My GMT400 K3500 Suburban has the exact same GAWR as the 1 ton dually pickup of
the same year...1996, 6,000 lb RGAWR, so think you will NOT
gain anything with a conversion kit
I've helped convert a few and posted a pic of one saw out on the street (didn't
know that fellow)
It is more than just GAWR, but the stability of a much WIDER track and 8 side walls
rated Load Range E
BenK wrote: Have helped several buddies and their friends convert 8.6K GVWR Suburbans into
a Suburban Dually.
Two reasons...one guy is a fashion statement based and wants the baddest Suburban
he can get. The other two guys want the stability of the wider track (stance) and
the 4 extra load rating E sidewalls.
Here is one saw the other day, didn't have anything to do with this one, but it
gets the idea across on why someone would want to do this.
I considered this for my 8.6K GVWR GMT400 Sub, but since also off road, the
wider track is NOT wanted. Already a whale and to make it even more of a whale
is just not going to cut it for me.
Did simulate it in a way and why my track is about 10.5" wider than OEM, but not
as wide as a dually. Same wheels except for the offset. Alcoa Classic
alloys, 16x10 with a negative 1.5" offset. Since wider than the 6.5"
stock and stock is plus 1.5" offset plus 20MM wider tires.
My rear axle assembly is the exact same as the 1 ton dually of the
same year. The brakes are the same except for the cylinder and MC.
They are larger bore on the 1 ton dually, but I've changed mine
to them too...why my sig, tongue'n cheek says K3500
-Ben Picture of my rig
1996 GMC SLT Suburban 3/4 ton K3500/7.4L/4:1/+150Kmiles orig owner...
1980 Chevy Silverado C10/long bed/"BUILT" 5.7L/3:73/1 ton helper springs/+329Kmiles, bought it from dad...
1998 Mazda B2500 (1/2 ton) pickup, 2nd owner...
Praise Dyno Brake equiped and all have "nose bleed" braking!
Previous trucks/offroaders: 40's Jeep restored in mid 60's / 69 DuneBuggy (approx +1K lb: VW pan/200hpCorvair: eng, cam, dual carb'w velocity stacks'n 18" runners, 4spd transaxle) made myself from ground up / 1970 Toyota FJ40 / 1973 K5 Blazer (2dr Tahoe, 1 ton axles front/rear, +255K miles when sold it)...
Sold the boat (looking for another): Trophy with twin 150's...
51 cylinders in household, what's yours?...
I've had SW and duallys with equal rated rear springs in pickups, granted I had to modify one or two of the singles, but at the end of the day, if you take a sw with a 7500 grawr, compare to a dually with a 7500 grawr, there is not difference! Reality, I went from a 6400 to an 8400 lbs spring pack with my old 96 CC, same handling as my dually with equal trailers. There was a difference in the old truck from 6400 lbs springs to 8400 lbs springs.
Yeah, if you want to compare a SW to a dually where the suspension is 2000 lbs different, then yes, their will be a difference. Even in pickups, equal to equal, there should not be a lot of difference if any.
marty
Thats my point though. There is only one factory SRW pickup that I know of in history that had a 7500 lb RGAWR and that was the '73-'79 F350 Super Camper Special, that used 16.5" super singles in the rear and the same frame, axle and suspension as the F350DRW cab/chassis truck of the same years.
All other 1-ton SRW pickups in history that I know of are mostly 6000 lbs RGAWR and some later model F350 and GM3500 SRW's with now up to 7000 RGAWR. Not a single one of them, except the Super Camper Special, comes close to matching the RGAWR of any similar year dually as the SRW. When SRW's were at 6000 lbs RGAWR, duallys were at 7500. Now that some SRW's are up to 7000 RGAWR, the dually's are at 9500+.
The SRW's are never going to equal the DRW's in weight carrying capacity and handling ability at those DRW weights. You have to do extensive and expensive modifications to a SRW to make it remotely similar to what the dually can do factory stock, for very little purchase price difference between stock SRW and stock DRW pickups.
BenK wrote: My GMT400 K3500 Suburban has the exact same GAWR as the 1 ton dually pickup of
the same year...1996, 6,000 lb RGAWR, so think you will NOT
gain anything with a conversion kit
Unless I'm really out of the loop here, GM never made a K3500 Suburban. They made C/K1500 and C/K2500 Suburbans only, that I'm aware of. They made C/K1500, 2500, 3500SRW and 3500DRW pickups. The dually pickups had 7500 RGAWR. The 2500/3500SRW's had 6000 RGAWR, except the light duty 2500's that had closer to 5000 RGAWR.
And WHAT IS WRONG with putting an 8500 lb spring pack on a SW rig that came with a 6400 lb pack, add an appropriate size tire to go to 8500 lbs, and voila! you have a SW rig with the same GRAW as a dually! Nothing wrong with doing this, nor illegal etc. I did JUST THAT with my 96, I have had no difference in towing my 12K equipment trailer between the two. YES, there was a difference in the 96 with the stock spring pack, but with the heavier spring pack, same differences as with the dually.
As noted, even by myself, there is not a stock setup where one in a pickup can get equal ratings, one has to be willing to modify the rig. If one is thinking about going to a dually, they might as well look at ways of going with singles. IE 225-70-19.5 tires in a LR G will be on par with typical dual capacity 35 series trucks! ie about 8500-9000 lbs of tires, add in springs. away you go!
Marty
05 Chev CC D/A LS Dooley
92 Navistar dump truck, 7.3L 7 sp, 4.33 gears with a Detroit no spin
00 Chev C2500, V5700, 4L80E, 4.10, base truck, no options!
92 Red-e-haul 12K equipment trailer
3 Single axle utility trailers
BenK wrote: My GMT400 K3500 Suburban has the exact same GAWR as the 1 ton dually pickup of
the same year...1996, 6,000 lb RGAWR, so think you will NOT
gain anything with a conversion kit
Unless I'm really out of the loop here, GM never made a K3500 Suburban. They made C/K1500 and C/K2500 Suburbans only, that I'm aware of. They made C/K1500, 2500, 3500SRW and 3500DRW pickups. The dually pickups had 7500 RGAWR. The 2500/3500SRW's had 6000 RGAWR, except the light duty 2500's that had closer to 5000 RGAWR.
You are right and tongue-n-cheek say mine is a K3500 because the rear is the same
GAWR and that I ordered the F60 snow plow prep option that gets the
1 ton front springs
blt2ski wrote: And WHAT IS WRONG with putting an 8500 lb spring pack on a SW rig that came with a 6400 lb pack, add an appropriate size tire to go to 8500 lbs, and voila! you have a SW rig with the same GRAW as a dually! Nothing wrong with doing this, nor illegal etc. I did JUST THAT with my 96, I have had no difference in towing my 12K equipment trailer between the two. YES, there was a difference in the 96 with the stock spring pack, but with the heavier spring pack, same differences as with the dually.
As noted, even by myself, there is not a stock setup where one in a pickup can get equal ratings, one has to be willing to modify the rig. If one is thinking about going to a dually, they might as well look at ways of going with singles. IE 225-70-19.5 tires in a LR G will be on par with typical dual capacity 35 series trucks! ie about 8500-9000 lbs of tires, add in springs. away you go!
Marty
Marty, as you may already know, I have 4300-lbs/pack rear springs (8600 per pair, plus whatever the factory overloads are rated at, I think 700 lbs for the pair), 4000-lb heavy duty steel rear wheels and 3750-lb 285-E tires on my F350SRW pickup. That gives me 7500 lbs of rear tire load capacity. My SRW truck also has factory rear sway bar, Bilstein shocks and polyurethane frond and rear sway bar and tracking arm bushings.
The SRW truck does a pretty descent job hauling 4000 lbs in the bed on a daily basis. The chassis handling and steering are pretty good. The braking really sucks though. The rear brakes are too small for the loaded rear axle weight.
The 10.25" SRW axle, however, is only rated to 6250 lbs, so I am overloading the axle by a significant amount, at about 7000 lbs daily loaded rear axle weight, without a trailer attached. So far, the axle is holding up, though I did shear off all 8 axle flange bolts on the right side last year. I have planned to replace the SRW axle with the 8250-lb rated DRW version of the axle for some time now.
Now, I also have a similar year F350DRW truck. The dually, hauling similar weight on the bed as the SRW truck, hauls the same load much more stable than the SRW truck and the braking is significantly better. While my SRW truck does a respectable job hauling so far overloaded as it is, the dually handily wins hauling that weight, hands-down, in every respect. That is part of why I went ahead and bought the dually truck. I also wanted the diesel engine and larger 11' flat bed, instead of the SRW truck's under powered gas engine and small 8' pickup bed.
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