1998.5 Dodge Ram CTD - Sally

[redthies]

Thanks for the comments guys!

I do remember you redthies! I keep seeing your username pop up on threads new and old on ExPo and CumminsForum, and maybe even Pirate4x4? I haven't attended a CF meeting in a long time.. not sure why but my enthusiasm just fizzled out.. I think it may have been because of the last time I went how Todd was putting up such a fuss about Memphis not having MGD on tap or bottle.. kinda made me less interested in attending. Do you still meet up with those guys? Yup I still work at Rocky.. allows me to spend my off time tinkering with motorized things!

Todd and his MGD is a running joke with the BC group now. I stopped by at the start of a meet in November to say hi as I was buying a bunch of steel just one street over. I didn't stay for lunch though. I'm not much of a "meet the group" type of guy. I am one of those who come on here to find out about places to avoid humans, not to meet more of them! Good to see you on here though!

 

[frojoe]

I hear ya, as time goes by I find myself looking for more reasons to stay in and do research or work solo in the shop or just do gf things vs going out into bigger crowds and meeting lots of new people, hehe.

 

[frojoe]

So here's the reason for a lot of the mods I did to the truck.. my gf and I had been planning on a 3-week adventure exploring our province of BC at the end of August 2016. We made a whole bunch of stops all over the place, but the general loop we drove is on the map below:

This was night #1 at a Recreation BC site just south of Lillooet, BC, and the rushing creek was a fantastic way to unwind from the busy city summer we had, and a great way to start the trip!

We continued on and got our first bit of backroads driving around Clinton, BC..

We found a neat 6-space rec site about 10+km up a rough access road I think around 10 Mile, but the name of the lake escapes me now..

There were several different directions of backroads leaving the rec site, and on paper in the map book it looked like there was a rough connection that would link back up with the highway about 11km.. well that turned into a complete dead end so we backtracked that to the campsite, then all the way back to the highway.. it was bumpy!

As we got more northern and things got colder and a bit damper, we got impatient with waiting for the fire to catch! I knew there'd be a good use for bringing a jerry can of gas with us, added to the compressed air!

Oh and knobby tires come in handy even when sitting still, hehe..

 

[frojoe]

Continuing on, we were exploring as many backroads and random things leaving the main highway that was could. Still in the southern part of BC, essentially anywhere south enough that thebackroad dirt was super dusty and dry, we were crossing paths with cattle.

I think we managed to camp out next to a lake every single night!

On our way to heading up to Dawson Creek, I heard a pop, then no boost at all.. uh oh! Luckily it was just the coupler between the piping leaving the intercooler and the intake horn. But it had started pouring rain, so there I was trying to dry off the coupler and and mount it back up.. eventually got it clamped seemingly well, then about 2km later, pop and no boost again.. I don't know how that coupler had held on all these years but its fit to the intake horn was way oversized and sloppy. Managed to dry it off and clamp on again, then turned the Edge programmer down to Level 0 (stock) and babied it up all the hills for about 20km until we arrived at Chetwynd.. at 4pm. We think spent about 1hr checking about 6 different auto parts and tractor supplies shops before trying a Napa on the way out of town and they had a replacement coupler, for a John Deere tractor I think.. didn't matter as it was a 3" OD and within 1/2" of the right length. Changed that and we were off.. to find a campsite for the evening, which happened to be in an area with a downfall warning and the lowest predicted night time temperature in all of BC!

After that fiasco and really wet night just south of Dawson, we decided to press on and continue thru Dawson Creek so we could start the Alaska Highway.. one of the main things we had on our list!

From what we were told the old wooden bridge just north of Dawson, but not actually on the current highway, is one of the last remaining parts of the original highway that hasn't been updated.. everything else was dirt/gravel that's been paved!

 

[frojoe]

We continued along the Alaskan highway, and the weather just started getting more and more miserable.. it was just the start of September and the rain was coming in full force!

We did occasionally get sunny breaks which was nice! And we saw more wildlife!

Another main site we wanted to see was Liard hot springs as my gf had heard from several friends that it's simply epic. And it sure was!

I was about as relaxed as I could be after spending way too much time in the springs..

Unfortunately our concept of time was completely off, and we totally didn't realize that we arrived at the hot springs on a Saturday afternoon.. during labour long day weekend. So the regular campsites were completely sold out, but luckily we were directed to an overflow area... a gravel parking lot! Oh well we made the most of it with fire and beer.. and met some fellow travelers that were living out of the back of a 3rd gen Dodge Ram 4dr short bed.. travelling from Anchorage AK to Maine! It was nice to talk shop with them and discuss living arrangements as they're the only other people we had come across who are living out of the back of the truck and not in a big camper.. travel safe Steve and Karen!

Continuing on.. guess what? More rain!

But the rain seemed to many more sunny breaks than it did down south..

And then things started getting kinda mountainy...

With a splash of serenity!...

 

[frojoe]

Continuing on north to Yukon!

Continuing on to Watson Lake, one of the main things we wanted to do this trip!

We were starting to run low on time, so we didn't venture too far into the Yukon, and pretty quickly after Watson Lake headed south-west with the eventual target of Hyder, AK..

This trip was MUCH more barren than the way up

Of course had to flex out at some point..

 

[frojoe]

One of our favourite places was Boya Lake, it was absolutely gorgeous and serene and relaxing..

Approaching Hyder, it was a bit late in the day to cross the border and go to the Salmon Glacier lookout, so we camped just south of Stewart, BC.

This was another wet night, and we had to do some serious bushwacking to get to this rec site.

Finally, Salmon Glacier was EPIC! This was my highlight of the trip.. the sheer size of everything just make you feel so insignificant!

Unfortunately we didn't get the best weather that day, as apparently it was raining across half the province, but this is what the glacier looks like when it's clear!...

 

[frojoe]

After ~5,000km of driving I found out a couple things about the truck:

1) the combo of Thuren soft ride springs and front+rear Fox 2.0 shocks is just sooo good for highway as well as offroad
2) the typical Dodge steering box slop had gone unaddressed for too long
3) this thing just hauls *** up hills forever at 15-30psi boost at 120kph, and still gets at or under 12 L/100km (~20mpg)
4) I love it, and just want to keep exploring more and more of BC and beyond.

To address the few annoyances I had with the truck, I ordered a RedHead steering box the day we returned, and also used this upgrade as a good time to install a DOR track bar that I had scooped up off Craigslist for cheap but had lying around for about a year.

I initially found the steering extremely sensitive and twitchy, to the point of thinking about getting it tuned to be heavier, but I pretty quickly got used to it and it's so precise at speed that you don't need to think about it or pay particular attention anymore.

I previously made a headlight relay harness for the ebay sport headlights, so that high current is no longer going thru the headlight switch, instead using the headlight switch as a low amperage "signal" to then activate the high or low beam relay sub-harnesses. I used ebay 40A light bar relays which I thought would be sufficient, and used ebay female plugs to plug into the stock single-bulb headlights for relay switchable signals. The crimp on the ebay light bar relay plugs was spotty, and things got hot...

So I replaced with the much better quality relays+harness that originally came with my PacBrake, and crimped/heatshrunk to the existing wiring.

 

[frojoe]

Now that the front suspension is nice and smooth and soft, I have to do something about the rear suspension.

I decided against Deaver long travel leaves because:

1) they're expensive as fuuu after converting to CDN currency
2) they are still on the short side @ ~59" eye-to-eye
3) they retain the factory tension shackle, which hinders small bump sensitivity and overall leaf suppleness
4) they provide a little bit of lift even without any lift block, and I'd like to keep the truck as low as possible

Swapping in softer 3rd gen Ram springs is a popular option, people talk about cutting the rivets and moving stock perches, or ordering new OEM ones, or buying aftermarket brackets to make work. I'm also familiar with how popular it is to swap Chevy 64" leaf springs into Toyotas or anything custom-built. I decided to go with making my own brackets to mount 64" leaf springs.. a 5-leaf 2.5" pack that I can remove leafs from or trim the length of the leafs in order to tune the softness.

I also wanted to retain some height of lift block, so I can adjust the height lower if I need to in the future, and so I have a designed-in block that I can mill the correct angle into to make the pinion angle bang-on. So here's some engineering nerding out...

Orientation of the OEM factory springs (simplified just to have the minimum measurements/data needed)..

Here's my current design...

It uses Thuren 3rd gen shackles because I really like the design of the pivot bushings and overall strength, and it's one less thing to have to design+fabricate, and they also have multiple mounting holes to adjust axle height, or roll axis when combined with different height blocks.

All material is miter-cut stock steel plate, tube, or channel for ease of manufacturing, and the brackets re-use all the existing factory leaf spring perch frame holes. Just because I hate drilling framerails overhead while under a vehicle, and it just kinda worked out.

 

[uscg2008]

I'm thinking of upgrading to one of those steering boxes for my Chevy 2500 since mine is leaking

 

[ExplorerTom]

Those new tires are really well proportioned on that truck now.

You've done some great work on that truck. Everything has its purpose.

 

[RPhil]

Those new tires are really well proportioned on that truck now.

You've done some great work on that truck. Everything has its purpose.

Agreed.

If I had a truck, this is exactly how I would set it up.

Good work, keep it up. I will be following along.

 

[t.Sparks]

Love the build! Also have a 2nd gen cummins that I'm currently building. Very similar to yours with just a few tweaks. FYI, I'm stealing your idea about onboard air:sombrero:

 

[frojoe]

Thanks guys! The point of all the stuff I've added is for increased functionality but with purpose and stealth, nothing flashy or excessive! I'm finally caught up with all the pics & details so the rear suspension design is what I'm currently working on.. hope to buy some material next week and start fabricating!

 

[frojoe]

After using the SuperBrightLED lights occassionally.. I started to wish I had something brighter. I'm not the type to have the 50" bar, plus that wouldn't fit with this overall build, so I went on the search for the brightest 6-8" lgihts I could find for a reasonable price.

The previous lights were the SuperBrightLED Xtra model, $39.95 each, and rated as 6 bulbs/18W total, @ 3W per bulb & 1350 Lumen total, so 75 Lumen/Watt. Overall size was 7.9"W x 2.1"H x 2.2"D, and they fit the plastic shrouds on the bumper cutouts nicely, with a bit more wiggle room, but not much.. so I was looking for a new light similar to this size.

The lights I found were a rebrand of the popular AuxBeam brand, and were oddly cheap.. $39 for the pair, rated as 18 bulbs/90W total, @ 5W per bulb & 7200 Lumen total. So the math on that works out to 80 Lumen/Watt.. which is just slightly better than the previous lights but about on par with cheeeeeap China lights. The Wattage demand isn't a big deal for me since the lights are relay'd and wired to 40A using GOOD components, and the price for them was certainly reasonable enough.

The size on these was ~9.25"W x 3.125"H x 2.5"D.. they'd be a tight fit and I guessed they'd need some trimming of the plastic bumper hot shroud, but hopefully not too much.