it would be..i.e. 35x12.5 will be better than 33x12.5, but 33x11.5 will give about the same effect as the 35x12.5. The only concern with the wider tires on narrow wheels is the crowning of the tread, but by keeping the air pressure a little lower you can limit that, only air them up when you know you will be hauling something heavy.

My tires are rated at 3860lbs at 65psi. If I had them aired up that high the tread would be crowned significantly causing the middle of the tire to wear faster than the outer lugs and the ride would be terrible. I run mine at 35psi in the rear and 40psi up front. This keeps my tread nice and flat and a much nicer ride. At that pressure my tires are still rated to hold roughly 12,000lbs, much more than the truck, and even with a 7,000lbs trailer behind it and pretty heavy tongue weight the tires did not appear to sag or heat up at all so I didn't even air them up for that load.

Here you can see that the tread is still nice and flat, with no sidewall sagging or irregular wear, and they still have nice tight handling (as tight as you can expect with a 35 year old 1 ton truck )


And here it is on my old tires, 285/75R16 which works out to about 33"x11.2"

Your duallys the look im going for if i keep 75 a drw i just gotta find a front dana 60 now but im gonna run 37x12.50s on about 8" lift

[BigBlocksRule]

I've always heard that one thing to avoid with dually tires is tires touching, even slightly since contact will wear 'em badly on the sidewalls.

[wwj75c30]

yea i could see how thatd be bad maybe cause a blow out

[GCncsuHD]

Originally Posted by BigBlocksRule

I've always heard that one thing to avoid with dually tires is tires touching, even slightly since contact will wear 'em badly on the sidewalls.

The wearing on the sidewalls is not the issue, but rather the heat from the friction of rubbing the sidewall. That is the reason I have the spacers to keep them from touching.