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Nathan
433 Posts |
 Posted - 03/19/2009 : 09:55:32
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i was told that it is impossible to spend too much on professional image because one way or another you want your customer to remember you. with that in mind (yes, im using it as a handy excuse to spend a lot of money!) ive started to upgrade my 2001.5 cummins powered dodge ram 2500 4x4 work truck. this is where im at right now:
stage 1:
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the first step was wheels and tires. i went with a 16x9 "artillery" wheel from american racing, and wrapped them in 265/75 r16 bfg km2 tires. they turned out pretty dang good i think. im really pleased with the km2s. they are as quiet as my OEM tires but offer so much better traction. the only thing i dont like about them is they are very bad about picking up rocks on the road. the rocks get wedged between the lugs and throw the tires off balance creating a very rough ride. so long as there are no rocks in the lugs, these tires are beautiful asthetically and in performance.
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from banks i added the exhaust brake, tranny controller, and monster exhaust. i dont yet have the controls installed on the exhaust brake, but i do have it plumbed in and hope to hook up the controls this weekend if weather and time allows. the exhaust is nice, but a little quiet for my taste. it took about 3 hours to remove my old exhaust and install everything shown above. i probably could have done it in half the time if i had just cut my old exhaust out with a reciprocating saw in the beginning. i wanted to unbolt it all with the intent of keeping it, but after screwing around with it for better than an hour i finally wised up and just cut it out. i will update with pictures of the exhaust and exhaust brake after the installation is completed.
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to unleash the potential of my cummins i added an edge juice with attitude. i was a little reluctant to put a power adder on a truck that was in great mechanical condition at 130,000 miles, but this edge juice with attitude is the most fun ive had since hitting puberty. 
at this point im not quite certain what i want to modify next. im thinking my next upgrade will be to replace my lift pump with an aftermarket pump that can keep up with the power adder. from there im considering a tranny and torque converter upgrade, and possibly injectors. a winch and winch bumper are also on my list. trouble is finding a winch bumper i like. i dont like the spacer steel between the bumper and the bottom of the grille on the ranch hand, and i dont much care for those bumpers that are so huge they could also be used to plow snow.
more to come.  |
Nathan in 
    
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ferdiesdodge
USA
83 Posts |
Posted - 03/19/2009 : 22:33:06
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| Maybe if you dont like the ranchhand you could look into the topgun front bumper replacement. just a suggestion. |
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Bunk
USA
444 Posts |
Posted - 03/20/2009 : 05:56:18
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Looks great, Nate. I hope the tires stay quiet. I had a set of 35" old style KM Radial Mud Terrains on my Ford. They performed better as all terrain tires than BFG's KO Radial All Terrain. The only drawback was they got louder and louder as they wore down. It wasn't a problem until I couldn't hear the radio at highway speed.
Ken |
Sellersville, PA
1999 2500 QC SB 4X4 |
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Nathan
433 Posts |
Posted - 03/20/2009 : 07:28:25
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quote:
Originally posted by ferdiesdodge
you could look into the topgun front bumper replacement.
the top gun bumper is the same as the ranch hand. there is a 6" gap between the bottom of the grille and the top of the bumper that they fill with checker-plate. this makes the bumper sit really low and makes the truck appear lower to the ground than i like. my existing bumper sits directly beneath the grille. i dont know why they couldnt do these heavy duty bumpers like that. i think these huge "snow plow" bumpers look good on a lifted truck but at stock height they just make it look too low for my taste. the search continues. |
Nathan in
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Nathan
433 Posts |
Posted - 03/20/2009 : 07:29:46
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quote:
Originally posted by Bunk
Looks great, Nate. I hope the tires stay quiet.
thanks ken. yours were the km or km2? |
Nathan in
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usmcphil
USA
226 Posts |
Posted - 03/20/2009 : 07:47:49
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| There is a gap in that bumper so you can get to your headlights when you need to replace bulbs |
2005 Dodge Ram 2500 5 inch straight pipe, 5 inch downpipe, 6 inch Miter cut Stacks, AFE Stage 2 Cx Pro Dry S Cold Air Intake System, Auto Meter Triple Gauge Pod with trans pyro and boost, BD Diesel Aux Lift Pump, Bully Dog Triple Dog with Senator Larry, Bully Dog Outlook Monitor, Dr. Performance Chip, Idle up enabled, ATS Aurora 3000 Turbo, ATS Exhaust Manifold, ATS Intake Manifold, ATS Stage 3 Transmittion, ATS Deep Pan, ATS 5 Disk Torque Converter, ATS CoPilot, Sirius Satellite Radio, Double DIN Eclipse 7" DVD Screen with back up camera. Sponsored by ATS Diesel Performance
Semper Fi
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Edited by - usmcphil on 03/20/2009 07:48:25 |
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Bunk
USA
444 Posts |
Posted - 03/21/2009 : 06:17:04
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quote:
Originally posted by Nathan
yours were the km or km2?
They were the old KMs like this.
I had a set of 31" KMs on it. I liked them so much, when I lifted the truck I put the 35" KMs on. I hope reduced noise is of the KM2 improvements. If so I'll probably get them for my Dodge next time.
quote:
Originally posted by usmcphil
There is a gap in that bumper so you can get to your headlights when you need to replace bulbs
There isn't much of a gap between the stock bumper and the headlights. The headlight bulbs are accessed from under the hood.
Ken |
Sellersville, PA
1999 2500 QC SB 4X4 |
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Nathan
433 Posts |
Posted - 07/15/2009 : 02:44:29
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| cutting into that new banks exhaust to add the stacks sure did hurt! |
Nathan in
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recent upgrades - '01.5 2500
