Another Ram Express Build

[dearchristopher]

Heya,

I have another build thread of my old reg cab express. I lost interest in it when I bought an old 91 YJ, it (the truck, not the YJ) had 22's on it when it sold it but otherwise didn't change much. I sold it with the YJ and bought a JKU that I did a bunch of work to. Loved the hell out of that jeep.




Enough about the jeep...we are here for rams.

I'm going to do a build thread based off the mods i've done to bring the thread current. (Ramportin1 inspired me with his Raiden thread.)

Here's the truck the day I brought it home:

 

[dearchristopher]

The first real mod I did was add a hitch to the truck. I bought the thing with factory trailer brakes, and it didn't come with a hitch. how weird is that?


they're cheap, thankfully.

the next mod I did was remote start, because my jeep had it and the new truck didn't. I got too spoiled.



The remote start install was very straight forward, just had to install the electric hood latch, pin the harness with the sensor wire, and then have the truck flashed with the sales codes. now I have 4 keys!

 

[dearchristopher]

I am not quite sure why I never took pics, but after the remote start at some point I did max liner floor mats, and they have held up so well. the carpet underneath still looks great. here they are dirty, to prove that they exist:



Roughly around 2500 miles, we trimmed the rear coils down 2 full coils to let the truck sit level. it worked kinda, it at least got the ass out of the air. it was a little raked still, so it never really made me fully happy with the stance.



next up was the vararam. I love this thing. It's a little flimsy when the hood is up, but it's so eye-catching and made the stock engine noise sound amazing. I loved the VR with stock exhaust for a good while.





I brought a bunch of stuff in the truck to Dallas, and covered it all with a tarp and realized I needed to do a vinyl bed cover like my old truck had.



I ended up finding an amazing deal on a brand new trifold, $100 still in the box. the guy was selling because it was a shipping error, he needed the shorter bed length and they told him to keep it. win-win!




I love the bed lights with the bed cover. Very useful.

 

[dearchristopher]

Aside from swapping all of the lights to LED, the truck pretty much stayed this way. I always had plans to drop it and add the airlift bags (such a cheap and awesome mod), but I wasn't in a big rush.



We towed our camper to galveston, and I realized that I needed tow mirrors in a bad way. So those got added to the list, I ordered them while we were in galveston actually. had them waiting on me when I got home.





They aren't mopar, but rather a chinesium set. I'm really impressed with them! For $140 for the pair, I figured why not try them? I'm still running them now. Love them.

 

[dearchristopher]

I parked my truck next to a buddy's with a 2/4 drop and Inez RCA relocation brackets, with a shorter tire. I realized how bad I wanted a 2/4 drop, and started sourcing one.



Ended up getting a screamin deal for $150, the kit was brand new and the guy only had it installed for 3 days before realizing he wanted to lift the truck instead. Score.

 

[dearchristopher]

Thus began the arduous process of getting the drop right. The 2/4 originally was a great height, and I liked the rake just fine. It was minimal, but I really wanted the truck to come down about 1.5" in the rear. So I went ahead and ordered an airlift 1000 kit, and pulled a few coils out of the rear. The drop is effectively a 2/5.5 drop now, and I keep the bags aired up enough to keep it around 2/5. I can raise it all the way up to a little over what the rear 4" drop was. Technically, with the rear bags, it is a 2"/3"-5" drop. This is a big deal to me because I tow the trailer when I can.



Awhile back, I saw on here that someone put the valve for the bags in the gas door. loved that idea, and it is so convenient.
Instead of running the super expensive auto level kit, I bought a cheap compressor, and can plug it in inside the truck, and fill the bags up from the fuel door. Love it this way.


Here's the truck at roughly 5psi in the bags, this is how I let it sit roughly now.


Here's the truck with 33psi in the bags.
(difficult to tell, but it's a difference. lol)

 

[dearchristopher]

I took the truck downtown to take some pics, and realized the rear taillight was cracked. Annoying! So I started sourcing parts to swap to Sport LED tails.




Love how the rear LEDs look. They match the bed lights so well, the only incandescent lights I have are the headlights/fogs now. Maybe i'll replace those one day.

I also finally got the tow mirror codes flashed into the truck, so the puddle lights and the turn signals work. I had to swap the wiring around a little on the tow mirrors to get the puddle lights working, but that was super easy once I figured out what the deal was. If you order the same mirrors as me, PM me so I can save you a massive headache. lol

 

[dearchristopher]

I took the truck out pretty recently and shot some photos of it with my camera. Usually im an iphone kinda guy, I used to be a pro photog for a long time so I got kinda burnt out on dragging my equipment out. I should use it more. I have a 16mm 1.4 lens in the mail...maybe that will make me want to use it more! lol




I did get a bolt in Mufflex 18" muffler, and I love the sound. Much better than stock. Video link below.



Today, I got around to installing my Belltech street drop shocks and billet catch can.


Stupid dirty yard already got my shocks dirty. haha


part numbers on the shocks if anyone needs em.



I took a chance on an ebay catch can. Aside from them sending me GARDEN HOSE (seriously) for the plumbing, everything else is in great shape. It includes all the mounting hardware, and a Z bracket that bolts into the block. Pretty sweet setup. A short 15 mile drive already collected oil.




So that's roughly more or less how the truck is sitting as of now. I look forward to getting back into this forum, and keeping this build thread up with all of the things I add to the truck. I also have a cheap little tailgate strut, nothing amazing but damn it I love that mod.

Here's a bonus pic next to my dad's Rebel, the damn thing in entry/exit mode is basically a 2/4 drop. I love that air suspension.


edit: oh yeah, black emblem for the tailgate! did that yesterday. black emblem for the grille is on the way.

 

[Hemi395]

Nice upgrades the truck looks awesome!
I really like the idea of the Airlift fill port behind the gas door, might have to move mine there.

How are you liking the tow mirrors being that they're aftermarket? I need some tow mirrors for when we tow out camper but I refuse to pay $1000 for the OEM ones. Do you have a part number for them?

 

[dearchristopher]

Nice upgrades the truck looks awesome!
I really like the idea of the Airlift fill port behind the gas door, might have to move mine there.

You will love the valve in the fuel door. I have no clearance issues when fueling, and it is so damn convenient. I put my last valve on the bumper, and when a trailer was on it was very annoying to fill them.

How are you liking the tow mirrors being that they're aftermarket? I need some tow mirrors for when we tow out camper but I refuse to pay $1000 for the OEM ones. Do you have a part number for them?

I'll do ya one better, here's a link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01K4HSSFC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I like them a lot. They don't seem to vibrate in town or on the highway, only on bumpy roads. The quality feels fantastic, they're very heavy and the plastic feels and looks like factory texture. I had an issue with the first passenger side motor dragging slowly, but the company ended up replacing it. Matter of fact, I still have the second passenger mirror in my garage. (They told me not to worry about sending it back)

I wrote a review on that link, you can see the saga as it unfolded. I would buy them again. Watch the price, it fluctuates pretty reguarly. I paid $140, sent them to another buddy when they were at $179. Not sure why they move around so much. I've seen them up and down.

 

[Hemi395]

You will love the valve in the fuel door. I have no clearance issues when fueling, and it is so damn convenient. I put my last valve on the bumper, and when a trailer was on it was very annoying to fill them.




I'll do ya one better, here's a link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01K4HSSFC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I like them a lot. They don't seem to vibrate in town or on the highway, only on bumpy roads. The quality feels fantastic, they're very heavy and the plastic feels and looks like factory texture. I had an issue with the first passenger side motor dragging slowly, but the company ended up replacing it. Matter of fact, I still have the second passenger mirror in my garage. (They told me not to worry about sending it back)

I wrote a review on that link, you can see the saga as it unfolded. I would buy them again. Watch the price, it fluctuates pretty reguarly. I paid $140, sent them to another buddy when they were at $179. Not sure why they move around so much. I've seen them up and down.

Yeah I have mine on my hitch next to where you put the safety chains and I can see that being a huge pain in the ass to check/fill. Definitely moving mine there to the fuel door this spring.

Awesome thanks for the link!

 

[dearchristopher]

Yeah I have mine on my hitch next to where you put the safety chains and I can see that being a huge pain in the ass to check/fill. Definitely moving mine there to the fuel door this spring.

Awesome thanks for the link!

Good luck with em. If you have issues with the puddle lights, I ended up having to reverse the two wires on the blue/red wire harness to get them to activate. Was a pretty big annoyance finding the issue, but once I swapped the wires, it wasn't really over all a big deal.

 

[R.L.K.]

What a fantastic idea !

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[Hemi395]

Missed you added the remote start, what was the PN on that kit?

 

[dearchristopher]

Missed you added the remote start, what was the PN on that kit?

p/n 82215050 I think it might differ from yours, but that's what I was used. man was it easy.

What a fantastic idea !

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

thanks! I really, really love it there.

 

[dearchristopher]

I saw Gary's Hemi post some bilstein part numbers in another thread, and I immediately decided to pull the belltech SP shocks and order those instead. Thankfully I only put about 15 or so miles on these, so my supplier said we could just swap them out.




not my idea of sunday funday, reversing my work, but hey I wanted bilsteins from the get go.

 

[ramportin1]

Really dig the look! Glad you made this thread after seeing your profile pic i was real curious lol. Very nice!

 

[dearchristopher]

got me a neat little sticker today!

Really dig the look! Glad you made this thread after seeing your profile pic i was real curious lol. Very nice!

thanks man! moving along slowly. haha



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[RCOLEMAN545]

Great thread! I might have missed it, but are the bed lights OEM? Also, where did you source the dial sticker? Looks great!

 

[dearchristopher]

Great thread! I might have missed it, but are the bed lights OEM? Also, where did you source the dial sticker? Looks great!

the bed lights are factory, they were an option on the truck. I love them...they're crazy useful. I just wish they had a button back there to activate them like the 2018's do.

A friend made the sticker! I keep telling her she needs to setup an ecomm store and sell them, they're so cool. I just had one printed for my dad's rebel