War Eagle

Would be nice if we could. Just have to shift down and use the brakes to keep the speed down.Good brakes are an important tool on the truck.

Those exhaust brakes are nice but for us guys without the manual transmissions we don't get to use them.Good brakes are an important tool on the truck.

I got my Hawks from Anything Auto. They offered 15% off and free shipping for new users so I got a better price than I could find online.

I paid $275 when I bought my several years back.

I use Hawk LT brake pads and they are virtually noise free. They advertise fade resistance, low brake dust, noise free and low rotor wear.I carry a slide in camper and these things stop me far better than the OEM pads that came with the truck. I like them and have about 50k miles on the pads. Rotors look nice. No grooves or scratches.

I also installed a 4 inch exhaust system from the turbo back. It included a resonator. I bought the system off ebay and installed myself. Don't remember the brand name. No welding needed and it came with all the brackets and hangers and everything fit perfectly. Been on my truck for over 5 years now and I am satisfied with it. I also installed a K&N filter (there are better filters out there than the K&N) and this combo gave me an honest 2 mpg on the road and nearly the same for my in town driving. I am a light touch on the go pedal.

This has to be my vote also. http://www.lingenfelter.com/engine-packages/camaro-gen-5-2010-2012/camaro-ss-ls3-mt-2010-2012/camaro-ss-427-cid-ls7-800-hp-inter The paint color is a winner also.

I got the 7 pin recepticle and harness from my local NAPA store. Had to be ordered but was only two days out.Mounted the recepticle on the inside of the box (just ahead of the wheel well) on the drivers side. Pig tail from my slide in camper plugs right into it and the extra pig tail length sits in the bed space just ahead of the wheel fender.

I have had some interesting temp issues this spring. However, most of my issues were lower temps. Wouldn't get to 190 unless I was on the road for and hour or more.Even when I had my winter front still on the system would never seem to get to normal operating temp like I was used to seeing.But every now and then the temp would shoot up above 220.Checked every thing I could think of. Had it in the shop for testing but never found a specific reason for the strange behavior. Never acts up when it's in the shop!I had put in a new thermostat last summer because I was seeing some higher temps on my drive to work so I kept discounting the thinking that I could have a thermostat acting up and causing the temp swings I was seeing. When I replaced the thermostat last summer I bought one at Schuck's Auto. Paid something like $18 for it.Frustrated this late spring, I went to NAPA and bought a new one and got the expensive one and paid $32 I think. Well my problem was solved. Have not experienced any more slow or non normal operating temps and haven't seen any unexplained high temps either.It was simply a bad acting thermostat. I will only replace the thermostat with the higher dollar version as I have seen the poor quality and life of the low dollar one.

Our local NAPA store makes custom battery cables and swages or crimps the ends on them.I had a older Ford diesel with dual batteries that needed to be replaced and I just took the old one out and they made an exact copy for me.They were much less than the dealer.I don't know if all NAPA stores have that same capability but this store has an on site machine shop. Maybe it's worth a check to see.

Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (or BSFC) is the ratio between the engine's fuel mass consumption and the crankshaft power it is producing.It the most efficient operating range of the engine only. The most power for the least amount of fuel being used.The curve shape is similar to a bath tub. The coordinates on the BSFC chart are fuel consumption and RPM. (see attached chart)Anything slower or faster will use more fuel. Remember this BSFC is efficiency of the engine only. Your mileage may vary due to lots of other parameters (i.e. tires, load, aerodynamics, friction losses, etc., etc. etc.) Dodge Ram BSFC Chart.pdf

Sorry to hear about this disaster.Seems like we are experiencing many catastrophies all over the US.We never know when it can strike us personally.Best wishes and our prayers to you folks.

I drove through that area in April and it was dry then. I don't see how any thing is still living down there without any water and all the heat you have been getting.Hope this heat and drought ends for you folks very soon and I hope they can get these fires under control so the devastation stops.

I am trying to search my memory and I was thinking this specific engine (EBQ210-20) was used for low speed application industrial equipment. Gen sets, earth movers, dump trucks etc. Was this engine also put in the early diesel pickups? Is this the engine that is in your 97?The 24v vp44 engines have the most efficient bsfc at about 2000 rpm and I was thinking the 12v version in the pickups was similar to this rpm level, but I am not absolutely sure of that. Many of the 12v's get good mileage at the 70mph + speed range.I have the 3.55s and I have to go about 73mph + to get the rpms up to 2000. I am guessing that the manual shift versions of the 12v and 24v are up in the mid to high 70's to get to this rpm (with 3.54/3.55 gears).Therefore, not accounting for any other types of gains or losses, running the engine near 2000 rpm should result in the most economical mode for the truck. But you can't argue with 23 to 25 mpg.

I used to live in Oregon and never found an Officer of the law accept any kind of reason or excuse for driving over the limit.I'd say you were mighty lucky and I would guess you won't get another free one if caught speeding again. Oregon loves speeding ticket revenue!

I have a threaded port on the outlet side of my turbo where my boost fooler and wastegate pressure line is connected and I just used a 'T' fitting to connect the line for my boost guage. Been that way for 5 years now. This setup seems different than some others are doing so I hope it isn't wrong to do it this way.

I carry a truck camper and I have the dodge factory overloads. I use a product by Torklift called "Torklift Stable Load" It is basically a very large bumper pad that replaces the small stock bumper. This puts the bumper pad in contact with the springs putting them back to work to help stablize the load without the gap and travel distance that the bed/frame must travel to contact the springs when you go over the bumps. Some people use these in conjunction with air bags but I don't use air bags and have really liked the stablized affect it has on my truck. Maybe something like this can be useful to you. Free Shipping and less than airbags. http://tweetys.com/stable-load.aspx

Mopar1973Man, I see this post has talked about not only what gear to pull or not to pull in but also the mpg impact of that choice. I am interested in the mpg impact primarily and as I understand it, one of the best things to understand about the engine is the engine performance curves which include the BSFC chart. The brake specific fuel consumption for any specific engine is determined by dyno testing (on the engine only). It basically defines the fuel consumption over the gross operating range of the engine. I have included the performance curve for the gen 2 with VP44 pump. If you look at the BSFC curve you see it looks somewhat like a bath tub. The lowest end of the curve defines the most economical fuel consumption range for this engine. You can see that is is at or slightly above 2000 rpm. If you run above that rpm or below that rpm then you will experience more fuel consumption. Therefore, if you want the best economy you select the gear that will allow your engine rpm to remain close to 2000 rpm. Of course your gear selection along with your axle ratio and your tire size will determine what speed you will be traveling down the road at. As I understand it, even if your axle ratio and tire size allow you to pull in OD you may not be achieving the best mpg if you not at 2000 rpm. So you can shift gears up or down to get your rpm range at 2000 rpm and improve your mileage. So you may go faster or slower and you can improve you mpg. Now of course aerodynamic drag, rolling resistance, etc., will come into play also and it will have a negative impact on your mpg when you go faster (drag increases as the square of velocity) so even if you are pulling something that represents an increase in aerodynamic drag and you go 75 or 80 mph to get the engine turning 2000 rpm your mileage efficiency will likely suffer a heavy blow. In this case slowing down (to lower aerodynamic drag losses) will improve your mileage but as you slow down then your rpm takes you to a higher fuel conspumption point on the BSFC so if you again can select a gear that puts your rpm range back to the 2000 rpm you will again get to or near the optimum operating range of your engine and further improve your mileage albeit you will be going a slower speed. So it is not surprising to me that when you drove in 4th gear and kept your rpm range at 2000 then you saw an improvement in your mpg. Dodge Ram BSFC Chart.pdf

The latest edition of Diesel Power Mag has an article on methonal/water injection. It focuses on improving emissions but also implies power improvements, lower egt's and better fuel economy. But as with other technical articles they give very little to no actual quantifiable data. Sometimes some graphs and pictures but it would be difficult for you to justify the install based on what info they provide. I am not looking for power increases or lower egt's as I am happy with my truck for how I use it, but I would like to pick up some additional economy improvement. "Snow Performance" advertises 6-12% better fuel economy on their "Tow-Max". There are 3 or 4 major manufacturers (that I found) of methonal/water injection systems and I am wondering if anyone is using these type of systems and and found that they are getting bona-fiable increases in their mileage. What system are you using and what improvements have you seen with what kind of mixture you are using?

I did a little experiment of my own to see if I could get an improvement in mpg over the stock configuration of my truck. I have kept copious mpg numbers since the day I purchased my truck so my thinking was that I could compare any changes to my historical data. I first installed a K&N hi-flow filter in the stock filter housing. I couldn't tell any difference in performance or mpg using my driving style and with out any towing(I am pretty soft on the pedal and drive 65mph max on the freeway). Next I installed a 60hp chip and could really feel the hp add. After extended miles over several months (and no towing) I was able to say I got a 2mpg improvement in my highway driving and almost the same in my city driving. In stock configuration and 100k on the truck I was averaging 18mpg in town and 20 mpg on the road. With the chip my mileage in the city moved up to 19.7 and my hiway driving went to 22mpg (this is spring and summer time driving). I still had the K&N filter in place during this test. I then removed the chip after I had about 5k miles on it and then I installed a 4" turbo back exhaust system with a straight thru resonater type muffler ( my truck did not come with a catalytic converter). Again I put 5k miles on the truck (with no towing) and I saw the similar 2mpg improvement over the stock configuration in both city and highway driving. The K&N filter was still place for this test and the driving for this test was summer and early fall. At this point I was thinking I had hit the mother lode because all I had to do was put the chip back on the truck and I would have a net gain of 4mpg and better truck performance. It didn't happen that way. When I installed the chip in conjunction with the 4"" exhaust system and K&N hi-flow filter I still only saw the 2 mpg increase over the original stock configuration. So in the end the sum total of what I got was a performance improvement (60hp chip) and a 2 mpg improvement.

When ever you change oil in the limited slip you need to be sure to put in the limited slip additive or you will damage the limited slip capability. You get it from the Dodge dealer and it comes in something like 8 oz tubes.

Volkswagen, I would be interested in seeing your wiring diagram. Also would be interested in updates on the results of your install.

I also have the XZT+ and I just used 2 zip ties to attach it to the underside of the e-brake controller. Zip ties go clear around the controller and the XZT. The e-brake controller is held in place by a bracket that screws into the lower skirt of the dash board. This allowed the cable lengths to reach where they were needed on my truck. When I removed the XZT to add a new software version I just cut the ties and then re-tied it in place after the upgrade. Pretty easy to manage. I have the XZT 3 position toggle switch taped in place on my gear selector shaft right at the base of the plastic knob on the end of the gear selector. It's out of the way from where I usually place my hand whenever I am moving the gear selector but close by so if I want to change the specific tune I am using on the ZXT then I can easily access the switch.

I did a brake upgrade in spring of 2009 and I used the Power slot rotors and the Hawks LTS brake pads. Total cost including shipping was $307. I did a price compare on the internet and ended up buying from AutoAnything. I am very happy with the results. I can really anchor the truck. I carry a 2500 # camper and I have no problem stopping that baby if I need to anchor it in a hurry. No squeals at all. I have 20k miles on the setup so far. There maybe other good options out there, but I am happy with the results of this combo. I would do the very same thing again if I was looking for an upgrade.

I carry a 2001 Summerwind 8'11" camper on my truck. It also has a slide out but the unit is made with an all aluminum frame. It's called the lite-weight model and its weight is 2505#. My truck is probably pretty close to the weight of yours. My camper would then put me at about 200+ pounds over weight. I do not run air bags but have over loads and the torq-rite tie downs and overload bumper pads. There is no squatting when I have the camper on my back. I run RS9000XL adjustable shocks and a heavy duty sway bar with heavy duty brake pads and slotted rotors. I worried about the over load condition and checked with multiple RV dealers and truck owners and all I talked to said this is done every day. The long and short of it is that I talked myself into carrying this camper because on doing my research on carrying capacity of tires and axles as well as the stopping capacity of the brakes that I would be ok if I didn't do something stupid like driving to fast, driving too close or ignoring the environmental conditions. I have picked my cruising speed to be 60-62mph and I don't go over it with the camper on my back. I have put almost 7000 miles on my truck carying this camper and have not had any kind of problems. This unit is 12' tall so I have to watch high winds and of course my mpg drops but everything else has been just fine..