knightjp
Senior Member
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2014
- Posts
- 746
- Reaction score
- 755
- Location
- Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Ram Year
- 2014
- Engine
- Hemi 5.7
Firstly my thanks to @ram1500rsm & @Quick_Shifter for their advice in the area of the lift.
At the moment, my truck currently handles the Dubai dunes quite well, but needs a good off road bumper for a better approach angle and lift.
First lets talk about the lift.
Initially, I was sure that all I wanted was to give it Dirt King suspension with some better coils in the rear to get better payload and towing capability and turn it into a replica of the Ram TRX concept truck.

That is just a beast. Certainly looks better than the current production model IMO.
However I soon realized that such extensive mods to the body, etc., would be great if you go run the desert dunes every single weekend or every other weekend. It's great for high speed dunes bashing and stuff. But not for overlanding. To be honest, most people are able to tackle the dunes here with less. Their Land Cruisers tackle the dunes in stock form.
My kind of offroading isn't just dune bashing.. It's overlanding and expeditionary style travel and camping remotely. I'm into offroading and I do watch a lot of 4WD Action / 4WD 24-7 videos and I see they get by with lot less.
So turning my truck into a Baja style trophy truck was not a good option. That was where the AEV kit came into play. AEV test their gear with Arctic expeditions and stuff. From the reviews, the AEV kit made the truck handle like stock or better, retained as much of the payload as possible and gave it a good lift for a larger tyre combination. The only thing I didn't like about it was that I couldn't use my 17" rims.
I've been having a good look at @ram1500rsm's thread on his truck build. It's awesome.
Reading through it all, I began to think. I love off roading. Where I am, it is possible to go camping and stuff only during certain months of the year. Most of the other months, it's too hot - even in the evening.
My truck is my daily driver and spends about most of its time on the road; rather than off it. Having extreme off road suspension is good, but again as I said, if I'm not wheeling every single weekend or other weekend, it doesn't do me any good.
It makes sense to create some thing close to the 2017 Rebel trim; which has only a 1" lift over the standard height.
I need a lift that isn't too high; so I'm still able to access underground parking lots with 2.2 meter max height limits. So with all of that in mind, the ICON Stage 5 kit is the best one for me.
Now for the off road bumpers.
I have been looking at the aftermarket bumpers and they kind of look like the Ram is having the mumps. Other ones are just tubular stuff like what you would find on a Baja racer. Neither look appealing to me. The only bumper that I actually like are the ones used on the 2017 Rebel and current Warlock models. However I guess doing a bumper conversion would be pricey.
Then I was watching an old movie rerun and got some inspiration. What about the style of bumpers like these..

I could easily get stuff like this fabricated and bolted on. (Just the bottom section. Not the bars that bolt to the fenders). I want to be able to mount a winch. Extremely useful to have one.
Currently the truck has blacked out bumpers, etc.
https://www.ramforum.com/threads/first-mods.172524/
Looking at my blacked out wheels and bumpers, another inspiration hit... I'm a Marvel fan. I always liked the look of the vehicles from the Agents of Shield series.

Granted its a Toyota SUV, but it made me imagine what if it was a truck? I did see an Acura once..

So in short... here are the next mods that I'm planning for the truck..
At the moment, my truck currently handles the Dubai dunes quite well, but needs a good off road bumper for a better approach angle and lift.
First lets talk about the lift.
Initially, I was sure that all I wanted was to give it Dirt King suspension with some better coils in the rear to get better payload and towing capability and turn it into a replica of the Ram TRX concept truck.

That is just a beast. Certainly looks better than the current production model IMO.
However I soon realized that such extensive mods to the body, etc., would be great if you go run the desert dunes every single weekend or every other weekend. It's great for high speed dunes bashing and stuff. But not for overlanding. To be honest, most people are able to tackle the dunes here with less. Their Land Cruisers tackle the dunes in stock form.
My kind of offroading isn't just dune bashing.. It's overlanding and expeditionary style travel and camping remotely. I'm into offroading and I do watch a lot of 4WD Action / 4WD 24-7 videos and I see they get by with lot less.
So turning my truck into a Baja style trophy truck was not a good option. That was where the AEV kit came into play. AEV test their gear with Arctic expeditions and stuff. From the reviews, the AEV kit made the truck handle like stock or better, retained as much of the payload as possible and gave it a good lift for a larger tyre combination. The only thing I didn't like about it was that I couldn't use my 17" rims.
I've been having a good look at @ram1500rsm's thread on his truck build. It's awesome.
Reading through it all, I began to think. I love off roading. Where I am, it is possible to go camping and stuff only during certain months of the year. Most of the other months, it's too hot - even in the evening.
My truck is my daily driver and spends about most of its time on the road; rather than off it. Having extreme off road suspension is good, but again as I said, if I'm not wheeling every single weekend or other weekend, it doesn't do me any good.
It makes sense to create some thing close to the 2017 Rebel trim; which has only a 1" lift over the standard height.
I need a lift that isn't too high; so I'm still able to access underground parking lots with 2.2 meter max height limits. So with all of that in mind, the ICON Stage 5 kit is the best one for me.
Now for the off road bumpers.
I have been looking at the aftermarket bumpers and they kind of look like the Ram is having the mumps. Other ones are just tubular stuff like what you would find on a Baja racer. Neither look appealing to me. The only bumper that I actually like are the ones used on the 2017 Rebel and current Warlock models. However I guess doing a bumper conversion would be pricey.
Then I was watching an old movie rerun and got some inspiration. What about the style of bumpers like these..

I could easily get stuff like this fabricated and bolted on. (Just the bottom section. Not the bars that bolt to the fenders). I want to be able to mount a winch. Extremely useful to have one.
Currently the truck has blacked out bumpers, etc.
https://www.ramforum.com/threads/first-mods.172524/
Looking at my blacked out wheels and bumpers, another inspiration hit... I'm a Marvel fan. I always liked the look of the vehicles from the Agents of Shield series.


Granted its a Toyota SUV, but it made me imagine what if it was a truck? I did see an Acura once..

So in short... here are the next mods that I'm planning for the truck..
- ICON 2.5 Suspension lift kit - Stage 5
- OEM style Fender Flares painted in Satin Black
- VICE Hidden winch mount & 12,000 lbs winch.
- Barricade Grille Guard
- Torsen style differential - 100% in the rear.. for the front, I want to have it, but not sure about that.
- Rock Sliders
- Morimoto Headlights
- Offroad lights behind the grill or on the grille guard.
- AEV snorkel.
- A Good Exhaust... Probably Borla.. I have heard some from the Australian company - Manta
Ram 1500 Manta Performance Exhaust System -Full Extractor Back Twin 3in Exhaust System
JUST RELEASED:These utes are taking Australia by storm, being locally converted here in Melbourne by HSV - over 3,000 have been sold in the last 12 months!Ma...youtu.be
- Bumper mods like the Mercedes ML cars above. I might do it at some later stage or move over to the 2017 Rebel Bumper.
- Headache Rack OR DeeZee Invis-A-Rack system
- Roof Rack. I know that if I am going to go on some long distance trips, I will need to get a roof rack to mount the awning and some light weight gear. The one thing that I don't want is to put on something that will give me issues like this..
- Light Bar from ECCO - For that ultimate Agents of Shield look
. This is unlikely though; especially if I put in a roof rack.
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