Just joined site today, a matter of fact I just found this site today! I've been lookin it over for a few hours and I had to get in on this, great site guys!!! My name is Brent and currently reside in Glasgow, Ky. Not currently a dually owner but have a conversion I'm gettin ready to start (with the help of this site!!) Ok heres what i've got in the works- 95 Silverado ext. cab short bed, 240,000 miles still runnin the ol' 350, 5 speed swap(due to another 4l60e biting the dust), steel cowl hood, already has a slight drop, & ridin on some sport wheels. Don't get me wrong, I love my truck the way it is but I've always been partial to the idea of a slammed ext. cab 2wd dually... So I'm kinda new to trucks as far as suspension, I've had numerous mustangs, camaros, T/A's and a ton of bikes from Harleys' to Hayabusas' but never done any modifying on trucks. I know theres more than enough people on here with the knowledge to get me in the right direction on this. Heres a few pics of the truck as it sits now to give an idea what I'm working with




My questions-(a few of em' that is...)
1) whats easiest route for dually bed? Would it be easier to just add dually flares to my existing bed, or try and find a complete used dually bed?
2) what are my options as far as rear wheel setup? I'm technically not wanting a "dually" by definition cause I'm actually considering 1 wide wheel/tire per side instead of the pair. What size/backspace wheels would work on my stock rear end . In the event that I don't go with the single wheel setup, whats my best route for dual wheels. I know it's a "broad" question but I'm on a limited budget so I'd like to stay with somewhat stock dual wheels for the rear. For the single wheel setup I'm guessing it would take around a 15in wide wheel to fill the wheel-well. Thats my real main concerns right now and I don't wanna cram all my questions into one single post. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

What you're wanting to build is commonly referred to as a "phantom" dually so some net searches on that will probably turn up some of the info you're looking for.

Arrowcraft sells conversion fenders. http://www.arrowcraft.com/index.php

It can be tough to find good used dually fenders for these trucks as they're fiberglass and almost always busted up, from abuse, tires blowing out, etc. believe it - it's not easy.

Richard

yeah I'd seen them referred as a phantom dually and did a search or two on some search engines but I never really found any sites with start to finish projects describing any of the main questions that I'm lookin for. Found several pics of phantom duallys but most I saw were running dual rear wheels/tires instead of the single wheel setup. Maybe I just wasn't lookin in the right spot???

Well, it's kind of a trend that died in the late 80's/early 90's if you ask me, so that might explain the lack of info out there on the net. That's kind of pre-web-forum as far as truck enthusiasts go.

Not saying you shouldn't build one, it's your truck and do whatcha want. Only matters that you like it. Screw what others might think.

If you can't find any online info time to look up wheel specs and start doing some measuring. Overall width of your rear end - from wheel mounting surface to wheel mounting surface - and however much extra width the dually fenders gets you. Keep in mind those Arrowcraft conversion fenders look like OEM but are not direct replacements for them, so you might want to check with them how much extra clearance they give.

Pay close attention to the tire size you're picking too. You're looking at the typical pro street type fatty that is sold by Mickey Thompson, Hoosier, etc. so there may not be a lot of sizes available.

By the way there was/is a guy here with one, if you search through the photo post forum you might find him. Haven't seen him post in a while so Idunno if he still has the truck or not.

Richard

I did a conversion on my old 95 ext short bed. I extended the frame 19" to change to a long bed and got a used bed w fenders. I also got a front frame clip for the front suspension and brakes. I end up using the calipers and disc only as I bought a set of 3" Bell Tech spindles ans springs. I also did a flip kit when I had the bed off and a mini "C" notch. It was a pretty straight forward.

I had a buddy that did the 1 piece spool rims in the rear of his dually. I think it took M/T 33X18X16 tires, and it looked awesome!!!! This thought stuck til it started to rain one day and we were towing a small utility trailer... WHOOAAA NELLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Take these F&^&$&ING things off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was a squirrely ride even without the trailer in the wet! I think he drove it til the tires wore and bought new rims and tires for the back.

Thanks for the tips guys, as for extending the frame to accomodate the longbed, my truck is a short bed and I'd like to stick with a dually bed the same size. Would the bed from a short bed dually be a direct fit for my truck? May be a stupid question but I just wanted to make sure it would fit before taking time to find one and spending money on one. Anyone remember the username of the guy you mentioned above that that has a phantom dually??

Shortbed dually beds are very rare. Just buy the fenders for your bed.

You can definitely slap the dually fenders onto your shortbed, you just have a good chunk of trimming to do to the bed sheetmetal and a lot of drilling for the mounting studs - after a lot of careful measuring and marking. My bud built one over at my shop last year out of a half ton shortbed. He went real 1 ton suspension though and installed a full floater DRW rear, and dually spindles/rotors/upper control arms up front.

We had another dually on my lot that we took the fenders off of, so he had a factory dually bed as an example. I used brown paper on a roll (like masking paper) and aligned it with the body line below the bedrail, taped it to the bed, and punched through everywhere that had a fender mounting stud. Taped extra pieces to go down to catch the lower holes. Worked great.

The factory dually fender will cover the gas filler door by about 1". The rare factory shortbed dually fender has a cutout there to clear the door. I think the conversion fenders may be similar. What my bud did was chop the gas door instead, which came out pretty nice. Since the truck was flat black you really didn't see it, and it flowed better than having a scoop shaped cut out of the dually fender.

Richard

Welcome to the site!

agreed /\/\/\

leave a regular ole shortbed and just hang some dually flares on it.

thanks for the info Richard, since you "broke" it all down where I can get an idea what I need to do I think I just might go that route and just invest in a set of dually fenders which should be fairly easy to find around here. I'm thinking of going with 1 ton suspension/rear end in the rear also so I can run the 8 lug dual wheels. Now I just need to figure out how exactly I'm going to lower the rear. I'm thinking a flip kit but I'm going to take it a step at a time so I'm not so overwhelmed!!

Crazy as it sounds, there's very little difference between the half ton and the 1 ton frames, they are different yet they follow the same profile and have many of the same mount points. The leaf spring width is the same too. You can hang that 14 bolt full floater off your half ton springs and run a flip kit, no biggie. You will note with the 1 ton flip kit that you need to fit that axle, the braces may be a little large for the slightly shorter profile of the half ton frame. Careful mockup before any drilling or welding will pay off here.

To run dually style 8 lug fronts, you can install 1 ton upper control arms, spindles, rotors, calipers. The upper control arm mounting pockets on the frame are in the same place so it's literally a bolt-in. The lower ball joint has the same size stud so the spindle drops right on.

Traditional static drop lowering methods are no different than with the half ton. Drop spindles & drop coils for the front, flip kit for the back. I'll guess your current drop is a 2/4, using spindles up front and shackles & hangers out back. Obviously you'll need to replace the spindles with 1 ton versions if you want to run the 8 lug wheel. Out back, unless you want an excessive amount of drop, you'll need to put the stock hangers and shackles back in before doing the flip kit or you'll end up taildragging. Spindles & springs up front and flip kit out back makes a nice level low ride.

Richard

Richard thanks again for all the info!! It's not sounding near as bad as what I'd first imagined, I'm going to start by finding some rear fenders and trying to locally locate a 14 bolt rear

I've yet to find any dually fenders for a shortbed chevy. Is it just me or are these unusually hard to find??? If anyone knows any links where I could find some it would be greatly appreciated. Only ones I found was on arrowcraft.com and I couldn't find any prices on a pair of flares

Shortbed dually trucks are very hard to find. You can get the fenders off any dually you can find since you are having to drill your holes anyways. Only problem you may run into is the gas door on the bedside.
Also I am pretty sure that Arrowcraft no longer sells the conversions for these trucks.

I also have a set of fenders that need some glass repaired on them if you are interested in doing some work on them.