2018 Cummins, built to the hilt

[2MchSce]

Hey yall, ive got a 2018 ram 2500 tradesman cummins 4x4 68rfe ccsb in granite crystal metallic. I picked her up brand new January of 2018, and immediately started with the mods.

Rollers/suspension: Had a set of 20x12 raceline shift wheels along with 35" federal tires a day or so after i brought the truck home, that same day ordered a Superlift 4" long arm kit with bilstein shocks (which is an amazing kit 15k miles later)

Tuning: a mm3 raceme tuner with DRD tunes emmision compliant before the truck hit the first 1k miles..

Exterior: then came the factory sport projector head lights, pocket style fender flares, at which time I painted any thing on the truck that was chrome to match body color. I decided that same day to add a secondary color and created a chameleon blurple which i sprayed some suspension components, and badges, tow hooks, etc.

Exhaust/Retune: I added a 4" racepipe, and dpf back afe exhaust, and upgraded to full delete tunes through DRD.

Transmission: a fully built stage 4 ATS 68rfe with billet input and 5 star converter built and sent to my shop(which still is not installed yet)

Interior: upgraded radio to tesla style android 10.4" radio, and threw some jl w7 subs in the truck with a couple jl 1000 watt amps for a bit..

The biggest mod yet: i have just now completed the very first 5th gen seat/console swap using 5th gen limited seats and console, and 4th gen limited door panels and dash for now, until i can get ahold of an hd facelift limited dash. Seats and console were quite a challenge

 

[2MchSce]

Some more progress along the way..

 

[2MchSce]

Some more progress, lift wheels tires..

 

[2MchSce]

Lift and projectors

 

[2MchSce]

Chrome dont get you home

 

[2MchSce]

Paint, exhaust

 

[S0CAL]

Beautiful truck!

 

[2MchSce]

Nala

 

[2MchSce]

rollpan, shows

 

[2MchSce]

5th gen limited interior swap

 

[Punishher7]

Looking good!

Did you remove your tow hitch all together?


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[2MchSce]

I did remove the hitch all together for now, i may modify the factory hitch to be a hide-away in the future. These street scene rollpans fit like crap, and it took a couple days of frustration and different attempts for me to figure out how to get it adjusted and fastened correctly. Their instructions, and provided screws are terrible, and the fastener points they recommend do nothing to hold the sides of the rollpan in position. Not to mention the rollpan itself protrudes out a 1/4" further than it should which is a mould issue, so in order to take up some of that gap i had to raise the rollpan top flange higher, to pull it in closer to the body, and then recontour the little body lines on the sides.. I love the way rollpans look, but I dont recommend it..

 

[Punishher7]

Damn, that sounds frustrating.


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[DRkNESS]

Darn OP, you clearly have stepped up the oem+ game by 10 lol...

 

[2MchSce]

Thanks, Ill be honest i was going to do red katzkin covers with their seat heaters/coolers, but the new limited seats/console are sick, i also gained power everything, it cost me about the same in the end doing it this way, and i can still recoup some dough from the tradesman interior. I just dont know what im going to do with the dash now, either wrap the factory diesel gray plastic in something not tacky looking, and wait for a facelifted hd limited dash, or swap in a new limited 4th gen dash for $ 550 and live with the 4th gen/5th gen combo for lyfe..

 

[rroche1982]

5th gen limited interior swap

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I'm very intrigued on hope you swapped that console? Was it easy? What all did you go through?

 

[HockeyPops]

Wow!

 

[bruce219]

Looks top class,love the seats.

 

[2MchSce]

rroche1982 to answer your question nothing is the same between the 5th gen and 4th gen. There are similarities such as some of the wiring in the memory seats share colors and pin positions in the harness plug, but plugs are different themselves. Ihs Can buswires seem to be the same for 13-18 and the 5th gen. 5th gen cab is different and therfore i believe would take extensive modification to do a complete 5th gen 1500 dash swap. The new facelifted hd trucks share our cab and you could make that dash work, but i dont have any info or experience with them yet

The transition between the dash and console from 4th gen to 5th gen although appear to share the same angle where they meet, will not fit together correctly, and will look terrible without using the 4th gen ears/wings like i did to hide the transition, or swapping in more parts from a 5th gen /cutting molding into the dash of a 4th gen to complete the transition that way. Which i did not feel was worth the effort as i wanted to keep it clean, simple, and reversible if anyone ever wanted to change it back.

My procedure for the install is loosely as follows. My truck was a tradesman with jump seat so i purchased a 4th gen limited center bezel and found the wings/ears needed for a 4th gen console from mopar parts online.

Once fitting the 5th gen console, and lining it upto the dash i basically just had to trim off the lower tray from the 4th gen limited center bezel, and found a clever way to mount the 4th gen wings/ears to the sides of the 5th gen console similar to how a 4th gen console has them mounted.

The transition is now pretty close using the 4th gen console trim pieces. They are not perfect, or factory, but what mopar is perfect anyway, hell my headlights/hood/tailgate all have uneven gaps from the factory..

I do however have the rear of the console shimmed up about an inch currently until i either remount my airbag module, or modify it so the bracket does not protrude above it anymore. Also the carpet is an issue going from center jump seat to console, so you either have to cut or swap out carpet, which is what you would face going 4th gen console swap also. I will be using 4th gen console brackets to permanently mount the 5th gen console to the cab. The wiring is not to bad either, just some powers, grounds, and ihs canbus wires. It took me awhile to figure it all out.

As for the seats, i drilled out my factory rivets from the 4th gen seat mounts, removed them. Removed the 5th gen seat mounts. I then mounted the factory 4th gen seat mounts to the floor, and threw a 5th gen seat in the truck and tried to line things up and get some holes to match up/ look factory-ish. I did have to drill 3 new holes per seat to attach the 4th gen seat mounts to 5th gen seat rails. Used 3/8"-16 grade 8 carriage bolts for now with flange nuts, but will be tig welding the seat mounts to the seat rails as well. I probably dont really need to weld also, but for the extra reassurance these babies wont go anywhere in an accident, gives me the peace of mind i need..

The rear seats are a complete ***** and require new mounting plates, or new holes to be drilled in the cab. I opted for adapter plates utilizing the factory 4th gen mounting holes in the cab, using 1/2"x2" flat bar about 12" long, drilled and tapped for the 5th gen seat mount hole pattern.. still need to finish the wiring up so i can have the heated/cooled seat portion, but otherwise i am very happy with how it all came out.

 

[bellaireroad]

Hello, I’m considering doing a 2019 console swap to a 2017. Can you tell me what you had to do to get yours to fit? Was it a direct fit or, did you have to do a lot of cutting?

Thanks, Roger


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