hex0rz

Manuals cost lest to make reliable. Most of the time all that is requires is buying a good clutch for it and your golden. Manuals don't suffer many problems compared to the auto. As well, they usually get better fuel mileage and you have better control of the powerband. A good rebuilt auto worth even speaking about can run you atleast 4k. I had mine rebuilt by a shop and it cost me around 4500. Its got the stuff in my sig, and no more. No billet parts, etc. Unless you rebuild it yourself, be prepared to shell out the green.

You could still melt a piston with an automatic...

If your on a budget there is 3 options: 1. Sell blood for money 2. Learn how to rebuild it yourself and you can get all the good parts to do it right 3. Do a conversion to a manual

Alright, damage control is not too bad. I notified Union Pacific rail of some stretch of track that had downed trees on their rails. Observed a guy traveling the tracks last night around 2am clearing brush and tree from the rails. Was not until later this morning I got to hear the infamous train horn again! I would estimate that power was restored at around 5-6 am. We went less than 12 hours without power, which is nice considering they estimated atleast 48 hours. You could tell they had alot to turn back on because out power dimmed out about 4 times after ours came on initially. My father in law was out and about clearing roads last night and had some help from other members of the public. All in all it was a positive experience except for a cocky californian with his macho guy attitude. There was a tree over the road and snagged on another tree and my FIL was the only one with a chainsaw. This guy felt it was necessary to try and pull this tree loose with his chain hooked up to his truck. Which after the 4th try of pulling it he subsequently broke his chain! So the guy being the continual idiot that he was, he tried yanking on it while my FIL was cutting on it. The chainsaw kicked back because of it and the brake engaged thankfully but still got himself right above the knee. It tore hist pants and barely went into the skin. Just enough to bleed a little. WHEW! My FIL retorted back by revving the chainsaw up all the way and told him, "I'm about to run this chainsaw up your A$$ full speed! " That got my laughing when he told me that.. Now, these storms are not typical to the area. We may have an occasional summer storm once a summer or every other summer. But the frequency and intensity of these two storms is a bit concerning. This has given me incentive to break out my saw and get it in working order again. I will be keeping some fuel on hand as well as we also not only have the generator to run for our trailer when needed, but if we have an extended outage of more than 4 days, we have freezers to run as well. I have thought considerably more about it and think I may need to invest in a fuel slip tank that I can keep fuel in and it will allow me to keep the fuel refreshed on a continual basis. The solar power idea needs to be put on priority as well. One thing that seemed really odd, was that both days these storms hit, our water pressure was next to nothing before the storm hit. I still scratch my head on that one!

Yes, you have a point. But Mike also stated it was his personal opinion. It does not mean the truck in a different configuration such as a regular cab long bed is not safe to handle a 5th wheel. In fact, dodge used a regular cab long bed dually in their commercial to advertise their astronomical towing capacities of 30k lbs. All mike was saying, was that a long bed with I assume he also meant quad cab as well is the longest wheelbase offered and therefore has the most stability out of all the configurations.

I've always been extremely picky about anything I stick onto my truck. To date, the only bumper sticker I have attached to my truck is a, "don't tread on me sticker". Its plain, its all thats needed to be said... it has become tempting to find one that also says our country is a republic and not a democracy as well, but I don't like to make my truck look busy either. So, for the time, I have just made it apart of my signature on this forum, lol. This reminds of the last movie of lethal weapon. They had to deal with some crooked foreigners and they claimed diplomatic immunity and could never get nailed for their crimes. Well, in the end, the guy cries that diplomatic immunity again and danny glover gives him a good round from his revolver to shut him up.

Well I heard from a couple people now that we are supposed to get either one or more off these systems soon. the news said we should expect up to 48hours before we receive power again. Unless we get another system,then we could be longer! Time to go find more gasoline! Sounds like I need too get my chainsaw running. Lots of free wood to be had!

So me and the wife had some dinner plans this evening. We get seated and just no sooner than later the wind starts whipping up and the lights start flickering. Then it happens, the power goes out! Great... the restaurant starts filing up with that great smell of smoke from the food and the waiter tells us he can't serve us any food. No use waiting in the restaurant in the dark for nothing. So we head out and eat it! Wind whooping really good, blowing power lines around and knocking trees over. Crap, it's getting real! Managed to get the two blocks to the truck and reassess the situation. Started thinking about all the power lines and trees and what to avoid. 2 out of the 4 common roads traveled through town were blocked from downed tree's and power lines. Finally found one of the other roads to travel that was decent enough to navigate to get back home. Been sitting here with the generator running and the only light on around me, haha. Only got the 5gallons in the tank from the last storm we got. This time around the whole area has no power so I can't pump from any stations. Here's to hoping the power comes back on soon! Boy this is more incentive to get the solar powered system like Mike's running!

Depending on the year of truck you get, I don't think any other truck dodge offers has a shorter bed than 6.5' other than the mega cab. I think the mega cab is a 5.5' of 5' bed? Regardless, if you use a 6.5' bed, you need a sliding hitch. If you get a shorter bed, you will have to use a sidewinder hitch.

Except, he includes extras, so you basically got 2 kits in one...

I went to walmart and went to the fabric dept and pretty much just got a felt like material. It in itself is pretty dirty, but the filter itself looks brand new!

Mike can vouch for me when I say this: It can be done... Is it the most ideal setup? No. I use a superglide hitch with my truck and have the scalloped nose as well. You can call superglide and give them a few dimensions and they can actually tell you how far you would be able to turn with the hitch. If you can help it, get a long bed at the least. This will eliminate having a sliding hitch, but the longer wheelbase helps with increased stability. I'm usually pretty darn heavy towing my 5th wheel because its a toyhauler and I try to keep a happy medium with counterbalancing for pin weight. As far as my knowledge goes, the only advantage you have with the 1 ton is having a dana 80 rear and some other things that help beef it up. Capacities though, they are really similar in rating until you get into doing a 1 ton dually.

...meh, nascars do left turns all day long at 250mph.

Well, the short term solution until I can really figure this all out is to sell it to the in-laws for their vehicles, Ha-ha!

I'm SOL for both ideas at moment. Amazing how there doesn't seem to be much out there anymore. Go to an auto parts store and your lucky to find much of anything you really need! The auto place had a large funnel, but no hoses large enough for the funnel end. Lady said I might use a radiator hose, but I'm not sure if that could handle fuel. Local hardware store did not have anything either, unless I mickey moused it together and spend over $100 doing it, to boot! I'm probably going to have to buy the fitting online to get what I need...

So, a couple days ago, me and the wife were at work. Actually we were on break at this point. The break area seemed unusually darker than normal for the time of day and year. We were going to receive a nasty storm that was blowing through the inland northwest. Lightning, wind, rain, etc. Wind gusts of up to 60-70mph is what I heard. Power got knocked out at work for a few seconds. What transpired outside the building was more than what many expected. Finally, after getting off of work, we make way home and we noticed the abnormally large amount of brush/vegetation in the road. But, when we entered the town we reside, once we passed through the last traffic light in town, it was dark. I suddenly realized how different things were when there is not a single light on anywhere, lol. We get home and we are running 3/4 full on battery level and the fridge is on LP. Power was knocked out since 6pm that day. With the abnormally long time it usually takes to get power back on, we decided that we would rather not risk it and we were going to gather up all the gas cans we could to run the generator when needed. So we run back into town to the nearest fuel station that had power and proceeded to fill the cans up. Get back home and grudgingly realized how difficult it was going to be to fill the tanks for the generator. I had about 25 gallons to dispense into the tank at 5 gallon increments. Slowly, I make the first 5 disappear into the tank. Suddenly, the power came back on. ....oh, the irony. Then I started thinking more. The trailer has 2 tanks. 1 for the generator and the other for recreational use filling up dirt bikes, etc. It has a pump and nozzle and draws from the 2nd tank. Well, being who I'am the only time this thing would ever get used is to fill the generator tank. Now, here is what I would like to do. Tell me if its worth doing or not. I could probably go one of two ways here: 1: Buy a fuel funnel that is large enough to handle a gas can and can feed into the tank. 2: Cut the suction line from the tank to the pump and install a 3-way tee. Install suction hose to it and use the valve to draw from either the tank or a fuel can. I like both ideas and will be getting the fuel funnel for not only this situation, but even other instances as well.. But the more think of it, I do like the idea of being able to deploy a section of hose and turn the valve on the tee and have the pump suck from a can instead of getting gas on myself. Seems like no matter how new a dang fuel can is, these safety cans seem to leak! If I were to construct it in this manner, I could suck from a can and use the nozzle to fill the tank. then I could fill the other tank with the nozzle from the tank. Just seems like a nice, clean, convenient way of transferring the fuel without walking away smelling like gas. Whats your guys' thoughts?

That flag pole is 400ft tall!

I've got a few things to address before I even bolt the he351ve up to the truck. I'm hoping to rip the tranny out myself and do the flexplate and input myself.

I need to figure out how to do this. I've been kind of wanting a similar setup like this since I got my trailer. Last night, we had a really bad storm come through and knocked power out in many places of the local area. Within 100 miles I would say... We lost power at about 6pm and did not get it back until 130am. Here I'am, just got back from the gas station with 25 gallons of gas for our generator. Poured the first 5 gallons in, and whattya know, the power comes back on!

Won't happen for me unless I toast my newly rebuilt 47re... *Knock on wood!*

I second this...

Hmmm, business idea, maybe?

I'm anticipating this sort of thing when I do me VE swap. I'm going to be running through this sort of stuff before that turbo even goes on...

Unless your like me and it seems like no matter what you do, your always sitting at the same MPG.

Thanks, Ed. I'm going to try and make this swap as painless as possible as I know the more I try and simplify it the more I could complicate it.