# Dually or SWR



## azmike

I found a nice F-350 extended cab 4x4 like if been looking for. I had been thinking dual rear wheels but this is a single. I've been running a single king ranch 350 but want the smaller cab and newer truck.

Any body add duals or take them off?


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## slowzuki

Its not the greatest swap, dual wheels don't swap onto the front without dual adapters. The rear can just squeeze duals on barely onto a SRW Sterling 10.5" axle.


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## somedevildawg

azmike said:


> I found a nice F-350 extended cab 4x4 like if been looking for. I had been thinking dual rear wheels but this is a single. I've been running a single king ranch 350 but want the smaller cab and newer truck.
> Any body add duals or take them off?


I've often thought of adding duals to my srw f350 (01) would be curious if anyone has done it as well.....I would like to remove the bed and install a flatbed and add duals, the bed is a lil worse for wear after a few years farming and 400k miles, tailgate has been nonexistent for quite some time


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## NewBerlinBaler

All other things being equal (same engine, tranny, axle ratio, etc.), an SRW truck pulls a bigger trailer than a DRW truck. Because the tow vehicle is slightly lighter. For what it's worth...

Gary


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## gearhartfarms82

If ur towing alot duals all the way.


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## FCF

Haven't looked recently, but at one time DRW had larger brakes than SRW.


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## azmike

somedevildawg said:


> I've often thought of adding duals to my srw f350 (01) would be curious if anyone has done it as well.....I would like to remove the bed and install a flatbed and add duals, the bed is a lil worse for wear after a few years farming and 400k miles, tailgate has been nonexistent for quite some time


Dude, lets go truck shopping! 400k....time to let-er-go!


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## Heavy Calf

I'm in a similar spot. I've got a good SRW but I max out the tire rating 6 or 8 times a year. Looks Iike it gunna be more this year.

How much rear axle weight is too much for a SRW on short (50 mile) farm to farm trips.


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## r82230

When I was ordering my new truck the difference in load capacity was something like 1100# more for DRW verses SRW. (GM trucks, I do not remember how much more the vehicle itself increase in weight however). For the extra cost, very little extra hauling capacity and unable to use car washes sold me on SRW (my wife allowed me to get new truck, but she wouldn't wash it and wants me to try to keep it clean, for awhile).

Forgot to add, service rep (person who writes up your service order, etc.), is my grandson's Godfather, and he also recommended avoiding DRW. His claim is every turn is just extra stress and with two more wheels more things to go wrong with.


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## slowzuki

What truck? The Sterling 10.5" is rated for 9000 lbs if you can get enough tire on it. I think the 14 bolt FF is rated for 8200 lb or something like that.

May want to look into some stronger tires and rims. 17.5 and 19.5 conversions exist. Some large LT tires have higher load ratings too. Bumping up to a 285 can gain 350 lbs capacity per tire over a 265.



Heavy Calf said:


> I'm in a similar spot. I've got a good SRW but I max out the tire rating 6 or 8 times a year. Looks Iike it gunna be more this year.
> 
> How much rear axle weight is too much for a SRW on short (50 mile) farm to farm trips.


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## SCtrailrider

I know on the older GMT 400 trucks the axle is a different width between the srw & dually... not real sure on newer stuff... The dually will be much more stable than the single....


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## slowzuki

Yes dually axle is about 4" wider. SRW axle leaves very little room to frame with DRW tires mounted to a superduty 37" pickup rail spacing, just a couple of inches. Won't clear the dodges 40" frame I don't think. Don't know GM.

Cab and chassis SRW superduty fits no trouble as the rails are 34" spacing.



SCtrailrider said:


> I know on the older GMT 400 trucks the axle is a different width between the srw & dually... not real sure on newer stuff... The dually will be much more stable than the single....


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## JD3430

r82230 said:


> When I was ordering my new truck the difference in load capacity was something like 1100# more for DRW verses SRW. (GM trucks, I do not remember how much more the vehicle itself increase in weight however). For the extra cost, very little extra hauling capacity and unable to use car washes sold me on SRW (my wife allowed me to get new truck, but she wouldn't wash it and wants me to try to keep it clean, for awhile).
> 
> Forgot to add, service rep (person who writes up your service order, etc.), is my grandson's Godfather, and he also recommended avoiding DRW. His claim is every turn is just extra stress and with two more wheels more things to go wrong with.


I have both, a SRW and a DRW. The extra set of tires, wheels, bearings and braking for those tires on the road makes for a much more stable towing platform. Although the towing rating isn't much greater, If towing is the primary use, the DRW give a more stable, less squirrelly experience.


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## luke strawwalker

slowzuki said:


> Yes dually axle is about 4" wider. SRW axle leaves very little room to frame with DRW tires mounted to a superduty 37" pickup rail spacing, just a couple of inches. Won't clear the dodges 40" frame I don't think. Don't know GM.
> 
> Cab and chassis SRW superduty fits no trouble as the rails are 34" spacing.


USED to be that a dually axle was a few inches wider than the SRW equivalent. If you compared the track widths, the inside duals would run in the same tracks as a SRW rear tires would. Since the duallies have offset rims, they had to have a wider axle to accomplish this.

If you had a cab/chassis pickup next to a dually, you could see that their track width for the inside duals was narrower than a SRW pickup equivalent. The axle was the same width as the SRW, and so the offset inside rim would run in a narrower track than the SRW.

If you looked at the space between the tires and the rear leaf springs on a SRW pickup, there's about a half-foot or so of space between the inside of the rear tire and the springs. Same thing on a dually. On a cab/chassis pickup, though, the inside of the rear dual tire would be about 2-3 inches from the leaf spring.

That's why the outside tires stuck out so far on duallies, versus cab/chassis trucks. Usually, the front wheel track would be "between the duals" on a cab/chassis, whereas on a dually the front tire track usually is right under the inside dual tire on the back axle, like a SRW pickup would be.

Personally, I never liked the wider duallies, myself. IMHO if you need rear dual tires, the narrower cab/chassis axle is the way to go, but they made the wider dually axles so they could sell them with the same truck beds as the SRW pickups, since the wheel wells in the bed would still line up properly over the inside dual-- just add the stupid plastic fenders over the outside dual and away ya go. Marketing ploy, nothing more.

You couldn't put a regular SRW pickup bed on a cab/chassis with the narrower dual wheel axle, because the inside dual tire would be hitting the inside of the wheel well of the bed due to the inside rear tire being closer to the springs/frame. It'd require a special bed with wider wheel wells INSIDE the box, and that would cost a lot more to build than slapping cheap plastic fender extensions on the outside of the box.

Personally, they can keep the box-- I'd take a flatbed every day of the week and twice on Sunday!

Later! OL J R


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## JD3430

The downside of a dually is that its more prone to accidents because its wider. Less fuel economy because it's heavier, its also not as good in snow or for snow plowing. My SRW's will go places a dually wont.

I prefer a SRW off road over a dually, too.


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## slowzuki

Yes dually pickup in snow is terrible. Even with 4 or 5000 lbs in the bed its not great. My single rear wheel with bald tires will go farther in 2wd than the dually with new tires in 4wd.



JD3430 said:


> The downside of a dually is that its more prone to accidents because its wider. Less fuel economy because it's heavier, its also not as good in snow or for snow plowing. My SRW's will go places a dually wont.
> 
> I prefer a SRW off road over a dually, too.


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## gearhartfarms82

Beg to differ on dually going places. Owned both and be happy to prove different. Problem is on ford and dodge they have open diffs. Happy mudding!


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## slowzuki

Maybe in a very specific soils. Here the dually has a yank strap in it because it will get stuck on anything.

Also, our dually is a Dodge, with limited slip, and our SWR is a F-350 with limited slip. The Ford's diff clutch packs are just about done too but it still out does the dually!



gearhartfarms82 said:


> Beg to differ on dually going places. Owned both and be happy to prove different. Problem is on ford and dodge they have open diffs. Happy mudding!


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## gearhartfarms82

We have anything from sand to clay muck. We run chevys and they have lockers in the rear. I can put both types on the frames. Its all in how hard u keep the petal down????????????


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## slowzuki

Lol our dually has no trouble burying itself to the frame, that's for sure! All jokes aside it is really annoying, a patch of wet grass, a light rain on some clay, any ice or snow.

1/2 the problem is the diesel weight on the skinny front tires cutting into soft ground.



gearhartfarms82 said:


> We have anything from sand to clay muck. We run chevys and they have lockers in the rear. I can put both types on the frames. Its all in how hard u keep the petal down????????????


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## JD3430

gearhartfarms82 said:


> Beg to differ on dually going places. Owned both and be happy to prove different. Problem is on ford and dodge they have open diffs. Happy mudding!


My Ford dually has a factory limited slip differential.

The problem with duallies on ice, snow, etc is once the rotational forces of the rear axle get going sideways just a little bit, one of the dual wheels with imbalanced traction side to side "pull" the trucks ass end sideways and the weight & momentum just follows it.

After 35 years of plowing snow on some of the steepestt driveways, you couldn't give me a duallie for plowing. Oh, it'll do the job, but no where near as far up hills and they're downright dangerous on treacherous driveways.

A locking differential on ice can be a deathtrap once the wheels lock and the truck goes sideways.

Then theres the width issue in the woods, on tight roads, between parked cars, etc.

When you see off roading contests with pickups, you mostly see SRW's not DRW's.


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## luke strawwalker

JD3430 said:


> The downside of a dually is that its more prone to accidents because its wider. Less fuel economy because it's heavier, its also not as good in snow or for snow plowing. My SRW's will go places a dually wont.
> 
> I prefer a SRW off road over a dually, too.


I hate duallies... been run off the road by too many sixteen year old girls that Daddy decides to give his old dually to drive around in, and they drive the thing like a Yugo on steroids and stick the outside tire (and sometimes more, sometimes a LOT more) in my lane...

They take their half of the road out of the middle.

Jerks!

Later! OL J R


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## 8350HiTech

luke strawwalker said:


> I hate duallies... been run off the road by too many sixteen year old girls that Daddy decides to give his old dually to drive around in, and they drive the thing like a Yugo on steroids and stick the outside tire (and sometimes more, sometimes a LOT more) in my lane...
> 
> They take their half of the road out of the middle.
> 
> Jerks!
> 
> Later! OL J R


So what you actually hate is jerks.


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## luke strawwalker

Which include spoiled 16 year old girls in Daddy's dually...

Yeah, I guess... If you want to pick nits...

Later! OL J R


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## azmike

Well I sold the King Ranch in 6 hours on craig's. Now I need a truck! It looks like a good extended cab 4x4 F-350 6.4 up north, I'll head up for a test drive this week. It's a SRW also, rubber mats etc...kinda like an old truck used to be. The King had 1000 pounds of extra weight just in electric motors- doors, moon roof, back window, pedal adjuster!


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## luke strawwalker

azmike said:


> Well I sold the King Ranch in 6 hours on craig's. Now I need a truck! It looks like a good extended cab 4x4 F-350 6.4 up north, I'll head up for a test drive this week. It's a SRW also, rubber mats etc...kinda like an old truck used to be. The King had 1000 pounds of extra weight just in electric motors- doors, moon roof, back window, pedal adjuster!


Yep... more junk to go wrong.

Later! OL J R


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## somedevildawg

azmike said:


> Well I sold the King Ranch in 6 hours on craig's. Now I need a truck! It looks like a good extended cab 4x4 F-350 6.4 up north, I'll head up for a test drive this week. It's a SRW also, rubber mats etc...kinda like an old truck used to be. The King had 1000 pounds of extra weight just in electric motors- doors, moon roof, back window, pedal adjuster!


Do yourself a favor and look at the 2011 and newer 6.7......it's worth the difference in money

And the pedal adjuster is a wise upgrade Ifn youse married to a short legged woman


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