Great thread and pictures. Sorry to hear your living in Massachusetts now. As you already stated the overlanding lifestyle is pretty nonexistent here. I live in Southeastern Ma near the RI border so if you have any questions about the area feel free to PM me. I know of some Cape Cod beaches you could get out on with your truck if that's something you would like.
Lady Godiva: 2017 Ram 3500 CCLB Build
- Thread starter Adventurous
- Start date
Adventurous
Explorer
Any of you guys with Cummins powered trucks have experience with the "Battery Saver Mode"? It happened perhaps twice last winter, but it's been more frequent this year, with last night being the first time it has volume on the radio. Temps have been in the teens for a few days now, so it's decently chilly. Batteries are the ones that came with the truck, which would make them about 3 years old max.
I'll have to do some load testing to confirm battery health, but I'm wondering if there's anything else I should be doing. I don't have any accessories installed that could be drawing on the battery and haven't had a multitude of short trips recently. Granted it has been cold and the truck gets run maybe once every 2-3 days.
It has me thinking of installing a two bank on-board trickle charger to plug in at the same time as the block heater and ensure things stay topped off.
I'll have to do some load testing to confirm battery health, but I'm wondering if there's anything else I should be doing. I don't have any accessories installed that could be drawing on the battery and haven't had a multitude of short trips recently. Granted it has been cold and the truck gets run maybe once every 2-3 days.
It has me thinking of installing a two bank on-board trickle charger to plug in at the same time as the block heater and ensure things stay topped off.
My original batteries on my 2014 went out after about 3 years. I replaced them with equivalent group size house brand AGMs from Advanced Auto and had zero issues for the next few years until I traded the truck in November.
These are the one's I used. They are only like $40 each more than regular batteries with 50 more CCA each.
https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/autocraft-platinum-agm-battery-group-size-h7-850-cca-h7-agm/10210826-P?navigationPath=L1*14920|L2*15000|L3*15597
Also, if you do add a trickle charger you only need a one bank. You only have one bank of batteries.
crazysccrmd
Observer
My 2018 with 17k miles does it pretty much anytime the temperature is below 30°F and it sits overnight or all day at work on a long day. I took it to a dealer who said they couldn’t evaluate it without having the code active in the computer, apparently they don’t know how to troubleshoot the system without the manual telling them what to do.
Adventurous
Explorer
Before I launch into this, pictures on the prior page have been fixed. Enjoy, as they depict some pretty fantastic places.
And I'm back with a little bit more content. Things have slowed down a bit as we have settled into a more traditional lifestyle with jobs and the like. To tell you the truth, it is rather depressing coming off a solid year of travel, especially having relocated to where we did. Anyway, enough of the wallowing and onto the content.
I think I mentioned earlier in this thread that being in a tall truck with such prodigious blind spots poses a bit of a safety risk. And thus I embarked on what was a very involved, slightly rewarding, potential remedy to my problems...a backup, forward facing, and blind spot camera system.
I sourced my kit through www.camera-source.com. The kit is comprehensive and of good quality, with an OEM tailgate handle and camera, all of the wiring harnesses, the video switcher module, and the re-program module. The re-program module allows for the kit to function without going to the dealer and having them re-flash the truck to recognize the cameras, which my local dealer quoted $168 to do. Yea, no thanks.
First up was what I thought would be the easiest camera to run, the tailgate. It was fairly simple, take off the access panel, remove the activation rods, undo a couple of nuts, and finagle the old handle out. Reverse those steps to get the new handle in, then fish the wires through the tailgate cavity alongside the current wiring harness. I chose to unwrap the OEM harness where it meets the plastic elbow/cover piece so I could run the wires through that to ensure they stayed put and protected. This left the plug for the tailgate camera roughly in the same spot as the plug for the tailgate, so it is readily accessible if I ever need to remove the tailgate. It looks a little something like this.
20200106_150011 by Tim Souza, on Flickr
20200106_144155 by Tim Souza, on Flickr
Honestly, running the wiring harness from the back of the truck up to the front and doing so neatly was one of the biggest challenges with this installation. I decided to follow the main wiring harness with all of its meandering to and fro, over and under things, through the most awkward of blind passages and in places where I spent 10 minutes trying to one handed zip tie the two together. Probably not worth the hassle, but I'll sleep a little easier at night knowing its done the "right" way.
Once I got up to the front of the truck I had to figure out a way through the firewall. Originally I was going to put bulkhead fittings on the clutch block off plate and have all of my wires plug into that, but in the end I decided it added a layer of complication that was wholly unnecessary. Instead, I grabbed a Daystar grommet, drilled a 1.25" hole in the clutch block off plate, and ran the wires through that. Tada!
20200113_133454 by Tim Souza, on Flickr
The front camera was probably the simplest to install. Remove the grill, measure once, measure twice, then drill your hole through its face to mount the camera. In retrospect, I would have mounted the camera higher, but at the time this seemed like a great location. And it might be fine for some, but with the AEV bumper the view is more obstructed than it might be if it was shifted up higher on the grill.
Untitled by Tim Souza, on Flickr
I ended up removing the driver's side headlight so I could follow the existing harness running up through the fender. From there it went through the Daystar grommet and into the cab.
Now here is where things got a little bit more difficult. The blind spot cameras require disassembly of the mirrors so wires can be fished through. For those who have tried this before, it is extremely difficult to take the mirrors apart without breaking the plastic clips. With the right technique it is possible though, so be sure to study the disassembled pictures so you know where the clips engage. I used plastic tools to ensure I didn't mar up the finish.
20200123_133337 by Tim Souza, on Flickr
With this off you can go ahead and pull the mirror glass. I won't dive into the procedure as it's fairly well documented, but good luck with the tow mirrors and wear safety glasses. Despite much care, both of mine shattered on me. I follow the instructions to aim the camera towards the back of the truck, but my only advice would be to aim them outboard a little bit more to capture the blind spot better. At the moment I get a decent field of vision of the rear of the truck, which would be super handy for towing and hauling, but I'd prefer more blind spot vision.
20200123_133356 by Tim Souza, on Flickr
Once that is done you begin the lovely process of fishing all of the wires through the mirror, which took a good 30 minutes with a couple of picks and patience getting it through the knuckle. It's kind of tight in there, with a few bundles of wires, and requires finding the right opening to try and stuff them down through while using the pick to pull them out the other side. From there the harness goes down into the door and got zip tied to current harnesses.
I spent a good deal of time trying to figure out how to get the harnesses into the truck, and determined there was really only one way. The wiring harness that feeds the door has a plug on the end that plugs into the body, so there is no way to route the wires through the existing grommet. Thus, you will have to use the currently open grommet right beneath the factory harness. It is a bit tricky to access, and it's tucked behind a interior wiring and bracing, but I cut a small hole in this to push my taped loom through. I think snipped a small hole in the existing wiring harness cover and fed it through. I made the holes on the tighter side to try and maintain weatherproofness, but a dab or two of RTV should remove any doubt.
20200123_151614 by Tim Souza, on Flickr
Side view cameras attached.
20200123_154943 by Tim Souza, on Flickr
My biggest complaint with this kit is the fact that the wiring harnesses for all of the cameras are the same, which means that the 25' you need to rear from the back of the truck all the way to the front is 20' of excess for the side view cameras. While one could snip the RCA cable and solder it back together, it would be much, much nicer if they just sent you the kit with shorter leads. As such, I have three coils of wire jammed behind the head unit, in what is already a cramped space.
I didn't take any pictures of the rest of the install, but to break it down, I ran all of the power leads and ground leads to the wiring harness at the back of the head unit where they went into a single plug. The RCA cables plug into the same harness, then all of this stuff gets jammed behind the head unit. Complete the programming step per their instructions, and you should now have cameras!
IMG_20200131_164330_01 by Tim Souza, on Flickr
Mine are currently set so the rear camera can be manually triggered, or it will automatically come on in reverse. The front camera is manual trigger only, and the two side view cameras come on with the blinkers. So far everything works well, but the low resolution of the head unit leaves something to be desired when it comes to image quality. Night vision as is expected from a camera of this size, bright lights tend to get glare-y and obscure some vision, though it doesn't diminish the usefulness.
Overall I would rate it as a decent upgrade. It's not life changing by any means, but it does solve an issue I've been encountering with the truck. Installation was definitely involved, though not too technically difficult, but it will take you a solid couple of days to get it all buttoned up.
And that's it for now. Next up will be the installation of the 4th gen RAM electronics power block and getting my accessories wired up.
And I'm back with a little bit more content. Things have slowed down a bit as we have settled into a more traditional lifestyle with jobs and the like. To tell you the truth, it is rather depressing coming off a solid year of travel, especially having relocated to where we did. Anyway, enough of the wallowing and onto the content.
I think I mentioned earlier in this thread that being in a tall truck with such prodigious blind spots poses a bit of a safety risk. And thus I embarked on what was a very involved, slightly rewarding, potential remedy to my problems...a backup, forward facing, and blind spot camera system.
I sourced my kit through www.camera-source.com. The kit is comprehensive and of good quality, with an OEM tailgate handle and camera, all of the wiring harnesses, the video switcher module, and the re-program module. The re-program module allows for the kit to function without going to the dealer and having them re-flash the truck to recognize the cameras, which my local dealer quoted $168 to do. Yea, no thanks.
First up was what I thought would be the easiest camera to run, the tailgate. It was fairly simple, take off the access panel, remove the activation rods, undo a couple of nuts, and finagle the old handle out. Reverse those steps to get the new handle in, then fish the wires through the tailgate cavity alongside the current wiring harness. I chose to unwrap the OEM harness where it meets the plastic elbow/cover piece so I could run the wires through that to ensure they stayed put and protected. This left the plug for the tailgate camera roughly in the same spot as the plug for the tailgate, so it is readily accessible if I ever need to remove the tailgate. It looks a little something like this.
20200106_150011 by Tim Souza, on Flickr
20200106_144155 by Tim Souza, on FlickrHonestly, running the wiring harness from the back of the truck up to the front and doing so neatly was one of the biggest challenges with this installation. I decided to follow the main wiring harness with all of its meandering to and fro, over and under things, through the most awkward of blind passages and in places where I spent 10 minutes trying to one handed zip tie the two together. Probably not worth the hassle, but I'll sleep a little easier at night knowing its done the "right" way.
Once I got up to the front of the truck I had to figure out a way through the firewall. Originally I was going to put bulkhead fittings on the clutch block off plate and have all of my wires plug into that, but in the end I decided it added a layer of complication that was wholly unnecessary. Instead, I grabbed a Daystar grommet, drilled a 1.25" hole in the clutch block off plate, and ran the wires through that. Tada!
20200113_133454 by Tim Souza, on FlickrThe front camera was probably the simplest to install. Remove the grill, measure once, measure twice, then drill your hole through its face to mount the camera. In retrospect, I would have mounted the camera higher, but at the time this seemed like a great location. And it might be fine for some, but with the AEV bumper the view is more obstructed than it might be if it was shifted up higher on the grill.
Untitled by Tim Souza, on FlickrI ended up removing the driver's side headlight so I could follow the existing harness running up through the fender. From there it went through the Daystar grommet and into the cab.
Now here is where things got a little bit more difficult. The blind spot cameras require disassembly of the mirrors so wires can be fished through. For those who have tried this before, it is extremely difficult to take the mirrors apart without breaking the plastic clips. With the right technique it is possible though, so be sure to study the disassembled pictures so you know where the clips engage. I used plastic tools to ensure I didn't mar up the finish.
20200123_133337 by Tim Souza, on FlickrWith this off you can go ahead and pull the mirror glass. I won't dive into the procedure as it's fairly well documented, but good luck with the tow mirrors and wear safety glasses. Despite much care, both of mine shattered on me. I follow the instructions to aim the camera towards the back of the truck, but my only advice would be to aim them outboard a little bit more to capture the blind spot better. At the moment I get a decent field of vision of the rear of the truck, which would be super handy for towing and hauling, but I'd prefer more blind spot vision.
20200123_133356 by Tim Souza, on FlickrOnce that is done you begin the lovely process of fishing all of the wires through the mirror, which took a good 30 minutes with a couple of picks and patience getting it through the knuckle. It's kind of tight in there, with a few bundles of wires, and requires finding the right opening to try and stuff them down through while using the pick to pull them out the other side. From there the harness goes down into the door and got zip tied to current harnesses.
I spent a good deal of time trying to figure out how to get the harnesses into the truck, and determined there was really only one way. The wiring harness that feeds the door has a plug on the end that plugs into the body, so there is no way to route the wires through the existing grommet. Thus, you will have to use the currently open grommet right beneath the factory harness. It is a bit tricky to access, and it's tucked behind a interior wiring and bracing, but I cut a small hole in this to push my taped loom through. I think snipped a small hole in the existing wiring harness cover and fed it through. I made the holes on the tighter side to try and maintain weatherproofness, but a dab or two of RTV should remove any doubt.
20200123_151614 by Tim Souza, on FlickrSide view cameras attached.
20200123_154943 by Tim Souza, on FlickrMy biggest complaint with this kit is the fact that the wiring harnesses for all of the cameras are the same, which means that the 25' you need to rear from the back of the truck all the way to the front is 20' of excess for the side view cameras. While one could snip the RCA cable and solder it back together, it would be much, much nicer if they just sent you the kit with shorter leads. As such, I have three coils of wire jammed behind the head unit, in what is already a cramped space.
I didn't take any pictures of the rest of the install, but to break it down, I ran all of the power leads and ground leads to the wiring harness at the back of the head unit where they went into a single plug. The RCA cables plug into the same harness, then all of this stuff gets jammed behind the head unit. Complete the programming step per their instructions, and you should now have cameras!
IMG_20200131_164330_01 by Tim Souza, on FlickrMine are currently set so the rear camera can be manually triggered, or it will automatically come on in reverse. The front camera is manual trigger only, and the two side view cameras come on with the blinkers. So far everything works well, but the low resolution of the head unit leaves something to be desired when it comes to image quality. Night vision as is expected from a camera of this size, bright lights tend to get glare-y and obscure some vision, though it doesn't diminish the usefulness.
Overall I would rate it as a decent upgrade. It's not life changing by any means, but it does solve an issue I've been encountering with the truck. Installation was definitely involved, though not too technically difficult, but it will take you a solid couple of days to get it all buttoned up.
And that's it for now. Next up will be the installation of the 4th gen RAM electronics power block and getting my accessories wired up.
Adventurous
Explorer
Anyone have good resources for reading about making your own flatbed? It's an idea I've been floating, but can't seem to dredge up much on design considerations and fabrication.
D
Deleted member 215671
Guest
Might be worth looking on craigslist for a used one or someone looking to trade for a bed. A flatbed is nice for truck campers because you can mount truck bed tool boxes on the side for extra storage. Personally flatbeds have some cons though too. 90% I've seen have rust issues from the beginning. using woolwax (previously fluid film) saved a ton of our work trucks beds. But you also have to think if you are going to pull the truck camper off most flat beds are too wide for truck camper jacks unless you get the dual rear swing out plates and if you ever haul stuff adding stake pockets and building simple wooden side rails etc.
ps. I run the noco gen1 4amp on board battery charger/maintainer. dual battery diesels are wired so one bank chargers will charge them both.
ps. I run the noco gen1 4amp on board battery charger/maintainer. dual battery diesels are wired so one bank chargers will charge them both.