Yes this is what I've understood. So really as long as I get a 4x4 frame I can just swap the front end over. Ideally if I could find a rolling chassis that'd be great, but if not and all I can find is a bare 4x4 frame then I may have to go with that. What all would I need as far as the rear end? I know the c&c rear end is narrower so I would for sure need a different rear end. What about shocks and leafs springs? Anything else?

 

So if you get a bare 4x4 frame then yes the front axle will swap over. For the rear the shocks and springs are the same. Just different amounts of leaves and blocks. The rear end is in fact narrower, But the frames are the same width for both. If I remember right its 38 inches outside to outside the rails. So you will need the rear axle from the pickup. Whether you go single wheel or dual wheel is up to you. But the rear axles are different for dually pickup, single wheel pickup, c&c. They all mount the same on all configurations, just different dimension on total width not spring perch width. I have done the rear swap myself on my 97 from single wheel to c&c rear so I know it all fits.

 

I had a buddy that stuck a regular 8 foot dually bed on his 1998 C&C, worked just fine except for the wider gap between the bed and cab. He made up some sheetmetal spacers and it didn't look bad at all.

Drove it for a couple of years until he dropped a tree on the truck.

 

Okay, so would I be able to use my current leaf springs then? And if I remember correctly from some research I wanna say from backing plate to backing plate on the rear end is 50" for the C&C and 58 or 60" on the regular duallys, so like you said I'd need the rear end from a regular dually. With that said, say I were to just find a rear end without the whole brake drum assembly, could I swap over the backing plates/brake drums etc to the regular dually rear end?

I've really done a lot of reading around about swapping a bed on, and from what I've figured I just don't think it'll be right for me and what I'm wanting to do. Don't really care for the big gap between the bed and cab, having to weld on a custom rear bumper, then having to run spacers on the rear end to get the wheels to sit in the wheel wells like they should be.

 

Yes the springs will work, but remember ride height, you may have to put some blocks from a 4x4 or something to make up the difference. And with that comes longer u bolts to hold it all together. Whatever rear end you decide to use, just make sure you have the floating axles for it. They also vary in length according to application. The brake drums are the same for c&c dually and dually pickup. But with different width dimensions come different length axles.

 

Okay so really if I were to just find a rear axle as a whole assembly out of a non C&C dually there shouldn't be any problems fitment wise with that?

 

One caution I have against the pickup frames is they have a factory rivetted splice in the middle that likes to breed rust and waste away. I've cut up and scrapped both frames of my 2ndgen donors because of this problem. The joint is right where the front leaf spring hanger lands.

The true C&C frames I've seen have a continuous frame rail through that section. Not sure if that hold true for all of them or not....

I also know that SRW to DRW pickup (and vice-versa) the frames are the same.