Stoffregen Motors
Senior Member
Hi, new member here from Cool, CA. Yes, the town is named Cool and is said to be named after a gold rush era parishioner, but I think it's a lie. I think they named it after a bunch of hippies...
Anyway, my truck is a 2003 Dodge Ram 2500 4x4 crew cab with a fedral cummins and auto trans. I've owned it since about 2010 and I will never sell it. It is the perfect blend of modern convenience and old tech. I mean, what new trucks have only three knobs on the dash anymore? Oh yeah, and a floor shift t-case.
It gets pretty good maintenance, but it also gets beat up from time to time. We tow an enclosed race car trailer with it, use it to explore mountain dirt roads, use it to haul the dirt bikes and whenever we get a good snowfall, it's my overgrown snow toy. With only 200,000 miles, it's in great shape. I have gone through the trans, with a couple different shift kits, a billet converter, upgraded PS pump, red head steering box with lower brace and updated tie rod/drag link/panhard bar, one ton springs, heavy duty brakes and a "boost box" on the boost controller. It goes through balljoints about every 10k miles, I've replaced the lift pump four times and the entire accessory drive too (with all OEM components). It eats up serpentine belts, or at least, they get squeaky after a thousand miles or so, but whatever.
I do have one nagging problem right now - a driveline vibration starting at about 65 MPH and going to about 75 MPH. I took the front driveshaft out and the vibration went away, so I rebuilt the shaft and put it back in, same problem. I have heard that it's possible for the chaindrive in the t-case to break one link and the vibration comes from the link flailing around. Anybody ever heard of that before? I plan to tear into the t-case soon, so I guess I'll let you know.
Anyway, here's a couple pics.
Anyway, my truck is a 2003 Dodge Ram 2500 4x4 crew cab with a fedral cummins and auto trans. I've owned it since about 2010 and I will never sell it. It is the perfect blend of modern convenience and old tech. I mean, what new trucks have only three knobs on the dash anymore? Oh yeah, and a floor shift t-case.
It gets pretty good maintenance, but it also gets beat up from time to time. We tow an enclosed race car trailer with it, use it to explore mountain dirt roads, use it to haul the dirt bikes and whenever we get a good snowfall, it's my overgrown snow toy. With only 200,000 miles, it's in great shape. I have gone through the trans, with a couple different shift kits, a billet converter, upgraded PS pump, red head steering box with lower brace and updated tie rod/drag link/panhard bar, one ton springs, heavy duty brakes and a "boost box" on the boost controller. It goes through balljoints about every 10k miles, I've replaced the lift pump four times and the entire accessory drive too (with all OEM components). It eats up serpentine belts, or at least, they get squeaky after a thousand miles or so, but whatever.
I do have one nagging problem right now - a driveline vibration starting at about 65 MPH and going to about 75 MPH. I took the front driveshaft out and the vibration went away, so I rebuilt the shaft and put it back in, same problem. I have heard that it's possible for the chaindrive in the t-case to break one link and the vibration comes from the link flailing around. Anybody ever heard of that before? I plan to tear into the t-case soon, so I guess I'll let you know.
Anyway, here's a couple pics.
