Stickman's Daily Driver/Weekend Warrior Power Wagon Build

[fyrfytr704]

Sharp looking truck! Have you towed with it yet, after the leveling kit? I have been giving a lot of thought to leveling my truck, but I do tow fairly heavy from time to time 8-9k and the California look of a truck with its nose way up isn't my thing (sorry Cali PW owners).

[2wagons1driveway]

Well p.wagon squat a lot with that much weight anyways a leveling kit will make it worse! Unless you maybe grab a leveling kit and thurens adjustable shackles? Lift the rear another 3/4" to help with level when towing


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[fyrfytr704]

They definitely squat quite a bit but I can imagine that it would be a PITA when towing something like this with an extra 2" of lift up front...[img]

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[verdesardog]

They definitely squat quite a bit but I can imagine that it would be a PITA when towing something like this with an extra 2" of lift up front...[img]

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That's what they make equalizing hitches for.....

[SheepdogOutdoorsman]

Sharp looking truck! Have you towed with it yet, after the leveling kit? I have been giving a lot of thought to leveling my truck, but I do tow fairly heavy from time to time 8-9k and the California look of a truck with its nose way up isn't my thing (sorry Cali PW owners).

With 8-9K it'll squat ...

[fyrfytr704]

Yup! I was using one at the time, too. That's a result of a pretty heavy load in the bed, plus the tongue weight, with a little less than 1k of distribution.

[jeep_boy02]

Air bags would help level it and keep the squat nill, thought of that?

[2wagons1driveway]

Airbags good idea. Long travels though p wagons will rip right through a regular airbag might have to go Carli or a disconnected style


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[fyrfytr704]

I had bags on my CTD and they were great for load leveling and control. I don't tow heavy very often, anymore, so I've left it alone so far.

For what it's worth, my intent wasn't to hijack the thread. Was just curious about how he felt before and after the leveling kit.

[jeep_boy02]

And I'm in same boat but I don't want to go with a full 2"... and 90% of time it'll be fine but for my planned long hauls I'm thinking the airbags and cradles.

[2wagons1driveway]

I had bags on my CTD and they were great for load leveling and control. I don't tow heavy very often, anymore, so I've left it alone so far.

For what it's worth, my intent wasn't to hijack the thread. Was just curious about how he felt before and after the leveling kit.

It's okay the more activity on here the more stockman will spend on his truck lol


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[2wagons1driveway]

Stickman*


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[fyrfytr704]

The cradles are the way to go. Best advice I can give when it comes to air bags, don't combine supply tubes into one input/output. I made that mistake, thinking I'd rather have one valve to put air in, and take air out of (plus they'd get equal pressure). That was a bad idea and lead to some seriously crappy handling, even when empty!

Needless to say, I had to undo that screw up!

[Stickman]

Haven't towed with it yet, but I plan to soon! It probably will feel a bit weird with it sitting that high in the nose with all that weight on the back. I think I'm going to get Carli long travel bags eventually, and since I'll have to add onboard air I may add some air horns too! Lol, my friend had some on his bagged S-10 and they scared the chite out of everyone when he blew them while he was next to them on Main st. or wherever. I'm having second thoughts about my bumpers too, like I said I eventually plan on buying aftermarkets and Line X'ing them, but until them I don't know if I want to powder coat my stock ones like myoung had or Line X them like I said. Line X will probably cost more and look a little more tough, but Powder coat will look cleaner for now in my opinion. And even if it did look tougher in Line X, it's still just that thin, flimsy stamped steel that'll bend like a pretzel if I hit a deer, then the Line X was a big waste of money.... Think I'm also going to go with the smoothed look on the grille. I'll be sure to have them go around the Ram head also, since I think it looks good that way.

[fyrfytr704]

Looking forward to hearing from you, Stickman. If it were me making the decision on the bumpers, my biggest considerations would be how long I thought it would be until I went aftermarket, and what I thought that I could get for my stock parts (if you plan to sell em) with and without the LineX or powder coat.

Personally, I'd probably leave em stock and try to go aftermarket soon, but that's just me. Let us know what you decide!

[2wagons1driveway]

Agreed aftermarket bumper is nice cause it will support the weight of the truck and help you maneuver over or around obstacles


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[jeep_boy02]

That emblem will pop right out with a few jabs from a flat head. Just 4 little tabs hold it in place.

[Stickman]

Man, I haven't been on Carli's site for awhile so I went on there yesterday and decided to look at all the components he has and MAN, I'm now wishing I could win the lottery like crazy. If you guys are still watching this thread in 2 years I will be very tempted to take a loan out for the Dominator 3.0 system and all the goodies to go with it. The long travel airbags, diff guard, low mount stabilizer and king bump stops

[2wagons1driveway]

Man, I haven't been on Carli's site for awhile so I went on there yesterday and decided to look at all the components he has and MAN, I'm now wishing I could win the lottery like crazy. If you guys are still watching this thread in 2 years I will be very tempted to take a loan out for the Dominator 3.0 system and all the goodies to go with it. The long travel airbags, diff guard, low mount stabilizer and king bump stops

Lmao ya...you can go pretty fast comfortably with a 3.0 set up bypasses and all. Those kits are amazingly complete also. Every thing has been thought out. Especially on the 3.5 kit. Even comes with weld in rear shock mounts so you can get airborn just have to supply a truss!


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[Stickman]

I'll have my grille on tomorrow, pics will be up hopefully before work. I'm now also thinking about Line X'ing my wheel caps. My local Line X is getting a new machine here in a couple weeks that will spray Line X that will be smooth as glass. Thinking about having them do either a very slight texture or no texture on the caps, just enough so you can still make out the Ram head on them, just for a little bit of color offset and to toughen those little plastic things up a bit. Hmmm.... Also to add to the towing conversation, I never plan on putting 9-10k behind mine. I only planning on pulling 4-5k, maybe 7k at the most. Unless one of my friends gets a toy hauler to use on one of our riding trips. I know me or my folks are never going to get one. So I'm only going to pulling the car trailer loaded with 3-4 wheelers (give or take one) and a SxS. Maybe the occasional truck or car also. So I'll never be able to report on how sketchy it will be towing the max with that leveling kit. Just a heads up.

[Stickman]

Well I had pics, but no laptop. Anyway I must have the most terrible luck (never buying used shit again), those Retro Shop headlights I bought from myoung a few months ago and put on last month have already shit out on me. I put the truck in the shop to take the grille off for the Line X, then decided to turn the lights on and check the adjustment after the alignment for the leveling kit. Lows were fine, clicked the highs just for the hell of it and the passenger side doesn't go into flood mode like it should, just floods the light into a small area the size of where it does when the lows are on, almost pointless to have them on the truck since the highs are basically useless. I'll put some pics to show it. Anyway I've been emailing Jeremy at Retro Shop and he tried to help me out but there isn't much to go wrong other than the wiring. Checked all of the wiring and it was fine, so the problem is inside the projector itself and would need replaced. $120 for the projectors (2 since mine are '12s and outdated), $115 for labor and $30 for shipping, plus my $30 or so to get them to him. So $300 on top of the $800 I already shelled out for them And to boot they are out of warranty so I HAVE to pay it, great, just awesome. Anyway long story short I may just say eff the damn things and buy something different since I was wanting to do a HALO kit ($200 from Retro, so $500 total in the end, so $1300 total for a pair of HEADLIGHTS) and for $500 I could get some nice aftermarket lights that I like that are guaranteed to work. But I don't know right now, I told Jeremy it would be a while before I send them in since I can't drop another $300-$500 on them right now. Anyway with all that out of the way here are some pics. Here's how the headlights looked before removal, lows then highs:




And pics of the grille with the Retro's (Looks sick as hell, but had to take them out)






And how it sits now, stockers look so fugly.

[05PWrockcrawler]

Sounds like my kind of luck!


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[azracer]

Been there and got the merit badge!

[stubiePW]

I had that happen. Got new wiring and my passenger ballast went out. If they crap out again back to stick. The newer ballasts are nice so heres to hoping


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[fyrfytr704]

The grill looks really good, man! I hate to say it, since you might be dropping some coin on new headlights, but that truck would look mean with the bumpers done in black!