Cactus Red's Build - 2009 Power Wagon

[Cactus Red]

We started with a 2009 Dodge Power Wagon in Flame Red back in May of '09.

1. Started with a bed box for tool/recovery gear storage.

2. Silverstars in headlights and fogs.

3. Mounted a RED Inc. light bar and 4 Hella 700 driving lights - upgraded wiring and bulbs to 100W from the 55W.

4. Sold the stock tires and put on 315/70-17 GoodYear MT/R Kevlars. Check clearances in my ditch - it's all good!

This was phase one...

[Cactus Red]

Phase Two and MT/R Kevlar update:

Phase Two:

Removed 32Lbs of 7/16 steel winch cable and replaced it with 5Lbs of 7/16" Synthetic thanks to Viking Offroad.

Removed the stock muffler and replaced it with a FlowMaster 50 Series SUV. The tone is greatly improved without any drone on the hwy.

Purchased a Purple Cranium 1/2 Diff guard for the front AAM 9.25" axle. It should arrive next week. After several trails I realize I need to protect the front cover. Even w/ 35" tires the axle clearance is limited, and I don't want to peel off a diff cover or dent the cover back into the ring gear.

MT/R K Total mileage to date - 2000+

After a 1600+ mile trip to NM and CO that included two trail rides, the Rat Creek Loop near Creede and Engineer Pass from Lake City to Silverton, I can say I'm very pleased with the new MT/R.

They are surprisingly quiet on the highway, cleaned well in mud, provided good traction on loose dry surfaces, and show no signs at all of the sharp rocks encountered along the way. They road comfortably at 18 PSI, showed a decent sidewall bulge at that pressure, and handled well at higher speed on dirt roads (from Eureka to Silverton).

Mark

[Cactus Red]

Phase II addendum...

Found a set of Rock Rails - took a day to install'm. Added a 4" wide nerf/step made from 3/16 x 2 x 2 square stock and used 1/8" tread plate for the top. It took two days to fab the nerfs, install and plate them. I will be having them shot with bedliner even tho I know it won't hold up on the bottom surface, but it will cover my piss poor welds The bar will be shot with bed liner - hopefully this week. Time consuming, but well worth it. The truck really needs a step to get in comfortably. I'll get photos when the bars are complete. After a member suggested it, I used the Duplicolor rattle can bed liner on the rails.

Finally, I ordered a Purple Cranium Front Diff guard- it should arrive this week. Again, photos will be posted after it's installed.

Thanks for looking!

Mark

[Cactus Red]

Coder asked:

I don't see a hawse fairlead for that synthetic rope are you planning on getting one? Those rollers will fray it up and destroy it.

My reply was:

Clean new rollers are OK per Thor at Viking Offroad. http://www.winchline.com/faq.htm

[Cactus Red]

Yaesu FT-7900 install complete - I'm back on the air!

After almost two months to the day, I've got a radio again!

Thanks to Rex for stopping by and giving me a hand with the install. It was much appreciated!

And thanks to BX for giving me some tips that sped up the process!

First off I put the radio on the bench and performed to TX mod. In an emergency I will use whatever means required to get help, and that includes using the local Sheriff's office frequencies. There are lots of places where I get no cell service, but can still hear the dispatchers on the local repeaters.

Routed the power leads from the battery to a plug under the drivers seat. Used the same hole for the antenna, and routed it aft along the frame. Removed the center console, route the wires, attached the external speaker, and mounted the radio to the floor with two screws. Siliconed up the hole, and it was done!

I have used a mag mount in the past with bad results to the paint. I'm going to try the suction cup hangers to hold the coax off the cab and roof.

Got the basic freq's in memory - FWD 2, 2M simplex, 8 local repeaters, and FR'S 1.1. Still have hours of input to do - I had over 150 frequencies and 5 memory channels in the old radio...

Mark

[Cactus Red]

Just finished up the Thermal Protection Switch mod - it doesn't get much easier than that! Great direction from PDavy and RustyPW08 made it quick and simple.

Mark

(NOTE: directions are posted in the FAQ's page)

[Cactus Red]

After bending the passengers side lower arm, I decided to upgrade vs. buying one new stock arm. After going to 315/70-17 GoodYear MT/R's I had rubbing problems on both the lower and upper control arms. I was not able to get full lock turning radius. To cure both problems I turned to:

DT PRO FAB
484 EZ Street Prescott, AZ.86301
Phone 928.776.4129 FAX 928.776.2405
http://www.dtprofab.com/default.asp

Parts supplied by DT Pro Fab:

Upper and Lower Control Arms - mine are prototypes for clearanced style arms. They are 1/2" over stock length. DT Pro Fab has straight stock length and 1/2" over arms in stock, ready to ship.

8 long poly bushing for the lower arms, 8 short poly bushings for the upper arms, 8 tubes of assembly lube, 4 long steel bushings for the lower arms, 4 short steel bushing for the upper arms, 8 90 deg grease Zerk's, 1 long replacement bolt for the upper rear driver side control arm.

Tools Required:

Quality Jack stands, Saws All or hacksaw, boxed end wrenches, 1/2" socket set, crayon or chalk, tire iron, two floor jacks or bottle jacks, come-a-long.

Procedure:

Preassmble all four arms using one tube of assembly lube for each bushing set - two poly bushings and the steel bushing. Install the grease Zerk's so the ends face inward. This is a sticky mess - the lube is as tacky as Michael Moore...

Jack up and support the truck - I used the front frame horns to provide room to work. Remove the tires, and place tires under front door frame rails for safety. Remove the steering stabilizer skid plate. Support the front axle with jacks - you may have to adjust the height to make removing the bolts possible.

Use crayon or chalk to mark the alignment cams to make reassembly close to where it needs to go. R and R one side at a time to help keep the axle aligned. Remove both upper and lower arms. The drivers side is pretty straight forward - all the bolts can be removed without clearance problems. The passengers side rear upper control arm bolt will not clear the O2 sensor and bung. Loosen it enough to saw off the head, keep the nut for reuse. Replace the upper arm first, starting with the upper rear bolt. If the axle has shifted, you may have to use the come-a-long to pull it back into position. I had to do so on the passenger side. After assembly, grease the bushing with synthetic grease or polyurethane grease. Double check all nuts and bolts, replace tires, torque lug nuts to 135 Ft/Lbs.

I checked clearance in my front ditch - no rubbing on the control arms in any condition. There is minor contact with the front plastic due to the 1/2" over stock length - I have a set of 1" Daystar spacers on order to help with that.

Total time for the install was about 6 hours. I worked at a leisurely pace, ate lunch, started at 10:00 AM, was done road testing and photographing by 4:00 PM.

Thanks

Mark

[Cactus Red]

Couple new additions this week - a Warn Wireless Winch Controller and a Leer Topper. The Warn Controller took 15 minutes to install, and rates 1/4 Banana on the difficulty scale. It was the easiest mod yet! Four holes, plug in the cable, and zip tie the excess. The Leer was even easier - I watched it get done

[Cactus Red]

Problem #1:

After installing longer control arms and the 1" Daystar spacer, the stock shocks were too short by several inches.

Problem #2:

I felt the stock shocks were too soft, and didn't control rebound very well, especially in rough terrain and on washboard roads.

First attempt at correcting the problems:

Bilstein F4-BE5-6646-H6 5100 Series Shocks

I've got a 100 plus mile drive off highway coming up next weekend to give them a good test on. We're heading down deep into the KOFA NWR with a large group of over landers - I expect the trip Friday will take nearly 8 hours on two track trails. My first quick test drive on severe washboard after installing them was very positive, and I've give a full report after the trip. I flex tested them and everything looks good - making contact on the bump stops and I gained over 2" of droop travel!

My non scientific compression testing feels like they are slightly firmer that the stock shock. It was relatively easy for me to compress the stock shock by leaning on it, not quite as easy with the 5100.

[Cactus Red]

Modified the rear bumper down in the KOFA National Wildlife Refuge. We took Wilbank Road thru to Hoodoo Wash, and then thru Engesser Pass to our camp site off Castle Dome Rd. 82 miles of dirt took us 7+ hours of scenic desert driving. Once we returned, I used a come-a-long to straighten the bumper, and used a big flange bolt to hold it in place.

[Cactus Red]

Bilstein 5100 update:

After a few weeks of street and trail, I'm happy to report the front shocks worked well. Street ride is firmer, hard cornering has less body roll, and off highway they made a noticeable change in ride quality. The biggest problem I have with the truck in off road conditions is the tendency for the front coils to allow the truck to rock side to side coming off obstacles. The stiffer shocks have pretty much limited that to one time vs several motions. Rebound is controlled much better.

Next up will be replacing the rears - hopefully that will cure the tendency of the truck to crab walk on severe washboard.

For $75.00 each, they have met my expectations, and unless I hit the Power Ball, I don't think I'll pursue any other remedies. I know what a set of Sway-A-Ways or Kings would make the truck flat out awesome, but I don't need to spend that kinda coin.

Mark

[Cactus Red]

After many trips thru the brush and trees where the magnetic mount antenna got knocked off the roof, I decided to fix it permanently. I considered several options including hard mounting the antenna via a thru the roof NMO mount, but as tall as the Power Wagon is, I figured it would only be a matter of time before I either damaged the mount and bent the sheet metal. The second option was a fender/hood mount. I knew I’d loose some performance, but decided the benefits outweighed the decreased range and clarity. The original install is post #40 of this thread.

Kyle has a similar setup on his Dodge 2500, so that got me searching for the mount. I found one in the Larsen catalog on page 192.

http://www.larsen-antennas.com/docfiles/ASB8/Mounts.pdf

The Larsen TMB-34D is made for late model Dodge trucks. HRO (Ham Radio Outlet) had the mount in stock and also sent a NMO cable without the PL-259 connector attached. That allowed me to snake the cable thru a small hole thru the grommet, and conceal the cable under the door sill moulding. I routed it thru the same slit in the carpet I used for running power to the radio in the original install. After soldering on the PL-259 connector and attaching the new cable, the radio worked fine. I can still get out to Flagstaff OK (roughly 50 miles line of sight) with a little bacon sizzle. The ground plane is not optimal, but not having to stop and reattach the mag mount will be really nice.

[Cactus Red]

Stuck the KORE bump stops in today.

Very easy install - I literally popped the old stops out with a simple sideways push, then jacked up the truck and supported it on jack stands, and used a piece of 2x4 as a spacer and pushed the new ones in by jacking up the axle. Took about 15 minutes. I removed the passenger side tire for photo clarity in the "installed" photo, the took the truck out to my testing ditch to see how it looked.

(Note: This was the last post for 2009)

[Cactus Red]

Start of 2010 mods
________

After some initial confusion on my part, (covered in the post below) I finished the locker bypass today.

http://www.dodgetalk.com/forums/showthr ... ost3436089

I used a SPDT On/On switch from Radio Shack and a 220 ohm 1/2 watt resistor w/ a 5% tolerance.

Since I didn't know exactly which wire did what, I spliced into the harness with two long wires, one green, one black, and ran them thru the t’case shifter boot.

The wires are paired with the rear two going to the t’case position sensor, and the front two to the stock harness. The green wire is soldered to the stock white w/ green stripe on both ends, cut in the center, then the resistor was soldered between the center (see photo of the second harness I made for a friend). The other end of the resistor was then soldered to the left side of the switch.

The purple w/ yellow stripe wire was also cut and spliced with the black wire. It was also split and the end from the t’case sensor was soldered to the right side of the switch (yellow wire in the photo). The end going back to the stock harness was soldered to the center position (black wire in the photo).

The t’case lever is held in place by a block with two T20 screws. The block offered 4 places to drill an 1/8” hole thru to run the wires into the cab. The holes allowed me to be certain of which wire was attached to what. The second harness has been color coded to make it easier to keep track of that.

I decided to put the switch below my Yaesu FT-7900. It’s accessible, but out of the way from being accidentally bumped.

[Cactus Red]

TIRE UPDATE:

After 12,000 miles on the MT/R Kevlars, it's time for an update.

Replaced two tires at 10,100 miles.

1. Cut a sidewall down to the cords (ironically right on the Kevlar logo). The cut did not penetrate the cords, in fact it appeared the rock turned off the cords and exited while taking a chunk out. No leaks, no problem. Replaced under road hazard.

2. 16 Penny nail thru sidewall. Replaced under road hazard.

Wear:

Quite frankly I'm disappointed in the wear. I rotate and balance every 2 to 3 thousand miles, and keep the truck in proper alignment. Even at that interval I'm experiencing severe cupping and balance problems. The tread tends to chunk and round with hard use - I realize that's what happens under the conditions I use the truck for, but I've already used up 5/32 of tread on the two original tires. I expect I'll need tires in another 12K or so, and at $300.00 plus a tire, that's a lot of money for a short term tire.

Off Highway Traction:

Awesome. They are better than the old style MT/R in all conditions; rock, sand, snow, mud, it's all good.

Will I get another set? Nope. I think I'll try a set of the BFG KM2's next time, or if gas cont. to rise, an aggressive AT like the Procomp Extreme AT with a 40K tread wear warranty.

[Cactus Red]

After finding the front Bilstein 5100's made a big difference in how the truck did off road, it was time to swap out the stock rear shocks.

Bilstein PN F4-BE5-6134-T5

It comes up as a GM part, but DT Pro Fab has found they work exceptionally well for PW or other 2 to 4" lift applications. As you can see from the photo, they are slightly longer than the factory shocks. Compression is noticeably heavier than the stock shock. Install was easy - took less than 30 minutes start to finish.

I should have a report on them after this weekends trip to the Parker 425 - we'll be working on the course and will get to run a short section of dirt in and out of camp.

--------------------------

Got 40 miles of very rough dirt roads on the new shocks yesterday - huge improvement over the ultra soft stock ones. the truck rides like a 3/4T - a lot firmer than before, but with complete control. No more rearend dancing around on the washboards.

[Cactus Red]

Thanks to BX's decision to upgrade to a 4WC, I had the opportunity to get his old (basically brand new!) setup from the back of his Power Wagon. After a few very minor modifications it fit perfectly with my shell. I was able to store all the equipment I previously had in the tool box with the exception of the shovel and hi-Lift jack. With a standard Hi-lift mount and a couple quick fist clamps those items will be secured to the inner walls of the wooden boxes. Even the monstrous 14000 lb rated PullPal fit into one of the wheel well spaces.

With the platform built for sleeping, we're going to see if the SportZ 81000 SUV/Truck tent will fit around the camper and bed to provide us with weather tight and spacious camping.

[Cactus Red]

16 Feb 2010

After 13000 miles or so on the GoodYear MT/R Kevlars and many, many headaches with balance, out of roundness, and severe cupping problems, Discount Tire was very good to me and replaced them with BFG KM2's.

More to come on the KM2's! I'm looking forward to seeing how they perform.

[Cactus Red]

20 Feb 12

Did a hundred miles of dirt, mud, heavy clay mud, snow, more mud, more clay, and dirt today with the new BFG KM2's.

Guess I should start with why I have KM2's!

After having severe cupping, out of balance, and being generally very unhappy with the GoodYear MT/R Kevlars, Discount Tire stepped up and replaced them at their cost. All I had to pay was mounting and for new warranties! The cupping on the long lug was 3/16" in some places, and that made for a terrible highway ride.

So, back to the comparision.

On road the KM2's ride much softer than the MT/R's. The MT/R's are heavier by more than a few pounds as well.

I was aired down to 20 PSI today - I noticed a considerable sidewall bulge at that pressure, and felt that was a reasonable place to start. It seemed at 20 PSI the bulge was more than I got from the MT/R's at a slightly lower pressure.

The MT/R's were generally run at 18 PSI off highway, and had better traction, and cleaned out much better then the KM2's. In fact, on the exact same trail late last year, in pretty much exactly the same conditions, the truck barely even got muddy. It's gonna take a lot to clean up the truck after this trip. I've got mud stuck on the truck 4" deep in spots. The KM2's did OK, but the MT/R's certainly did better. I did have two places where the KM2's completely lost traction, to the point of sliding sideways off the road. The clay packed the voids, wouldn't clean out at low speed, and turned the tires into slicks. With very little scallop on the outside lugs, the tires would not pull out of ruts at all. Perhaps I could have dropped air pressure more, but I did feel the tires were almost too soft when crossing some ditches - it felt like the tires were bottoming out on the rims at one deep ditch when I crossed it at about 8 to 10 MPH.

On road they feel great - they took almost no weight to balance and spun very round on the balancer. None of them required anything more than a standard balance - the Road Force numbers were very, very low.

If the KM2's wear well, I'll be happy. The PW will get me thru pretty much regardless of how the tires perform

[Cactus Red]

02 Aug 10

Lighting update:

I had become accustom to HID's with the Tacoma. The Randy Ellis light bar would not accommodate the Checker/Kragen HID's, so I stuck 4 Hella 700FF driving lights on it. The original 55W bulbs were insufficient at best, so they were replaced with Hella Optilux 100W bulbs in hope of of replicating the amount and color qualities of the HID units.

While they were bright, they still didn't supply the kind of light I like.

So, to keep myself motivated to be working on Saturday's, I decided to use part of my OT to get another set of lights. After reading the Overland Journal Gear issue and researching HID's I found that the Light Force 170 Striker HID units would fit the Dodge. With the front grill attached to the hood it swings in a large arc that limits clearance to about 2.5 inch's, and the Light Forces are only 55MM deep (2.165") since they use a remote igniter and ballast.

Mounting was pretty straight forward with the exception of the igniter's and ballast. In the photo attached you can see the ballast and igniter are integrated into the wiring harness, and one has no provision for mounting, the other very small holes for screws. Since I already had relays and the switch in place it only took an hour to get both lights on and running. I'll get a photo of the completed wiring and lights later if it's not raining this evening. I ended up using multiple heavy duty zip ties to attach the ballasts and igniter's to the bumper and frame.

When I purchased the lights from Wil at Sierra Expeditions he warned me that there is a star like pattern to the lights. I'd seen the photos of the light output in the OJ article, and felt the benefits of HID would outweigh any problems with the beam, and I was right. I also purchased two of the combo filters for the lights, and they spread the beam enough to virtually eliminate the star pattern. Also, the Lightforce Strikers have an adjustable beam like a Mag Light, and I was able to broaden the beam considerably from it's original position as a pencil to more of a flood pattern. In conjunction with the combo filter, I got excellent distance and side coverage with both lights aimed straight ahead.

After using them for 4 hours on Saturday night in clear, rain, fog, and muddy conditions, I'm very pleased with the results. They are bright - very bright. Even the upgraded Sylvania Silverstar headlight and fog lights seem very dim in comparison - almost like not having any lights on at all.

_______________________

12 Sept 10

Well, after having four Hella's on the truck, two HID's looked kinda weird.

Added the second set last weekend, got to do some night driving yesterday into this morning.

Per TwinSticks request, I got some photos of the output.

First photo, Low beams only

Second, Low beams w/ factory Fogs (all bulbs are Silverstars)

Third, High Beams

Fourth, High Beams and 4 Light Force 170 HID's w/ left and right lights using wide filters, both lights pointing to the side about 15 degs, two center lights with combo filters pointed straight ahead.

Fifth, High Beams, no filters on HID's

Since most of the off highway traveling we do is at low speed, having the filters on gives us awesome light to the sides, and plenty of forward light as well. What the photos don't show is the amount of light to the sides with the HID's on. The sides of the road are illuminated as bright as the center roughly 45 degs either way. We saw Elk and other critters off to the side over a 100 yards away with ease. Without a tripod for the photo it came out bit fuzzy, but it gives you an idea anyway.

Mark

[Cactus Red]

I used the lights to guide our freinds into camp this weekend. They could see them from a looooooooooooong way out.

___________________________

Picked up the new version of the DT ProFab cover Thursday. It's been changed to clear a spare - it's not as deep and has more slope on the top. Flange is flywheel ground flat 3/8" steel, shell is 1/4" steel. Fill hole is 3/4" NPT, drain 1/2" NPT.

Covers will be sold bare steel - you paint'm, plate'm, or leave it to mother nature to color it for you, just like Dodge does on so many other parts...

As for price and availability, call Dave at DT ProFab 928 776 4129

Update 24 May 12

The cover is great! It has done what it's supposed to, and I haven't bent the flange like I did on the stock cover.

A 35" spare will touch it at full compression, but that is a rare event. Even when it does, it's light contact - the photo shows where the tread marked the dust on the cover.

[Cactus Red]

Start of 2011 mods
_________

Found a used 50 Qt ARB Fridge/Freezer on the Expedition Portal for $500.00 including the transit bag! All it needed was new Velcro to attach the bag to the fridge. The new ARB only draws 0.28 A to maintain temp. It's very quiet as well. Capacity is listed as 72 cans of your favorite beverage

Finished up the install this evening. Used an ARB wiring loom w/ Hella power port for power. Made a 1/2 plywood platform that bolts to the existing seat mounting holes. Sprayed the platform with rattle can bed liner - it came out pretty good. The rear seat has been removed for good - it's stored in the garage for now. Access to the fridge is pretty easy, but getting to the controls requires flipping the drivers seat forward. No big deal - set it at the beginning of the day and forget it.

Really looking forward to using it! Ice is now between $2.50 and $3.00 a bag, and we always used 2 per day trip in the summer, and for a 3 day camping trip we used 2 blocks and 3 or 4 bags with the big cooler. Being able to store food supplies in a dry fridge will sure help! We'll still need a small cooler for the Sam Adams Irish Red - there's nothing like pulling out a dripping wet frosty cold one at the end of the day.

[Cactus Red]

Decided to make some removable flappage for the truck while towing the StarCraft RT10.

The mount is bolted to the existing bumper mounting brackets using the factory hardware. The flap is retained by a pair of 0.250 pins. Two 24" x 18" flap provides good coverage from flying debris.

[Cactus Red]

Time for the next mod...

Decided to add a Sears DieHard Marine Platinum P1 (Group 31 - 1150 CCA, 205 Reserve) to augment the Sears DieHard Platinum P2 (Groupe 65 - 950 CCA, 135 Reserve) starting battery. We are now spending more time with the ARB fridge running while we're camped, so having a battery dedicated to it seemed like a good idea. It will be mounted in the bed in parallel with the starting battery, no isolator, just a good old fashioned knife switch and 2/0 cable.

Started on the project today by fabbing up a mount. I'm glad I don't do this for a living - nobody would pay for the cost of my home built projects. Took about 5 hours to cut, grind, weld, and apply a coat of tan rattle can bed liner to it. $16.00 in matl, $19.00 in hardware, $5.00 for paint, and $150.00 in labor for a grand total of $190.0 for a battery tray...

Finished up the project with the exception of the On/Off switch. It arrive until Friday, and I'll be at the BITD Parker Challenge for the weekend, so I'll get that in next week.

I used 33' of 1/0 cable, 1/0 positive and negative battery terminals, 1/0 3/8" ring terminals, red and black terminal covers, 1/0 red and black shrink tube, grommets, and a pile of zip ties. Pulling the cable was a chore. The underside of the truck is, as usual, filthy. Also had to completely remove the platform and the 400 lbs of gear stored in it. Literally 400+ lbs of stuff...

Checked voltage with the truck running, no loss at all from the main battery to the spare. Both read 14.35V

[Cactus Red]

Trying to increase MPG, so I got a full CAI. It's an AirAid non-oiled SynthaMax filter w/ pre-filter. The dyno sheet sez 18 HP, 20 Ft/Lbs, and I tend to believe it from how it feels. It runs as good here at 5000' as it does in Phoenix at 1400'. I'm also hoping for an improvement in MPG, and on the short trip we did yesterday for a Christmas Eve family gathering, the overhead displayed 14.2 MPG instead of its normal 11.8 or so. I don't buy that yet, but we'll see if it continues. Initial testing reveals a seat of the pants improvement in power above 3000 RPM - it really hits hard when it comes on, and continues to pull thru 5700 RPM.