It is a little lower than the roof line. I got a bad picture real quick, hopefully it is good enough to see. I took it after dark on my phone and played with the colors and stuff to make it visable
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BlkWgn - A Power Wagon Build
- Thread starter BlkWgn
- Start date
It is a little lower than the roof line. I got a bad picture real quick, hopefully it is good enough to see. I took it after dark on my phone and played with the colors and stuff to make it visable
Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk
Nice, thank you! Now to find $$ for one, and balls to cut up my fender...
The money is the easy part, pulling the trigger on the 4" hole saw is a bit more difficult.
This is where I got mine http://www.rocky-road.com/airflow-snorkel.html
Nice, thank you! Now to find $$ for one, and balls to cut up my fender...
I've got an 18v Sawzall, we can hook a brother up at Desert Rendezvous!
Scott
Adventurist
OHHH SNAP... Don't tempt me. HAHAHA.
Ok, so here is an update, it is not going to be too fancy, I don't have any great photos, but I am loving the results.
I found a lightly used (15k miles) set are Carli Suspension progressive rate front springs from a guy in the Dodge group. They are the springs that I wanted but did not have the money for. He made me an awesome deal on them, but they were in Santa Rosa over 450 miles away. It was too good of a deal to pass on, so I bought them and told him I would figure out shipping. The next day I heard that Cole, one of the owners of CJC Offroad (where I would be going for the install) had purchased a truck in Oregon, and would be driving it home, through Santa Rosa. Long story short, 3 days later, I have the springs I wanted, for a 6th of the msrp, and free shipping. The truck was in need of shocks, so I figured this was a good time to get them. Went over to CJC on Saturday and Cole and I (mostly Cole) put in the shocks and springs.
This is an instagram collage showing the Wagon on the rack, and some of the other trucks at the shop
Here she is on the rack with the old stuff when we were starting. Tires are just barely touching the ground.
This is where the after photo would be, so you could see the extra bit of movement in the front end. Too bad I forgot to take any
(image photo here)
Here is the Carli Spring and Thuren Overland shock
I was hoping to get 3/4 to 1 inch of lift out of the springs, right now it is sitting right at 2 1/16. I figure it will settle a bit but think I got a little more lift than I planned. From the factory, the Power Wagon track bar and control arms are too short. They are the same length as the standard Dodge Ram, but the with extra height of the wagon this pulls the front axle off center to the driver side and to the rear of the truck. The extra height in the Carli springs pulled the axle even farther out. I drove it home on Saturday with out making any tight turns as the driver tire was now rubbing on the fender flare in anything more than a minor turn. A few min of trimming in the driveway and everything cleared. The problem was that it looked a little funny to me, I doubt anyone else would have noticed but I did so I went back after work today and we put the Carli Adjustable Track bar on. It is much stouter than the Dodge bar, and allowed us to center the axle where it should have been from the factory. It also replaces the dodge rubber bushings with a Urethane bushing on the frame side and a 7/8 Heim joint on the axle side. It really tightened up the feel of the truck, and now it clears the fender flares with room to spare. I still need to do the control arms to push the axle forward, but that will be down the road a bit.
The other project I did was a bit of paint on the headlights. I had done a test a while ago with lens tint, but it did not hold up well. So I sanded them down, and tried some krylon. The passenger side came out pretty good, the driver side dried a bit odd. It looks good from a distance, but not up close. I should sand it down and do it over, but figure if I leave it alone maybe I will break down and buy the headlamps from Retroshop that I have been looking at for a while.
I found a lightly used (15k miles) set are Carli Suspension progressive rate front springs from a guy in the Dodge group. They are the springs that I wanted but did not have the money for. He made me an awesome deal on them, but they were in Santa Rosa over 450 miles away. It was too good of a deal to pass on, so I bought them and told him I would figure out shipping. The next day I heard that Cole, one of the owners of CJC Offroad (where I would be going for the install) had purchased a truck in Oregon, and would be driving it home, through Santa Rosa. Long story short, 3 days later, I have the springs I wanted, for a 6th of the msrp, and free shipping. The truck was in need of shocks, so I figured this was a good time to get them. Went over to CJC on Saturday and Cole and I (mostly Cole) put in the shocks and springs.
This is an instagram collage showing the Wagon on the rack, and some of the other trucks at the shop
Here she is on the rack with the old stuff when we were starting. Tires are just barely touching the ground.
This is where the after photo would be, so you could see the extra bit of movement in the front end. Too bad I forgot to take any
(image photo here)
Here is the Carli Spring and Thuren Overland shock
I was hoping to get 3/4 to 1 inch of lift out of the springs, right now it is sitting right at 2 1/16. I figure it will settle a bit but think I got a little more lift than I planned. From the factory, the Power Wagon track bar and control arms are too short. They are the same length as the standard Dodge Ram, but the with extra height of the wagon this pulls the front axle off center to the driver side and to the rear of the truck. The extra height in the Carli springs pulled the axle even farther out. I drove it home on Saturday with out making any tight turns as the driver tire was now rubbing on the fender flare in anything more than a minor turn. A few min of trimming in the driveway and everything cleared. The problem was that it looked a little funny to me, I doubt anyone else would have noticed but I did so I went back after work today and we put the Carli Adjustable Track bar on. It is much stouter than the Dodge bar, and allowed us to center the axle where it should have been from the factory. It also replaces the dodge rubber bushings with a Urethane bushing on the frame side and a 7/8 Heim joint on the axle side. It really tightened up the feel of the truck, and now it clears the fender flares with room to spare. I still need to do the control arms to push the axle forward, but that will be down the road a bit.
The other project I did was a bit of paint on the headlights. I had done a test a while ago with lens tint, but it did not hold up well. So I sanded them down, and tried some krylon. The passenger side came out pretty good, the driver side dried a bit odd. It looks good from a distance, but not up close. I should sand it down and do it over, but figure if I leave it alone maybe I will break down and buy the headlamps from Retroshop that I have been looking at for a while.
It will be worth you trip down there. Not sure on the price for the Thuren bar, but the Carli bar is $345 bucks and is 2 bolts to put on. It literally took 10 minutes to do and it really does tighten up the steering, and overall feel of the truck. It is driving and riding better now than it did 75k miles ago when I bought it.
I'm loving it too, my next rig will be a PW or 2500 Cummins
That is interesting to hear. I absolutely love the wagon, but if I was to start over it would be a an 07 or older 2500 with the 5.9 cummins, ARB lockers, and a mix of Carli and Thuren suspension. I went with the power wagon because I knew that with my finances, if I did not get a package with lockers and skid plates to start with, I would most likely never get them added. The Power Wagon is an awesome platform, and Dodge did a lot of things really well with it, but it does have some issues that make you wonder
Scott
Adventurist
That's funny, because if I'd known that my truck was going to be my full-time camping and off road rig, I would have started with a power wagon lol. When I bought my ctd it was to be my tow rig for my jeep that I don't have anymore. Go figure.
Maybe you two should consider swapping. I'm happy with my 2005 Ram 2500 CTD but I'll be adding ARB air lockers very soon and I already did the Carli front end upgrade. I'm waiting on larger tires on back order and I've got a few upgrades fir my camper and I'm done.
Ok, here is a short update. First, the exciting part, at least for me. I finally got around to selling the power steps over the weekend, which means I ordered the rock sliders I have been looking at from White Knuckle offroad.
Here are the specs I went with the heavier .188dom option and matte black powder coat
and a shot of a set of the sliders and them mounted on a truck from the Power Wagon Group.
They have a bit of a wait right now, but think they can get them on the truck before DRV and I will get some pictures as they go on
The other projects I did were an APRS setup using the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 (that I use for navigation) and a Baofeng UV5R I won't go into any detail on that here, I am going to do a Seperate thread for it.
I also added a generic 24" LED bar to the front bumper to replace the KC lights behind the grill.
There are a lot of really nice mounts that are made to hold these lights inside the bumper of the Dodge, but they all sit right where the roller fairlead are. I looked at some of the bars that bolt behind the tow hooks and hoop up over the bumper, but did not want it hanging that far out in front of the truck. I opted to just cut some L brackets out of Aluminum and bolt it straight to the bumper. This pulls the light in very close, in fact so close I can't grab the hood release. I have made a temporary handle out of bailing wire but have a few ideas in mind to reconfigure the handle. Having it back that far makes it a bit more of a pain to open the hood but it is a Dodge not a Toyota, so I don't have to open the hood often. Lets see how much grief I get over that cheap shot. Actually, the light is a bit in the way, but it protects most of the light with the bumper so i am willing to deal with it.
This gives way more light, and better spread than the KC lights did, and draws about half the power. I am planning on a 50" radius bar across the roof line, but that is down the road a bit.
I got 2 of these bars, I am trying to figure out how I want to mount the second to the rack as a back up light, and I will then move the back up lights to the sides. Right now the light is hooked up with a KC wiring kit I had laying around. It is fine for what it is, but I don't like the wiring kits that come with most things. The only reason it went on was it allowed me to wire up the lights in the last half hour before I left for the Mojave Road last weekend. I will get some photos of the wiring when I switch it out
Here are the specs I went with the heavier .188dom option and matte black powder coat
and a shot of a set of the sliders and them mounted on a truck from the Power Wagon Group.
They have a bit of a wait right now, but think they can get them on the truck before DRV and I will get some pictures as they go on
The other projects I did were an APRS setup using the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 (that I use for navigation) and a Baofeng UV5R I won't go into any detail on that here, I am going to do a Seperate thread for it.
I also added a generic 24" LED bar to the front bumper to replace the KC lights behind the grill.
There are a lot of really nice mounts that are made to hold these lights inside the bumper of the Dodge, but they all sit right where the roller fairlead are. I looked at some of the bars that bolt behind the tow hooks and hoop up over the bumper, but did not want it hanging that far out in front of the truck. I opted to just cut some L brackets out of Aluminum and bolt it straight to the bumper. This pulls the light in very close, in fact so close I can't grab the hood release. I have made a temporary handle out of bailing wire but have a few ideas in mind to reconfigure the handle. Having it back that far makes it a bit more of a pain to open the hood but it is a Dodge not a Toyota, so I don't have to open the hood often. Lets see how much grief I get over that cheap shot. Actually, the light is a bit in the way, but it protects most of the light with the bumper so i am willing to deal with it.
This gives way more light, and better spread than the KC lights did, and draws about half the power. I am planning on a 50" radius bar across the roof line, but that is down the road a bit.
I got 2 of these bars, I am trying to figure out how I want to mount the second to the rack as a back up light, and I will then move the back up lights to the sides. Right now the light is hooked up with a KC wiring kit I had laying around. It is fine for what it is, but I don't like the wiring kits that come with most things. The only reason it went on was it allowed me to wire up the lights in the last half hour before I left for the Mojave Road last weekend. I will get some photos of the wiring when I switch it out
I added APRS to the Truck, you can read the details on that here http://americanadventurist.com/Forum/showthread.php?1269-40-APRS-plus-Upgrades
Xpedition Outfitters
Adventurist
Scott
Adventurist
I'm sure Cris will correct me if im wrong but I think they are from white knuckle off road.
Scott is right, the sliders are from John at White Knuckle Off Road in Apple Valley Ca http://www.white-knuckleoffroad.com/ John was great to work with. I was on a tight schedule to have them before Mountain Rendezvous, and he pushed them through and got them to me in time to do the install.
I was supposed to have them installed at Toys for Trucks, but they bailed on me at 7pm on Friday when they were supposed to be installed Saturday morning the weekend before DRV. So I went out and picked them up from John, and set it up with my buddies at CJC Offroad http://www.CJCOffRoad.com/ to do the install on Wednesday afternoon, the day before Rendezvous.
Here are some pics from the install
We basically lifted them up and set it on our knees while Cody slid under and started the bolts
Unwrapping
Once they were in place, we put it on the lift to center them up, drill the holes and tighten everything down
Paige has a few photos from them at DRV. That I will post up when i get them from her.
I was supposed to have them installed at Toys for Trucks, but they bailed on me at 7pm on Friday when they were supposed to be installed Saturday morning the weekend before DRV. So I went out and picked them up from John, and set it up with my buddies at CJC Offroad http://www.CJCOffRoad.com/ to do the install on Wednesday afternoon, the day before Rendezvous.
Here are some pics from the install
We basically lifted them up and set it on our knees while Cody slid under and started the bolts
Unwrapping
Once they were in place, we put it on the lift to center them up, drill the holes and tighten everything down
Paige has a few photos from them at DRV. That I will post up when i get them from her.
Just a quick update, did not do anything major, filled the wiper reservoir, washed the mirrors, and added a wagon
you can see more on the "Wagon" here http://americanadventurist.com/Forum/showthread.php?1447-BlkWgn-s-wagon&p=20992#post20992
you can see more on the "Wagon" here http://americanadventurist.com/Forum/showthread.php?1447-BlkWgn-s-wagon&p=20992#post20992