2018 Ram 3500 Crew Cab 6.4 4.10 "Ginger"

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JohnFromWV

Junior Member
Joined
Jun 24, 2019
Posts
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Location
Madison, WV
Ram Year
2018 Ram 3500 Crew 6.4 4.10
Engine
6.4L Hemi
Basically posting this to keep track of all the changes and modifications so that I can revisit later.

"Ginger" is a 2018 3500 Crew Cab 6.4 Hemi with 4.10 gears, 6 speed auto. I purchased her new from the dealer I work for in 2019 after picking her up from another dealer (dealer trade) in Virginia. The new car manager and I went over my specs and did a vehicle locate on the specs for the truck I wanted. I wasn't worried about "color" since Ram wasn't offering the "Prairie" that I really wanted, so I chose one of the few colors without an up-charge. Being that I made the purchase in June of 2019, the price of the truck was seriously reduced with it being a 2018. Why didn't I hold out for the Gen5? I didn't really have anything on my want-list that I needed to pay all the extra money for, everything I needed was available on the 2018 Gen4.

TL;DR This is my truck.

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The day I picked her up in Virginia:

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Upon arrival back home, I immediately went to work on what I refer to as "standard" modifications that I do to all of my trucks. First, came the tinted windows and split exhaust. I don't mind a bit of "drone" sound to the exhaust, nor do I think that a pure dual exhaust system is needed for a decent sound, so I opted to split the exhaust after the catalytic converter into a single-in, dual-out Flowmaster 50. It's a little quiet, but it has a nice throaty Hemi sound.

I also added the inlayed vinyl on the hood.

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I ordered the color matched Leer solid topper, the side steps, brush guard and cargo rack.

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And I added a 54" lightbar to the cargo rack front, just under the top edge of the cargo bar, so that anything I put on the cargo bar won't interfere with the light.

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On the rear cargo bar, I added two LED light pods (not shown, I'll upload a pic later), dual color. In reverse, it lights up white, when I hit the brakes or use a turn signal, the corresponding side will light up amber. It's great for towing, makes sure folks behind you knows you're braking/turning.

I installed my amateur (ham) radio, a Yaesu FT847d all-band, all-mode radio and screwdriver antenna. I had a buddy that owns a commercial two-way radio repair company come and do the NMO base on the roof (scared me a little to go drilling into the roof of a brand new truck!) for VHF/UHF comms. I later added a second radio that has more functions for scanning and what-not of VHF/UHF comms. I also added a cargo liner to the area under the rear seat (not shown). It's a simple poly liner that allows for any spillage to occur and it's easy to clean.

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Here's a shot of her in Hinton, WV - near The Market deli, where we stopped for lunch, I ran it through a filter or two for kicks...

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I posted a few pics to instagram and another buddy saw where I was heading and offered up a set of AEV Katla Rims, black. I was intrigued and looked into them, they were exactly where I was heading, but I found out that his Katla's were on recall with a catastrophic failure warning, so I hesitated. He called AEV and they replaced his Katla's with new version, for free. He let me have the new ones at the same price of the old ones, with a set of 35/1250s. I couldn't pass it up. I took the 35/1250s MXT M/T off the 1500, put the A/Ts that came with the Katlas on the 1500 rims, put the new Katlas and my 35/1250s MXTs on the new 3500. I recently bought the MXTs as replacement tires for another set of MXTs I had on the 1500 which I got 62,000 miles out of! Amazing!

First I had our service department install a 2" front leveling kit. I measured the front gap from the road to the upper most portion of the inside fender well and compared it to the rear, a 2.5" front level would be 1/8th of an inch higher than the rear. I did not want to lift the rear, so I went with the 2" leveling kit.

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And I added a set of extended powder coated red lug nuts.

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The winter of 2019 I decided to do the American Flag striping on the side and designed something a little off-beat, but what I consider stylish and simple. I have a friend that does vinyl cutting work, so, we put our heads together and came up with the design. In the summer of 2020, we added the striping.

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Two weeks ago or so, I replaced the front bull bar lights with a small 22" light bar. It is multi function, dual color, amber/white. I usually run the amber as running/fog lights and the entire bar for off-road purposes.

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Needless-to-say, my wife thought I had bought major stock in aftermarket parts companies the first month or two as the boxes kept arriving at the house!

What's next? Well, for the time being, there's not a lot of plans in the works. I am going to replace the passenger side interior "cubby" above the glovebox with an upper glove box, it's on order. - and let me tell you, everyone is proud of the OEM glovebox doors, cheapest I could find them was at my employee cost here at the dealership!

At some point in the future, I may replace the uConnect 3.0 with an aftermarket unit. Once I get some miles on her and she's out of extended warranty, I may give her a lift and 39's (if I decide to swap for 5.xx gears) or 37's if I don't swap gears.

For now though, she's going to be happy pulling our 33' camper all over the east coast and for our "Great American Family Vacation" to Yellowstone in the summer.

On our first trip to the OBX back in the summer of '19, we averaged 19.5MPG after getting south of Fancy Gap Mountain in Virginia all the way to OBX and back to the foot of Fancy Gap Mountain. She absolutely sucks the fuel in the mountains, but that's ok, I didn't buy her to be a Prius.

Here's a rundown of everything I've installed:

Tinted Windows
Nerf Side Steps
Bull Bar (removed tow hooks)
Front Hitch Receiver
Front LED Pods (replaced)
Front 22" LED Light Bar
Leer Topper
Cargo Rack
54" Light Bar
Rear LED Light Pods
Bed Divider (not shown)
Cargo liner under rear seat
2" Front Leveling Kit
AEV Katla Rims (17")
MXT 35/1250/17 M/T Tires
Extended Red Lugnuts
Dual Exhaust (Split - catback)
Amateur Radio Equipment - HF and UHF/VHF Rigs w/ antennas
GoPro camera
Dashmount Cellphone bracket
Upper Glovebox (ordered)
Rear seat USB Hub
Neoprene Seat Covers (all locations) red/black
Truck bed USB hub (have it ready to install)

What I've removed:
Factory muffler
Factory resonator
Front tow hooks
Spare Tire (that's a long story, see below)

Have I had any issues? Just a couple of minor things.... one caused me to spend a week's vacation at home.

First, one our trip to the OBX with about 400 miles on her, she threw a code (I don't remember what it was) and I called our service department manager, he told me to "drive it like I stole it" and he'd fix it when I returned.... so that was something minor.

The only other problem I've had, me and the folks at the exhaust shop caused it. I helped cause it because I wanted to replace the exhaust, they caused it because they didn't notice the little rubber brake line hose that was under the exhaust routed to the driver's side. When I loaded up the new camper and headed out on our vacation to Florida in December, at some point the camper squished down the rear of the truck and caused the exhaust to touch the brake line (this didn't happen on the trip back from picking up the camper at the dealer). Anyway, it burnt the brake line, causing all of the rear fluid to leak out. I was 2 hours away from home, so, I limped back. I mean heck, there's two sets of axles under the trailer and one up front on the truck that still had brakes, it was safer with the trailer than it was without.... we made it back safely, I brought it to the dealer for repair, then took it to the exhaust shop and we rerouted the tail pipe and removed the spare tire, it's not like I could use it anyway, not a 285 to replace a 35" tire (I keep tire repair material/equipment with me at all times). Anyway, the exhaust shop didn't charge me for the change, well, it was partially their fault. So, I spent my vacation at home, which was ok, but it wasn't Florida and I wasn't out on a boat catching some big reds out of Cape Canaveral!

Anyway, that's my story so far. I'll probably revisit this thread and keep it updated for my own log of my truck modifications.

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading!



/john
 

Dean2

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Ram Year
2021 2500
Engine
6.4
Neat thread, just one problem, can't see any of the pictures when I click on the links. suggest you embed them right into the thread. Error messsage that shows up.




Oops! We ran into some problems.​










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lighthawk

Member
Joined
May 18, 2021
Posts
67
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Location
US
Ram Year
2021
Engine
gas 6.4l
Same here on the media attachments.

19.5mpg?
I wish! I'm getting closer to 11mpg, but live in the mountains.
 
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