Longhorn in Australia.

[jlb]

Are they doing your conversion in Melbourne?

 

[baff]

Are they doing your conversion in Melbourne?

Nope, all done in Brisbane. When I drive it home to Melbourne it will be converted, just then needs Road Worthy Certificate in Melbourne and registered at Vic Roads (all booked in).

 

[jlb]

Did you buy the truck yourself, or did you buy it through the company doing the conversion?

I am asking because my dad is thinking about trying to bring his 2011 3500 down next year, but some of the companies are hassling him about it being "used" (less than 8,000 miles on the clock), but I think they are just being pains because they didn't make their profit margin off him since he bought it on his own.

Not sure how feasible it is to really have it down here though, the roads are even smaller here in Tassie than on the mainland lol.

Also, why the aftermarket guage cluster? isn't the stock one relatively symmetrical? Or do you have to have KPH as the primary unit of speed?

 

[baff]

Did you buy the truck yourself, or did you buy it through the company doing the conversion?

I am asking because my dad is thinking about trying to bring his 2011 3500 down next year, but some of the companies are hassling him about it being "used" (less than 8,000 miles on the clock), but I think they are just being pains because they didn't make their profit margin off him since he bought it on his own.

Not sure how feasible it is to really have it down here though, the roads are even smaller here in Tassie than on the mainland lol.

Also, why the aftermarket guage cluster? isn't the stock one relatively symmetrical? Or do you have to have KPH as the primary unit of speed?

The company actually recommend a used 2500. The new ones had too many US taxes etc that we couldn't get out of and no dealer discounts etc. Ours has 6600 miles on it. We had it checked out by an independent dealer (it was shipped from Indiana to Texas for this). They said I could either find it myself or they'd help. In the end, they found one on cars.com and helped me negotiate with the US car dealer.
The company has been GREAT to deal with. If it wasn't for Port of LA holdups and dash cluster on backorder, the actual conversion only takes 3 weeks.

The shipping component was the cheapest part. About $2000 for a container from LA -> QLD. Plus $800 insurance and a little transport.

The gauge cluster is coming from Canada to be in KM. Its exactly the same (i.e.: Longhorn look) but needed to be converted, they used the internals of the old one, but change the cluster front.... its all part of the conversion.

One of the reasons we didn't do a 3500 is they "apparently" need a different licence (at least in Victoria) to drive. We won't be hauling anything, so 3500 not needed... i'd look into this if I was you as the primary concern.

I have a big document that I'm finalising on what I did, who I called and what details are needed at each step of the process. Once I have the Ram and its all registered, I'll finalise the document and I'm happy to give you a copy for your Dad to look at. Its about a 20 step process. But some are simple.

 

[jlb]

Something else I was curious about is what are you going to do about the need for Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel... I know a guy who has a newer Chev down here that needs DEF (at least in the US), and he wasn't even told about it by the company he bought it from. I only mentioned this to him recently though, so I am not sure if he has gotten any resolution on the issue yet. To finish what I started though, he just runs LSD, which has got to be pretty bad for the DEF unless it is set to clean itself more often (waste of fuel...)

Any knowledge of this topic lol?

 

[baff]

Something else I was curious about is what are you going to do about the need for Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel... I know a guy who has a newer Chev down here that needs DEF (at least in the US), and he wasn't even told about it by the company he bought it from. I only mentioned this to him recently though, so I am not sure if he has gotten any resolution on the issue yet. To finish what I started though, he just runs LSD, which has got to be pretty bad for the DEF unless it is set to clean itself more often (waste of fuel...)

Any knowledge of this topic lol?

When I chatted to them about this they mentioned that all is fine in Australia and to just make sure the truck gets pushed a bit (towing or on Highway).... to help burn off.
I think Australia is Ultra Low already (I think) with all the new Euro-4 standards.

 

[jlb]

You are totally correct, I guess I just never looked to see what the sulfur rating is. It is 10ppm, ULSD in the states is 15ppm so totally golden...

 

[iSlacker816]

Any updates?

 

[baff]

Any updates?

Its Tuesday morning here (we are EST + 14hrs), I will be arriving in approx 48hrs to begin my drive home.

I'm VERY excited.

My neighbour, who is quite mechanical, is coming along with me.

I'm just looking forward to see one of these in the flesh.

Lots of photos will be published on our road trip.

 

[smiley]

I feel you will love it. It is so weird that you had to make it right hand drive. Being in America my whole life just blows my mind seeing the truck switched like that. Good luck on the journey.


$miley

 

[Burntfire]

Might have been mentioned already but... is the warranty still good?

Would be nice if you could just factory order a right hand drive from Dodge.

 

[baff]

I've now had the truck for about 30 hours and we have travelled about 750 miles.

All is going really well, here are some photos:

A nice camero just finished conversion. Also the back of an SRT-10. They also had some Mustangs and a bunch of 3500 Megacabs (Geez they are massive).





Awesome 3500:






Sitting at road works.

 

[baff]

I've had lots of people stop and look at it whenever we have stopped for a break. People are blown away by it and haven't had one bad comment.

I'm really impressed by its power when overtaking on the highway. I've been sitting on about 70miles/hr and its been eating the miles (and hills) up.

The Roll n Lock is very good, and the moveable divider is really going to be useful.

 

[0212353]

awesome!!

 

[quietpeen]

Sweet. Glad you finally got it

 

[TexasRammer]

Thats awesome, looks so weird on the inside lol

 

[USMC1188]

Thats great to see you got it! Looks great!

That Nightrunner SRT10 looks badass too

 

[suzukiquadrider]

Sweet you finally got it that's awesome!

 

[Rogan68]

That's pretty badass..

Of course, all I can think of, every time I hear 'Australia' is beautiful country, and Australian V8 Supercar series

 

[loki223]

nice looking truck man! it does look just so off being right hand drive....and the amount of money involved to get a truck road worthy and imported down there is insane! but you definitely have one out of a handful of trucks like that! and that is awesome