Post by neil on Jul 23, 2012 19:19:42 GMT -5
I figured I would kick this one off.
My tow rig/ general purpose truck is a Dodge ram 2500 4x4. Extended cab with 8' bed.
I've got over 200k on it, and never really any trouble. It is only a 5.9 gas and not very good on gas mileage, but it doesn't lose much at all towing, and considering that my CJ,trailer,camping and wheeling load with the truck puts me considerably up there in weight,over 15k,I can't complain.
It's lifted 2.5 in the front and 3.5 in the rear with 33's. I did run 35's for a while with 4.88's, but it drew too much attention, so I went back to 4.10's with 33's.
About a yr and a half ago, I could feel the torque converter getting spongy,so I opted to rebuild the whole trans given the mileage and heavy use. While doing so I increased the clutch packs in the front drum with a new drum,used red altos with new steels and greatly increased the number of clutches on the direct drive and OD packs. Shift kit, and anything else that needed to be freshened. I went with a 1800 stall converter with a 3 clutch lock up,making it a true 1-1, which dropped my lock-up R's 300-400 rpm. This may be why I jump to 4.56 gears to get my rpm back up where I like it for towing.
I did a cam swap about 2 yrs ago now with a comp cam to .487 lifts and near stock overlap and valve timing, which meant setting the heads up with custom length pushrods, higher rate springs,locks and hats. This didn't change my mileage any,but over 3k, she's and animal.
Custom exhaust that is 3" with magnaflow cat and muffler. This worked out beautiful compared to the flowmaster I had on it before. The magnaflow keeps a quiet idle and nice sound when your in it,unlike the deffening drone and noise of the flowmaster ( must be getting old ).
I bought the truck with 158k on it and I probably only put on 5-7k a yr on average, but have never had a problem with it. I bought it from the original owner for whom I maintained the truck for almost 4 yrs prior to me buying it. Nothing like buying a vehicle you know.
I absolutely love this truck, I just wish it were a diesel and a 5 spd., maybe even a dually.....
I just bought cross drilled and slotted rotors for up front along with EBC 7000 brake pads. Last yr I had a pen-dot worker cut out in front of me and stop dead while towing and smoked the front rotors. I finally got sick of acctually requiring the trailer brakes and am finally replacing and upgrading. Can't wait to have awesome braking back while towing.
I also run a superchip tuner on it, which by the way is far better than most out there with the custom tailoring updates on line to accomodate upgrades done.
The next thing I have to tackle is the rusting body. Typical era dodge rust. I'm glad it went way longer than most do, but it is time to start replacing rust for new metal and paint. Still beats a payment.
My tow rig/ general purpose truck is a Dodge ram 2500 4x4. Extended cab with 8' bed.
I've got over 200k on it, and never really any trouble. It is only a 5.9 gas and not very good on gas mileage, but it doesn't lose much at all towing, and considering that my CJ,trailer,camping and wheeling load with the truck puts me considerably up there in weight,over 15k,I can't complain.
It's lifted 2.5 in the front and 3.5 in the rear with 33's. I did run 35's for a while with 4.88's, but it drew too much attention, so I went back to 4.10's with 33's.
About a yr and a half ago, I could feel the torque converter getting spongy,so I opted to rebuild the whole trans given the mileage and heavy use. While doing so I increased the clutch packs in the front drum with a new drum,used red altos with new steels and greatly increased the number of clutches on the direct drive and OD packs. Shift kit, and anything else that needed to be freshened. I went with a 1800 stall converter with a 3 clutch lock up,making it a true 1-1, which dropped my lock-up R's 300-400 rpm. This may be why I jump to 4.56 gears to get my rpm back up where I like it for towing.
I did a cam swap about 2 yrs ago now with a comp cam to .487 lifts and near stock overlap and valve timing, which meant setting the heads up with custom length pushrods, higher rate springs,locks and hats. This didn't change my mileage any,but over 3k, she's and animal.
Custom exhaust that is 3" with magnaflow cat and muffler. This worked out beautiful compared to the flowmaster I had on it before. The magnaflow keeps a quiet idle and nice sound when your in it,unlike the deffening drone and noise of the flowmaster ( must be getting old ).
I bought the truck with 158k on it and I probably only put on 5-7k a yr on average, but have never had a problem with it. I bought it from the original owner for whom I maintained the truck for almost 4 yrs prior to me buying it. Nothing like buying a vehicle you know.
I absolutely love this truck, I just wish it were a diesel and a 5 spd., maybe even a dually.....
I just bought cross drilled and slotted rotors for up front along with EBC 7000 brake pads. Last yr I had a pen-dot worker cut out in front of me and stop dead while towing and smoked the front rotors. I finally got sick of acctually requiring the trailer brakes and am finally replacing and upgrading. Can't wait to have awesome braking back while towing.
I also run a superchip tuner on it, which by the way is far better than most out there with the custom tailoring updates on line to accomodate upgrades done.
The next thing I have to tackle is the rusting body. Typical era dodge rust. I'm glad it went way longer than most do, but it is time to start replacing rust for new metal and paint. Still beats a payment.