@wellcraft : I see you joined in 2023, but it looks like this may be your first post. A question. Have you found these two pages of information regarding your build to be on target and helpful so far?
Let’s hold on that a minute. I’ll go into a little bit more about all of my colleagues helpful inputs that I’ve experienced when I’ve had a specific question or two later…
To everybody else: boys, boys, boys, stand back and see how this is done…
I’ve never put a Toyota Dually axle under a Ranger. But a long long time ago (1990?), in a galaxy far far away (Long Island, NY), I put a Toyota Dually axle under a Chevy Luv truck. Actually, I put two of them under it.
If you haven’t seen my Road Ranger build thread, click on it in my signature below. I actually started that build with the thought of doing the double Toyota axle again, but available materials took me in a different direction. I lucked out with some wide & offset aftermarket Ranger bullet hole wheels that created a similar illusion. You don’t have to read the whole thread, I just wanted you to know that I have absolutely no idea of what I’m doing on a slightly different project.
BTW, when my buddies and I did the Toyota axles under the Chevy Luv truck, we also had no idea what we were doing. But after many, many years of not knowing what I was doing, all of that experience adds up, and I really really have no idea what I’m doing nowadays, but sometimes I get some results. My point is the disclaimer: I’m not suggesting you do any of this. If you do it, you’re probably nuts. If you do it, you do it at your own risk, and none of this is recommended by TRS or me, it’s just floating around in Rick’s alcoholic fantasies. Proceed accordingly.
Let me start with two thoughts:
first, I absolutely think you should go for it. Follow your heart, look for the advice, and these guys will step up and give some good advice, but run with your common sense, always keeping safety in mind.
Number two, it’s going to be cool as hell, there’s a few of them on YouTube, but you can kiss your gas mileage goodbye. I’m talking about falling into single digits. It takes a lot more energy to spin the dual wheels than the regular rear end set up.
A little more history on me. I had a 77 Chevy three-quarter ton truck, and I had an 84 Chevy three-quarter ton truck, both single rear wheels. On both of those, I got longer lug bolts (I had to turn them down and thread them longer). I put them through the back of the drum. I put lug nuts backwards on top of several flat washers on the outside to basically bolt the drums in place on the axle, and then I mounted Dually wheels from a c-30. On one year, or maybe both, on those Chevys, the dimple in the bolt hole alternated, so half the bolts had a couple more flat washers. I had to do that spacing to make the inner tire clear the frame by about an inch. It was probably incredibly unsafe, but I drove both of them for years and I pulled some pretty good size trailers with them. I also added several leaf springs mixed in with the original leaf springs and larger U bolts. Note, the Dually wheels barely fit over the three-quarter ton brake drums, and we took just about an eighth of an inch off the very beginning of the outside of the drum so the wheels were centered on the bolts and not on the outside of the drum. Also, probably incredibly unsafe. Read on though I have some solutions maybe.
The Chevy Luv truck (1974?) had the C-channel frame like the Ranger. But it was a lot more flimsy. In the area where the springs were mounted, it was straight, it didn’t curve up or down. We got a piece of channel a little bit larger, and used shims to center it on the cross-section, and we welded the channel to the frame on the bottom, and we welded the frame to the shims and then to the channel on the top. The channels were drilled wherever there was a rivet or a bolt that had to stay, and slid over them. We used little pieces of flat stock to taper the ends of the channel down to the frame, and welded them in place. Note, those little pieces had a saw tooth shape on the place where they welded to the frame to minimize having a weld line all around the flimsy frame, to spread out the load. The teeth were probably 3/4 of an inch long.
That channel ran about a foot in front of the front spring mount, and we ran it out several feet in the back because that became the frame for the second axel. Like the Road Ranger, we were building a little semi.
The Dually Toyota axles came out of late 60s or early 70s box trucks. They were wider than the Luv truck axles, and the Dually tires fit, but almost scuffed the frame. We were going to space them out with a few washers as I did later with the big trucks. Note, you lose your concentric design hold, holding on the rim when you do that, which was another reason we put nuts inside and outside of the wheels, both tapering towards the wheels, which reduces any motion in the bolts when you lose the concentric design.
Like my Road Ranger, the front axle was a drive axle, and the rear axle was a floating axle. For the front axle, we cut all the mounts off the Toyota axle, and welded on new spring mounts and shock mounts, etc., to line up with the truck frame. Most important thing there is to measure from the same spot on the front wheels across the frame to the back wheels to make sure that axle is aligned.
I used the OEM Toyota Dually wheels, so I never had to worry about adapters for matching wheels with the front. I didn’t have it that long.
I got the driveshaft from one of the trucks when I got the first axle, and I got all the Toyota springs. Once the axle was in place, I measured from the front U joint to the rear U joint, and brought both driveshafts to the drivetrain shop, and he made a custom driveshaft with the Chevy U joint on the front, and the Dually Toyota U joint on the back.
I realize you’re not doing the back axle, but let me give you a brief on how we did that. Where the spring would mount on the front and the back of the back axle, we welded cross members out of the same channel from either side of the frame. Those springs ran about 3 inches inside the front springs from side to side. There was no leveler between the springs. We used a lighter-bending leaf spring, and put shackles on the back like a trailer, except!!: the Spring mounted to the top of the shackle, and then the shackle ran down to the mount we did on the crossmember. That shackle was at about a 45° angle. That way if you backed over a curb, the rear axle could rise up 2 or 3 inches before you would lose traction on the front axle. I did a true floating axle, like you see in China and Asia, on the Road Ranger, a four link set up where the rear axle can actually rise up eight or 10 inches before you lose traction on the front axle. If you decide on the second axle, we could go into all of that.
We had also done other things to box the frame for the bigger engine we put in, etc., that I’m not going to go into. I didn’t change the engine and the transmission in the Ranger, it pulls just fine. When I got to the point that we had both axles in place, and the truck would run and drive, a guy around the corner just had to have it, the price got right, and I said bye bye and that I’ll do it again. And I did, 35 years later.
Some other thoughts for you, and all the guys trying to help you out here. When I did the Toyota axles, nothing was electronic. I can’t help you with any of that. But the Toyota axles from the Box truck were more heavy duty, certainly heavier than the Luv truck axles, but probably also more heavy duty than any Ranger axle. Point being, your bearings are heavier, rear end bigger and stronger, brakes, etc. Coupling up the hydraulic brakes should be pretty easy. I think the emergency brake was cable operated, so that should also be pretty easy to make up a custom cable or join the two cables with a short piece of chain you can adjust. Make sure the new mounts on the axles are welded very well, because there’s a tremendous torque on that axle when you step on the brakes.
I used some heavy duty, steel trailer fenders for the Road Ranger, not the flimsy ones, I used the ones you could stand on. If you get a couple of those the right size, it should be fairly easy to cut into the side of your truck, and weld those fenders to the truck so they look right on the outside. On the inside, you can cut off the flange, and just extend them with sheet metal to keep muck from flinging up under the bed. A hell of a lot easier than trying to fabricate something from scratch.
When I built the Road Ranger, it was also entirely for looks. Every little kid wants a toy tractor trailer. I just got mine like 60 years later on a little bit bigger budget. But while I did it entirely as a toy, everything is put together so it will function properly, and it will carry weight, it will drag properly, steer properly, brake properly (when I put brakes on it), etc. if you are going to put a Dually under it, it should all be done so that it will carry that level of weight, safely, should anyone choose to load it up. If it’s a cool truck and you take care of it, it will end up in someone else’s hands someday. It should be safe for them, and operation shouldn’t be within the limits of your mind when you build it. It doesn’t really cost much more to make it safe.
And you wouldn’t understand this right now, but mix up some 50-50 rustoleum with mineral spirits and cover everything with it before you bolt anything together, and then run a full strength coat over the top of that. Follow my threads and you’ll understand.
If you do read through my thread, I think it’s about 30 pages now, you’ll realize the build thread is probably about six or seven pages and the other 23 pages is all of these guys “helping” me. But the whole thing was and is a blast, and these guys are an absolute hoot. They really gave me a lot of great advice on different things I was trying, although sometimes I had to dig pretty deep to pull it out!
And one final thought. I did my current build in the state of Georgia where virtually anything is street legal. I could’ve made it out of a shopping cart and an airplane wing, and I could ride down the road without fear. The one time I’ve been stopped by a cop, NJ, he saw my sheriffs’ association license plate, and he figured it was OK to stop me just to check out the truck. That might not be the case where you live, or where you’re planning on driving it. You might want to just think about that in advance.
As always, my 2 cents, I hope it helps.
OK guys now you can jump all over me! All I ask, is that at least 10% of it has at least something to do with anything we’ve discussed here…
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