The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop What is the highway speed limit of a solid front axle?

Same price, but would not include shipping. $279 ea plus tax

That's pretty good. I never knew Summit sold them. I bought the same size (2 3/4" ww) over the summer from DB and shipping was $20 each.

Summit just has DB drop ship them, as Summit does not stock any DB products. I had assumed shipping would be much more than $20 each- North Carolina to California has got to be a heck of a lot more $$$ than that. It was the only reason I ordered from Summit

I would have ordered from Summit if I'd known they sell them. $20 each isn't bad but $100 is a lot when it could have been zero.

Summit has changed a lot,over the years- I think they list everything from every vendor on the planet now- as well as OEM parts and replacement parts, just like RockAuto. I should have asked DB what the shipping was actually going to be- those guys were really helpful and maybe some of the shipping cost is built into the tire price?

Anyway, I’m looking forward to better gearing and no more wheel bouncing!

Post a picture of your truck after you get the new tires installed. Better yet, post before and after. What width white walls did you get?

I have the same issue with my ‘49 3100. I have checked everything except the front shocks.
I was leaning over the left fender for some reason and heard a squeaking sound from my weight on the fender. The shocks only have 7,000 miles on them, but they ain’t supposed to squeak.
My next adventure will be removing the shock to see if the squeak goes away, and replace it if does and road test it. I will report back with my findings.

I'd think the squeaking was coming from the spring bushings rather than the shocks.

Along that line, are there any better shocks out there for our trucks? Like a quality gas-charged shock?

Also, I put Teflon liners in my front springs, and so far, they are quiet and very compliant…could it be your springs squeaking? I guess you’ll find out when you pull the shocks. I had my kingpins done for me, but hey didn’t do a very good job- one side has some play, so I’ll be rebuilding that side when it gets warmer outside.

No white walls for me- I drive this truck everywhere, even in the rain and it also has disc brakes front and rear with Rallye wheels, so it vents brake dust onto the wheels & tires… I love the look of the whitewalls, but need low maintenance!

I installed Monroe OE Spectrum 33049 on the front and Monroe Gas-Matic 5826 on the rear. Night and day difference over whatever was on it before. When I hit bumps it was all over the place but not anymore

I have 4000+ miles on them and I'm very happy with their performance. They, along with new wheels and tires made this truck handle perfectly. I can take my hands off the wheel on a smooth highway at 50+mph and the truck runs smooth and straight.

Oh. I figured you went with Diamondbacks because you wanted whitewalls.

No, I bought them because I wanted a quality steel belted radial 750 or 820x15 that would fit on a 6” rim that I could drive on every day. These were the only tires that fit the bill….

Could be. Won’t know till I take the lid offen the pickle barrel, as they say in Deep South western Tennessee.

Update: after waiting nearly a month for my Auburn tires to ship, and having Summit add yet another month to the expected shipping date, I cancelled my order and then ordered direct from Diamond Back, who will get them out this week….I have no idea why Summit did this when the vendor has the tires in stock. Anyway, I will update again after the Auburn black walls show up.

Hi Dave, that's pretty weird why Summit couldn't get them to you sooner. Did you deal with Jerry at DB? I asked him to keep me posted on when they shipped and when to expect them because I didn't want $1400 worth of tires sitting on the front porch.

Since I'm only a couple hundred miles away from Charlotte, he called me the morning they were put on the truck and told me I could expect them by the end of the day. They got to my house by around noon so I was able to load them into the trunk (yes the trunk is so large it can hold 4 tires plus its own mounted spare) and headed over to my favorite tire place and had them installed.

It'll take a little longer for them to get to Californy.

Yes, I was dealing with Jerry. He seemed like good guy.

Tires showed up on Friday, and I got them mounted yesterday- I went with 7.10x15 on the front and 8.20x15 on the rear, blackwalls. Interesting thing- these giant tires balanced out with a quater of the weight the goodyear 215/75x15's that I had on there...I also had the tire shop use the lug "fingers" to balance instead of using the center hole/hub-centric style balancing (I am convinced that these Wheel Vintiques rallye wheels do not have a center hole that is punched true....)

I took it for a drive, got it up to 80 on the freeway and everything felt great. So my vibration issue was definitely due to the flat spots in my tires. Moving up to 8.20's on the rear also made a nice change in my drive ratio- with my 3.73 rear end, everything feels better, from 1st all the way to overdrive 5th with the T5 trans. The truck is also noticeably quieter on the road (less tire noise).

The tires have cure dates no older than mid-to-late 2022, so I'm satisified there.

I did notice a deformation on one of the sidewalls after I pulled it out of the garage- a raised sort of blister that is about 1/16" thick and 3/4" inch wide that runs radially from the rim to the edge of the pie crust (about 6 inches long) on that one tire- it is soft enough for me to push in with my thumb. I will call them tomorrow to see whether it is anything I should be concerned about (hopefully not).

That's great, Dave. I consider the Diamondbacks to be the best tires I've ever had on my Coupe de Ville over the last 23 years (probably about 3 other sets of various Cokers before these)

Post some pictures of your truck with the new tires.

And thanks for the tip about Summit selling DBs with free shipping. A friend of mine out in California just ordered a set from Summit and saved $100 as a result.

I’ll get some pics next weekend when I take it out again. Very dark and rainy here right now. I was having so much fun driving around today that I forgot to pull over and photograph it.

A cosmetic blem was discovered one one tire after I got them, so Diamond Back is sending me a new free replacement tire right away- great customer service- no questions asked. Had I ordered white walls, I think it wouldn’t have happened, because they would have noticed it when installing the white walls. No biggee. I’m super happy to have these really cool steel belted squared off tread truck tires in place of the modern radials that I had on there before.


These tires look so appropriate on the truck, and it drives great- super quiet, good handling, and smooths out a rough road… so much better than the 215/75x15’s I had on the truck before.

It is a night and day difference, and I find myself taking longer trips in the truck now- 100 round trip commutes to/from work. It’ll do 80 without any drama at all now. 70 mph feels no different than my F-150. I’m sure the anti-sway bar helps too.

These are mounted on 15x6 Wheel Vintiques Rallye wheels. ZR-1 S-10 Blazer rear axle and a dropped 1/2 ton axle up front with a disc brake conversion. I ended up with 4 wheel vented disc brakes, which I didn’t plan for, but really love now. The rear leaf springs were reversed to position the axle closer to the center of the rear wheel arch, however, after some thought, I am probably going to put the rear springs back in their normal position and have the custom driveshaft shortened, so that the axle is back in the stock position- I think it’ll look better that way. An afternoon job for me to do.

The axle drop was 2.5 inches in the front, with stock springs that I dismantled and inspected and installed teflon liners- so no spring drop in the front, which gives me a nice ride. Rear springs were taken apart are brought to a spring blacksmith who worked the, into a 2 inch drop. I wanted a slight rake to the truck, and I got it. But when I put the Auburn tires on, I went with the taller 820’s in the back, which jacked the rear up slightly more..,I can live with it. Since I rarely parallel park the truck, a better choice would have been 820’s all around. Right now, I am enjoying the slightly easier slow speed steering I get with 710’s up front.

I am so delighted with my truck now- I had no idea tires could make such a difference. low sidewalls on the 3600 makes for a rough ride- it needs a tall tire for comfort. The 3600 has NO rubber bushings in the suspension, front or rear- it’s all metal bushings all around. Now I’m glad I didn’t install a coil spring front end- I do some spirited driving in the twisty foothill roads here, but have no need for coil spring. If I was commuting everyday on the freeway, I’d go with coils and power steering. Right now, with the steering box rebuilt and adjusted properly and upgraded rod ends, she tracks very nice, even at 75-80 mph.

Here’s the Auburn tires on my ‘50 3600. 7.10x15 on the front, and 8.20x15 on the rear:

Auburn tires on Chevy

Try a bolt on steering stabilizer. There was one on my 3100 when I bought it. I've heard they make a big difference with steering wheel wobble at highway speeds. I removed it when I lowered it and haven't yet reinstalled it. real simple unit. Has a U bolt that clamps it to the straight axle and the tie rod.

I hope you are correct I am having one installed tomorrow.

Let us know if it makes a difference…

Wow those Auburn tires look fantastic on the truck! I wonder if they make a 9R22.5 for us big Bolters :-D

[Edit] I checked.. they do not. :-(

Won’t regular “18 wheeler” tires fit?