1998.5 Dodge Ram CTD - Sally

[UglyViking]

Looks great man! It def looks like it came from the factory with a special package, which is really the best for interior mods I feel.

How did you do the texture on the switch mount and stick ring? Was that just from the plate while you 3D printed?

 

[frojoe]

Looks great man! It def looks like it came from the factory with a special package, which is really the best for interior mods I feel.

How did you do the texture on the switch mount and stick ring? Was that just from the plate while you 3D printed?

Thanks! I'm beyond stoked at how "integrated" it turned out. For the Atlas sticks, I'm in the middle of hashing out decent 3D prints for top caps, with debossed lettering of "F" vs "R" for the left and right sticks, and a little factory-like diagram of "L-N-H" for position.

The texture on the top is just the print plate, which honestly looked close enough to a "factory rough texture" that I rolled with it. It did require the visible textured surface to be flat (not an issue for these specific pieces) and for the part to be oriented/printed upside down, which required a bit of forethought for the backsides of the parts in order to not have any difficult/extreme overhangs that might print poorly.

Just before these Dodge parts, I did spend the better part of a week trial-and-error'ing to find a good surface finish for a multi-faceted part printed at an off angle, for additional gauges on the Nova.

It turns out the best resolution and surface finish smoothness (only in terms of the print quality) is to angle the part so that there are no surfaces that are directly vertical or directly horizontal, and ideally the priority surface that is desired to have the best finish quality is printed at about 15deg off of vertical. I then dusted the parts with satin black spray paint about 5-6 light layers with no shaking of the can, to get little paint globs building up a slightly rough sandpaper-like texture, instead of glassy smooth.

 

[UglyViking]

That is super clever man! Thanks for the info there. I'm interested in seeing how some modeling goes once I go down this route.

 

[chris_the_wrench]

In the effort of making things more streamlined and ergonomic, I had an idea to make rocker switch "pods" for either side of the steering column, and since I got a 3D printer in October 2024, this was finally possible to do in a not-tacky "obviously aftermarket" manner.

Did you somehow 'scan' the dodge profile there to generate the correct curvature for where the switch block mounted?

 

[frojoe]

Did you somehow 'scan' the dodge profile there to generate the correct curvature for where the switch block mounted?

I cut maybe 4 or 5 versions of the curvature out of cereal box until I got the extreme ends to mate to the plastic panel nicely, then did a 3rd cross-section horizontally, then took pics of those curves and then projected them onto planes in my 3D modeling software. That got it close enough, and I did maybe another 3-4 rough/quick test 3D prints until I got the entire perimeter of the plastic pod mating nicely to the plastic panel.

 

[frojoe]

Been a little while since I posted here.. not too much to report on the Dodge beyond the rear bumper as the last big project. I did remove the aluminum headache rack I made, to make the cab visually appear a little "smaller", as well as get a factory Dodge sliding back glass installed.

Once the headache rack was gone, I moved the VHF antenna to a mount that bolts to one of the bed rail holes previously used to mount the rack, to lower it a bunch and be much more out of the way for over-cab branches in these PNW woods.

The time driver for the sliding back glass install was that I was about to go do the Rubicon at the beginning of August, and don't have A/C.... so any improvement of airflow was welcome haha.

It was a great crew, 10 rigs spanning the entire size range, fuel range, and aftermarket-vs-fabricated hard parts.. and everyone was ********* rad...
- 2X 2nd gen Dodges
- 2X Samurais
- 1st gen 4Runner
- 2nd gen Tacoma
- Jeep JK
- Jeep JL
- stretched Jeep TJ
- homebuilt single seat electric buggy (super cool)

Just enough carnage to keep things interesting, but nothing too serious. It was mainly the white JL and both Samurais.

And I'm sure you've come across the Cybertruck Rubicon fiasco, well he pulled into the trailhead as we were gearing up the first morning, and entered trail right after us, and kept leapfrogging our group 3-8hrs after we'd already arrived at the day's camp and were chilling.

Watching this thing struggle was painful, and the tales spun by the various electric enthusiast articles online as well as the influencer owner himself... well, to be polite.. they didn't reflect the attitude and the capabilities of the driver, spotter, and rig that we all saw in person.

And every time we saw it, it was quite literally getting dragged over every single obstacle. Oh well, to each their own. But I was truly worried about how well the "beefy fabricated skid plates" would be considering it was going to belly out over every single obstacle the entire way.. in a hot and dry remote California forest..... Oh well, end of rant.

Samurai #2 getting the rear diff inspected and a little welding action on a couple sheared lunchbox locker pins...

 

[frojoe]

The Samuraii #1, the blue one.. aka "hers" of the "his and hers" Suzukis of the WheelEveryWeekend couple Brittney and Ian.

She fabricated this front 3-link right before the Moab trip last fall, where I first met them, and this thing FLEXES, almost too much.. it is so willing to unweight the front end, and combined with the nonexistent wheelbase, it likes to get tippy/flippy without the front winch in suckdown mode more often than not.

Arrived at Buck Lake for evening #2. We ended up staying there for two nights because it was so nice and relaxing, we all needed a break from out hectic jobs/lives...

My friend's shortened 2500 long bed (now 6ft bed) attempting Soup Bowl. A couple other rigs attempted but no success, the dust and rutting at the bottom was just too slippery..

Some horrendous quality stills from portrait mode videos sent to me haha. Man I'd love to get some actual quality action shots of Sally flexing over stuff she doesn't really have any place being...

 

[frojoe]

Descending into Rubicon Springs, we only passed through, with the plan to hang out for lunch and a dip, and then climb Cadillac Hill to Observation Point and then camp out there for the night.

I'm really, really happy with how the rear bumper turned out, and how functional it was.. I still hit it a lot more often than I thought I would, considering it's something like 36" off the ground when at ride height, and probably 44-46" off the ground when the rear tire is fully dropped out to the point of having air below it.

The typical group pic at the top of the climb at Observation Point.. from here on out it's ~12miles of rough but reasonable rocks, ruts, two-track gravel/dirt and the occasional small rocky obstacle.

The two Dodges emerged with zero part failures, which was nice considering we both had 16hr drives home to Vancouver, BC, and the majority of the other rigs were trailered in/out.

The Dodges also had by far the most amount of tools, application-specific (our Dodges) spares, as well as universal kinda-fix-it random parts on board. We helped the group out some, but not as much as we maybe normally have to.

All things considered the Dodge emerged with minimal damage.. definitely less than I was preparing for and expecting..

Super happy with my decision to wrap the tube rear bumper around the corners, I used it as a rub rail a lottttt more than I was expecting, and it probably saved a tail light at least 3 or more times. Nice.

 

[shabba]

Rad trip! Always envious of the wheeling/camping combo you guys have out west. For such a long trip how do you deal with your gear in the bed staying dry? Not sure I’ve seen a soft topper on a ram before but it would look sick IMO. Nice update post @frojoe

 

[Mekcanix]

Awesome!! Glad to hear everything worked as you had expected it to

 

[ThundahBeagle]

The Samuraii #1, the blue one.. aka "hers" of the "his and hers" Suzukis of the WheelEveryWeekend couple Brittney and Ian.

She fabricated this front 3-link right before the Moab trip last fall, where I first met them, and this thing FLEXES, almost too much.. it is so willing to unweight the front end, and combined with the nonexistent wheelbase, it likes to get tippy/flippy without the front winch in suckdown mode more often than not.

Arrived at Buck Lake for evening #2. We ended up staying there for two nights because it was so nice and relaxing, we all needed a break from out hectic jobs/lives...

My friend's shortened 2500 long bed (now 6ft bed) attempting Soup Bowl. A couple other rigs attempted but no success, the dust and rutting at the bottom was just too slippery..

Some horrendous quality stills from portrait mode videos sent to me haha. Man I'd love to get some actual quality action shots of Sally flexing over stuff she doesn't really have any place being...

Coors Banquet to the rescue

 

[ThundahBeagle]

Rad trip! Always envious of the wheeling/camping combo you guys have out west. For such a long trip how do you deal with your gear in the bed staying dry? Not sure I’ve seen a soft topper on a ram before but it would look sick IMO. Nice update post @frojoe

Not sure about him, but I have a Leer 180hard top shell. Prior to that? Tarps, ropes, ratchet straps, even a big cargo net to hold it all down. Gotta wrap the tarp up in such a way, though, everything in it like a Christmas package that's only open on one end, and protect that.

 

[frojoe]

Up here it is so rainy in the winter (read: slippery roots, rocks with zero traction, off camber trail just asking for a downhill slide, mud pits) that we don't do much proper wheeling unless you have a 700hp buggy and are ready to get rowdy and WOT bounce around.

If the weather is simply moist, but we're not in full winter rainfall mode, and it isn't unpleasantly cold.. we'll do a more simple just-camping trip, and any of the very-few dry items I would otherwise have in the bed, I'll slide into the back of the cab.

But the major things in the bed are all-weather... I use two of the Plano hunting storage trunks.. those are great, they have good latches so the lids won't fly/fall off, they are strong so they can be really wedged/stacked, they have a good lip around them so they are totally rainproof, and they're rigid enough I can stand on one.

I generally won't take the fridge unless it's a middle-of-summer trip.. so if it's sunny as hell. However the Ironman 4x4 cover I sourced for my IndelB fridge seems to do a good enough job of keeping direct rain off the fridge exterior and the settings screen/buttons.. at least in the 4-5 years I've been running the cover, I haven't had any weird electrical or other running issues with the fridge if it rains.

I also have two "wet weather" duffel bags that are kinda Gore-Tex material with sealed zippers that I put my recovery gear in.. one bag is for easy/quick straps of a few lengths, kinetic rope, and some soft/hard shackles. The other duffel has spare winch line, winch extensions, two snatch blocks, a couple tree saver straps, and even more soft shackles.

Other than that, the bed will usually have a wheel chock or two, the fullsize spare tire, at least one 5gal water jug, a shovel, and if it's turning into a particularly rough trip.. a couple shackles and a 20ft strap ready to be put to action.

 

[shabba]

@frojoe makes sense having all weather stuff in the bed and sounds super useful having the all weather bags. @ThundahBeagle ive had a lear 180 on my old Tacoma and an ARE DCU commercial cap on my Chevy and I loved both. Have also had access tonneau covers on both. I think my next move will be a soft topper to get the ease of lots of dry storage and the ability to drop it when need be to haul things. I’m also in an out of a city often so it’s nice to have things out of sight. Might be worth looking into Milwaukee packout boxes. With their bases and the ability to lock into one another it would be nice for things to stay locked into place.

 

[frojoe]

I still have the color-matched canopy for it that I bought it with (and now the truck's peeling clearcoat has caught up with the canopy's non-existent clearcoat!)... but with the tight trees we have as well as the rock wheeling down south (and the much more difficult access inside the toolbox and everything else stacked in the bed with a roof overhead) I just don't see a big need for a canopy on the truck (either the hard one I own, or a new soft top).

If my wife and I do another long distance camping trip, I'd entertain throwing the fiberglass canopy I have back on it, and doing a revision of my onboard spares/tools to gain some additional storage space, considering a trip like that would be less hardcore and more about just being outdoors for an extended period of time.