This is going to be a rather “mild” build compared to our old flatbed Tacoma. First let me give you a little bit of history on how a diehard Toyota fan ended up in a Ram truck…
Like I said I am a diehard Toyota fan and still am! My first truck was a 1979 Toyota pickup, my wife still drives and wheels her 2003 v8 4x4 4runner and my daily driver is a 2006 Prius. Our last truck was a 2013 and a lot of time and money was spent on it to cope with all of the added weight we carried around. That truck was the bee’s knees and was finally to a point where I considered it to be the ultimate family adventure truck. That was until I was blessed with a little girl! I am not a very big or tall guy and my knees where practically on the dash with a car seat behind me. Add the dog and the other baby stuffs and we quickly ran out of cabin space. The other tipping point was one I choose to ignore for a long time, the fact that I was a tad bit over on the weight. Although the truck handled all of the extra weight well and laid down thousands of trouble free miles on and off road. I finally took the truck to a cat scale, we were loaded with what I would call a very light set up that day. We packed very light and I did not have the 31 gallons of water that would normally be packed around.
Cat Scale 2013 Tacoma & 2017 FWC Swift
Steer Axle 2,840lb
Drive Axle 4,300lbs
Gross Weight 7,200lbs
After that my wife and I decided it was time up go back to a bigger truck. We briefly thought about getting another Tundra since we loved our old 2007 crewmax with the sweet 5.7 v8. But it just did not have the payload we wanted. So that lead me to getting a truck I had always wanted a dodge ram with the all mighty Cummins turbo diesel. I had had 3 diesels in the past two f250 with the 7.3 and one suburban with the 6.5. So I was not new to the diesel world, but a lot has change in that market since my last one back in 2003.
The price of these trucks is ridicules now and with the new emissions stuffs causing troubles I was a bit timid to jump back into one. After coming to my senses I realized that a new diesel was just not in the cards for us right now. This truck would sit during the week and will only be used for occasional light work and camping. So I just could not justify the added coast of the diesel for a truck that would not be used regularly.
That should just about bring us up to date. The truck we ended up with is a 2015 black crystal pearl coat Ram Power Wagon that had 40k miles on it. Let me say this truck is AWESOME!!! It has plenty of power room and off road capability straight from the factory. Folks keep saying how much the fuel mileage sucks, but I don’t think it’s bad at all. Hell its gets the same if not better than my Tacoma did and it’s 3 times the truck that was.
I purchased it with a few mods already on it. It has had the windows tinted as well as the top of the windshield. It also has window deflectors, E ratted Nitto Terra Grappler G2 in stock size, some dinky N Fab steps, flow master replacement muffler and a bakflip fibermax tonneau cover. I don’t plan on making this truck to crazy thinking 35 or 37 inch tires, upgrade the shocks add sliders, snorkel, maybe a front bumper and boom done! At least that’s the plan.
Like I said I am a diehard Toyota fan and still am! My first truck was a 1979 Toyota pickup, my wife still drives and wheels her 2003 v8 4x4 4runner and my daily driver is a 2006 Prius. Our last truck was a 2013 and a lot of time and money was spent on it to cope with all of the added weight we carried around. That truck was the bee’s knees and was finally to a point where I considered it to be the ultimate family adventure truck. That was until I was blessed with a little girl! I am not a very big or tall guy and my knees where practically on the dash with a car seat behind me. Add the dog and the other baby stuffs and we quickly ran out of cabin space. The other tipping point was one I choose to ignore for a long time, the fact that I was a tad bit over on the weight. Although the truck handled all of the extra weight well and laid down thousands of trouble free miles on and off road. I finally took the truck to a cat scale, we were loaded with what I would call a very light set up that day. We packed very light and I did not have the 31 gallons of water that would normally be packed around.
Cat Scale 2013 Tacoma & 2017 FWC Swift
Steer Axle 2,840lb
Drive Axle 4,300lbs
Gross Weight 7,200lbs
After that my wife and I decided it was time up go back to a bigger truck. We briefly thought about getting another Tundra since we loved our old 2007 crewmax with the sweet 5.7 v8. But it just did not have the payload we wanted. So that lead me to getting a truck I had always wanted a dodge ram with the all mighty Cummins turbo diesel. I had had 3 diesels in the past two f250 with the 7.3 and one suburban with the 6.5. So I was not new to the diesel world, but a lot has change in that market since my last one back in 2003.
The price of these trucks is ridicules now and with the new emissions stuffs causing troubles I was a bit timid to jump back into one. After coming to my senses I realized that a new diesel was just not in the cards for us right now. This truck would sit during the week and will only be used for occasional light work and camping. So I just could not justify the added coast of the diesel for a truck that would not be used regularly.
That should just about bring us up to date. The truck we ended up with is a 2015 black crystal pearl coat Ram Power Wagon that had 40k miles on it. Let me say this truck is AWESOME!!! It has plenty of power room and off road capability straight from the factory. Folks keep saying how much the fuel mileage sucks, but I don’t think it’s bad at all. Hell its gets the same if not better than my Tacoma did and it’s 3 times the truck that was.
I purchased it with a few mods already on it. It has had the windows tinted as well as the top of the windshield. It also has window deflectors, E ratted Nitto Terra Grappler G2 in stock size, some dinky N Fab steps, flow master replacement muffler and a bakflip fibermax tonneau cover. I don’t plan on making this truck to crazy thinking 35 or 37 inch tires, upgrade the shocks add sliders, snorkel, maybe a front bumper and boom done! At least that’s the plan.
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