Sycostang67

I have pair of 30'" light bars on my truck, treat them like high beams though. If there is another vehicle in front of me then I leave them off. I go to work at 3:30 in the morning and travel a stretch of road that's likely to have livestock wandering around so the light bars are very helpful.

That's good to know. If I had done that, my wife would have been leaning towards me more with my old cushion.

I don't know if you can just swap passenger for driver side as they aren't square. There tends to be more material towards one side and there is a notch for the hinges on the outsides.

If you use a paint, use some BullDog adhesion promoter. I painted a bunch of stuff in my wifes jeep about a year ago and it still looks great. It was stuff that gets touched too, vents, steering wheel trim, door panels and no peeling or flaking.

I caught a sweet deal on a new driver side seat cushion a couple weeks ago. The seat shop was having a sale, $25 off and free shipping. I tried to get one but code didn't work for me so I canceled the transaction and left a comment on their FB page. Somebody replies to apologize and explain the sale didn't apply to 05 and older ram cushions but to give them a call. I call the guy and he explained the situation further and ended up letting me have the cushion for the sale terms anyhow. While replacing the cushion I noticed that while my cover wasn't visibly torn, one of the rods had pushed through on the right side into the middle seat. I reset the rod and springs and put some adhesive to hopefully hold it in place. The cushion feels great, I'm sitting level instead of leaning to the left. I had to readjust my steering wheel and mirrors because I'm so much higher now. I also ordered some cover craft seat savers, I got to preview them from a set a customer at work ordered. They fit pretty good, have all the right openings and are easy to install. The material feels pretty durable too, I believe it's from carrhart. I climbed in and out a few times and they didn't slip around. It was a 4 piece set but I didn't use the top middle section as I was afraid the console lid wouldn't close but it's always folded down anyhow. The covers also provide map pockets on the backs of the seats and a pocket on the front of the middle seat. I figure this cost as much as replacing the one bottom seat skin so I'm happy with that.

Why would you move to california, did someone hold a gun to your head the whole way there?

I did read your sig before I posted and totally missed that part.

Are you still running the stock 2nd gen wheels? I noticed when I had mine I would get a random vibration at higher speeds from one of them. Rotate the tires and it was gone until I rotated them back. I had them all rebalanced and everything was good. I haven't had any issues since I got rid of them.

As of right now I'm planning on making a 300 mile trip from Boise ID up to the tri-cities area in Washington to meet Marcus and get a dash core from him. Upon mentioning this to some people I've heard to be careful in the Blues mountains. While the trip should only take a day, I was already planning to get a set of chains, bring my jump pack, some blankets and provisions just in case things get hairy and I've always got some basic tools and fluids in the truck. Is there anything else I should be worried about? I'm not really worried about the truck, it's never let me down before, just more worried about unfamiliar territory.

I leave mine plugged in overnight and depending on the outside temps, will be anywhere from 90-110 when I start it.

I heard the the vans continued to use the old bolt pattern for a few more years after the trucks changed. I don't know how much truth there is to that, but have seen it mentioned a couple times in the Ford forums. I had a set of the Alcoas on my 93, I traded a guy a set of 17x9 chrome wheels for them. They were the uncoated conversion Alcoas though, so you had to keep them clean or they corroded. They also didn't have the notches/holes for the ford center caps so I got some aftermarket caps that attached to the lugs. Unfortunately, all the front caps required the notches so I used rear caps with holes cut in them on the front.

Yes sir, I've even gotten new wheels and tires since then.

Are those the ford alcoas with Dodge center caps?

The first box had an insane amount of play, about half a turn of the wheel. The box I have now causes the truck to pull to the right. I've had it aligned twice by a guy I trust who has been aligning all my vehicles for years. I replaced all the steering linkage, track bar etc. before hand so everything is tight and aside from the play, the truck was driving straight before the 2nd box went in. Someone suggested a partial blockage some where in the box may be causing the pulling. Either way, redhead or warranty replacement, I'm getting a new box this year.

It sounds like we are working to get Redhead boxes available at work. If that comes to fruition, I plan on trying one. I'm on my 2nd reman box and it's just as bad as the first one, only in a different way.

I ran an AFE intake with a dry washable filter for 6 months. At the 6 month mark I pulled the tube to check and had a very noticeable layer of dust inside it. That was when I noticed my turbo was shot, Mike even made the comment on my pic that it looked as though the filter had failed and was letting dust in and I don't think he knew I was running that intake as I hadn't told anyone. As soon as I got my new turbo, I put the BHAF back on.

I used the 3cyl idle at work one day, a coworker came in and said your truck is rattling an awful lot. I told him it was only running on 3 cylinders and left it at that. The next day he comes to me and asks, "is it safe to be driving it like that?" It was then I explained why it was running that way.

That part can be replaced without disassembling the seat. My driver seat was missing that trim piece when I got it. I snagged one from the salvage yard and managed to squeeze it on with only unbolting the bottom section of the belt. The hard part was pushing the shoulder latch through the trim piece.

My first truck was a 1983 F-100, and my father made me haul half that load in the back, wood pellets for our stove. The air shocks barely brought it up an inch. He later filled the bed with compost, it was spilling over the roof and bedsides the whole mile home. Needless to say, the little axle in the truck, 8.8 I believe was not built to handle such abuse. Shortly after the compost, my truck refused to move one day and had to be towed to a shop. They told me the bearings were crushed and had destroyed almost everything else. I'm still not sure why I had to pay to have it fixed.

Good luck to you Mike, I'm sure you'll be back on the road in no time.

Is the brown color of the housing from the turbo getting too hot? My OEM turbo was kind of brown, been that way since I got it so I assumed it was normal. New turbo is nice and silver, still looks new. I always let mine cool down now, saw what happens when you don't in my last turbo. I only put 45k miles on it, don't know how the PO did things.

That's about what mine looked like when I replaced it. I had about 225k miles and plenty of shaft play. My seal was starting to leak as well. I got a new replacement due to a cracked exhaust housing and a miscommunication between the rebuilder and his supplier.

I did something like this to my old IDI. That was much simpler though, just added and on/off switch to the solenoid wire. No point using glow plugs in the summer.

That would be the guy. It's same color as my original so I wouldn't have to swap anything else.

I may have found a good core, fellow forum member is parting out a truck and it appears to have a good core in it. He's going to pull it and let me know for sure and then I'll drive on up to his place in the spring to get it. I did at least get a new bezel which really helped make things look better.