jsd245

I only dealt with him once but I found him to be pretty responsive. he didn't have what I was looking for , but ending up having a couple body parts I needed.

Yeah you never know where to find them. Facebook marketplace and craiglist are also good. I just scored a pristine hood and two NOS fenders for my GA at what I thought was a great price for impossible to find parts. Another good place to check is the Facebook Pilothouse club. Doug Crozier on there often has parts and will ship them.

Yep dually. I took a careful measurement today, 7’4” would overhang on each side’s outside tire a couple inches, so might be ok. Thanks for everyone’s help.

Thanks for the input. Now the guy is telling me its only 7'4" wide. Now I'm wondering if that's too small. ?

Thanks Wally. So I guess 8’ is about right. Seems to look right on yours.

I'm looking at a used flatbed for my GA. I think it will be faster and cheaper that trying to fabricate one. It has I think the right look. But its 8 feet wide. On my truck that looks like it will stock about 6 inches past the tire. That seems too big to me. If anyone is inclined, that has a big truck with a flatbed, could you take pictures of your truck head on and from the rear and tell Me how wide your flatbed is?

You don't think that is an intentional bend do you? On that last picture you show it looks like a sharper change to the angle. Almost like it was made that way? On the first picture and on my truck it looks much more like a gradual bend was put in it from sitting on the bump stops. I guess they are there for a reason, but man, that's a lot of spring to bend.

$430 each. They had a cheaper option that were not custom for Two and change but they wouldn't look right.

Yeah you said that already. These are the same diameter as the original 8.25x20s . That's what came on this truck. I looked at the specs for 8.25 x 20 vs 9r22.5s . Both say 38.3" on diameter. I measure a few of my old tires - they ranged about 37.5 to 38.25". I guess the differences are wear and I didn't check pressure in any of them, I assume some were under inflated. I finally got all 6 on . I am really pleased. I don't really notice any difference in turning force, ride does seem a bit better on my short jaunts - But with no bed on the back the suspension doesn't give at all. So it's tough to tell. Spacing is perfect, and I think the look is right. I was also able to find some decent traction tires.

I thought the bigger truck guys might find this interesting- look at the attached picture. This truck had a dump body in it. I finally got the old dump hoist frame off that i will replace because I a putting a flatbed dump on it. Apparently this thing was routinely loaded so heavy that the bump stops it the rear end and slightly bent the bottom web of the frame. Both sides are identical like this. The spring stack on this are so stiff in the back I'm pretty surprised they could flex that much. I inspected the whole frame pretty carefully. No cracks or bends anywhere else, unless there is something under the cab which is doubtful. So apparently no harm done and I'll bend them back, but I guess this truck was worked hard in its life.

So for those interested- I weighed the old mounted tire and rim vs the new one. New 9r22.5 weighs 168 pounds. Old one weighs 138 pounds. So about 30 pounds more unsprung mass per wheel. So I guess technically Mileage might suffer and it might be a bit harder on the brakes . But probably not enough for me to notice.

So I got the water pump replaced, replaced the failed open thermostat, and replaced the stuck cab heater valve. From what I could see the water passages in this truck look nice and clean. The end of the water distribution tube that I could see didn't have a speck of rust on it. It was I think silver- though I guess it could be brass- the light wasn't good. I'm guessing the antifreeze was maintained pretty well in this truck over the past 70 years. Before and after pics added. I got this truck just in December. Was a truck for a cranberry farm. Spent its whole life hauling sand for the cranberry bogs in Massachusetts. I quite enjoy the hint for parts for this. It's quite a challenge sometimes. My next challenge is modifying the pictured valve to use as vacuum motor for the two speed rear end. The one there works but the spring is so rusted I think it may not have enough oomf to always push it back into low. x

I just had wheels now make wheels for my1.5 ton truck to convert from 8.25x20 to 9r22.5. They did a good job. I know they are buying rim shells and welding in centers, and machining them to specification, so I don't know if this is "true custom" as you indicated. But they were the only ones I found that could do this. Give them a shot. https://www.wheelsnowinc.com/

Pressure bleeder is the only way to go in my opinion. On my truck the MC cap thread is 1/2 npt so it was easy to make an adapter because motive did not have one.

So I”m thinking water pump. The original has quite a bit of play. I’ve had one for a couple months but have been focused on the brakes. I’d post a picture- but everyone knows what a water pump looks like.

Will do, I should have the rest by next week sometime.

So the new rim measures 1 1/2 inches from the straightedge across the face to the rim bead. The originals measure 1 5/8. So very close. I think it's decieiving when you look at them- because of the way the rim is built vs the original. The original rim has that bent over flange that is essentially rivited to the rim shell, so the rim look very flat on its face, whereas the new rim is curved in and welded into the rim shell.

Sure . Yes I think radial will ride better, the only concern I have is low speed turning effort. I know it will be higher. Yet its not like I'm doing 3 point turns on this thing, and alot of that low speed turning will happen on gravel anyway.

Wheels now built custom 22.5 wheels to replace my 20” split rims. I dealt with Casey Krieger.

I’m not sure, I never measured it. It looks to be the same to me. When discussing what I needed to measure with them basically it was just making sure the bolt pattern and deter hole were correct. The offset is really dictated by the dual wheel spacing, you can’t really change it much.

So- those of you who are interested I went the route of getting wheels made. I ordered two to make sure they would fit right front and rear and they fit exactly right. I think they look pretty good and are a very close facsimile of the original steel rim. the 9r22.5 tire seems to be about 1" taller that the old 8.25x20s that I assume are worn to some degree, so very close in diameter. Company that made them was wheels now in Waukesha WI. Very easy to deal with, and responsive, but like the whole World now they had a delay getting the rim shells. Apparently they are stocked for the year now.

Finally- brakes are all done. Pretty much everything replaced front and rear, drums turned, new shoes, wheel cylinders. Luckily the rear drums had plenty of thickness left because they were heavily rusted and grooved. Brakes are excellent in this truck. I was surprised. The booster is clearly working.

Slowly but surely getting through this. Fronts are done. I was hoping the rears would be OK. I have the new wheel cylinders but was hoping to wait until it warms to switch them. Nope. After a few stops with markedly improved brakes (Now that I had front brakes) the drivers rear cylinder let go. I suspected it might because I could lock the passenger rear up on gravel- but the drivers rear seems to be providing no braking. It is also the one with the wrong wheel cylinder. So I guess I gotta get right into the rears.

This site has PDFs with complete harness schematic including colors and lengths of wires. Yet I guess it’s just for the b series. http://dodgepilothouseclub.org/know/wiring_harness/

Yes! That is super simple. Look quite easy to fab up something similar. And I just noticed the you tube video! Thanks Brent you answered all my questions!