This GMC S-15 Dually Is Seriously Messing With Our Heads

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The dual rear wheel pickup truck is a phenomenally simple solution to an equally simple problem. See, each and every tire on the road has a load rating, and if you need to pull a bigger load, you might need more tires. However, not every dual rear wheel pickup truck exists out of sheer need for capability. For instance, this 1989 GMC S-15 recently auctioned on Cars & Bids looks like it’s wearing its dad’s suit thanks to a very unusual axle conversion.

Gmc S-15 Dually Interior

If this S-15 was stock, it would still be a curiosity simply due to how well-kept it looks. With fewer than 12,000 miles under its belt, absurdly neat upholstery, and mirror-like paint, it’s a time capsule of the late 1980s, a testament to outstanding preservation. With the optional robust 4.3-liter V6 under the hood churning out and understressed 160 horsepower and 230 lb.-ft. of torque, these little GMCs are great trucks that will get you everywhere you need to go.

Gmc S-15 Dually Profile

Of course, this S-15 is a curiosity because it isn’t stock. It’s almost like someone took a one-ton Sierra and run it through a shrink ray. Sure, the period-correct cab visors may have something to do with it, but the star of the show is this little truck’s six-wheeled status. Yes, someone has crammed a dually axle under the frame, which means that each rear corner sports two wheels. A massive set of fender flares cover the extra rubber, and high-offset front wheels finish the look.

Gmc S 15 Dually Underbody

So why might someone turn a GMC S-15 into a dually? Could more tires equal more capability? Theoretically, they might, but legally, GCWR is GCWR. Just because you can pull more than your truck’s rated at doesn’t mean the state will be okay with it. Traction also probably isn’t a huge issue in an S-15, so it’s unlikely that the extra tires are there to assist in the perfect launch. However, questionable performance characteristics really don’t matter here. The extra wheels definitely improve the truck, but probably not in the way you’d expect.

Gmc S-15 Dually Rear 1

A small pickup truck with a dually conversion makes for a great visual prank, a way of screwing with peoples’ sense of scale. Is it far away? Is everything else huge? It’s a gasoline-powered double-take generator in addition to an artifact from a different time. Minitrucking wasn’t all spokes and hydraulics, you know.

Gmc S-15 Dually Rear 2

In any case, whoever paid $11,555 for this GMC S-15 dually spent their money well. Clean, stock examples of these trucks now go for a proper mint, so this pristine dually conversion seems like fantastic value. Like a Lamborghini, it could turn you into an overnight celebrity. Unlike a Lamborghini, there’s no whiff of Bitcoin about it.

(Photo credits: Cars & Bids)

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35 thoughts on “This GMC S-15 Dually Is Seriously Messing With Our Heads”

  1. Back in the mid 80’s, I had an early S-10 with 4cyl and 5 spd manual. Great little truck that I owned in Germany. Bought it 2nd hand off another GI. Added a non-stock exhaust consiting of a 24″ glasspack and a zoom tube exiting just behind the cab on the pas. side. Loud as hell, and truthfully didn’t sound all that great.

    I used it to haul a Harley Superglide with the tailgate in the up position, along with camping gear, a tent, etc. Load weight unknown but substantial. Little bastard pulled it all at 80 mph on the autobahn. Many nice trips around Germany. Got a lot of thumbs up from the German drivers!

    It was beautiful dark green with gold pinstripes and a camel interior. I installed a nice aftermarket stereo from the PX with multiple speakers. The stero didn’t get much use due to afore mentioned LOUD exhaust. Traded it to yet another GI for a GEO Tracker before returning stateside.

  2. Thats weird that its still the stock axle. Figured it would have had the axle out of a dually, chopped and narrowed to fit under the s10. Also that 7.5″ 10 bolt is fine in a stock s-10 unless you drive like Cleetus McFarland in a burnout contest.

    Believe it or not the 4th gen fbody used that same dinky axle. 340ish stock hp from the LS1 and clutch dumps would frag one of these pretty quick. Especially if you were at the drag strip running a sticky tire. The 7.5″ did hold up better in the automatic cars and didnt give you grief if the car was stock. And you didnt drive like Cleetus

  4. Back in the ’90s there used to be a company that sold dually conversion kits for the Ranger. They used to show up in the back of the old truck rags like 4-Wheel and Off-Road. Being 16 at the time and my first truck being a jacked up but somewhat clapped out 4×4 Ranger, I thought a dually conversion was about the coolest idea going. (It’s painful now to admit that). Thankfully I didn’t have to money to actually buy the kit, that truck barley moved under it’s own power with just 4 tires, 2 more would have sealed it’s fate.

    1. I knew a guy who had one of those dually Rangers. Brother in law at the time, year 2000. He removed the outer rear wheels, said something similar about lack of power. He left the flares on so it looked kinda silly.

  5. I’m still amazed that all you Murican consider this pickup “small”. To my socialist European eyes this truck is pretty large and would have problem fitting to a stanard parking space…

  6. My first vehicle was a 1986 Chevy S10 extended cab that the previous owner had swapped a 4.3 v6 from an El Camino and 4.10 gears. He had tow mirrors installed and it had a 5th wheel hitch in the bed with air shocks. I wonder if they’re related is all I’m saying.

    For a 17 year old, that thing would 1 wheel peel for days

  7. Local junkyard had a fleet of dual rear wheel ford rangers to run between their chain of yards and doing deliveries with. They were neat had metal sides about a foot tall and a tailgate about same that folded down.

  11. However, not every dual rear wheel pickup truck exists out of sheer need for capability.
    I’d wager in the Phoenix Metro about 10%, the other 90% are slammed, rolling coal, slammed and rolling coal, or “big man need big truck big”, with a 3 inch exhaust and an 8 inch exhaust tip.

      2. Yeah that is how the kits are done that use a dually style wheel. There used to be ones that used the SRW style wheels with really big spacers google Ricka dual wheel, those were the ones that JC Whitney used to sell.

    2. I’ve seen one of those duallies running around my area, still putting in work. I had been wondering what kind of nut puts a heavy duty axle under an 80s or 90s something compact pickup. Never would I have guessed Toyota themselves were that nut.

    3. U-Haul used to have Toyota box trucks with dually axles too, so either Toyota was making them for commercial sales or the same outfitters that added the van/camper bodies also installed new rear axles to handle the extra weight. With the 22r and a small house’s worth of furniture in the back they must have had a 0-60 time of NOPE.

    4. My father had a 1991 Toyota one ton. It was single rear wheels, not dually, and had the 3.3l V6 and 5 speed. I regret not buying that from him, but I was living in the city and didn’t have room for a second car. Some guy asked him where he got the one ton stickers, and he didn’t believe it came like that from the factory. Dad said something to the effect of why don’t you count the 7 leaf springs in back.

    6. I am always amazed how my stock Nissan 2.4l 4-banger just moves right along with 3/4T of gravel in the bed. I’d be tempted to add airbags or extra leafs, but I don’t know what the axle will take.

  15. Those wheels are curious, and look like they may have come off a commercial van of some sort, rather than off a dually GM pickup. Curious. Rear end appears to be stock, which is equally curious. The stock rear isn’t likely to break under normal-ish conditions, but with all that extra rolling mass? Hard to say.

    1. If it’s the stock axle and rear end gears with extra wheels slapped on, I wouldn’t have much confidence in how long this setup will last. I certainly wouldn’t want to load up the bed or try towing with it.

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