BlackWidow
Member
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2014
- Posts
- 80
- Reaction score
- 28
- Ram Year
- 2014 Ram
- Engine
- 6.4
Well we've owned our truck now for about a little over a year and a half. So far we've been pretty happy with it, with no real issues to speak of. It's my wife's truck and for the most part it has an easy life as a grocery getter. Yes It's overkill for our every day needs but after owning two vehicles where our needs outgrew the vehicle I figured it was better to overshoot and get something that well exceeded our needs in the hopes our needs don't outgrow the vehicle many years to come. Well at least the voices in my head said it seemed like a sound plan. 
Of course when I first started looking at these trucks I wanted a PowerWagon, but when it came down to it even though I could afford it, I didn't want to afford so we ended up with a blacked out Big Horn. The loose plan was to do something like what I did with our Wrangler, strategic mod's that serve a functional purpose for how we plan to use the truck.
With that said, the first year was relatively light any sort of mod's. Out of the gate I installed Baja Designs 20" Stealth light bar in the front bumper and the Amp Research BedStep. I'd say something about the adding WeatherTech floor liners, but really who cares.
For Christmas I decided to be a smart ass and give my wife a tailgate assist as a stocking stuffer. You can tell she was overcome with joy.
Shortly after that I picked up a BakFlip HD tonneau. So far I've been pretty happy with it. I wish it kept 100% of water out of the bed area, but I don't think the little that drips in is a big deal. Besides, when we travel anything we don't want wet goes into water resistant bags from Rage Powersports.
Now my original plan was to do a set of rock sliders from White Knuckle Off-Road but when I saw price I could get a set up Amp PowerSteps for almost half the price I didn't even bat an eye and went with the PowerSteps. Unfortunately I wasn't too happy with the crappy LED lights they provided so I upgraded to the ORO LiteSpots that I had picked up as rock lights for my Jeep.
In preparation for our big road trip to Yellowstone & The Badlands last summer I picked up an Arb Fridge and wired up the power outlet in the truck bed.
I also took the time to install some 35w HID's in the low beams & fog lights from GTR Lighting. I was surprised what a big difference it made over the stock bulbs. Sorry, no pic's of them lit up.
Shot from last summer cruising this trail through Buffalo Gap National Grasslands. Pretty fun, nothing to challenging and lots of cows.
Now for the fun stuff. Late last year I decided it was time to pick up a lift for the truck. I wanted something a little more than a leveling kit but not ridiculously tall either. Initially I was thinking of going with the AEV kit, but ultimately decided on the Pure Performance 3" Triple Threat Stage 3 and with their 2 5/8 remote reservoir shocks added their radius arm drop brackets to keep the front suspension geometry in check and the axle centered.
Yeah she kinda looks like she skipped leg day, but it didn't look as bad as I thought it was going to look with stock rims/tires. Due to timing we ran this way for a few weeks as the rims & tires had to be ordered, plus I was wanting to take advantage of the Memorial Day rebates Discount Tire was offering.
I agonized A LOT over what rims and tires to go with and the lesson I learned was don't involve the wife in the decision process because she doesn't care as much as you do. In the end I went with Fuel Trophy rims in 18x9 with +20 offset (5.75" BS) and 37x13.5x18 Cooper STT Pro's.
And making my Jeep look small.
While I like the rims I'm not sure I'm totally sold on the tires. Don't get me wrong, I'm not having any issues with the tires. I'm just not totally crazy about running them at sub 50 psi. I'm still working on hammering out the correct PSI to run in them. I picked it up with 50 psi which I figured wasn't going to be correct so I jacked it up to max PSI of 65 worked my way back to 50 psi but chalk was telling me that was still too much. I'm also not thrilled that I'm getting a little bit of tire scrub on the radius arms. I might need to run a small wheel spacer up front to push the wheels out a little more. In retrospect I might have been better off going with the +1 offset (5"bs) rim instead, but I was aiming for more tucked in. At the worst if we find we can't deal with the 37's I'll see about unloading them and going with a 35. We'll see, it's still early yet.
I've still got a some adjustments to make to the track bar's not to mention getting the alignment. So much to do and not enough time to do it.
After this there isn't much more I really want to do other than find a place to install an Arb air compressor at and maybe add a CB if I can figure out what to do for an CB antenna mount.
Of course when I first started looking at these trucks I wanted a PowerWagon, but when it came down to it even though I could afford it, I didn't want to afford so we ended up with a blacked out Big Horn. The loose plan was to do something like what I did with our Wrangler, strategic mod's that serve a functional purpose for how we plan to use the truck.With that said, the first year was relatively light any sort of mod's. Out of the gate I installed Baja Designs 20" Stealth light bar in the front bumper and the Amp Research BedStep. I'd say something about the adding WeatherTech floor liners, but really who cares.
For Christmas I decided to be a smart ass and give my wife a tailgate assist as a stocking stuffer. You can tell she was overcome with joy.
Shortly after that I picked up a BakFlip HD tonneau. So far I've been pretty happy with it. I wish it kept 100% of water out of the bed area, but I don't think the little that drips in is a big deal. Besides, when we travel anything we don't want wet goes into water resistant bags from Rage Powersports.
Now my original plan was to do a set of rock sliders from White Knuckle Off-Road but when I saw price I could get a set up Amp PowerSteps for almost half the price I didn't even bat an eye and went with the PowerSteps. Unfortunately I wasn't too happy with the crappy LED lights they provided so I upgraded to the ORO LiteSpots that I had picked up as rock lights for my Jeep.
In preparation for our big road trip to Yellowstone & The Badlands last summer I picked up an Arb Fridge and wired up the power outlet in the truck bed.
I also took the time to install some 35w HID's in the low beams & fog lights from GTR Lighting. I was surprised what a big difference it made over the stock bulbs. Sorry, no pic's of them lit up.
Shot from last summer cruising this trail through Buffalo Gap National Grasslands. Pretty fun, nothing to challenging and lots of cows.
Now for the fun stuff. Late last year I decided it was time to pick up a lift for the truck. I wanted something a little more than a leveling kit but not ridiculously tall either. Initially I was thinking of going with the AEV kit, but ultimately decided on the Pure Performance 3" Triple Threat Stage 3 and with their 2 5/8 remote reservoir shocks added their radius arm drop brackets to keep the front suspension geometry in check and the axle centered.
Yeah she kinda looks like she skipped leg day, but it didn't look as bad as I thought it was going to look with stock rims/tires. Due to timing we ran this way for a few weeks as the rims & tires had to be ordered, plus I was wanting to take advantage of the Memorial Day rebates Discount Tire was offering.
I agonized A LOT over what rims and tires to go with and the lesson I learned was don't involve the wife in the decision process because she doesn't care as much as you do. In the end I went with Fuel Trophy rims in 18x9 with +20 offset (5.75" BS) and 37x13.5x18 Cooper STT Pro's.
And making my Jeep look small.
While I like the rims I'm not sure I'm totally sold on the tires. Don't get me wrong, I'm not having any issues with the tires. I'm just not totally crazy about running them at sub 50 psi. I'm still working on hammering out the correct PSI to run in them. I picked it up with 50 psi which I figured wasn't going to be correct so I jacked it up to max PSI of 65 worked my way back to 50 psi but chalk was telling me that was still too much. I'm also not thrilled that I'm getting a little bit of tire scrub on the radius arms. I might need to run a small wheel spacer up front to push the wheels out a little more. In retrospect I might have been better off going with the +1 offset (5"bs) rim instead, but I was aiming for more tucked in. At the worst if we find we can't deal with the 37's I'll see about unloading them and going with a 35. We'll see, it's still early yet.
I've still got a some adjustments to make to the track bar's not to mention getting the alignment. So much to do and not enough time to do it.
After this there isn't much more I really want to do other than find a place to install an Arb air compressor at and maybe add a CB if I can figure out what to do for an CB antenna mount.
