[ihc] The truck that shouldn'a been bought. Or, B130 parts, anyone?

[David Raistrick <keen@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Gah.

So, between the title issues (which I won't get into here. involves the
PO, PPO, and PPPO, plus the wonderful State of Washington Dept of
Licensing and their research department), and now the
wheel/axle/drum/hub/wtfever stuff, this truck is really annoying me.

Just yanked another front tire, and did some comparisions with the dual
wheel.  With the dual wheel, tire-center sits right at drum center (and so
one can assume bearing-center.

With the single 3/4 ton wheel, the tire-center is a good 2-3 inches off of
drum-center...and really, pretty obviously sits further out under the
fender then designed.

And, of course, there is no way to safely mount the 3/4 ton single wheel
on this front hub/drum.  Even if I just crushed all the domes flat, the
wheel STILL won't sit square...the flat mounting surface of the 1 ton drum
completely prevents this.

FYI, this is a '61-titled-as-a-'60 B-130 2wd with stock drums (designed
for dually wheels), and 4 3/4 ton single wheels mounted.  For those who
might try it in the future...Don't. (archive fodder)  You'll just mangle
your formerly straight 3/4 ton wheels.



So my options, to make this truck safe:

 Have Diamond or Stockton build 4 custom wheels, 2 fronts with an offset
to match the dually fronts, and 2 rears to put the load properly on the
rear bearings, as well.  And a spare that'd be a compromise.  And make
sure they build the wheels with a /flat/ mounting surface, coined to fit.
 $1000

 Axle swap with a 3/4 ton 2wd IH truck of some vintage that's already
designed to work with single's, and find 5 wheels, too.  Stick with the
6x7.25 and use 60-68 axles, or move to 8 lug with 68-73 axles.  A lot of
work, and I'm still stuck with drums.
 $??? Probably under a grand, pulling parts from a rustybucket or wrecked
 truck.

 Axle swap with a Chevy/GMC 3/4 ton (or 1 ton single-wheeler) and gain
disks up front. Rear is easy...and could even come from the above
mentioned 60-68. Front, though, seems rough.  Can't easily use a 4x4 front
axle...it will raise the front of the truck about 4-5 inches, since the
hubs, from what I can tell, are directly inline with the axle.  The front
axle on the B-130 drops down to meet the spring mounts, so the hubs are
/not/ inline with the "axle".  It's been suggested I might find an apropos
axle on a Class A motor home, or similar chassis..but that might leave me
with a similar front hub-width problem, with hubs designed to run duals.
 $????  Who knows...

 Or go back to duals.  This means finding 7 good tubeless or split ring
dual rims.  I'll need to dual the Dodge bed, or remove the bed and replace
with a flatbed or custom. Increases the price of tires a fair amount..I
don't have the price in front of me, but I recall around $750 for 5 (split
ring), so add another $300 to that.  Plus say $500 on the /cheap/ side to
get 7 good duals here.  $1500 or so for new tubeless (lowers the tire
costs, though...probably $90 a tire)
 $800-$1680

Grr.

And, fwiw, these are 13" drums up front.  Dunno how wide the braking
surface is.


In the meantime, it's 30 year old bias plys on rims that don't run
anywhere near true, and lugs that don't really torque down.

Sigh.

Anyone want a good parts truck?



--
        David Raistrick    http://www.netmeister.org/news/learn2quote.html
keen@domain.elided	   http://www.expita.com/nomime.html