New here, 97 CTD with a 69 8' OpenRoads camper

[redthies]

You pretty much nailed it. I know where I live they like to bust guys with two snowmobiles and a sled deck in a half ton. They would probably leave me alone as my rig is also well maintained and sits nice and level with the camper on it. I spend a lot of time traveling through lots of different states, so I am just looking for opinions from others.

 

[bloodyWEST]

I have been busy with the truck. I will start a build thread in the full size forum soon. The camper is off, I bought a camper shell last night. I'm driving to LaPaz in a few weeks for the Baja1000

I decided against the airbags, I didn't want to rip them while wheeling it. I bought "Timberens" giant rubber bump stops.

I talked to a lot of guys about TC's on 3/4t trucks, found out the dodges can come with a variety of rear leaf packs. My appears to be the lightest available. 4 leafs with no overloads. I put on the Timberens last night with the supplied 1" spacer and they are 1/4" from contactinge stops, empty with a fiberglass shell on.

Tonight I have to load the TC back on and thrash to get ready. My plan is to flat tow my wife's Cherokee behind me.

We are heading up to the eastern sierras is weekend. I heard they have some snow on the ground already in LeeVinning where i like to camp. I dont know what campgrounds will be open, we may end up at Virginia Lakes (10,000')

I bought tire chains last night for my big tires ($160 ouch!)


My plan long term is to ditch the TC and get a travel trailer, build my truck into a better trail rig, so the Cherokee won't be neccesary.

 

[bloodyWEST]

And the new bumper

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Wyowanderer]

A little late to the party, but I'll throw in my $.02:
I put bags on my 1/2 ton F150 15 years ago and they're great, I've never had a lick of trouble with them except for the lousy air brake hose and fittings that they came with. Once I threw all of it away and replaced it with better quality hoses it worked flawlessly.
If I could do it again, I'd opt for the bumpers you've purchased, and put new Bilsteins on the truck. I finally put a set on two years ago, and they've helped more than anything else to help the ride quality, especially on dirt roads.
Nice truck.

 

[Overland Hadley]

I decided against the airbags, I didn't want to rip them while wheeling it. I bought "Timberens" giant rubber bump stops.

I have been very happy with my Timbrens.

 

[ExpoMike]

Looks great!

BTW, who makes that prerunner bar?

 

[bloodyWEST]

howdy. just got back from our Eastern Sierra trip. 4 days at Lee Vining creek. I'm having trouble with Gmail right now and emailing my iPhone pictures to myself to put them on here. i could not sort out the death wobble in my wife's XJ in time, so i borrowed my dads WJ. ExpoMike- the bumper was custom built by a local fab shop and welded to the frame of another truck. i bought it on craigs list for $150 then adapted it to bolt into the factor mounts, i took enough pics to do a full write up later.

My drive to LaPaz for the Baja 1000 turned into chasing for a buggy, and just became co-driving for 200 miles. so i dont have alot of time to write this all up. Time to pull the TC, get the fiberglass shell on and prep the truck for Baja.

here are a couple shots from last weekend and from Bodie with my girls

Also added some Ridgid LED lights, pretty impressed so far

 

[bloodyWEST]

i was VERY impressed with the Timbrens. they installed with a ratchet, 2 sockets and about 30-40 minutes. i put the TC on and the back sat 1.5-2" taller than before. i honestly forgot about them most of the trip, the truck drove so much nicer it was amazing.

looking up Toiga pass, the pass into Yosemite


a peek at the back of the bumper, that 4x2" box tubing slides into the original mounting slots, and i hacked up/welded the old bumper brackets onto the new bumper to hold the old chrome one.

 

[bloodyWEST]

here you can see the new lights better. They are Rigid Duallys with amber filters. they make great day time running lights with the filters on.

i think my skid plate needs a few big holes drilled in it. my truck was getting warmer than usual on Sherwin grade going north out of Bishop

 

[ExpoMike]

Thanks a bunch for the pics! Looks great and intergrated into the stock bumper nicely. I agree, some dimpled holes would help airflow. Really makes me wish I would have swapped the H2 wheels off my M1010 onto the Dodge before I sold it. Oh well.

 

[bloodyWEST]

Thanks a bunch for the pics! Looks great and intergrated into the stock bumper nicely. I agree, some dimpled holes would help airflow. Really makes me wish I would have swapped the H2 wheels off my M1010 onto the Dodge before I sold it. Oh well.

haha, i read your whole build thread a few weeks back, when i became active here on ExPo. Our trucks are identical except i have 4.10s and you have 3.55 right? I read about you considering the H2 wheels and i started to laugh, thinking how close our trucks would have looked. the machining really wasnt a big deal. I'm not a huge fan of the look, i wanted stock dodge 16" alloys, but came accross these at a good price. I like them more and more.

 

[ExpoMike]

Yep, 3.54's. I had a great set of H2's on my M1010 and an almost new set of 315/75-17 ProComp tires. As it was, they were only D rated so staying with the Eagle 16x8 wheels, I put 285/75-16 E rated BFG A/T's which at almost 8600 lbs. I am happy I did. Very stable driving with the stiffer sidewalls yet still will work fine when aired down.