Quote from: Flyin6 on Today at 09:00:27 AM

So here's a question: I like the lug nuts showing look, that and the rear hub showing. It is either that of slide on the cheapl plastic hub caps.

Question, Leave em off, of go all girly and install them back like factory?

I don’t mind it either.

My .02..

I’m not sure how much luck and crap will get on them.
What I’ve found with my Chebby ones, they are clean.
In my trailers, without the plastic caps, the mud and goo really plugs up the threads.
So much so that I’ve had to shorten some wheel studs.

My vote would be based on your operating conditions.
Not to goooey, then lose ‘em.
Gooey, probably keep ‘em.

Good thoughts...

My concept of the operation is that I want to be able to visibly see if any lug nuts are loosening up with all this road warrior stuff coming right up...

So here's a question: I like the lug nuts showing look, that and the rear hub showing. It is either that of slide on the cheapl plastic hub caps.

Question, Leave em off, of go all girly and install them back like factory?

I had to attend a fire department board meeting, so I did not finish.

Chatting with the guys at the truck shop, they told me that my airbag leak issue is being caused by leaking swivel fittings. They do not use them but have some better stationary solid brass fittings. They just gave me two of them for no charge. How cool is that?

So here is the resting condition as of COB, today. I'll get on the bags tomorrow and hopefully, have it ready for the alignment shop.

Very quickly, I noticed the warehouse guys sent me the wrong U-bolts, so I had to go out and have some made up for me. Having to take a couple of hours to chase down the U-bolts effectively killed any chance I had of finishing the install today...

In the box, you can see the Carli-supplied U-bolt, and the one I just took off my truck. They are the same length!

So is life, no big deal.

They sent me the rear shocks, lift blocks and U-Bolts.

The shocks have a lot of gas pressure. I'm talking getting a jack to compress them!

That'll work!^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Moving along!
Hope you get the nice ride you’re after first round this time.

Just caught the 12 bolts in the rear axles.
I think it was 8 in the 11.5, so that one has been beefed up considerably.

It is apparently. I chatted with Tate this morning about it. He sent me some detailed information about that axle.
We can settle the argument about which kind of differential is in there. It is a two-piece differential with internal clutches preloaded by some Belville washers. Apparently, it is possible to rebuild it. There are 30, 32 and 33 spline axles depending on what truck you are driving. The dually gets the mutant strong stuff. That is why everything seems so darned oversized in the pics of my truck axle.

The front end is mostly done. I'll have to bolt on the front steering stabilizer if/when it comes in. But for now, I am front-end complete. On the backside tomorrow.

Factory vs Carli springs:

After removing the front cross bar, and disconnecting the shocks, the front can be lowered enough to pull the springs out.

Today I got after the Carli suspension parts I just purchased from Tater. Most of the stuff was delivered, enough to get the front end almost completed.

The idea is to level it, the same as I did on the 2022 single wheel 3500

Carli lifts the front 2.5" and the rear 1" to level everything.

Here are some before and after shots

Hiked all loops of the Bender Mountain loop/trail today. It was a good one for cardio and leg strength. The hill rises 713 feet from the parking lot and then runs along either side then finally up on top of a narrow ridge overlooking the Ohio River. Not particularly long, like 2.5-3.0 ish with all the loops, but a lot of up and down.

We took our granddaughter.

Good times!

Yesterday we did 4+ along the banks of the Ohio River in Cincinnati and Newport, KY. Beautiful time of year to get out.

We are doing a fair amount of hiking/walking in preparation for the July Wyoming trip.

https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/ohio/bender-mountain-loop-trail

I recall that round, when o bummer got elected you couldn’t find any of that ammo anywhere.

Ashley had a friend with a gun in that round back then and I recall him hitting me up. I’d say if you get one have the coin to buy several cases and stock up. I personally don’t need another round and I like the .22mag in the pmr-30 obviously not comparable ballistics but I have several rifles and pistols in 22wmr already and it’s a light fairly powerful round. That pistol has 30 rd mags too.

I’ve personally been stocking up on .410 as of late. When looking at my inventory I was light on small game shot. The wife and I are planning on grouse hunting this year to get us out of the cabin after the big game push is over.

I don't necessarily see myself as needing a 5.7 but a few of the operators were all over that gun over in the stan. Not sure if anyone got shot by one over there, have to ask around.

And the .410 thing is a great idea. You had me wanting to buy two. One for me and one for an up and coming grand daughter who needs to do some field time with me.

And the slightly larger tires do a good job of filling up those wheel wells.

They fit the front fender well, and I will be staying with the stock wheel (for once)

The hubs on this new 3500 are enormous. This thing is built for hard work and longevity.

I count 12 axle retention bolts. I want to say my older 11.5" AAM had 10, am I correct? Someone check me out on that.

New tires are installed.

We used the balance beads
and
Whew...$356 to swap the seven tires out with the beads!!!!!

Here's a before and after:

OK, nothing heard from Tate on the diff question...

Off to get the tires installed...

Stuff just keeps showing up:

I did not write this, but I wish that I had.


History tells us nations also have seasons: Imagine a Roman of the 2nd century gleefully contemplating an empire that stretched from Britain to the Near East, thinking:  This’ll endure forever.... Yeah, forever was about 500 years, give or take.... not bad, but gone!!   

 

France was pivotal in the 17th and 18th centuries; now the land of Charles Martel is on its way to becoming part of the Muslim ummah.   

 

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the sun never set on the British empire; now Albion exists in perpetual twilight. Its deceased queen is a fitting symbol for a nation in terminal decline.   

 

In the 1980s, Japan seemed poised to buy the world. Business schools taught Japanese management techniques. Today, its birth rate is so low and its population aging so rapidly that an industry has sprung up to remove the remains of elderly Japanese who die alone.   

 

I was born in 1941, almost at the midpoint of the 20th century - the American century. America’s prestige and influence were never greater. Thanks to the 'Greatest Generation,' we won a World War fought throughout most of Europe, Asia, and the Pacific. We reduced Germany to rubble and put the rising sun to bed. It set the stage for almost half a century of unprecedented prosperity.   

 

We stopped the spread of communism in Europe and Asia and fought international terrorism. We rebuilt our enemies and lavished foreign aid on much of the world. We built skyscrapers and rockets to the moon. We conquered Polio and now to some degree conquered COVID 19. We explored some of the mysteries of the Universe and the wonders of DNA...the blueprint of life.   

 

But where’s the glory that once was Rome?  America has moved from a relatively free economy to socialism - which's worked so well NOWHERE in the world, ever!   

 

We've gone from a republican government guided by a constitution to a wicked regime of revolving elites. We’ve less freedom with each passing year. Like a signpost to the coming reign of terror, the cancel culture is everywhere. We've traded the American Revolution for the Cultural Revolution.   

 

The wicked incompetent fraud in the White House is an empty vessel filled by his handlers. At the G-7 Summit, 'Dr. Jill' had to lead him like a child. In 1961, when we were young and vigorous, our leader was too. Now a feeble nation is technically led by the oldest man to ever serve in the presidency.   

 

We can't defend our borders, our history (including monuments to past greatness) or our streets. Our cities have become anarchist playgrounds. We’re a nation of dependents, mendicants, and misplaced charity. Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.   

 

The president of the United States can't even quote the beginning of the Declaration of  Independence ('You know - The Thing') correctly.  Ivy League graduates routinely fail history tests that 5th graders could pass a generation ago.  Crime rates soar and we blame the 2nd.  Amendment and slash police budgets.   

 

Our culture is certifiably insane. Men who’re mindlessly claiming they’re women. People who fight racism by seeking to convince members of one race that they’re inherently evil, and others that they’re perpetual victims. A psychiatrist lecturing at Yale said she fantasizes about 'unloading a revolver into the head of any white person.'   

 

We murder the unborn in the name of freedom, while our birth rate dips lower year by year. Our national debt is so high that we can no longer even pretend that we’ll repay it one day. It's a $30-trillion monument to our improvidence and refusal to confront reality. Our 'entertainment' is sadistic, nihilistic, and as enduring as a candy bar wrapper thrown in the trash. Our music is noise that spans the spectrum from annoying to nauseating.   

 

Patriotism is called an insurrection, treason celebrated, and perversion sanctified. A man in blue gets less respect than a man in a frilly dress. We’re asking soldiers to fight for a nation our leaders no longer believe in.   

 

How meekly most of us submitted to Fauci-ism (the regime of face masks, lockdowns, and hand sanitizers) shows the impending death of the American spirit.   

 

How do nations slip from greatness to obscurity?   

* Fighting endless wars they can't or won't win

* Accumulating massive debt far beyond their ability to repay

* Refusing to secure their borders, allowing the nation to be inundated by an alien horde

* Surrendering control of their cities to mob rule

* Allowing indoctrination of the young

* Moving from a republican form of government to an oligarchy

* Losing national identity

* Indulging indolence

* Abandoning God, faith and family - the bulwarks of any stable society.   

 

In America, every one of these symptoms is pronounced, indicating an advanced stage of the disease.   

 

Even if the cause seems hopeless, do we not have an obligation to those who sacrificed so much to give us what we once had? I'm surrounded by relentless ghosts urging me on: the Union soldiers who held Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg, the battered  bastards of Bastogne, those who served in the cold  hell of Korea, the guys who went to the jungles of  Southeast Asia and came home to be reviled or  neglected.   

 

This’s the nation that took in my immigrant grandparents, whose uniform my father and most of my uncles wore in the Second World War. I’m grief stricken to imagine a world without America, even though it becomes increasingly likely.   

 

During Britain's darkest hour, when its professional army was trapped at Dunkirk and a German invasion seemed imminent, Churchill rightly reminded his countrymen, 'Nations that go down fighting rise again, and those that surrender tamely are finished.'   

 

The same might be said of causes. If we let America slip through our fingers, if we lose without a fight, what’ll posterity say of us?   

 

While the prognosis is most depressing. Only God knows if America's sun has permanently set."   

 

Read it and weep, forward or erase it! I read it and am now forwarding it to you, believing that we in America are at the moment in time to stand up, or let it fall! We now may soon be at the next step in our country's future. I believe that it might be infinitely closer than we think.   

 

Author UnKnown

Quote from: Flyin6 on April 24, 2024, 08:28:57 PM

Last summer I started eating clean and that means very little sugar. Off came 30 pounds. I exercise the best I can with this RA business, but I took some more off and it has stayed off. I flirt with upper 220's to mid-upper 230's diet and exercise dependent.

Eat lots of protein and no bread...

I’m hoping my approach keeps it maintainable.
I’m not a big bread eater.
But when I do, generally I make it myself.
So unfortunate highly processed flour, but none of the other junk.

You are a soldier and have amazing resiliency. I think this weight control for you will be totally doable.

I believe in you!

Quote from: Flyin6 on April 24, 2024, 11:00:59 AM

My mouth is watering!!!!!!

I’ll just leave this here…like I said in my time post, nothing off limits. I sure did enjoy these.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

OK, Sam, so you said you were dieting

Sorry bro but the bread is straight-up sugar...

I'll do ya a favor, give that to me! ;-)

AAM is known for a truetrac LS, bet thats it. But that would not require a friction modifier being all gears?

Yep, I have gone off brand the last couple times, so far so good.

That's what is confusing me, why use a friction modifier in a gear type diff? More to come, I need to research my build tag and consult with the Mopar folks to determine what I have.
All indications are it is the new 12" AAM.

My mouth is watering!!!!!!

My best guess is that limited slip is in fact a torsen helical cut gear locker. I’m sure Tate will chime in but if it is then it’s a beast…..

Yea, as per our conversation last night, this is interesting.
Tate, you hearing this?
I see that for 3500 only, Ram is requiring you to add a friction modifier. When I looked at that huge diff, I thought the clutch packs must slide down in there somehow, but I have to agree with Shawn, it reminded me of a Torsen.
Someone??? Let's solve this mystery.

Tate shipped me the Carli suspension, and it will be finding itself onto the truck in the very near future.