Please allow me to grab-onto this thread. I have a totally-stock 2014 Ram 1500 Tradesman, 2WD, 5.7L Hemi, 6-speed automatic with 110K miles on the odometer. A typical use for this vehicle is to drive 300 miles to Northern New Mexico or Utah, then spend the weekend driving dirt roads, looking at Indian ruins and scenic points. I've knocked the thing out of alignment four or five times and am lucky to go 25K miles on a set of tires.
What should I do to make this thing more dirt-road-worthy? What are the basic steps to strengthen the suspension? What sort of tires should I install? I am willing to spend, let's say, up to $5K, as I suspect this truck still has a lot of life in it.
This is not my primary vehicle, it is not my "nice" truck or the one I drive to work or whatever. It's purpose in life is to take me to remote areas, down fairly decent dirt roads, but roads which may still have miles of washboard, or six or eight-inch ruts after a rain. I also like to do 20 or 25MPH. I don't have traction problems, never go off-road, and am just tired of scraping the front-airdam and wearing-out tires. I just want to have confidence that the vehicle can do 300 highway miles home after driving a couple of hundred miles of dirt roads over the weekend.
I have installed front tow-hooks and I do carry tow-straps in case I need a pull out of a ditch, but have never needed them to pull myself out (I have pulled-out tourists a couple of times). I'm seriously considering hauling a second or third spare tire. I'd also like ideas on the best jack to carry (I'd like something better than the stock jack but don't care to carry some monster device,, if not necessary).
