The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Tons 'o Fun Removing the 1 Ton front wheel

I am working some dents right now in the front fender and wanted to get away from the Dually look. I was wondering can I remove the extension that the front wheel has and just bolt up a 8 lug wheel with minimal backspacing? I cannot see why this would not work there is plenty of room in there. I do not ever plan on carrying anything heavier than me in the truck.

Thoughts. Also what wheels would you recommend? I see someone is putting a 1/2 ton axle on the front, I did not think this was an option being that the size of the axle itself is slightly smaller then the 1 ton.

What year of truck do you have? There are quite a few posts on this subject. The only thing unique is your extensions and I believe that you can remove them.

Depending on the year of your truck, that may not be just an extention, it could be the entire hub. The solution would be to swap hubs.

It is a 52. I see the bolts where it is connected and it looks like I can just remove it.

I think if you pull the hub off the truck you'll see those bolts hold the drum to the hub, not an extension to the hub.

However I know an extension as you describe does exist and your truck could have that instead of the standard dually hubs.

Ok now I am confused, but ok say that it is the case what hubs could I swap in?

I'd look for the complete hubs, drums and backing plates from a Bendix brake equiped truck. Should be any single-wheel 1-ton up through '59. Check the bearing part numbers to confirm that, but I'm confident its the case.

Excuse me for hijacking but I have a similar question. I have a '57 1-ton w/ duals and I am considering going to single rear wheels but I want to keep the 19.5's. Can I get some of the front wheel extensions and put them on the rear hubs and use 2 of my wheels that are currently on the truck? The rear wheels would be mounted just like the front wheels. If this will work, what year truck should I look for to get the extensions? Thanks for any advice.

Jeff

The only ones I've seen came from JC Whitney or were home made.

19.5 single type wheels are available.

My understanding and I have been doing it for a while it you can just remove the one set of tires also. That is what I did and have just one back there since I never plan on running 1 ton.

Running only 1 of two 2 dual wheels changes the loading on the wheel bearings, and not for the better. Probably fine for a while, but not great if you will haul much.

Another option is to run single wheel type wheels in the back.

There is no real difference between the single wheel Eaton rears and the dual wheel Eaton rears.

Using a single wheel type wheel you would be no different than many of the factory trucks if done that way.

Will a 19.5" single wheel fit over the drums on a dual wheel axle? I'm thinking so but it might be worth checking.

Grigg

Yes. The 1-ton I talk about most came to me with a set of 19.5 wheels on it. The original rear as it came to me, which I'll admit may not be the original rear, appears identical to the rear under my 1-ton dually.

Also, when you mount single type wheels on one of these the drums end up mostly inboard from the wheels, meaning its not as big an issue as when you put duals on. With duals you can't get a 16 to fit.

I don't know about a 17. Since an 18 inch dual type will fit I'm sure something that big or bigger will fit as a single.