Ok , We bought a 06 D/A to tow our Snowmobiles and it's a hell of a truck. Then out of the blue we bought a toyhauler for the motorcycles. Upgraded tires to 18E's and added airbag's. To me it seems fine and tow's great but keep hearing how much better a dually would be. Went to two seperate dealer's to ask about a 4500 both said I had nothing to gain except duel wheel's as the drivetrain was the same. So my question is since we like our truck that we have and has all options and 50k miles, What would it take to make it a dually? It's a shortbed. Is there any reason all dually's have long bed's. What would it take other than a rear axel and fender flair's? Seem's would be cheaper than trying to buy a new one with the new polution stuff and sell the old one.

You would be better off just getting a used dually if you want to go that route. As for the 4500, your dealer was not quite right. Yes, it is the same powertrain but the tow capacity is much greater with the 4500 because of the heavy duty suspension, beefier rear etc. It is a medium duty truck. Now, you probably don't need a medium duty truck, but I have no idea what you haul. A one ton dually should cover about 95% of a private owners needs.

If you want to convert, you will need at a minimum:

To check and see if the dually rear end is the same width as your rear end now. I think some dually rears are narrower than a 3/4.

Get adapters to bolt up and extra set of tires.

Get a dually bed with the extra wide fenders

1ton springs, otherwise what is the point of having a dually?

tires and rims. Dually rims are a different off set than normal rims.

adapter for the front rims if you want things to look like a traditional dually.

What you gain is a more stable ride with a dually. If you have already upgraded your suspension for increased weight etc then I wouldn't worry about it until you get in the market for a new truck.

Dodge sells a dually with a short bed, called the mega cab. You could also look for a cab and chassis dually they tend to have shorter wheel bases and a flat bed.

I think it could cost less to convert your own truck. It wouldn't take quite as much to swap it over as listed above. If you like your truck then that would be the way to go. You would need fenders from a conversion company, a set of either 4 or 6 wheels, and dually adaptors for at least the rear. The rear dually axle i believe is 4 inches wider than a regular axle but all u would really need are the adaptors for the axle you have. If gm made a shortbox dually i would think real hard about buying one myself.

Arrowcraft. Dual Wheel conversions. Dirty thoughts of my own.

Arrowcraft. Dual Wheel conversions. Dirty thoughts of my own.

I must agree. This is what the Suburban has on it. Seems to fit rather well and looks great. The original receipt from the dually conversion was in the glovebox, and it was like $1600, IIRC, ten years ago for everything needed. I looked over their site, and it appears that they have stuff for almost anything you'd want to convert to a DRW.

Went to arrowcraft website and then called them and the option seams interesting. There disclaimer of course says does not increase carrying weight but when you talk to them they say of course it does that the axle is rated way over the stated limit that the limit is from tires and I would be changing them. To 19.5's Which are 32 inch's. I currently run 275/65/18's which are also 32 inch's so actually could keep the front's the way they are. Not sure how it would look.

dually axle, front wheel spacers, some sort of aftermarket fenders for the rear. There is no (recent) short bed dually to get a bed off of. If you just get spacers to put dual tires on the rear you are going to cause problems with the wheel bearings.