Don's 2022 Ram 3500

[stlaser]

So the two post or four post is getting ordered now?

[Flyin6]

So the two post or four post is getting ordered now?

Not so fast

We're going through a mammoth change, and it looks like a complete reset.

Phase 1: Sell farm related equipment: 75% complete
Phase 2: List/prep the farm and sell it
Phase 3: Allow the dust to settle for a spell (A little while).
Phase 4: Maybe...Go buy some land close buy outside the expensive Boone county.
Phase 5: Build a reasonable house and metal building on said property.
Phase 6: Sell our existing home
Phase 7: Live a completely debt-free life for how many years I/we have remaining.

I think conditions in six months will be very different than they are today. I think we are going to be in a severe recession or depression by late this fall. Everyone is out of money. FDIC is funded at around 1%. I think there are a bunch of bank failures about to happen. Have heard that many investment banks have been firing or laying off their junior VPs a traditional belt-tightening that comes just before a crash. People are stretched to the max, and so is the government. Taxes are going up, prices are going up, but wages are not keeping pace. The financial mortgage business is flooded with another crop of bad paper just like in 2008, except that there is no government bailout money this time, so certain segments of the economy will likely crash.
When I sell the farm, I am going to go into physical precious metal, and some CD's with 90% of the proceeds. Land which costs $5K an acre now will go for 1/3rd or less, and that is when I will buy a piece.
My reasoning is way more complex than just what I stated, but I am confident enough to push ahead with the above plan. We are listing the property on the MLS this coming week.

And when we build that final place, I'll put in my 2-post lift. ;-)

The big caveat to all this, is, that if the housing market collapses, I may not be selling the castle. No one could afford it!!!

[JR]

I just hope it doesn't go to crazy until my slab is poured.

[Flyin6]

I have the electric steps on deck now. As soon as I clear off all the sales going on at my farm, they will be going on

Additionally, I decided to just level it now, so I bought a slightly degraded leveling kit from Tate, a Carli suspension system. I picked up the basic leveling system, their nitrogen-charged steering stabilizer, the track bar, the front control arms lowering brackets, and the greaseable rear shackles.

And I ordered some Firestone airbags to round out the suspension and steering. I won't need much more except possibly getting the bed lined and swapping the tires out to some decent ATs in the stock size. I'll be using the stock wheels.

[JR]

OOOOOO, fluid change!!!

[Dustoff35]

I know you said that the steps were on deck, next to be installed. I would consider putting the Carli suspension items in before the steps. You will gain a few more inches of workspace particularly with the radius arm drop bracket. You have to clamp a drilling fixture to the chassis and get a drill in there between the frame and rocker area. I had to work around my fixed HDX steps and it would have been nice to have the extra room.

[Flyin6]

I know you said that the steps were on deck, next to be installed. I would consider putting the Carli suspension items in before the steps. You will gain a few more inches of workspace particularly with the radius arm drop bracket. You have to clamp a drilling fixture to the chassis and get a drill in there between the frame and rocker area. I had to work around my fixed HDX steps and it would have been nice to have the extra room.

Hmmm...

[dave945]

I know you said that the steps were on deck, next to be installed. I would consider putting the Carli suspension items in before the steps. You will gain a few more inches of workspace particularly with the radius arm drop bracket. You have to clamp a drilling fixture to the chassis and get a drill in there between the frame and rocker area. I had to work around my fixed HDX steps and it would have been nice to have the extra room.

Hmmm...

I think what Duane is saying is that if you get a six inch lift installed first, the step installation would be a piece of cake.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Flyin6]

Well, something happened on the way to Carli!

I ordered the stuff from Tate, but we quickly found out they cannot deliver on the shocks for a minimum of 6-8 weeks.

Tate was good enough to sell me most of the Carli kit I showed earlier, but I had to fend for myself to find the shocks. That was pretty easy, since I am not going to do anything crazy with this truck, I opted for a set of Bilstein 5100 series shocks. Shock Warehouse had them for a front 2.5" lift and a rear 1" lift, which is what the Carli kit would do. So what I will have going on is 90% Carli minus their shock absorbers.

Some stuff has already shown up:

[Flyin6]

Today, after all my domestic chores, I had a few hours to spend installing the Aries electric running boards.

[Flyin6]

From initial examination, they are everything the Amp Research steps are in terms of build quality. This is top-end stuff!

[Flyin6]

Those "Z" shaped nut plates are a perfect fit. You just thread them through an existing hole in the rocker and the other threaded bosses are exactly where they need to be. Really, I was impressed by the precision of that fitment.

After I read through the instructions, then watched an online video, I started with installing the board mounts, three per side. They use existing factory holes where Mopar would have mounted their factory running board. The fit is really good.

[Flyin6]

All six mounts snugged but not tightened

[Flyin6]

The aluminum extrusion that serves as the top step simply hangs on the top of those mounts, then you snug up six lower bolts to complete the installation of that component...Easy-Peasy!

[Flyin6]

Same procedure for the other side.

Next, it was onto the wiring. A power supply cable attaches to the battery, then threads through a hole in the firewall. I have yet to sort that out as time was short and I think that step needs some investigating. I'll pick this up tomorrow.

The instructions did not say which battery to use, so I'll select the driver's side unit.

[JR]

 

[cj7ox]

Driver side battery should be correct. Unless they changed it from the 5.9, the passenger side is for starting, and driver is for the auxiliaries. FYI, don't jump start anything from the aux battery. ;-)

[Flyin6]

Driver side battery should be correct. Unless they changed it from the 5.9, the passenger side is for starting, and driver is for the auxiliaries. FYI, don't jump start anything from the aux battery. ;-)

That's interesting. Did not know any of that.

[Flyin6]

So, I finished the Aeries step installation today. As with anything, there was plenty of detail-oriented work to do to get this thing done. Next up was a partial disassembly of the interior. The wiring harness has a north/south trunk but the main part or bulk of it runs across the back about where the rear seat passenger feet would rest.

[Flyin6]

To make some working room. I shoved some mop handles beneath the carpet to tent it up some. Then I guided the main branch across the back

[Flyin6]

You end up running two LED light leads, and the two running board power leads through a plug in the floor beneath the rear seats. I had to pull the subwoofer to access. Next, you need to run two leads to the rear door latch plates, and two to the front door latch striker.

Aeries uses a cool system of a trigger and a fixed-in-place neodymium magnet.

The targets use double-sided tape, the same as the magnets.

[Flyin6]

The control box needs to go somewhere and close to the trunk terminus, so I decided to mount it in the below-the-floor storage trays.

[Flyin6]

I used some old 3M double sided trim adhesive tape to secure it

[Flyin6]

The front trigger mechanism goes in the same place, below the door striker.

[Flyin6]

The steps come with an on/off switch which I mounted into the dash in an unused trim panel.

Here is the open/closed positions:

[Flyin6]

Short vid of it working:

[JR]

Hmm, so they are steps and running boards.

I like the magnet rip idea. No tapping into the factory harness, right?

Our Dmaxs, well GM just run the batteries in parallel. Think I found my power drain, CD player seems to be cycling all the time.

[Flyin6]

Hmm, so they are steps and running boards.

I like the magnet rip idea. No tapping into the factory harness, right?

Our Dmaxs, well GM just run the batteries in parallel. Think I found my power drain, CD player seems to be cycling all the time.

Steps within a step. You have two steps into the cab with these.

No tapping into the factory harness, just uses magnetic triggers. Pretty simple.

[Flyin6]

Fuel mileage report: 15.5 MPG

Out of approximately 300 miles, around 120 were towing around 6500-7000 lbs at various speeds in hilly country.

I'm good with that.

[Flyin6]

First heavy towing experience today. I have been pulling the dump trailer, #4,200 + big zero turn + spare tire + fuel cans. Call all that #2,000, so combo weight of #6,400.
The truck does that in spades still delivering pretty good mileage and has a lot of power.
Today, however, I loaded that dump trailer up with 10 scoops or about 8 yards of damp mulch. I estimate I was pulling #18,000.
That was an altogether different towing experience. Overall, the truck did just fine, and I found the ride with this totally stock suspension to be very smooth and controllable. The braking with the exhaust brake in play was very good. I was using a high setting for the trailer brakes which helped as it should.
On one section, I needed to climb a steep winding hill and the truck was floored and all the way down to 1st gear at the top! I don't think I ever experienced something like that before. No complaints, though. When the truck dropped into first on its own, it did not lose any more speed. I kept it floored as I crested that hill and it quickly picked up speed back to around 50mph.

It was the most controlled, and comfortable towing heavy experience I have had in any truck, ever.

[Flyin6]

Two mileage reports

First, with mostly in-town driving, idling, and pulling a light trailer:          15.5 MPG

Just completed the first road trip of around 500 miles. Cruise speed 71-73 mph       21.0 MPG

That's flipping outstanding. A heavy 1-ton truck running around effortlessly at highway speeds at 21 miles per smiles.

I hear that these motors do not fully break-in, probably due to their low revs, for tens of thousands of miles. So there is potential for even better mileage.

So far, buying this truck is one of the best ideas I have had with respect to a truck purchase, ever.

[Flyin6]

...And, the parts are mostly in for the suspension change-up. Should be starting on that in a few days.

[JR]

Great mileage.

[Flyin6]

I started bolting on the Carli suspension stuff today.

Getting the stock arms off was more work than I anticipated. Huge bolts and torqued in the hundreds of ft/lbs. range. Additionally, there is no room for an impact wrench, so it is all hand tools...uck!

Today the objective was supposed to complete the installation of the drop bracketry, but there were a lot of tricky little steps that sapped away the time. Additionally, the humidity was up and so was the temperature.

Here is the open box of the stuff I was toiling with.

[Flyin6]

Apparently, I will be doing cross member work too!

[Flyin6]

I wanted to put some protective coating on the Bilstein 5100 series shocks, so I pulled some clear epoxy-like paint from the cabinet.

[Flyin6]

You start by jacking and jack stands, then removal of the wheels, and then the factory shock. That shock sits right in front of the control arm bolt heads.

[Flyin6]

I marked the cam bolt and photo'd it to reference its location for the reinstall.

Removing that axle mount/strut or whatever it's called was a living bear!

[Flyin6]

After a bunch of pounding with a dead-blow hammer, and the installation of some unique crush sleeves. I nearly got the passenger side bracket installed. But now I need to drill a precision 1/2" hole using a supplied drilling fixture. With that done. I can install a 3/4" crush sleeve and a 1/2" rear bolt and that will complete the installation of the right side drop bracket.

These relocation brackets keep the geometry all the same with the front 2.5" lift. The caster stays in the middle of the range and the coils are not bowed. Carli does things right.

[Flyin6]

Well, silly me, I took all sorts of pictures of the second day of the suspension change, and I forgot to first insert an SD card into the camera!

OK, so today's post is going to be a short one.

I drilled in the final holes of the Carli bracket and got all those bolts torqued in. Speaking of torque, it is insane. Except for the 1/2" bolt that sees 130 ft lbs, the 3/4" bolts see 230 and 280 depending on whether it has a thick or a thin nut. So that was a trick for sure working from floor stands.

With that done, I moved to the driver, side and tore all that down. Going at it the second time halves the work time but does nothing for the difficulty. These 1-ton Ram trucks have big heavy parts. Nothing light inside the paint of that truck.

I mounted the second drop bracket the same as the first and reconnected the control arm. From there and even with the front axle on the ground the new Carli springs were still too tall. I used a spring compressor to reduce the overall height and slipped them in with the rubber insulator. I gave everything a liberal coating of WD-40 which helps the springs settle into their final position and then raised the front axle with two jacks.

The final step was the installation of the new Bilstein shocks. With that, the front end is nearly complete. Next, I'll install that adjustable track arm in place of the stocker. Dropping the front axle 2.5" would otherwise shove the axle further out on the driver's side. There is something to do with the crossmember, but I cannot figure out what that is at the moment.

Hopefully, today, I will get that done and well into the rear half, if not fully complete and ready for the alignment rack...We'll see.

[Flyin6]

Day 3 is in the bag, and I am not quite done with it yet. Close but not finished. I have been working to around 1900 each night and I think by adding a couple more hours onto the work time today I could have finished it

First, let me catch up on what went on (Literally) during day 2.

[Flyin6]

The contrast is not good in the preceding pics, I'll try and remember to re-shoot them today.

First up today was the installation of a new steering stabilizer bracket. This was a simple R&R. The new Carli piece keeps the stabilizer in the original spot but removes the entire top half of the mount. Ram really builds things in a robust manner. I think the Carli improved track bar needs the space.

[Flyin6]

Next, I had to set up the new track bar to the correct length, 39 1/8"

This was a very specific procedure, where some threads get anti-seize and others get Loctite. Then 200 ft-lbs of torque is applied to the jam nut. They say all that is critical, and I can tell you, that is not easy. Achieving 200 ft-lbs is not easy, but after torquing, everything still needs to remain in alignment, and that is the real issue here.

[Flyin6]

Comparing the two assemblies, the MOPAR piece is solid, whereas the Carli piece is DOM tube.

[Flyin6]

Next, the bar was installed, and those bolts were torqued to ludicrous torque as well.

[Flyin6]

And, finally, at this point, the difficulty finally relented somewhat.

The next step was just to replace the cross member bolts with the longer bolts that I should have installed two days ago...

[Flyin6]

Then it was on to the rear axle...Finally...!

Here are the Carli 1" blocks

[Flyin6]

I began with loosening the factory U-bolts, then slipping the Carli units into their place, then retightening the new bolts to complete the 1" block installation...Easy!

[Flyin6]

While I was in there I dropped the spare to access one upper shock bolt, then swapped the shocks out as well.

[Flyin6]

Last, but not least is the installation of the Firestone 5000 lb air bag kit.

I found it to be an easy bolt-in that seems to be well-designed.