Project: PolarRAM
 

well, it's been a good long run, but my 2008 GMC has been around 11 years. i made it thru the payments, thru the wear items going bad, and am now firmly in the "stupid broken **** again" age. i ran it hard and put it away wet, never really kept it clean, she lived outside, etc. she's still doing good, but it's time to move her along before it's just not worth anything.

so used trucks kinda suck from when they were figuring out computers, the newest generations are sooooo much better. the late model used/new market is just beyond stupid right now, and i suspect that won't change any time soon. so that leaves old trucks, and i love old trucks. seams reasonable to replace my old, high mileage truck with something older, and even higher miles right? yup!

the 55 is coming along, but i will need time to trust it before i can tow across the state. my trust in the GMC is going away quicker than the 55's will grow. it's also a regular cab and short inside, i wish i had the body skills to stretch the cab. it's also a no-salt project rig, need a winter/back-up tow rig. why have one new when you can have a few old for the same money?!?!?! need something that'll tow the enclosed with my YJ, something 4x4, something not regular cab cuz i'm tall and need more room. but also something that isn't a 4dr long bed with a school bus wheelbase.

SO ... 1st Gen Cummins Ram Club Cab. was looking for something bone-stock and preferably a W350 12v 5spd 4x4 drw, but they just are stupid rare for sale. a number of 4x2, but the 4x4 are being horded. found this W250 though! she's a lot more built up than i was looking for, but quite clean.

made a deal and flying down to Glufport, MS next Thursday with the wife. buying it Friday morning, then driving to Nashville to spend 2 nights for a mini-vacation, and drive home sunday. wish me luck!

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace...rral_code=null

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That thing looks nice! And much of the work looks to be the stuff you want done, not typical diesel bro mods. Crossover steering alone is a nice upgrade.

The fact that it also makes nice power is icing on the cake.

Sweet truck for sure.

I considered a 1st gen as a DD / tow rig exactly one time :lol:. The fact that this one actually has power is a huge step in the right direction though.

i've seen some other sketchy crossover, i like this kit. it also has a full steering box brace already. good traction bars, good fueling upgrades, 2nd fuel tank in place of the spare tire, etc.

it's kind of tuned for a dyno however, so it's smokey until the PSI's kick in he said. i want nothing to do with driving a smokey truck. specially if it's fogging my pretty white trailer, so that'll need addressed.

i've been researching and learning P7100 tuning ... time to shift gears n learn the VE

VE tuning is a bit easier IIRC...turn the screw :lol:

With enough fuel to support compounds on the top end, I think you will be battling smoke on the bottom regardless of what you do, depending on the smaller turbo. 60mm isn't huge but I do not know what stock VE pump 12vs came with either.

Also get ready to ditch those traction bars. That's the style that a lot of diesel bros like to run, but doesn't allow for any change in arc length with suspension travel. A friend of mine used to sell those to the local diesel kids and said they ride like trash because of it.

i've been curious of that too

i'm also thinking there's a chance i ditch the 4" block. we'll see how it goes

The 4" block might be factory. From what I can see, you'd probably be squat truck mode if you did that. Unless you're trying to lower the whole thing.

agreed, i would assume the 4" block is factory too. it has a 6" front spring though, so i could lower that some. even use a 2" block instead might be nice. i'm not a block fan at all though, even if factory.
maybe ditch the block and coble a factory pack with the 6" pack to make a 2" front? ... who knows. we'll see. i have to drive it for a while before messing with it to get the big parts of the 55 bolted together.

I'm assuming you'd need to step down a tire size if you lower the front much?

I wonder if a shackle flip is an option to maintain some height and ditch the blocks. The part I do appreciate about blocks is that they don't change the spring rate / ride quality.

Oh my god. I’m jealous.

300k miles, rusty floors 20k... :eek:

That's where my mind went.

But...it doesn't seem absurd given the 1st gen market, and the used truck market in general.

The dealer my dad bought his 2020 Raptor from for 55k, bought it back earlier this year for 70k :eek:

at this age the miles don't matter to me, just the maintenance.

and that one spot is the ONLY spot of rust from a leaking heater core, super easy fix non-issue. the rest of the truck, as far as i can tell, is SUPID clean

so we agreed on $18k, and yeah it was more than i wanted to pay for sure. i was shooting for 15 even on this one at the moment. But after a few months of looking this was by far the closes to the pin for what i want and the most reasonable price. there is similar stuff listed for $27k without the minor to-do list this one has. they seam to be selling, even the rusty junk, for good money.

How do the Getrags hold up with compound turbo power long term?

from my research, every time someone swaps a ragged out getrag for a brand new or rebuild 4500 "IT SHIFTS SO MUCH BETTER!!" well no ****.

anyone who drives douchey enough to break a getrag behind a stock 12v can break a 5600 behind a stock cummins too. basically a little extra fluid helps get to the input bearing for lub, and PTO cover fluid coolers help keep the temps down while under extended load, then don't tow under 1800rpm to keep the gear chatter down.

WE MADE IT HOME!

what an adventure that was. Flew down Thursday night late, both dead when we got the hotel, i couldn't sleep like it was Christmas eve as a kid. he picked us up first thing in the AM, truck was as-advertised, so off we went. bank for the deposit and notary, then back to his house to drop him off. he sold this cuz he got a new daily, a TRX! i demanded a ride before we left :lol:

were 5miles from the coast, so we drove down for lunch on the beach. pan fried grouper taco :drool: walked the beach for a few minutes, toes in the Gulf, and then headed north. 500miles the first day was basically uneventful and pleasant. though, the wife did use my noise canceling over-ear headphone the whole ride :lol: stopped Friday night in Nashville, and spent Saturday looking around.

Day 2: breakfast on Broadway, live music, tchotchke shops, etc. even taco bell was bad ass! the tours of drunks at 11am were the best though, holy hell. tractor pulled hay rides, monster truck rides in the city, you name it. city ppl who came to the city to party like it's the country! toured the crazy opry hotel before going to the opry for the Saturday night show. best part was Billy Ray Cyrus singing Achy Breaky live! :rock:

Day 3: headed home, 575mi, again was uneventful for the truck. got a clicking in the steering when not moving, but was just a loose aftermarket box brace. and no heater still. left early and stopped into the Corvette Museum at opening. totally worth stopping, but can't say i'd have driven there just for that. everything was great until it got cold, rainy, and even snowed. as the sun set the cab stopped holding heat and the windows started to fog up on us. i kept running the defrost to wash the warmer moist air out so i could see, but this froze the wife. she had the DeWalt heated jacket on, hat n gloves, like 4 pairs of socks (one mine), then my spare jeans over her yoga pants, all wrapped in a sweater, still wearing my noise canceling headphones over her hears. on a scale of 1-10, loving it to tuck n roll jumping out the window in front of traffic ... she was about a 9 for the last 3h. :(

but we made! what an awesome adventure of a weekend!

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When I went to look at the 1st gen I considered buying, it was cold (pre-winter, but cold)...the guy just straight up removed the mechanical cooling fan as he claimed the truck never heated up in winter :lol:.

Would the engine build enough heat but the cab heat needs attention?

heater core is bypassed after it started leaking ... but in MS he didn't need it and that was like 4 years ago :lol:

he sent me with a new core, and even stainless lines for on the engine.

Bad ass truck.

Killer trek!

As always, keeper wife :lol:

Nice, dude - great story, great truck! Enjoy!

ok ... so i have never been a fan of smokey diesel trucks. and this one is basically dyno tuned, so it takes a very careful pair of feet to not fog the road behind me. not a puff at take off or something, it will blatantly roll coal if you smash it going down an on ramp. i need to tune that out ASAP for my sanity, and for the sake of my white trailer.

HOWEVER ... when you've done all that slow and calculated acceleration to get to speed without smoke, and a Prias cuts you off making you smash the brakes ... the shear will power it takes to not fog him as you go around takes serious concentration. :james:

:lol:

Just do it.

:roflmao:

Does it clean up under boost or will it roll coal through the whole range?

down low it's hard to not smoke, but possible ... it cleans up for partial throttle, but at WOT it rolls pretty much the whole range

In the 10 Commandments of driving a 12v, the FIRST is "thou shall carry a 17mm wrench"

well, i wasn't. fukking 65deg yesterday, i left work early to play outside since it probably won't be this nice again until April. NOPE! spent 3hours on the side of the road waiting for a tow 4 miles from home. was full of fuel, but apparently if you drive it a certain way, (kinda racecar like :james: ) it'll air lock the injectors. once home, 2 minutes with a 17mm wrench and she was running strong again. uuuugghhhh

17mm wrench added to console.

https://c.shld.net/rpx/i/s/i/spin/10...od_2305980312?

Damn.

How...does it get air in the system? That makes no sense conceptually, in my brain. Does it still have the mechanical lift pump?

no, it's actually running an airdog lift pump. and i'm with ya, seams weird as hell, i've talked thru the possible cavitation/suction etc with a few ppl and not found much online. but have found other ppl who have the same issue with other kinds of diesels.

i guess it's not a P7100 issue, just the VE being a low-power auto only pump.

That happened to me but it was -15

had a few friends in town this past weekend ... but couldn't show off the new truck cuz the starter internally shorted out on me Thursday before work. turns out it was already weak, so i guess all my cranking with the fuel issue Wednesday finally killed it. was finally able to pick up a new starter Sunday and she pins WAY better. Hank made it to work today.

actually told the previous owner and he was all mad he hadn't figure it out before. he had replaced the cables with new super HD ones trying to solve the slow spin.

So the phone holding situation is pretty bad in Hank. i started digging into what i could build without drilling holes and found a bulb-less map light. seems like a great place to integrate a mount, and it would be great to have a light there. so i pulled the light body, threw it in 3D, and printed off this little guy.

1" ball mount based on RAM mount dimensions
pocket for LED flush mount light
pocket for toggle switch

cross your fingers the wiring to it is still good :lol: i ordered the phone mount/case, LED, and switch this morning ... will update as it comes together.

https://i.imgur.com/9K6QbKY.jpg

3D printer for the win :rock:

Man, I love those things...had considered buying one, but it'd just be another trinket that collected dust like so many other things I needed and never used :lol:

Have a buddy that uses one and is crazy good w/ it, builds some off the wall stuff - actually does props builds from movies, like pro type stuff, has his own business and sells them - it's crazy cool.

You really have some projects :p

that'll work! now i just need the rest of the parts to show up ...

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Is that a CD and cassette deck? So ahead of it's time :lol:

Those are so obsolete now, my '13 Ram didn't even have a CD slot :p

hell yeah CD/Tape deck! i use it daily with a bluetooth adapter plugged into the tape adapter :lol:

hopefully eventually replace the "information center" with a double din touchscreen with wireless android auto.

so i messed with the tune some, learned how to drive better, and she's less smokey day to day now. still need to play with it a little, but it got cold.

speaking of not wrenching outside on it, ProEagle jack FTMFW!! pulled in angled to "the daily" side of the garage and then dragged the tail up in on the jack. was able to replace the heater core with heat. cuz that junk took a while. could do it WAY faster now, but hopefully i don't ever need to. thought it does provide great access to the 2nd turbo :lol:

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Gat damn, you got a Pro Eagle jack...dude, that might be the one most jealous thing I have on this thread :lol:

Super pimp, but even at $100 off, couldn't justify it :p

Yeah, this is heating season, bro!