Explorerinil, good point on the gears. I called and spoke to Diesel Power Products yesterday as well as AJ at Northridge. I think my two options for gears are factory AAM and Nitro gear. When I spoke to AEV last week they told me to run 4.30 gears (of course they are biased), but none the less, I won't be pulling a 17K 5th wheel or goose neck with 40 inch tires on the truck. I will however be loaded with a lot of gear and pulling a jeep on a tongue pull trailer as well as my offload trailer on occasion.
I think you are correct about the fuel tank. The more I think about it the more I would prefer to keep as much bed space available as possible, plus, it would be good to keep the weight of the tank and fuel as low (center of gravity wise) as possible without compromising clearance. I am working with Nemesis to build a set of skid plates for the truck and I don't think it will be that difficult to engineer a skid plate for the Titan spare tire fuel tank. In talking to the owner, I think it would be nice if they built a package for RAM trucks (expedition rack - skid plates for Engine, Trans, Tase, Fuel tanks maybe a cab mounted rack/basket and some storage solutions).
The RAM assist from PSC, is it a complete kit including the box or do you have to send them your box, they drill and tap, put the kit together and return to you ? I absolutely think it is a must, these trucks weigh a lot and I have to believe with all the weight and 40s it is going to want to chew up the steering gear and steering components.
Did you replace the factory ball joints in your truck with Carli ball joints? AEV sets the factory pieces are fine, but I am suspicious of that advice...
My ball joints are still stock, I will replace them once they fail with carli or dynatrac, I’ll do a free spin hub kit at the same time. Don’t be fooled, these stock ball joints, larger tires, heavy bumper and a winch will kill these ball joints quickly. When you rotate your tires, once the tire is off the ground grab the top with one hand and the bottom with the other, see if you get side to side movement... once you do replace them ASAP, I had once fail on the interstate and snap off once.
When I bought my parts from PSC, they sent me a new tapped gear box, they took the old one back and gave me cash back. There was 2 dirrerent rams when I bought mine, one with the larger piston ran slower, smaller piston ran quicker... me doing everything in overkill got the larger piston, I could feel the piston moving slower than the steering if you were steering fast. If I did it over again, I would get the larger piston ram every time. I could steer my truck easily with 36x14.50 tsl radials, which and bumper... truck steered like a sports car. I will put a psc hydro steering kit on my truck within the next year or so. Check AEV, I think they sell some of the parts, get on AEV forum, I think someone posted something awhile back.
Awesome truck and build, truck looks like mine, I’m partial to white dodge trucks! You just need a caravan camper shell now for the ultimate build.
