Ok, so a lot of ya’ll know Alie and I bought a bigass 5th wheel. It overloaded the 2500 in every way, shape, and size…
Now what can you do if you already own said truck, no payment, is go trade it in for a shiny new one with a payment, or modify/upgrade what you have.
So with a little digging, a lot of questions that a lot of you answered for me, I went for the conversion.
First up was a set of Airbags, easy install and easily handles the extra weight.
Second was to find an axle from a 3500 and do the swap. This is where I ran into a problem… Everyone wanted $1800-2600 for an axle that needed rebuilding. I went thru 3- first one had a broken bearing race that spilled its contents into the diff, while the axles were still rotating. Second was an axle with a bent axle tube housing, about a 30* bend but the bearings were good! Third one was rusted, frozen solid, no oil in it etc. So I came up with another plan. My current rear axle has been serviced every 20k, isn’t bent, in good working condition, so I went looking for spacers.
Before deciding on this move, I had a mechanical engineer do some load calculations on the bearings, etc. I also spoke with several other people that have the mechanical understanding that said they wouldn’t be afraid of doing spacers.
So I went looking for spacers. E-Bay is full of them, nice shiny aluminum ones that are cheap. Then there is Fred Goeske at Design Deluxe. His name kept coming up in all the spacer conversations I found and had. So the call was made. I woke the man up in Cali… on a Monday Morning! He knew exactly what I needed, and made an additional suggestion for what I wanted.
Then there was the Mega Cab fenders being sourced and readied while all the axle crap was taking place. I wanted a whole factory bed takeoff, but none to be found, so I ordered a set of fenders from Dually Fenders USA… my suggestion would be NOT to order from them.
Understanding that all I have done for the past 30 years is fiberglass, composites, and plastics, I mistaking thought that all I would need to do is some fitment, prime and paint. I ended up rebuilding most of them.
There was no gel coat, they were full of air bubbles on all the corners, ragged fiberglass on the inside, white spray bomb paint covering areas someone tried to fix, it was ugly.
For over $700 shipped I expected something a little more high quality. Hell I could have made my own for what I now have in them. So with the fenders ready to shoot, the spacers here, rims and tires already sourced and here, it’s time to paint and assemble!
Paint happened at a friend’s shop in our old paint booth, Kevin Mayer is another gearhead. Google him, he set a record for something or another in drag racing..
Paint actually got laid down by Roger Brooks, former owner of Brooks Boatworks and also a gearhead.
Some pieces and parts from the guru around here, Thanks Rich!
So today some assembly took place,
As the saying goes 4 is always better than 2!
Missed another person, Thanks JakeBrake for the stems and tire sizes and other advice
Topic: So I added training wheels! (Read 3357 times)