Grigg,

Good idea on the drums anyway. I'll be sticking with the duals, so I'll be spacing most likely. Glad you brought up the stock saddles the other day. I had in my mind that they were a no go, so never checked. Well they are going to work perfect for me I think.

Pictures

The 80 grit emery cloth over the axle tube worked great for the first one, but the second one needed more work. so I ended up using a flap wheel to grind the ends and then test the fit with the emery cloth until I got it down close enough to finish with the emery. Essentially, lapping them to the axle. Very little was actually removed.

Notice that the u-bolts (which will be replaced)cross the springs exactly where they did on the stock axle. I did run an 11/16" drill through all the saddle holes just to clean up any out of round or flash that might have been there. The perches are the trailer style and will be replaced with the ones from Barnes. I will likey just take them to a machine shop and have them re-radius the bigger perches to the 3-3/8" size. That way I know they will be square to the axle.


Now about those spacers...I have not gotten an answer yet, but I have asked Cutthroat how thick their custom thickness spacers can be. I figure if they are available thick enough, then why not order them about an 1/8" too thick and then have them turned locally to leave a pilot on them for the backing plate. (EDIT) That won't work, they are pilot size all the way through I assume. Maybe they could be made that way though).

The other option I considered is to simply line them up as perfect as possible and weld the spacer to the backing plate, so it is just one pc.

P.S.
I will likely end up with discs (4 wheel)in the long run too, but if I can do this pretty cheaply, I will go to disc on the back later. I will absolutely do disc on the front, but that isn't too cheap, so once I get ready to do the front, then I'll address the rear.

Larry W.



Last edited by Mrf1002u; 01/25/2016 4:44 PM.
1953 3800 Dually Flatbed