Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Project: Dually Conversion on the Pickup—Axle and Suspension work fully completed

Nothing huge to add today, the rear end is fully completed other than needing to properly torque the pinion nut, which will have to wait till the tires go on.

Got my clamps wrapped around the axle to help hold the e-brake cable and brake lines in place. Used some standard stainless steel 4” hose clamps and wrapped them in plastic wire chafe guard, then secured them around the axle and the lines till the lines were snug, but not crushed.

Factory shocks are back in place, re-installation involved needing to jack the rear of the truck up via the bumper to stretch the suspension out enough that I could simply slide the shocks back on at their maximum extension, compressing those things by hand was just not in the dice.

P1100884

At some point in the future, I’ll get around to replacing those old shocks with some massive KYB Monomax units or similar. I’ve considered Ranchos, but haven’t decided on them yet, mainly as all things are dictated by the pocket book and mine isn’t very fat.

I’ve listed my old Dana 60 axle up on Craigslist, along with the U-Bolts and the old Motorhome rims that came off the Dana 70 I installed. Hopefully, I can sell that stuff to make up enough cash to recoup the $720 (minus $60 later on from the mail-in rebates) for the four rear tires.

Given the fact that the poor Redneck Express only sees a couple hundred miles a month, at best, the tires will hopefully last me at least 10 years (I’m one of those folks that runs tires until they wear out the tread or the sidewalls start failing, the Suburban I’ve been driving around as a “Go-fer” vehicle has Michelins that were put on it back in the late 90s that are still going strong).

Next big undertaking will be getting some dually fenders on the body to cover those extra two tires Smile and adding the extra clearance lights.

Well, that and buying the Reico-Titan Swing out brackets for the jacks so I can actually load the camper back on again Winking smile.

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