MoparFreak1988

someone showed me this http://shop.retroshop.us/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=2G%2ERAM%2ERETRO I know this setup works well and is a great upgrade over stock lights but is it worth it for almost 600 has anyone used this particular kit and what are your thoughts of it.

well those stick on ones don't last all that well in the first place with a high vibration situation (IE Cummins 4x4 crappy roads ) but being knocked off by turning the wheel that doesn't seem right

I was unaware of the efforts and monies put out by Micheal and the rest of the staff I am greatly appreciative of what you have done and are doing you will see a good donation from me as soon as I get myself moved to my new house. For the record I have a Chrysler service manual with Cummins supplement together they cost over 200 and I have referenced this site as many if not more times than that manual so 10 for six months isn't bad after reading through the efforts put in by others to keep this great reference going I feel that I owe you guys the cost of a manual along with the monthly donations. I didn't hear mentioned was how much money this website has saved you on being able to know where others made mistakes and what not to do and/or what parts to stay away from I'll put my hand up and say over a grand easily..... let me know if you need help with printing graphics or doing shirts I have access to large printers and presses that you can print out a graphic that you can wrap a whole car with and we'll return the favor you gave us for so many years Mike and give you a smoking deal probably could even send a batch or two for free depending on how many you want and what I'm thinking is a 6 inch or 12 inch window sticker for 5-10 kinda like an aftermarket parts vendor sticker.

Sweet looking forward to seeing the progress. Just some food for thought on the bed liner idea, I am a cabinet maker/up-fitter for high end motor coaches and do deal with brand new chassis's from time to time and one thing I have noticed on the new Mercedes and Dodge sprinter cut aways is they use a Line-X or bed-liner type product on the lower panels and underside of the vehicle especially right behind the front tires. That being said IMHO I feel it is better than paint for that part of the vehicle...

Two things primer by itself is not a complete moisture barrier if you need to metal work you take a break for whatever reason I always rattle can prime it and rattle can clear it just for protection. Knowing it will all be sanded down when I come back to the project. if you used self a etching primer already and haven't done any other painting over that most bondo's or finish glazing compounds can be used on top of that primer coat without issue obviously clean and lightly sand first then bondo then sand then paint. otherwise looking good seems like you are on the right path keep it up and it will look great. If I can preach one thing about painting it is this making paint look good comes down take your time, do it right and spend the time in prep my truck will be under a spray gun at the professional shop for under two hours but they already have over two weeks worth of sanding and prep work food for thought

From my experience with a couple of friends 2nd gens and mine width is your enemy... If you can turn and drive with out rubbing(which won't happen) you can put a 37 inch tire in that hole with out much issue height wise (even under articulation) on a stock suspension that being said turning, control arms, and fender corners with all give you trouble with a tire of that size. other hand is 34's with different wheels you may be ok I think it's only a quarter or half inch difference in offset between the 16's and 17's

sounds just like me when it doesn't make sense give up and piece something together that works for you

Interesting I believe you are right... I am no electrical genius just enough to make me dangerous but I can tell you that this was made for our trucks and he built and sold this harness for awhile what I see from the instructions is the ground is the switched (and maybe the common), now it gets 12 volts to the relay directly from the battery and then grounds out by the lamp socket seen in the last picture two grounds and two 12v+ and the negative to the relay comes from the factory harness( like you said), my old man that is an electrical engineer put my harness together for me in trade for me fixing his truck I will pick his brain to see if he changed anything but as far as I know he built it to spec

I am being lazy go down to post #15 there you will see a few pictures the first one is one of our second gen quad cabs underlined with monsterliner... great stuff I personally will never pay for Line-x after using this product. http://forum.mopar1973man.com/index.php?/topic/9298-frame-off-restoration/

It shouldn't be to bad but but I would not suggest trying to paint below 55 degrees optimal range I feel is 55-75 with 50-85 percent relative humidity and this is just my feelings that being said since ​you have no prior experience read the directions till you absolutely and fully understand them, then follow them to the T. Now you may find things that don't work out well and you may need to make adjustment to get what you need but that is painting for the first time... you will find good painters take the directions and modify them to what works for them based on past experience which you have none so I fell you need a fixed baseline to start from, also keep in mind the paint you will probably be working with is an activated poly urethane which requires moisture to cure.

Gotcha was there a issue with the harness instructions or something got overlooked? mine went together well and it appeared to be working correctly before I broke my truck down for paint...

are you making a harness for going to sport headlights? did you follow the write up posted above? Dropbox - Headlight Harness Instructions 2014.pdf

If you have rust that has pitted the metal you are wasting your time which it sounds like you don't... If you have exposed primer scuff it up or block it my suggestion is don't expose bare metal if at all possible and try to keep your feathering below the radius of the bed if you keep it on the underside it will be very hard for someone to pick out the repair if you must go above the radius I would suggest going all the way up to the first body line... if you get to bare metal and you want it to last make sure you use an etching primer available from paint stores or in a rattle can like this http://www.homedepot.com/p/Rust-Oleum-Automotive-12-oz-Automotive-Self-Etching-Primer-Spray-Paint-249322/202097278 go slow start in one inconspicuous area maybe by the tailpipe and get a feel for what works for you.

I don't have a setup for my DD but I use this http://shop.gopro.com/mounts/roll-bar-mount/GRBM30.htmlwith a GoPro for my race car... I like it a lot but don't know if I want an expensive GoPro sitting in my DD in plain sight for anyone to have a go at stealing it... not a bad camera for the price diesel I may have to pick one up for the DD

Good point Diesel I plan to install a camera in my rig for reasons other than just accidents... as far as I am concerned if they hit me I am not responsible. the camera will be there for the other idiots out there and the police officer that over steps his bounds... which happens quite often out here (I digress for a moment and express anger at our country and state which allowed officers to arrest and detain people that were video taping officers on duty, the same ones that tried to arrest me when walking home from a bar rather than driving all because I didn't have an ID)

Harness write up by Craig hope it helps https://www.dropbox.com/s/ikcqdc47e7epyul/Headlight%20Harness%20Instructions%202014.pdf?dl=0

Funny you hijacked Dieselfuture because I was wondering the same as I am currently building bumpers for my truck... What I can say is I have two friends that work for the state police and they were the ones telling me about SAE DOT stamps and if they are not there you may be held liable for any and all modifications... Some points for thought they brought up. Wisconsin State Police protocols mandate in an injury accident the officer must document what headlights were in the vehicle down to the brand of bulbs as well as if the bulbs were on and functioning or not. was the vehicle suspension brakes or frame clearly modified. If any of the above mentioned modifications are found or the headlight fail to have a SAE DOT stamp the vehicle will be sent out for off site inspection This means they will scrutinize everything down to whether or not you used a grade 5 or a grade 8 bolt... this even comes down to me and you putting new brake pads in our truck and if they fail causing injure or god forbid death they may and most likely will try to charge you if you can't prove you have the qualifications to change those brakes.... So I wonder the legality of aftermarket bumpers

I agree with this statement all the way I can weld many things BUT if anything on my truck needed to be welded I will leave it to our CNC shop welders any day of the week( that would have been the case with this frame had I not chose to bolt it together per manufacture spec.), simply because I know they have repaired computer controlled equipment safely and properly(my fear is always damage to the computer whenever welding on a truck) I know their work I have seen it many times and they weld everyday where as it is a hobby to me.

Thank you Tom I literally just got off the phone with Boss. The technician I spoke with said they have heard of frames cracking in the past but that is due to lack of proper install or other factors to fast and/or to much snow/ poor technique. I also had the opportunity to pick our engineers brain on the subject he works for our CNC shop has his P.E. and said you could run into as many problems trying to weld as you would trying to bolt it up. He expressed concern about the rear bolts being almost on top of each other and said if my frame were to crack it would be between the rear upper and the forward lower bolt... He also said exactly what you did Tom "if you break a frame cause you put it together according to instructions that is better than being sued for trying to reinvent the wheel". Thanks guys off to drill a frame.

seen here is the plate in question this is the Ford frame we are looking at mine is at paint. theses are factory brackets provided by boss if you look at the holes you will see three of them in close proximity to each other. Boss says drill these three holes in the frame and that is the right way I don't believe so because the holes are to close together and there is a radius or bend under the middle of the plate my thoughts where a weld on the top but that would be to close to a radius and if I went on the back side it would be perpendicular to the length of the frame SO I wondered I don't like the drilling hole idea and I am starting to not like the welding idea. what about one bolt and two plug welds? here is a picture BTW thank you all for your fast response they are all very good point especially the one regarding accident and the D.O.T. makes me wonder how guys with homemade frames make out after a car accident...

So I have a plow that has been around for about 14 years it is an old boss v plow I have mounts for my truck and a ford theses are two separate factory made mounts for the rt2,,, I plan on setting up both trucks for the plow mine as a back up for when the ford breaks down. I have done this before and understand that my plow frames are bolt on items for both trucks but still require drilling a couple holes in the frame for example Boss says for the push bar rear support to drill 3, 9/16 inch holes in a 4 inch x 4 inch area now I know why those bolts are there but my question is would one 4 inch bead of weld that can be ground off be better than Swiss cheesing up the frame? would it be just as strong?, now to give you an idea of strength before these last 6 bolt go in or it is welded there is a total of 16 other bolts holding it all together...

as far as ground clearance go I believe me and you have the same idea and thank you good point on the gearing I feel kind of stupid now saying that I had completely forgot about that until you mentioned it. That being said I wonder if a 265 or 285 like you posted would be best and skip the lift. The more I have been thinking about it I have to hold my garage door up just to get my truck in and out, add bigger tires or a lift and I may have issues with parking garages as well as my own garage. I also wonder if removing the stock anti spin carrier and going with an ox locker front and year or something of that nature would yield good improvements... to the end of almost paying for itself when you add up savings of fuel economy(by running a smaller tire), not buying and installing a lift and difference in price per tire (265/285 to a 35 inch tall tire). plus if I did that I would get 3.73's put in which I would appreciate.

ya I have had issues pulling the large enclosed trailer through that jagged rock with stock tires not real good all terrains though I would get stopped in 2wd 50 percent of the time and switch to 4wd sometimes I was there until I got pulled out to be honest when I changed to a larger tire I had also changed my driving style a bit making a total of three variables which overall greatly improved off pavement manners I changed tire size, tread pattern(Hankook a/t to General Grabbers) and driving style. that being said maybe tire size doesn't matter except for ground clearance taking in to perspective we are talking about going between 31's and at absolute max 35's

Ever have problems with the stock size on what is called white rock driveway stone it is used a lot for temporary roadways during new home developments? Secondly I run a slightly larger size because I feel the steering improvement by staying in 2 wheel drive versus going to 4 wheel drive is crucial on tight logging roads larger size allows me to go through just a little bit more in 2wd before needing to switch to 4wd more or less I am not really trying to clear huge tires, just make a suspension system that works as well off road as it does on (tall task I know) if i need stock tires to do that then I guess that is the case but I believe there is always room for improvement

Sorry to hear the incident if quad cab hinges work I got a set off the cab that is going to scrap Monday there is nothing wrong just got a complete assembled cab with doors so I didn't bother trying to swap over the old hinges name a price and they are yours got driver and passenger side for all I care pay to have them shipped and they are yours. P.S. that is only surface rust easy clean up Cheers to a new year and better fortune