O/T Ford 350 rear ends

My 80 ford F350 has single rear wheels, which seams to do a good job of hauling my tractor with a 6 ft mower. I am looking for a different newer truck, I am thinking of a Ford F 350 duley. Now I'm thinking, will I even be able to haul that much more weight with the two extra tires. I would like to be able to use my zeman 16 ft equipment hauling trailer, to hall my JD 401 industrial tractor with a 7 ft flail mower. Which is too heavy for my 80 350, or will this be toomuch weight even for a duley? Any thoughts, Stan

Certainly the dually can haul more weight, but no where hear 2X as much. The duallies have narrower tires than the SWR trucks. I have a SWR F350 Powerstroke. I believe it has the Spicer 70 RA. The weight haul (towing specs) are easily found...Google them. The specs do vary considerably with the type of hitch, weight bearing hitch (ball or pintle), weight transfer hitch (Equalizer), or Gooseneck ball. I have the gooseneck ball installed (B&W turnover ball) and use their Companion hitch (rated 18,000#) for pulling my 5th wheel RV trailer. The RV trailer is actually ~12,000#, and the SWR truck is rated for 13,000 with that type of hitch. The weight ratings also vary from one model year to another, so you must be specific in your search for info.

Paul in MN

Do you like the truck that you have? I beefed the rear springs in my 85 F250 up from 4 leaves to 6,then bought a set of dual wheel adapters from JC Whitney and made my own dually. The adapters cost me about $375. Springs were salvage. Sure a lot cheaper than a new truck. Took all of the sway out of it too when hauling cattle and they get moving around.

Think dual rear wheels and gooseneck; you'll wonder how you ever lived without 'em.........

I'd very seriously think about a gooseneck instead of the dually. You won't believe the difference it can make in ride as well as capacity. Just my thoughts. Keith

Our neighbor has 3 dually pickups and he said that aside from hauling cattle. they are a pain in the butt. They wont go back to them because in 2wd they are helpless.

although my 80 f350 is mechanically sound the rest is not in the greatest shape, my wife wouldn't even ride in it. Stan

The purpose of a DRW is to extend weight over a larger area, and to chop the load carried on each tire in half over a SRW.

In addition, on-road cornering stability is twice as good as SRW stability.

Highway straight-line cruising of a DRW has the same comfort as a SRW. In terms of operator comfort, there is little difference. The real deal with operator comfort is the wheelbase. A crew cab truck will ride much better than the same truck, except in standard cab.

Overall, if you have no need for a dually all the time, don't get one. If you plan on doing a lot of trailering, then yes, a one-ton dually would be mighty helpful.

That's how mine was getting,but the cab itself was solid. I got new fenders and doors from the auto parts store,put a factory western flatbed on it,went to TSC and got some Ford blue tractor paint and sprayed it. That blue along with the black flatbed made for a heck of a nice truck.

+1 on that idea, that's what I did on an '86... the "ricka manufacturing" kit from JC Whitney installed 15 years ago has been GREAT! (along with an 8'x 8'6 flatbed) LOVE IT!!

Newer ones maybe, but I run 235 85 16; 10 or 14 ply tires on all my dually's and trailers...

I've been driving duallies for more than 20 years and I'd have to disagree with many of the statements I've read here... "Duallies have narrower tires"... not true... I still have a tonner that I run 245x85x16 - 10 plys on... & the axle is good for it, so, yes, the rear axle will carry twice the weight of a SWR. "duallies are helpless in 2wd"... also not true... I can and do go the same places (with my regular cab dually) my friends go both with and without trailers. The REAL difference in making a DRW truck helpless in 2wd is a longer frame (as in a crew cab). Having said that, a friend had a SRW crew cab and it was helpless in 2wd also. Personally, as long as I have a truck, it'll be a dually. The ONLY drawback I can see, is that you're buying 2 additional tires when the time comes... but if ya keep 'em rotated and inflated... they last a LONG time. Last tires I replaced had 84K miles on 'EM! ...D

I will agree with Wyod except for the weight rating. He is right the dual rear will carry twice as much weight but your springs and axles alone do not decide what you can safely haul.

The real factor is what your brakes can handle. Most every truck on the road can exceed the worth of their brakes long before the strength of the axles.

That said I have an 83 Chev 1 ton dually crew cab not 4x4 but has a limited slip. This is a good combo but it is only as good as the tires tread pattern. A crew cab also is rated to tow less than a regular cab because it adds weight to the vehicle the brakes have to stop.

the other added benefit of duals is if you blow a tire,theres another one to handle load till you get truck stopped.
i purposely run a tad shorter tire on the inside to save fuel while unloaded.

My comment about tire size and weight load capacity for the RA comes from the Ford owners's manual. My 2002 F350 PS crew cab is factory equipped with 265/75 R16 tires. Sure you can mount the 265s on your dually rims and axle, but the sidewalls between tires will rub on each other when fully loaded and make for very short tire life. Sure you may be able to put bigger tires than original, and may get by with loading the RA heavier than factory spec, but you do risk early failure of some part of the truck.

Personally I do not care how much you overload your truck, but I do care about safety and long life, so I try hard to keep within factory specs. Besides, with an overloaded dually you are DOT bait, because you will be over the 10,000# figure that gives them the legal right to harass you and charge whatever their local enforcement guy wants to charge. Last summer in this area, they were stopping every dually PU pulling long horse trailers (and other gooseneck trailers), and weighing every wheel with portable scales. They claimed that if you ever sold a horse or a bale of hay, you were driving a commercial rig and needed to meet all the DOT requirements. My SRW F350 is rated at 9,950#, and pulling a trailer I am allowed to have a total gross weight of 26,000# before DOT regs have to be met. With RV plates on the trailer, it is exempt from the weight rules. The DOT enforcement here has been real nasty, our local city has 2 full time squads to harass trucks because that generates huge revenue (published figure in hundreds of thousands of $$).

Your state may be different??

Paul in MN

You are to conser.about your truck when you should be rating your trailer for the load,that is where the weight is should be not on the truck.

are you saying that a longer wheel base is more likly to get stuck in mud or snow. 2wd or 4x4 dually or single ive always found longer wheel base better under these conditions.

26000 on a 3/4 ton? Who is overloading.

No, not 26,000 on a 3/4 ton!

My truck is a F350, that is a 1 ton, and it is pulling a properly hitched 12,500# trailer with proper brakes and brake controller. According to the owner's manual, it is set up to pull a 13,000# 5th wheel trailer. Total gross weight for truck and trailer is just shy of 23,000 lbs.

The 26,000# figure comes from what is legal max total combination with the standard driver's license, without need for CDL or Medical card. I believe that is a Federal regulation which all states have had to adopt. Of course to be legal, you have to have properly rated truck and trailer for that much gross weight.

paul