Cactus Red's Build - 2009 Power Wagon

Post by **Cactus Red** » Fri Aug 23, 2013 9:49 am

I have to do the 5 year check too, but I also got lifetime free oil changes if the standard maintenance schedule is done at the dealership included with it.

gun45boat · Post by **gun45boat** » Sat Aug 24, 2013 7:52 am

Your truck looks fantastic. I like the King's!!!! I will prob be going to Kings after I break the current Bilstein's that I am running. Keep up the good work, and the pictures too...

Post by **Cactus Red** » Sun Sep 15, 2013 8:40 pm

Well, we had the opportunity to tow with the bag/cradle setup into some beautiful country. After 50 miles of dirt, I can vouch for the effectiveness of the setup - it worked flawlessly, and made a huge change in the truck. It seem counter-intutitive, but the ride is better than before since we're not down in the harsh end of the spring travel. Bags were set at 20 PSI, just enough to level the truck. We had a great couple days in the high country near Williams, AZ, and watched one heck of a storm brew off to the east after it rained on us.

Mark

gun45boat · Post by **gun45boat** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 4:37 pm

Great pictures...

Post by **myoung84** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 4:41 pm

Awesome pics! Glad the bags are working out. I haven't had anything on mine yet...

Post by **Cactus Red** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 6:27 pm

I also had it on one of the more difficult local trails while leading a group for the Overland Journal/Adventure Trailer/Equipt open house on the 7th of Sept. I can report that they had zero effect on off highway performance. Part of the trail has Colorado'esq hairpin turns in steep, loose rock up hill (and down hill on the way out) turns that flex the truck to it's max. I haven't had a feeling like that in the PW - on the decent, as you come around the sharpest corner I felt by the seat of the pants the right front tire reaching into thin air at full droop while the left rear was bouncing off the internal stop on the bag. It's an uncomfortable rocking when you have a better than 50 deg slope below you.

gun45boat · Post by **gun45boat** » Wed Sep 18, 2013 3:27 pm

Watch out for the weak stock rear drive shaft!!!!!!!!

Just sayin'

05PWrockcrawler · Post by **05PWrockcrawler** » Fri Sep 20, 2013 3:39 pm

Yeah mine broke pretty easily. Need to upgrade the rear driveshaft. But then again there is a long list of upgrades to do but only so much cash to go around lol

gun45boat · Post by **gun45boat** » Fri Sep 20, 2013 5:57 pm

Just last weekend I saw a PW doing a tug-of-war with a GMC2500HD. Pulled the hell out of him (PW won) , and just at the end when his rear end just did a slight little bounce, BAM!!!!! Through that DS busted right at the welds, and twisted it up good and tight. I was thinking to myself as the tug of war was going on.. "wait for it......... wait for it./.............. BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think the stock DS is good, but as soon as you put pressure on it, and bounce it one good time, it will POP.. Maybe MOPAR put the weak DS in as a "fuse" ??? IDK...

05PWrockcrawler · Post by **05PWrockcrawler** » Tue Sep 24, 2013 8:48 am

Mine broke right at the weld!

Post by **Cactus Red** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 11:47 pm

Today was the 60,000 milestone for Cactus Red. And, it happened on a somewhat typical, but very unusual day trip into the Kiabab NF. 60 deg weather at 6600' of elevation - virtually no snow where there should be about 20 to 24" snow pack.

Sent via gigawatt laser...

05PWrockcrawler · Post by **05PWrockcrawler** » Sun Feb 16, 2014 11:55 am

I wish I only had 60,000 on mine. 154,000 on mine

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coder · Post by **coder** » Mon Feb 17, 2014 1:24 am

Cactus Red wrote:Today was the 60,000 milestone for Cactus Red. And, it happened on a somewhat typical, but very unusual day trip into the Kiabab NF. 60 deg weather at 6600' of elevation - virtually no snow where there should be about 20 to 24" snow pack.

Sent via gigawatt laser...

Congrats on your 60k anniversary!

TwinStick · Post by **TwinStick** » Mon Feb 17, 2014 1:30 pm

I just turned 33k and was cringing when i saw it turn.

SheepdogOutdoorsman · Post by **SheepdogOutdoorsman** » Mon Feb 17, 2014 1:51 pm

I just hit 5,000 miles yesterday! Time for an oil change!

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Post by **Cactus Red** » Fri Mar 21, 2014 6:09 pm

Thought I'd report on the 35/12.5-17 Toyo ATII XTreme's.

After 12K and many, many miles of hard use, I am very pleased with these tires.

I've had a lot of tires on the truck in the 61000k on the truck.

Stock 33" BFG AT's for less than a thousand mile - hated'm, sold'm. Big problem with them was being too short, the extra inch a 35 adds under the diff is precious for this truck. That and they chunked up terribly were the reason they went away so quickly.

So, they got replaced by GoodYear MT/R K's for about 13K. They offered great traction, were incredibly tough, and surprisingly quiet down the road, but they wore badly due to my fault - I mounted them black wall out, so they cupped terribly. I couldn't stand the vibrations on asphalt.

The BFG M/T's went for about 14K. Second worst tire by far. Being D rated, they were just too soft for the truck. Anything below 20 PSI was just asking for bead seat problems, and they cost me a rim in snow due to bead loss. Traction was way below what I'm getting from the Toyo's! For a tire that is sold as "key word, Mud", they sucked in it. They also chunked up badly - I tore off three complete lugs at one time on a local trail.

The Nitto Trails were a decent tire, but as they wore, and I had heard they would, they developed a hard left pull at about half tread depth. I didn't like that much. Other than that, they were second to the Mt/R's in traction, and never failed to get me thru some nasty stuff. Last year with just under half the tread remaining, the ATII's replaced the Nitto's. The other problem with the Nittos was weight - they come in at a hefty 88 lbs apiece! I lost over 1 MPG with them, and when you only get 10 to 11 on road, 6 to 8 when aired down, I wasn't too happy about that either.

So, with a lot of thing factoring into the decision, one of the biggest being MPG, I picked to try the Toyo ATII XTreme's. I saw a set at Discount Tire, really liked the tread pattern in the XTreme version, and that made up my mind. MPG went up by 1.5 over the Nittos right off the bat! I average about 12.5 now, and I can deal with that.

Tread durability is very good considering the weight of the truck (roughly 8K), dual lockers, 400+ HP/420+ Ft/Lbs Torque, towing on and off road; they have held up exceptionally well. The tread depth is at 14/32 from 17/32 when new. With a 50K Tread Life Warranty, we'll see how they do in that department over the next year or two.

Balance has never been an issue - heck, one tire/rim combo has NO WEIGHTS! The most used yesterday was 3.5 ounces. I've been going 4K between rotation/balancing, using all five tires in a clockwise pattern.

Traction has been way better than I expected, coming in behind the MT/R's and Nittos in that regard. They clean well in mud/snow, are excellent in sand and other dry conditions, and I've aired down to 10 PSI without a problem. It's a stiff tire, yet it rides very well both on and off road.

I've had one failure, and that was a weird one that I'm glad I have the tire warranties from Discount Tire for. Had a 16P nail go in, start to penetrate the steel ply's, get turned back around and come back to the top in a nice U shape. It got just deep enough into the carcass to damage the belts. It was replaced at only 3K, so in essence it now has the same miles as the rest of the set since I rotate all five tires.

Mark

Post by **Cactus Red** » Fri Mar 28, 2014 10:36 pm

Had the 5 year inspection done today for the Max Care BtoB warranty coverage renewal.

The truck passed fine. Woot Woot!

They did find the ball joints are toast again, so they will be replaced for the 3rd time in 62K. It's astounding to me that they last such a short time...

Sent via gigawatt laser...

coder · Post by **coder** » Mon Mar 31, 2014 5:44 pm

Cactus Red wrote:Had the 5 year inspection done today for the Max Care BtoB warranty coverage renewal.

The truck passed fine. Woot Woot!

They did find the ball joints are toast again, so they will be replaced for the 3rd time in 62K. It's astounding to me that they last such a short time...

Sent via gigawatt laser...

I realize they are replaced under warranty but you might want to consider putting in a quality aftermarket set in (Dynatrac's are the best bang for the buck) before the ball-joint sockets in your axle C's develop slop and your axle is trashed. It only takes 1 to be bad and you need to replace the whole axle.

Post by **Cactus Red** » Mon Mar 31, 2014 5:56 pm

It's all covered under warranty - so a new axle would be a whopping $100.00 in deductible. The MaxCare contract cost me a pretty fair chuck 5 years ago, so I will get my $$$ out of it.

Post by **Cactus Red** » Wed Apr 02, 2014 12:24 pm

Since they are pulling down the front end to do the work, I figure it's time to throw some new pads in the calipers. They are pretty thin after 61K. Decided to go with:

Wagner ThermoQuiet QC1084 Ceramic Disc Pad Set, Front

I looked a the EBC Green Stuff 7000 and 6000 as options, but found too many reviews that said the service life is short for the upgrade in braking. The Wagner pad reviews all say they increase braking performance over stock, yet last as long or longer than OEM, and most important to me are QUIET. I'm so tired of hearing the squeal from the front brakes when they get dusty, and hopefully, these will eliminate that. I'll let ya know how they do.

Post by **Cactus Red** » Sun May 25, 2014 5:50 pm

Got the Backwoods Bumper done today!

If you're looking for a great bumper at very reasonable pricing, I can highly recommend Backwoods Bumpers. The owner, Evan House, is a great guy - he truly cares about his customers. And, as a small shop, he can and will customize things by request if within reason. http://backwoodsbumpers.com/

Started off with the bumper being damaged in transit by UPS Freight. Even after doing great job prepping the bumper for shipment, UPS managed to break the pallet in half... If I had noted that it had been damaged in shipment, perhaps it would have been possible to get UPS to pay for the stripping and recoating of the bumper, but I didn't, so it was up to me to take care of that. Again, Evan is a stand up guy - he worked very hard to get me covered, but it is what it is. He even offered to cover the cost out of his pocket - something I felt was not his fault, and wouldn't accept. So, the first step was to strip the bumper. Took me a while... I used an air chisel where possible, aircraft paint stripper and a 3000 PSI pressure washer to get the rest. After that, the bumper was sanded with 40 grit on a DA sander to rough it up.

After doing some looking on line, I decided to try the Duplicolor rattle can bed liner. Started the coating process by doing the inside surfaces on Friday after work, letting that dry.

I finishing the exterior on Saturday. In between coats, I removed the stock bumper, and while I knew it was pretty thin, I didn't expect it would weight about 15 lbs. No wonder they bend so easily... The bumper bolts to the stock mounts in three places on each side. The factory hitch is an interesting design, and doesn't have to be removed or loosened for the install.

I was able to retain my mounts for the removable mud flaps we use when towing the trailer. The stock brackets were bolted back in place with the Backwoods Bumper. I didn't take photos during the install - it was difficult enough to do basically one handed as it was. I'll be having Carpal Tunnel surgery on my right hand in June, so working with no grip and the constant funny bone tingle is not really much fun. The impact wrench was a huge help! I supported the bumper on two milk crates to move it into position, and once in place, it's only three bolts per side. I replaced the stock bolts with longer grade 10.9 hardware to make up for the added thickness since I was also adding the stock brackets back on. To wire in the provided LED license plate lights, I used 2 wire trailer plugs so the bumper can be removed if necessary. An extra step, but it will make it easy to R&R if needed.

If the bumper hadn't been damaged by UPS, this would have been an easy afternoon install. I think it looks really good!

Mark

ACRucrazy · Post by **ACRucrazy** » Sun May 25, 2014 6:42 pm

Looks good! I want one! And a front bumper!

jeep_boy02 · Post by **jeep_boy02** » Sun May 25, 2014 6:52 pm

Oooh... that does look great

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w2dodge · Post by **w2dodge** » Sun May 25, 2014 8:09 pm

Excellent

azracer · Post by **azracer** » Sun May 25, 2014 8:18 pm

Looks good.
Is there any additional departure angle gained with it? It locks like you gain a small amount on the corners.

Where did you relocate the air lines/fittings for the air bags? How do you like the new location of the fittings?

At some point can you post a photo of the stock brackets (a couple angles) with the new bumper in place because if I ever get an aftermarket bumper I will need to reuse the stock brackets too.

Power Wagon Registry

Cactus Red's Build - 2009 Power Wagon

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One year, 12K on tires!

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