Vanilla Gorilla: 2017 Power Wagon build

[marshal]

Great looking truck. Smart and well thought out choices on your mods. Can't wait to see the next installment.

I'll be interested to see how you like the rack in the long term. We have a fiberglass cap on ours and I keep thinking a bed rack would be a lot more practical for what we do.

thanks! I ordered the wheels day before yesterday. They were cut yesterday and are going to power coat on Monday. I'm hoping they'll ship out from the Seattle area on thursday or friday which would put them in my possession some time the following week. Once those are on I'm going to start working towards sliders, and hopefully by May, Expedition One will be finished with my bumpers and we'll have them on a truck out to me. Then, a few auxiliary lighting mods, and a communication setup and its pretty well set with the exception of some different smaller modifications that will happen here and there.

Makes sense in theory but in reality you've got an 8000# truck. You are only pushing it so hard on the road. The extra sidewall makes a big difference in ride. You'll get some of that back by going with 37s though.

I love that there are multiple 4th gen Ram builds happening on the site at the same time. That wasn't happening when I bought my 2014 and it's awesome.
Keep the updates coming. :smiley_drive:

Mine shipped out right at 6900lbs with a full tank of fuel. all said and done and loaded up for a trip i should be somewhere in the 7500-7600lb neighborhood. Not that 500lbs is worth noting semantics over - but, im trying to keep the truck as light and as nimble as possible within reason. I've already saved a good 1000lbs over any Cummins powered builds purely by engine choice alone.

That increase in ride comfort isn't really something im concerned with. Im already happy with how the truck rides, and any other improvements to the ride i want to make i can do through shock valving and coil selection. stock for stock, the power wagon springs are considerably lighter sprung than the Cummins ones you were dealing with. I think its important to bare in mind when considering the PW's is that their spring selection has lowered their payload capacity to a mere 1500lbs. the GVWR is in the mid 8000's. Plus its also that weight that keeps my mind on the 20" rim. Its fairly easy to drive through the sidewall stiffness of a 37R17 tire with 8000lbs behind it. Now i know this is no sports car and trying to keep handling in order on something this big and heavy with a recirculating ball steering box is pretty frivolous - but i'll do what i can to help it.

Anyway - i appreciate your thoughts on the matter and i hope you'll agree when i have everything set up in a few weeks that it was a good choice.

 

[marshal]

trying to do the math up on what tire pressures i need to start with to develop a baseline.

i came up with 46/48PSI for max load on the new tires with the OEM 30% safety margin. anyone want to check my math and see if what i came up with is accurate?

Untitled by Will Marshal, on Flickr

 

[Bayou Boy]

There are actual tables put out by the TRA that give actual rating at different pressures for every tire size imaginable. The easiest to find is the one from Toyo below. Your tire size is on page 27 but the load range there doesn't match up with what is on Falken's website and your calcs. Falken's own load table does not show that size either so I shrug my shoulders as to what you should do. You really need to find an actual table for your particular tire before assuming that the weight/pressure ratio is constant throughout the range. I'd bet it's not.

https://toyo-arhxo0vh6d1oh9i0c.stackpathdns.com/media/2125/application_of_load_inflation_tables_20170203.pdf

Toyo's book has the exact calculation method for extrapolation. I didn't take the time to check your math but you probably should compare your method to theirs.

What I did for my truck was used the factory 6000# FAWR for my front pressure since that wouldn't change at all for my setup. I used a weight of 5000# on the rear axle giving me about 2000# payload there over my 3000# axle weight. My truck actually has a 7000# RAWR so I could always add air to get up to that.

I'm also not sure where you found that factory safety margin as my truck most certainly did not have that stock. The factory tires at door pressure were a couple hundred pounds over the axle ratings and I'm assuming that is probably since they rounded up to the next 5psi number rather than using single digit figures. My impression is that the rating is the rating and no safely margin is needed is the tires are used as intended. PMetric tires on trucks or trailers do need to be derated but that is spelled out in the tables. As an aside, my Diesel 3500 has the same 65psi for the front axle on the door as your truck but it does have 80 for the rear.

 

[Bayou Boy]

BTW I just realized that your 127 LR is exactly the same as my 315/70r18s. I'd try my pressures of 45F/35R to start and go from there.

 

[marshal]

I’m using the tire pressure/weight loads that are molded into the sidewall of the tire. The factory specs are 60 front and 65 rear. I did the math up in the weight of my truck vs the load rating of the tire and found a 30% margin from what was spec’d and what it actually weighs.

 

[Bayou Boy]

I'm using the tire pressure/weight loads that are molded into the sidewall of the tire. The factory specs are 60 front and 65 rear. I did the math up in the weight of my truck vs the load rating of the tire and found a 30% margin from what was spec'd and what it actually weighs.

You'll be fine with the pressures you calculated but being that your particular tire/load index is nowhere on any load table I'd take the time to shoot Falken a message asking for the inflation table for that particular tire. You may find you can dump another 10 psi in the rear for a better ride and longevity.

I'm also very surprised that Ram specified Load Range D tires for the PW. That makes zero sense and stinks of cutting costs.

 

[Bayou Boy]

BTW are you still happy with your HIR headlight upgrade? I had to do a lot of night driving on a road trip this past weekend and I'm done with the stock setup.

 

[Tex68w]

BTW are you still happy with your HIR headlight upgrade? I had to do a lot of night driving on a road trip this past weekend and I'm done with the stock setup.

Ditto, the stock lights are garbage.

 

[marshal]

You'll be fine with the pressures you calculated but being that your particular tire/load index is nowhere on any load table I'd take the time to shoot Falken a message asking for the inflation table for that particular tire. You may find you can dump another 10 psi in the rear for a better ride and longevity.

I'm also very surprised that Ram specified Load Range D tires for the PW. That makes zero sense and stinks of cutting costs.

i just sent my contact at Falken a message. He's the product manager for LT, so if anyone has it its him. I'll let you know what i find out.

BTW are you still happy with your HIR headlight upgrade? I had to do a lot of night driving on a road trip this past weekend and I'm done with the stock setup.

Ditto, the stock lights are garbage.

yeah, really pleased with the upgrade. I've finally sourced an LED that looks like it might be a winner for fit inside the projector housing. Its not the brightest at 3000lm (HIR1 is roughly 1900-2000lm), but it has good color at 5500K, isn't over driven and has a 4 year warranty. I'll keep you guys apprised as it unfolds. Im hoping to get a set from the manufacturer to verify fitment and test out.

 

[Tex68w]

I've finally sourced an LED that looks like it might be a winner for fit inside the projector housing. Its not the brightest at 3000lm (HIR1 is roughly 1900-2000lm), but it has good color at 5500K, isn't over driven and has a 4 year warranty. I'll keep you guys apprised as it unfolds. Im hoping to get a set from the manufacturer to verify fitment and test out.

Please do, I am very interested in upgrading the lights, the quad-beam LED's on my Superduty absolutely destroy the PW's lights, it's down right pathetic how much worse they are.

 

[Bayou Boy]

I'm really thinking about just doing the HIDs from Retroshop and being done with it. The price isn't bad at all.

 

[marshal]

I'm really thinking about just doing the HIDs from Retroshop and being done with it. The price isn't bad at all.

its your call, but i would encourage you not to do HID's without doing a full retrofit. The Retrofit Source has a 4" FXR drop in projector that replaces the stock one. This would also allow you to use OEM components. A proper HID retrofit shouldn't cost less than $1000 all said and done. Anything less than that and you're cutting corners some place that is going to compromise quality and reliability.

 

[marshal]

pulled the data card from the GRDIAN camera so to show you guys what the video quality is like during the day and night

Day
[video]https://youtu.be/38Z--v-NwyI[/video]

Night
[video]https://youtu.be/lX_KYGcUt-A[/video]

 

[LimaMikeMike]

I'm also very surprised that Ram specified Load Range D tires for the PW. That makes zero sense and stinks of cutting costs.

Powerwagon factory tires have been D loads since 05. D loads are used as opposed to E tires for sidewall flex. The tires spec’d actually have the same weight rating as the same E load tire, but for some reason are rated as a D load.

 

[LimaMikeMike]

yeah, really pleased with the upgrade. I've finally sourced an LED that looks like it might be a winner for fit inside the projector housing. Its not the brightest at 3000lm (HIR1 is roughly 1900-2000lm), but it has good color at 5500K, isn't over driven and has a 4 year warranty. I'll keep you guys apprised as it unfolds. Im hoping to get a set from the manufacturer to verify fitment and test out.

I'd be interested in what you find, I was looking at the PUTCO zero space led designed for the ram projectors, but I'm wary of anything PUTCO