Silverado 3500 DRW to SRW?

[Dakodu]

Hi all,

I'm thinking of getting a bigger truck and camper since i just become a father!!! i'm from Chile so i don't have many options to choose from.
I've been looking at a 2011 dual cab 4x4 silverado 3500 with dual rear wheels, it has the 6.0 vortec, i really like the payload rating but i'm not so sure about the DRW, i've seen it transform to SRW using:

1.- different bs wheels in the back and front, i don't like it because i wouldn't like to carry to spare tires with different wheels on them.
2.- rear axle swap, i would have to import it from the US and discard the one that the truck has, too expensive.
3.- put some kind of spacer on the back to match the front, this is the option that i like most, i think it could be the cheapest, i have read bad comments about it, but not from experience, just opinions, not first handed.

So:

How do earthroamer does it on the f-550?
what would you recommend?

Thanks.

 

[cyclic]

Keep the duals, you'll learn to like them.

 

[Kaisen]

You like the payload rating of the DRW, but understand that it wouldn't have that payload rating as a SRW

 

[surlydiesel]

Leave it stock. You'll find you won't have a problem. Plus, you have a spare tire built into the rear of your truck. You can limp somewhere with one of your 4 rears blown.

-jorge

 

[underdrive]

How much work do you want to put into this, and what do you plan on using the truck for? You can always drop the rear duals in favor of a pair of singles whenever you think the duals will hinder you, but you will obviously lose some load capacity temporarily unless you go with some aftermarket wheel & tire combo. Realistically, how often will you be needing the full load capacity of the truck? If not too often then you can go extra-wide SRW permanently - use factory single wheels on the rear axle, replace your DRW front hubs with a pair for a SRW truck and run factory single wheels there too. Much cheaper than replacing the whole axle, and being a wear item hubs should be easily available from any place that sells replacement parts for this truck. Sell the dually pickup bed in favor of a SRW one, run fender flares to cover the wider-than-stock-SRW rear axle. Or just go flat bed in the proper width. Then whenever you need all the muscle the truck is capable of, pull the rear singles and drop your factory duals for the job, switch back to singles when done.

We've seen people actually replace their factory SRW axle with DRW ones to gain a bit wider rear track and bigger brakes and still keep their single wheels and tires, apparently this comes rather handy when offroading a hard-sided slide-in truck camper in places where most would feel comfortable in nothing less than a H1 Hummer

Factory '11 Chevy 3500HD 4x4 SRW runs 265/70R18E tires, standard load capacity of those is 3525 lbs meaning with proper wheels you can run 7000lbs on the rear axle all day long. What's the DRW axle rating, internet sources suggest a bit over 9000 lbs, is that about right? So it looks like you'll be losing around 2000 lbs, do you think you will miss it? If you do, and still wanna run SRW, just remember that what cuts your payload is just the wheels and tires - 19.5" wheels and F-rated tires will give you at least another 500 lbs per tire so the axle will be bumped up to 8k lbs, more if you use G-rated tires. Not sure what the availability of those would be in your neck of the woods though...

 

[dlh62c]

Do you plan to swap out the bed with one that has narrower fenders?

 

[Dakodu]

I currently have this:

I know, completely overloaded, i replaced the rear coils with airbags from airbagit and i run harder shocks, i drives really well.
35x12,5 tires plus a relatively light camper means i can go to the beach with no problems, just let some air out and i can even go up hill.
I would like to keep some of that capabilities with a bigger truck, i know weight and size will go up a lot, and that's going to hurt my off road capabilities, but i want to at least be able to deflate the tires.

i would remove the bed and do something like this:

I build that one for my father, again i know, completely overloaded, airlifts, reinforce leafs, 9000 xl and it works great.

i like the payload of the 3500 but i think i will be far from it if i build something similar to what i did for my father, just a little bigger.
19.5 tires are always an option, i don't like them because they are not to wide, i've seen 35" tires with load ratings up to 3.640 lbs, and what i would really like, 37" tires with 3.970 lbs.

I really like that idea underdrive, do you think the width of the back axle would be more than in the front one? would this be an issue?

Thanks for the answers!!!

 

[underdrive]

Bigger truck just means you can push it more before something breaks

Yes, the width of the rear axle will most likely be more than the front, that is kinda the point for those people I mentioned swapping DRW axles into SRW trucks and still running single rears - extra width can mean extra stability, if done properly (air springs as far out as you can get them, shocks too if there is space). Not sure how the '11 GM models are, but the previous generation frames (IIRC '10-down models) have very wide front axles, so even if the rear axle ends up being wider it won't be by too much. So pretty much if your mirrors fit so will the rest of the truck, depending on width of camper itself of course. Axle will probably end up about as wide as your red truck's camper, which would be good if you're building a custom flat bed.

Oh by the way those trucks look pretty nice, and I don't really see the red one as overloaded with that short non-slideout camper.

 

[pappawheely]

I thought the drw axles were narrower than srw?

 

[1stDeuce]

So can you find non-dually wheels locally? Note that the 2011+ GM trucks use a different 8-lug pattern (8 on 180mm) than 2010 down (8 on 6.5"). Different than '00+ superduty too, which is 8 on 170. Just some info you may not be aware of.

If it works out that you can find OE or aftermarket non-dually wheels with the new pattern, you can simply remove the front dually spacers and just run non-dually wheels all around. The rear would be about 4" wider than if it was a non-dually axle, but that's only about 1" wider than the front, which is 3" wider than the rear on a SRW truck. That should actually work quite well, with each rear tire sticking out only 1/2" more than the front. It's not ideal for the rear bearings, but you're well under the axle load capacity, so they'll probably live forever anyway.

Chris

 

[1stDeuce]

I thought the drw axles were narrower than srw?

DRW axle is a little wider flange to flange. Think about it, with that much backspacing, the mounting surface has to be farther outboard to keep the tire out of the spring.

The DRW will look narrower because the brakes are moved inboard (closer to the spring) to clear the wheel. Or they used to be... With larger wheels, that may not be the case anymore. (Not sure...)

 

[underdrive]

I thought the drw axles were narrower than srw?

You're thinking of cab-chassis DRW axles, those trucks have narrower frames and they tend to also run narrower axles so their outboard rear wheels are more or less inline with the steer wheels up front. Been told the idea is that if the front can fit thru somewhere so can the whole truck, whereas a pickup-bed wide-frame DRW truck can get hung up at the rear axle. How much truth that holds idk.

That should actually work quite well, with each rear tire sticking out only 1/2" more than the front. It's not ideal for the rear bearings, but you're well under the axle load capacity, so they'll probably live forever anyway.

The geometry of the DRW pair pretty much approximates to a single stupid-wide wheel with zero offset. If online sources are to be trusted the factory SRW wheels would be 9" wide with 5.5" backspacing, depending on who you ask that amounts to 1/2" to 1" positive offset. Which will move the wheel's vertical load plane by that much inboard from the hub's wheel mounting surface. So yes, inner hub bearing will be seeing somewhat increased load, but usually said bearing is also the larger of the two, and it probably won't even notice. And like you said, he's way under what that monster of an axle is designed to handle day in and day out. So personally I wouldn't even worry about it. Or he can always throw on a set of aftermarket wheels with zero offset if he's worried about it (besides, those may be easier to find than OEM wheels).

 

[Dakodu]

Thanks for all the info guys, with all this help i have a better idea on what i'm getting in to.
If i get the truck i would probably put my small camper on it for the time (i think i would need to widen the front jacks of the camper) and use the red truck as DD, then start looking to import wheels, tires, gears to keep the 6.0 alive and probably fiberglass fenders, i didn't realize chevys only take small tires, on my ram i could fit 35" with a leveling kit, for the silverado i need a 4" kit to fit 35" and it would rub against the fender!!!!, only after all of this i would start the camper build.

Does anyone have experience with fiberglass fender on these trucks, or can recommend a good forum for silverados that i could ask about them? i want to get an idea of what can i fit with a stock suspension and with a small amount of lift, i don't want to loose to much stability or the capacity to go under some trees and stuff.
I'm also thinking of having some sort of protection rails on the roof so i can just move the trees as i drive under them without damaging the camper or the tree that much.

Again, thanks for all the help.

 

[1stDeuce]

We have some fiberglass "prerunner" style fenders on a truck at work. I wouldn't recommend doing that. If you're just talking about bigger tires, I'd suggest trimming the front bumper, and then perhaps trimming the bottom rear corner of the front fender back a little too. Keeping OE wheels will help with clearance. Going to a wheel with less backspacing will require even more fender trimming to make them fit.

Wait, did you mean fiberglass fenders, or something more like fender flares? Bushwhacker had "cutout" flares that will allow you to trim the rear edge of the fender back quite a ways and then cover it with a decent looking flare.

The 6.0 needs no help to stay alive, except for oil changes. With the 6-speed trans, which has a fairly low first gear, it could probably care less about gears too. Should be 4.10 already, or 4.56. You may find that you're locking it out of 6th a lot on normal roads, or running tow/haul to compensate, but both methods will work fine.

I think you're going to be a little disappointed when you compare what you're doing with your shortbox ram with what the crew or club cab longbox dually is going to do... For one, it isn't going to fit. For two, it isn't going to be very maneuverable, and for three, the IFS gets stuck differently than solid axle. (Wait, is your ram IFS or solid??) Anyway, IFS tends to ride up and ground out, and then you can't back up. Solid axles generally plow with the axle, and when you get stopped, you can almost always back up if you didn't stand on the pedal and bury it. When I first switched, I was very disappointed with IFS for this reason.

<edit> I went and looked. You're already running IFS so you're probably familiar with what I'm talking about. Post up what you end up doing, and how it works for you, we'd all like to know!!!

Good luck!!!