staarma

Great stuff so far guys. Brandon, that's exactly what I'll end up with as your pictures show only with my WW on behind.

So now I'm wondering if a SRW with a wheel/tire upgrade to Ricksons would be in order for the best of both worlds. Whatever I get will get a 2" level in the front and then I was thinking wheel/tire upgrades anyway so why not just go to some Ricksons for even more and better weight ratings. I may have to do some calcs on that and see where that would put me.

bkrukow

Persoanly I will never own a dualy unless i move far, far south of here. I have driven one many many times back in high school. The shop I worked at had a 91 2wd Cummins and that thing would literaly get stuck on wet grass. It was 100% worthless on anything but dry pavement. 1" of snow was more than enough to render the truck undrivable. Mud,,, forget it. I had to go push one of the owners sons out of a greasy spot with the skidloader. it wasent even deep just greasy. Now i realize that 4wd would obviously make a huge diference but all the rest of the trucks around the shop where 2wd as well and the dualy was the only one that had isues all the time. If it where me I would go SRW and upgrade the rims and tires. Now I will agree that a DRW will eliminate a LOT of sway and tail wag but thats abought all its good for. My uncle had a F250 and traded it for a 1 ton Dualy Dodge and says he absolutly loves it for pulling his TH because it eliminated a lot of the wigle he had with the SRW. He also dont drive it in the winter even though its 4wd. It is primaraly for hauling around his TH. Get what ever trips your triger but if you are getting a dualy only cause you think a SRW wont handle the weight, i am here to tell ya that it will handle it. I almost couldent tell they where back there. My budie that went to Colorado with me was shocked that it didnt have more body roll with them up there like that. The little bit it did have took abought 2 or three corners to get used to and then it was unnoticable. I would not hesitate to do it again if i ever got rid of my current TH.

The one thing I would do is go out and actualy measure your toung wt. You said 700 pounds. That sounds WAY to lite to me. My TH has a rated 1200 pounds toung wt and I garontee its actualy closer to 1800 pounds. I still have the rack in the pictures and have thought abought using it in conjunction with my TH if a big group wants to go with me but I think it may be a bit much for even my 3500SRW to handle so I have never tried it.

CD in NM

staarma - I recently went through having to make a similar decision. I gave the Rickson's/single 19.5 a lot of consideration. Since my truck is relatively new (2006) and I only have 58K on it, I really did not want to buy a new truck and take the beating on a trade in or the dickering to sell it outright.

I decided to find someone with a drw that wanted to go srw and we swapped. I did the swap recently. We did not swap beds, trucks were different colors and the cost of painting the bed vrs a little body work didn't seem beneficial to the dually owner, and all I would have to paint was a pair of fenders. So, we just swapped axles, tires, and unbolted his dually fenders and front spacers, and I gave him my fender flares.

Overall cost - nothing but a little bit of wrenching and about 3-4 hours of our time. I still have my truck they way I built it, he still has his. No worries about how it has been taken care of (if buying a used truck was part of the pic). I didn't have to deal with the EPA/smog junk on a new truck and go through all those motions to rid the junk, nor did I have to spend more money getting it the way I might have wanted it in the overall.

I almost just got the Ricksons 19.5's and went that route. I figured if it didn't work out they would be easy to sell, maybe that would work for you?? Or, maybe doing a swap like I did would work for you? Or, maybe you just want a new truck?

Just thought I would pass along what I finally did to get my truck up to what I felt I needed.

and btw on edit - there IS a fellow up your way that has a complete dually axle, fenders, etc that wants to sell them, if you are interested I can put you two in touch.


CD

HMX-1

I have to agree with Brandon's post. 700 pounds does sound way too light to me as well. My toyhauler has a tongue weight of 1100 pounds empty (Keystone Energy 260FS), and I haven't weighed it when full but I expect it to end up around 1300 to 1400.

Run the numbers again, just to be on the safe side. I know you don't want to end up becoming "that guy" we all talk about.




Kris

staarma

According to the manufaturer the tongue weight is 1080 empty and 700 with max cargo. They design toy haulers this way in order to handle the weight you load in the rear. Keep in mind this is what the guy who sold me the trailer said. My Rhino is a mid engine vehicle and it sits just behind the rear axle of the hauler so their calculations made sense to me. I have never actually weighed the tongue though.

CD, I thought about stetching my truck to make it a long box but then the thought went away. The shortbox is killing me. I can't have a toolbox and get more than a candy bar back there so I run without a toolbox in it which is not good where I live. When I want to take my chains, tow chain, jacks etc. I'm screwed. I just fight it all of the time. I love the looks of a shorbox but that's where it ends.

OutlawStorm

I agree with Bkrukow,, Dually's suck big time in snow , slush and mud. I will say the dually is more stable, but if you put air bags on the rear of the single rear wheel it helps alot for stability. I would take my 2500 anyday over the dually, and also cheaper when it comes to replacing tires as well.

CD in NM

staarma - stretch kits are about $1500.oo then add a driveshaft to the equasion and labor. They appear to be easy to do. Beds are relatively easy to find. Chris Brahs actually has a 3rd gen longbed sitting at his place, bet it could find it's way up your way when he goes there to pick up that new toolbox he just bought.



CD

staarma

I won't show this to the wife.

oldsmobiledave

Once you have towed a load with training wheels there is no going back!

I am fortunate to own a SRW 2500 & a DRW 3500. Hands down the 2500 gets muddy & the 3500 does the towing. Each excells at those applcations.

Stargeezer

You pick your tool for the job - towing or playing in the mud. High RPM mud slinging or gut busting torque - gas or diesel?? Pick your job, THEN pick the tool.

My son got talked into buying a gas powered, jacked up beast on huge, wide tires. The first day out he had to get pulled twice because he did not have enough torque to move his load without spinning out. The truck will sling mud into the next county - but it won't PULL his tool trailer.

Puts on a heck of a show, but has no go.

ddbackhoe

Nice thing about a dually is you can always take one (or 2) wheels off and downgrade to SRW. Daggone difficult going from a SRW truck to DRW
For towing anything, I wouldn't go back to SRW. Two more tires arent very expensive in the long run.

FiverBob

Oh my goodness - - I absolutely love the new seamless sidepanels on the new dually longbed. Wow that is nice. As for the dually, having carried a heavy and high load on a 2500 all beefed up, then going to the dually, the difference was amazing. I have never had a traction problem either wet, dry, snow, gravel, whatever and I get in some pretty weird places.

If you can wait, I would. Wait for the new upgrade on the 6.7 going to 800 torque and huge jump in GCWR - - no way I would buy a new one now with that beast coming out in a short time. That will make the other two quake and gather round to try and best it.

Bob

staarma

I was wondering about this but haven't heard anything about it. I usually buy something and then the next year model they upgrade to something even better. My luck as they say. I would think Dodge would be in the hot seat with what numbers Ford and GM are claiming. Nice to see they may rise to the occasion. I'm not in any hurry. I may wait until this Fall and see what gives. I have a 14' ramp trailer and a 27' enclosed sled trailer the Yukon XL can pull while I pull the toy hauler with my truck like we did last Summer. The wife didn't like driving much and splitting the family up on the road trips wasn't our idea of fun but it worked and can work again in order to make the right decision.

Thanks for the discussion guys.

Stargeezer

For those who think duallies can't pull on slippery surfaces - ckeck this out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nJSR...eature=related

Colo_River_Ram

You call that a slippery surface there is no mud on his truck!

I own both..