GS:
WTF, Over? You're playing with fire.
Mucking about with a dually hub, leaf springs, or a heavier rear end is not going to cure what ails you.
My Oh-*expletive deleted*it-O-Meter spiked after reading your load-out & looking back at your rig. Put plainly, I would not drive people or critters I cared about in a rig & load-out like you described. You are a danger to you, yours, and everybody else on the road nearby.
AZRH44 speaks truth:
You are flirting with disaster by overloading your vehicle like that. You are one blow-out away from you, your wife, your dogs, and all your stuff scrambled over four lanes of highway after losing control and rolling that overloaded rig. Doesn't matter how great a driver a you are, the physics is going to kick your ass, as mass at velocity is unforgiving...especially with a COM as high off the pavement as I suspect yours is. No amount of fiddle-f****** at the margins is going to change that.
Lemme put it to you this way: I refuse to get a boat no matter how much my wife whines and cajoles because my tow vehicle is marginal. I am not going to move family in a rig (tow veh, trailer, load) that is marginal, no matter how much crap I get from my wife.
I have driven marginal & overloaded rigs for
work. I was very,
very careful and managed to make it happen. But, I was only risking myself, my employer, and my co-workers. My wife, kids, and dogs were in the future.
I see three options:
1. Reduce your load-out
dramatically,
RFN, starting with those overhead bins.
2. Hitch a utility trailer and carry the bulk of your load in the trailer. (Electric or inertial trailer brakes? Yes, please, cause the vehicle is already marginal.)
3. More
vehicle in your rig, however you put your rig together.
And, for the love of God, take care and give your rig the hairy eyeball every time you stop.
Heck, those three options could be a glide path to your objective.
Money is tight most places and I assume it is with you. There are options out there that can do what you want to do at many different price points. I think Tallpine is on the right track: you have fixed it up a bit and it might be time to sell.
For instance, a 1980s vintage GM 3/4-ton HD pickup in good repair with the old 6.2L diesel will haul a 5th-wheel horse trailer heavily loaded with gear, tack, and 7 horses. It won't do it as fast as a spanking new GM/Ford/Dodge PU with their monster diesel engines, but you will get to your destination safely and such a rig will handle a blow-out or most other mechanical failure without catastrophic results. Same thing, if the PU as a 454cid gas V-8, you just use twice as much fuel and get to rebuild it every 100K miles.
You can safely get away with less vehicle if you tow your load in a 5th-wheel/gooseneck trailer than if you must have it all loaded on your vehicle's chassis. Tallpine's suggestion of a 2-ton/HD commercial chassis is what you are going to need to haul all that load on the chassis. Hauling the load on-chassis is also going too require more $$$ than towing the load.
Good luck and stay safe, GS. Sorry about my blunt presentation, but I am sure sugar-coating it would not be a kindness.
