Ya maybe that hub concentric spacer will help out but otherwise I would not oval those holes or it sounds like you might run into some problems.

 

Redrilling axle flanges and wheel hubs for a different bolt pattern is fairly common in street rodding and in particular dealing with the early A-body MoPars (Darts and Dusters).

As long as you stick with a 5 lug pattern you can have the new pattern drilled between the existing holes.
I've had this done to several early Dart axles and brake hubs to convert them from their original funky 5x4" bolt pattern to the common 5x4.5" pattern.
Do NOT use weld to fill in the old holes! The heat will weaken the flange and you're setting yourself up for failure. Drill the new holes between the existing ones and leave the old holes alone.

The downside of doing the bolt pattern conversion...
Every time you've gotta replace an axle, hub, or disk it means a trip to the machine shop to have the replacement drilled to your conversion bolt pattern. Probably won't need to do this too often, but it can be a pain in the butt.


As for using the bolt on adapters...
I wouldn't touch em with a ten foot pole! I've seen them fail more than once on the early Darts. Usually what happens is the inner nuts holding the adapter to the hub work loose and the adapter and wheel spit off at the most inopportune time (since they're hidden they get forgotten about). I've seen a few of em that have broken from cornering stress too. This is on 2700lb cars...the forces on em are gonna be a lot greater when used on a half-ton truck.

If you do go with adapters, DO NOT use the aluminum ones...those are the ones I've seen break under stress. Go with billet steel ones if they're available...and if not, I'd redrill the axles.

 

Thanks for the info man.

I also have a call into my buddy at Ford to see if the rear axles on the 05+ trucks are the same size as on my truck. Maybe it is and it just has a different bolt pattern.

The front is a different story. I will have to check that out too.

The machinist told me that it would be a pain in the *** to drill out the hubs because he thinks they may be made of really hard steel? Sounds like he's wrong. he was going to ask some of his other coworkers about it today.

 

The axles and hubs aren't very hard steel. They keep the hardness about mid-range so they're more ductile rather than brittle. Easy to machine with standard HSS or carbide cutters.

The biggest trick is being able to get the bolt circle machined right so things don't get out of round on ya. If there are any shops around you that do race cars, check with them guys I'd bet they've done some redrills.

 

yeah and procomp isn't going to make anymore 5x135, and neither is any other company.. our bolt patterns suck...i've been trying to find some nice 20"s for the last year and half

 

Ok I just talked to Inland wheel center.

What they do is elongate the hole and add a steel spacer to make the wheel hub centric.

I think that's the route I'm going to go.

I'm gonna talk to my machinest then probably order some 5x5.5 bolt pattern wheels.

 

look into this, I'm curious as to how many wheel manufacturers do this. Sounds like it'd be easier (and cleaner) to just drill the holes the way you want em rather than hacking up some wheel hubs.

edit: did you ever talk to your Ford guy about using newer axles in your truck?

 

I called pro comp and they don't sell blanks....I don't know why.


Yea I talked to my ford mechanic. He didn't know, he said that would be something that the parts guy would have to look at.

I just went ahead and ordered the 5x5.5 wheels and some adapters. I'll run it for a while and if I don't like it, I can try to get something figured out with some axles/hubs from a junk yard.

 

how soon will you be putting it all on?

 

Probabaly the first week of sept.

 

What kind of BS do those wheels have, and with the added adapter, how far do you think they will stick out?

Be sure to post pics and let us know how those adapters work out. I'm curious to how those affect your ride. I never thought it would be that big of a deal, but if you are off-roading and using large tires i can see how it might be. I'm sure there are a lot of guys on here that are in, have been, or will be in the same situation as you.

 

The wheels have a 5.25" Back space. so they will stick out 5.25" from the original hub. With the 1" adapter it will be 6.25".

So if I'm correct, I think it will stick out about 3" more than the stock wheel.

Which doesn't seem to bad to me.

I'll post pics back on this thread eventually.