Wheel spacers for Dually

[Dave e Victoria]

Bubba will need new shoes before summer and I am exploring options. Is anyone with a dually running spacers either with stock or larger tires? I vaguely remember looking at the tire spacing when I was hooked up and running 75 psi and found I had about 1/2 inch when standing still. Stock tires are 245's. I'd like to go with 265 Micheliens but suspect I would need 2 inch spacers. Also seems like spacers might be a good idea even with the stock tires. Opinions?

[LonnieB]

Dave,

The shoes ol' Bubba's wearing now are 245mm ( 9.645 inches ) wide, the 265's are 265mm ( 10.433 inches ), a difference of 20mm ( .788 inches or roughly 3/4 inch ). I personally don't like to see duals any closer together than 3/4 of an inch, but I've noticed several GM's as yours are.

They make some very good steel spacers with studs pressed in, that come in a couple of thickness'. In between the studs are holes for the OEM studs. After the inside tire is put on, the spacer is set in place, and the lug nuts are installed and torqued to specs. Once that's done, the outer wheel is installed on the spacer plate studs, and the lugnuts torqued to specs. If you have 1/2 inch of clearance now with the 245's, and you want about an inch with 265's you will need a spacer about 1 1/4 inches thick.

I have seen other spacers that just have holes for the OEM studs, and they probably work okay, but the thickness is limited by the length of the OEM studs. If yoy have at least 1 1/4 inches of threads protruding from the lug nuts now, they might work for you, but the other style is better.

Hope that is some help, and not too long winded.

On Edit - Sorry Dave, I didn't really answer your question. We don't have any trucks in our fleet running spacers at the present, but we have used them in the past with ecxellent results. We do have one Dodge that could use them now, as I put some wider tires on it a few days ago.

[Cat320]

Dave...my 07 Classic dually (2wd) has 215/85R16 as stock. Educate me here...what is the reason to get a larger tire?

[Dave e Victoria]

Bert,
You are right. I misspoke before. I have the same tire as you have. But I want to check through my options. The stock spacing unloaded is about one inch between the sidewalls. That is right at the DOT recommended minimum. There fore, I am wary of changing the tire dimenson at all without adding a spacer..
The first reason I contemplate a larger tire isI have had such good luck with Michelien in the past especially when I increased tire size ever so slightly over stock.. A second reason is the dually is near useless in soft sand. A larger tire with spacers would allow the tire to be run down in pressure to get out of the sand when we off road in Mexico.
Dave

[BillyRay]

even with the 4x4?