CSM

Nice truck and rig. What size toyos?

There has to be a reason dodge did the two piece. Perhaps cost, or perhaps the side load from the single piece wears out tail shaft bearings? Bill? I'd like to go to a single when my two piece bites the dust.

The rotational mass tiny. In my opinion, the aluminum is for drag cars where each 100lbs is a tenth of a second. Steel is stronger, cheaper, fixable, and had infinite life unlike aluminum.

We're kind of overrun with dirty bumS.

Wow. Great information mike. Seriously. As for the water hammer I used a needle valve from mcmaster carr that is adjustable for my fuel px gauge. I could never get the stock isspro damper to work. It also doubles as a shutoff for the gauge, which is nice when I pulled my pillar mount due to mice eating the gauge line.

I went to the same school and got the same undergrad degree. I paid 3100 for my first semester of classes... But back in the early 2000s it was still a backwards nerdy dirty hard rock old school then. Now it is all shiny and darned expensive.

The other thing to keep in mind, Bill, is that the underside option might be boosting temps due to the restriction at the turn. It might not be a "real" temp but an increased temp due to the sensor itself.

LOL. Looks like good work. I'm not above Harbor Freight either.

Did he carve that?

Well. Be very careful when you change the brakes on that 96. My 97 had some bad brake issues once the factory brakes were changed. we couldn't figure it out and neither could the three dealers or two good private shops that tried to tackle it. We changed everything but the abs system. Looking back, I suspect the abs system was the culprit, but we couldn't find a new abs valve block thingy

Do our trucks have an AC air filter on them? I've looked but haven't found one.

I am the guy who spec'ed it out and you are right. It isn't the best converter to tow with. I may change it when i pull the motor next year for a checkup & hopefully cam. However, it drives real nice empty and once you get the trailer past 10mph it works good.

Bill, I will add it to my garage... I ordered a Cargo Craft from the guys at Central Trailer in Broken Arrow, OK. 28' box, 7'6" high inside, 8'6" wide. 7k dexter axles with brakes on all 4 chrome wheels. Cost 8600 and took a month to get from the factory. It has LED lights, what look like 3/4 plywood walls 2x3/4 floor It has "rv style" wiring to the lights inside to a central switch of truck power. big escape door on the drivers side and the door you see on the passenger side. It weighs about 4000 lb empty. I added a CURT Trunnion style equalizer hitch to the truck and a set of AirLift airbags and the trailer tows great... even in a tornado watch and severe thunderstorm in Oklahoma! It is blown a bit, but not awful as long as I keep my speed down to a sane level. I ran 43 lbs in the airbags and the 1400 lb rated equalizer about half way tight.

I don't care much about the other traffic as long as I am going the minimum legal speed. Jerks will be jerks and I can't see them behind my trailer. If people get road ragey... then I will just slow down and stop. If they want to play stupid games I have stupid prizes for them. Overall feel... I like towing with it. I REALLY like driving it around town. I have an automatic, which I personally like since the truck is 90% a daily driver. However, it has a bit of a big step between the gears and at my weight I was accelerating slow or holding it down a gear and not shifting until 25-2600 to keep from losing spool, Overall it does well as long as I keep an eye on temps. My trans is tight and the torque converter has a pretty low stall. If I dialed down the smarty I think it would require a bit less attention. Drivability numbers and my techniques. At 70+ degrees ambient temp, the EGTs will be happy above 1800RPM and I can see 10-30 PSI with comfortable EGTs as well. Below 60 degrees ambient temp, the intercooler really gets more efficient and the truck moves quite well as I could definitely tow faster, but the mileage suffered. The truck is smooth, and can pull, but with the smarty I have to pay attention not to lug it, as it has the power to pull down low, but the EGTs will soar until the RPMs get up. The below trailer has the aerodynamic coefficient of a smartly thrown anvil and total weight was 21k. I was locked up in 3d with most of the trip going fairly slow. Once I hit I-70, I started to get in a bit more of a hurry and sped up from 55-60 and got away from the 50 KNOT (57 mph) gusty headwind. I sped up to 65mph and it would pull that load locked up in OD on level ground or a very slight grade with 20psi and 1050-1150 F EGT depending on grade in cruise. Unfortunately, I averaged 13mpg at 55mph but was down in the 9-10 range at 65mph, especially in the wind. At 65 in 3d, I would see 800-1000F EGT and 17-24psi. I found the "happy" speeds were 45-60 in 3d regardless of the hill, and 65+ in OD with the goal at both speeds to stay below 1150F and around 20psi. I could pull the load in OD but not without getting above those temps when driving below 65mph... if I had shorter tires I might be able to do it, I was only 200 rpm out of the sweet spot. I found that if the EGT was 800-850 I could shift to OD and the temps would stay below the 1150 i set as my personal continuous max. If I wanted to go faster, it would have done it. I could have been at 75mph quite easily and would have been in the horsepower band with happy turbo and EGTs. However, I didn't make a ton of power until the boost came in at 1600-1800 rpm or so. The power holds strong as high of RPM as I've had it, which is around 2700rpm.

LoL. All wind is knots to me now... we use Celsius too for all our performance calculations.

I just towed back to Colorado from Oklahoma at gcvw... ish... and there were a lot of hills that were solid 3rd gear hills with 50kt winds. I didn't get to stay in OD until the Temps dropped to 60f in Colorado on the flats along I70. What I want to know is what EGT is the max safe continuous temp.

For towing, cajflynn always used to say keep our under 20 and don't tow fast. Seemed top work.

Welcome! I am a CO guy too. I am up north of Colorado Springs.

I replaced my old injectors in my 2000 at 130k and my 2002 at 149k. Both times I was quite impressed with the improvement. I plan on replacing these again around 300k and pop testing in the interim.

The relay is in the junction and fuse box on the drivers side inner fender under the hood.

Swap relays. Thats the most limey cause if the clutch stopped but is still functional worth 12v.

Neat!

I worry whenot the most difficult technical terms the tech uses are words like "wonky."

I'm out of the state at the moment. I'll be back in the C Springs area after the 7th and may be able to help. I'm in the military and will only be home for a week. But I'd expect to be helping donors to Mopar man's site. I'll volunteer my time and equipment for the the good of the site.

Bull crap. The trained techs have all retired. I have found two options. One... Go through several dealers looking for one that sells a lot of diesels. Then find their diesel guy, and politely and nicely ask to ask him some questions. Be a bro. Two. Ask the dealer if they have any old retired diesel techs who do work on the side.