White-knuckle barely described it. I was all over the road. Every passing truck pushed me half-way out of my lane. Would I ever dare let MsBoyink take the wheel?
Our first drive in Sally was an eye-opener.
Our truck and fifth wheel was a very stable rig going down the road. Semi trucks would pass us and I’d hardly notice. The stress of driving was more about the length and height than keeping it on track on the road.
Then we drove Sally.
Like a Houseboat
Years ago we rented a houseboat on the Mississippi River. It was a 55’ box on the water. Steering was a constant see-saw of correcting one way then the other.
Sally felt like that houseboat.
I stayed in the lane - on average.
One advantage of buying an older Class B is that there are years of experience out there to draw on. I searched for handling issues on the 1990s-era Pleasure-Ways and Road-Treks (also built on the Dodge platform).
I found various solutions including wheel spacers, rear anti-sway bars, and airbags.
4” Narrower
I discovered that these ‘90s-era Dodge vans have a 4” narrower wheel track in the rear vs. the front. Once I read that, the difference was obvious. I always thought the rear of these vans looked a bit….doofy.
The theory is that by having the rear wheeltrack that much narrower than the front you catch different parts of the road, which leads to the instability. Installing wheel spacers in the rear would make the wheeltrack the same as the front which should help.
At $110/pair the wheel spacers were the cheapest fix. I decided to try them, and look to the other solutions if they didn’t work out.
Even if they didn’t solve the handling issues, Sally’s rear stance wouldn’t look so doofy.
I ordered these spacers.
Installation
Installation was straight-forward:
- Remove rear wheels
- Slide spacers on
- Install lug nuts on spacers, torque down lugnuts
- Install wheels onto spacers, torque down lugnuts
I just received mine in the mail today 5/30. Got steel ones for $370 from wheeladaptor.com. Looked at the rear sway bar, way too crowded back there. Can’t wait to install them.
@joseph - I think I could fit the sway bar, but after putting the spacers on don’t need to. Hope your results are similar!
From others it seems it works well. While the wheels are off I’ll check the shoes and let u know how they worked.
Hey, nice blog! I’ve been eyeing the rear spacer mod as well lately. It’s on my to do list. Like you, I would love a wider wheel/tire combo on the back, but that’ll rule out tire rotations… Have the spacers you bought held up well? I’ve been debating on whether I need all steel or if alloy will hold up under the weight.
yes, they are fine.
Thanks for the comments!
Yes, the aluminum are fine. I’ve a good friend who is a pro mechanic. He has a collection of trucks, vintage Jeeps and Blazer. He run aluminum spacers on most of those rigs and doesn’t baby them. He’s never had an issue.
Hi Michael:
I’m wondering if any of your readers have similarly satisfactory results from installing 2” wheel spacers on a wide-body Class B.
I have a squirrelly 2002 Ford P-Way Excel and am considering installing 2” spacers.
Also, are you still an aluminum spacer advocate (rather than steel) ? 5 tons is a lot of weight on that aluminum.
Thanks for the helpful blog.
Hi Dennis,
Mike didn’t research the wheel spacers for a wide-body because we don’t have one. ;)
Shaun above asked about the aluminum. Check out Mike’s reply about your comment.
How have these held up so far? My finger has been hovering over the purchase button for a few days, the thought of a rear tire passing me on the highway is scaring me.
Great write up. Thank you, this was very helpful. Getting recent “old school” Ram Van info is rare.
I bought a 90 RT versatile last year. I put in stiffer shocks which improved the handling allot. I’m interested in wider read tires. What was the rear tire/wheel size suggestion from your mechanic?
Also, how do you like your tires? My RT came with new cooper tire all seasons, the sidewalls are squishy/soft but they are quiet on the road. I see allot of Offroad style tires on our style of vans on pinterest, usually jacked up, but I figured that they’d be noisy.