SRW to DRW worth it?

R

R.A.Masala

New member
Need to start pulling a gooseneck trailer(about 10k empty) and would like to know if I should try and upgrade my axle to a dually for the weight,I have access to a rebuilt axle and was thinking about having a welder friend build a flatbed. Is the suspension the same or do I need to upgrade the rear springs as well,or should I just get a dually to begin with,trailer will be used to haul a race car and equipment & not sure of total weight. Thanks for your help.
 
i would think you would be fine with your current setup. if you want it for the added stability then go ahead and do it but we haul 20k regularly on mud tires with a srw and it handles just fine. this is with a 3500 srw but still similar.
 
If I were you I'd go with a set of 19.5's. All you have to do is replace your wheels/tires, instead of having to buy 6 wheels/tires, new DRW front hubs, new DRW axle, and bodywork to put DRW fenders on it.
 
thirdstreettito said:
If I were you I'd go with a set of 19.5's. All you have to do is replace your wheels/tires, instead of having to buy 6 wheels/tires, new DRW front hubs, new DRW axle, and bodywork to put DRW fenders on it.
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he mentioned a flatbed, and you can keep the front wheels the way they are as a SRW
 
I totally missed the flatbed part. IF you keep the front wheels SRW and make the rear DRW, it will look very dumb, and hacked together.
 
245-70-19.5's are rated somewhere around 4800 apiece. That is probably more than the axle is rated at.
 
thirdstreettito said:
I totally missed the flatbed part. IF you keep the front wheels SRW and make the rear DRW, it will look very dumb, and hacked together.
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in my opinion almost any dodge with second gen rims look dumb,,, i know lots of trucks that were factory 1-tons and they took the dually front rims off to switch to a normal rim and they look much better
 
I made my truck a dually as soon as I got it, the original owner has used it a couple times and said he noticed a big difference in handling.

Recently did a drw conversion on a 03 2500 for a guy that pulls a camper that weighs about 10-12K, he loves it, his wife says she can tell a big improvement sitting it the passenger seat.

SRW will do fine, a dually is just better. You have to buy more tires, but they last longer. I can get 50k out of a set of bfg mud terrains grossing 25-40k.

As far as front rims go, I'm about to switch mine back to regular rims and put 305's on the front, and 285's on the back. Seen a couple trucks that way and it looks great.
 
thirdstreettito said:
I totally missed the flatbed part. IF you keep the front wheels SRW and make the rear DRW, it will look very dumb, and hacked together.
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Are you sh!tting me? It looks 10 times better then god awful dually rims on the front! Much more beefy of a look.
 
They have to be aftermarket front wheels or it does look dumb IMO. I put my XD Hoss's on my dually for a while and I thought it looked awesome.
 
Get a set of 8 hole Eagles or similar and put duallys on the rear and 8 or 10 inch wides on the front, think of a dump truck or concrete mixer with the big super singles in the front, it will make a huge difference on how the front handles weight, steering and not to mention the extra traction of a wider tire...
 
X2 on the dually. It is much better and you can your front wheels unless you don't like the look or don't want to carry two spares...
 
I don't think it looks bad, i also don't like the look of dually front wheels.

before and after

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Dar
 
I disagree with the thoughts that a dually handles better pulling a trailer. One thing you acutally lose towing weight with a dually. Also I find that a dually tends to squirm with a trailer... now if you are talking about direct weight on the truck,, then dually all the way.
 
I'd go with the dually....naturally. LOL The thought of having a regular rim on the front is fine and some look ok, however, you can't rotate your tires. Once the fronts start to cup or wear off the edges, they are done. I'd also ditch the flatbed unless you just need it. Like Kevin said, more weight takes from away from your max payload number. $.02

I hate buying 6 tires at a time, but, you always have two spares on the truck even if you don't have one under the bed. If you blow a front tire, just move one up. Also, if you are loaded and blow a back tire, the truck doesn't sit straight down on the rim and ruin it before you can even get it stopped. Another $.02. That makes $.04
 
i've had both a dually and a single wheel, i kept the single wheel and i tow heavy, often. my dually showed no advantages compared to my single wheel, granted i dont do long interstate hauls, just just for our logging outfit and at the farm. but the dually i had was a 03 QCLB 4x4, and the single wheel im running now is a 01 ECLB 4x4 both 6 speeds, so not a real fair comparison but still...
 
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