An axle for a heavy-duty vehicle extends transversely across the vehicle and includes a central portion. Each one of a pail of relatively short and lightweight axle spindles is connected to and extends outboardly from a respective end of the axle central portion. A wheel end assembly is rotatably mounted on each axle spindle. Each wheel end assembly includes spaced-apart inboard and outboard beatings that are immovably mounted on a respective axle spindle, and the bearings preferably ate standard heavy-duty vehicle stock-type bearings that have respective inner diameters that are generally the same size. The assembly optionally includes a bearing spacer having improved length tolerance. A relatively short and lightweight wheel hub is rotatably mounted on the bearings so that the wheel end assembly selectively accommodates a dual-wheel, standard-tire configuration and a single-wheel, wide-tire configuration, including a two-inch offset wheel.