Hi all- I am brand new here!!! I have a pressing question- hope someone can help...I have 2000 2500 with the 5.7 cummins, auto trans, 4x4, and a 3.55 rear axle. I was looking at buying a 3500 dually, but decided maybe a cheaper route would be to convert my 2500 into a dually. I located a nice 8" dually box, and 2 rearends (one is a 4.10 dana out of an '01 dually, the other a 3.55 dana out of a 96 dually). In swapping the rear ends (first is this possible??) I have the 8500lb + 3" rear springs on my truck already, so the suspension should be the same as a dually. Does anyone know if the spring mounts on the dually rear ends are the same distance apart as that of my 2500 dana rearend? Anything else i need to be aware of or change in doing this??? Never done this kind of swap before, so i am trying to learn on the fly. Also- would the posi carriers in the 01 4:10 dana be the same as my 3:55 carrier (i.e. could I just swap the carriers, or are the axle slines, diff. gears the same?? ) A lot of questions i know....PLEASE HELP!!!
Rich

 

Don't know the answers to your questions but I sure would like to know myself. I've often thought about this very same conversion.

 

yeah you can, just swap out rearends and you need the dually front adapters that bolt to the front axle and you are good to go. I did the opposite of what you want to do. Yeah you can definitely do it. By the way, it is a 5.9 cummins, not a 5.7

 

Thanks Gabe! What dually front axle adapters are you talking about?? I'm a little green on this.
Thanks!

 

the adapters (little rusty here) bolt up the the factory studs and stick out i think about another 3-6" so your dually tire will line up under the fender the right way and not hit the coil spring and what not.

 

you can always run regular wheels and wide tires on the front also

 

can, but unless you need some wide tires to play around in, it looks, well like you did a half a$$ job, IMO...

last summer i converted my friends 99' qd cab short bed into a dually...looks great his set of 38" SS boggers on it, and he used the factory wheels dually wheels for it to. wish i had a couple of pics of it