Howdy everyone, new guy here that just bought a Ram Van. Normally I'm a Ford guy but the deal was too good to not buy it. Plus it was just really weird with the dual rear wheels.
Here's the stats:
2002 Ram Van 3500
Dual Rear Wheels (Conversion of course)
70K miles

I plan to use it for family trips and some light towing. I figure it should tow like a champ with the dual rears.
I look forward to learning from y'all.

 

Welcome to the forum! Be sure you verify the towing capacity before just going out and pulling a 10k camper. Lol

 

FYI, if the lettering is stickers and not paint then spray them with Easy Off oven cleaner, wait a few minutes and they'll wipe right off.

 

Nooo lol nothing like that. Just a cargo trailer pulling a Gator and weekend trip type stuff. I looked at the VIN decoder and it said it could pull 8100lbs. It also said the van has HD engine cooling (whatever that means, bigger rad or something?) and an Auxiliary trans cooler. I hope all that is true! I got stuck last year in the dead of Texas summer on the side of the highway pulling a trailer and with 8 people in my 7.3 Excursion when the water pump gave up. That was fun and I don't need a repeat of that event!

I was able to actually peel them right off with just a little heat. Now I just have nice paint surrounding by really bad paint. I'll see what my detailer can do with it. Easy Off is a good suggestion, thank you!

 

That is a really cool find. Don't think I have ever seen dually van like that.

 

Yes I thought so too. I think someone must've visited this site or something. I tried to call the place in San Antonio that most likely did the conversion but they went out of business in 2013 and the owner is dead. So hopefully they just used the wheel adapters and didn't swap out the rear axle or anything. I do have to carry 2 different spare tires which is kind of annoying. It's still weird and I love it so who cares!

 

Oven cleaner is fairly harsh. Easy Off may be more gentle, but I've seen oven cleaner do a number on rubber. If there is any glue from the stickers, use some WD-40 or diesel fuel to wipe it off. A good self cleaning wax, if they still make it, will take the weathered paint down slightly and erase the church markings. If the guy runs a detailing shop, he should know that trick.

As for the rear end conversion, it probably came from the factory that way. Conversion companies order basic vehicles in white. That makes a base for what ever the buyer wants. Although I am wondering if the rear end has the axle stub sticking out or not. It's hard to tell from the photo. There should be a large end tube sticking out in the center of the wheel that holds the axle on a full floating axle. It sort of looks like you have a semi-floating axle. Keep in mind that most 1 ton church vans use the more boxy body. Those don't use fender extensions.

 

I will take a look at the rear axle and post a closer picture. If you look at the link I posted above, there's picture of a Ram Van that looks just like this one. That is why I was thinking it was a conversion. So you think a full floating axle would be a tell-tale sign of it being factory or not?

 

Here's some closeup pictures of the wheel and the end of the axle. I think that looks more like a wheel adapter than an actual dually axle. What do you think?

 

Yeah, that's not a full floater, looks like adapters to me too.