Plan was to see drive up north to see my grandparents and bring up a new set of tires for my grandfather's four wheeler. I live in Portland, Maine and my grandparents live roughly in Bar Harbor, Maine. So about 130 miles of highway, and 30 miles of very hilly backroads. Anyways, I thought it would be cool to use the Ram. I've never really been on any big trips before with it on the highway, so I wanted to see how it would do. I brought two of my brothers with me. My brother Mike, with the F-350 wanted to use his truck, but we just figured the three of crammed in his single cab would be a little uncomfortable. Well, let me make this as short as I can. BIG changes are going down. I am so fed up with the way my truck drives. All I can say is that 35" tires are for people living in a dream world. My truck is so useless! When you have a truck lifted 5" and have 35" tires it makes the truck suck at EVERYTHING except mudding, and what the **** is good is that?! The highway was to say the least, frightening. The max I went was 70mph. Every little amount of wind shook the vehicle to the side, and it was so hard to keep the thing going straight. IT just shook everywhere. The whole way up I had both hands on the wheel squeezing as hard as I could. The truck can barely sustain highway speeds too, any little hill dropped the vehicle down to 55mph, its pathetic. Like I said, lift kits and big tires are for people who either have some other kind of main transportation, or people in lala land, because besides my truck looking amazingly cool, it sucks!! Highway speeds are frightening, handeling is pathetic, rain and snow are treaterous, towing is a joke, passing people is dangerous and hard on the transmission, and just regular driving is a chore, and I am sick of it. Not to mention, this trip alone capped my already failing transmission, and it is officially SHOT! The truck will not shift anymore, I had to pull off the side of the road several times to let it reset, I didn't think I was going to make it home, it was awful. All I did was get made fun of my brother, and brought back to reality that all this truck is a 1500 trying to be something its not. I appreciate my brothers truck more than anything. It's just as tall as my truck yet its STOCK. So it's not shaking around everywhere, that suspension is a rock! My trucks suspension is a joke, all you have to do is sit in the truck and move around and you can have the whole truck moving side to side like a ****ing slinky, its pathetic! SO this is what I'm going to do. I am taking this ****ing dreamland lift off my truck and bringing it back down to its stock offroad edition size. Then, I am putting 285s on this thing. It's still going to be taller than usual, and will still have bigger tires than usual, and I'll actually be able to use it!! I'll be able to towe, race, pass, or just drive safely. This truck is the most unsafe thing in the world. I just cant see the logic why anyone would sacrifice their safety and the usefullness of a truck just to go MUDDING. Thats what four wheelers are for. And my transmission is SHOT. My truck could barely lug around a 4 wheeler, its pathetic! My dads teeny weeny 4.6L v8 ford could easily outwork my truck in a hearbeat because its paralyzed with the goofy dumb lift and tires. Anybody thinking of lifting your truck and putting big tires on it, I highly discourage unless you only use it for mudding. Otherwise it will eat your tranny and all other suspension related conponents, driving will be a nightmare, gas mileage will suck, and it will make your truck USELESS unless your mudding, which doesnt do anyone good... I'm not going to buy a new transmission just for the 35" tires to eat it up again. I'm tired of beig embarrassed in front of my passengers as my truck jumps around everywhere and struggles to go up hills. So I am putting this truck back to where a 1500 is supposed to be. It will still be taller than most trucks because it's the offroad edition, and the tires will still be pretty big at 285s. IF this truck already hauls *** now, I'm sure it will be even faster once it goes back to what it should be. I'm just tired of dealing with this bull****. These 35" tires ate my transmission, make my truck completely useless for any kind of work, and make it really hard to drive it, its a god dman chore, highway driving isn't an option, its frightening. I'm excited to make this truck a true beast. Right now it looks amazing, but its pathetic. When I get back down to where it should be it will be a true beast, be loud as hell still, and I'll be able to use it for work or drive down the highway not feeling like I'm going to flip off the road or be maxing out at 65 mph with white knuckles. SOrry for the rant, but I'm very stressed, that trip was a nightmare. And my transmission is GONE, I don't think it is repariable. Once again sorry for ranting but I'm pretty stressed right now. I love my truck, but Im just sad how pooly it performed on a simple simple little driving task. IT shouldnt have to be that hard to just drive down a highway, and my transmission should not be shot right now, lift and tires are not worth it. A truck is meant for work, when you put a big floppy lift and tires on a truck, it becomes paralyzed to do anything. I am very anxtious to put my truck back down to its offroad edition size. It will be much better on the streets, actually be safe in wintery condiitons. IT will be a 4x4 street truck basically. Everyone thinks this truck does good in rain or in wintery/snowy conditons, but really, this thing is the most unsafe thing in snow too. Id rather be in a car than this thing, seriouslly! SO in cap. It's going back down to its offroad edition size, 285 tires, and some sick *** 17" rims, and then she'll be a 4x4 street truck, all black, loud and badass!

 

Well... dunno where to start. Right now my truck is stock driveline. My absolute max is 80 and as soon as you hit a hill, you better forget maintaining that speed. I would hate to see you take that lift off and come up with basically the same results. When a big gust of wind comes, you bet we all can feel it. Yes it pushes my stock truck as well. Yes big tires do constitute added strain on the transmission, but a proper regear should take care of that for the most part. I would have to say that your "gun'n it" with numerous 0-60 vid's didn't really help your tranny at all. lets see.. what else.... oh, and get either the aps tranny or a dr. pure evil bulletproof tranny to swap in there. I really would hate to see you take your lift out, but you got to do what you got to do. Oh btw, better buy a new trackbar again if you do decide to take her down. Good luck!

 

But in comparison to any of the other trucks I drive in my family, this truck is the family JOKE. It is out performed by all the trucks in the family. The transmission is only a small part of it. But it's defiantly a big problem too. Lifted trucks with big tires eat transmissions, have poor gas mileage, destroy themselves just by driving, cannot drive safely on the highway, cannot towe because its compensating just lugging itself around, and they are extremely uncomfortable to drive. Now don't get me wrong, I love the way this truck looks, but its all so FAKE. My brothers truck can speed, towe so much, it's heavy as hell, it's designed to be that high. My truck is just like this big spongy fake suspension that can't do anything, and I'm sick of it. Maybe lifted trucks and big tires aren't meant for me, but I seriouslly cannot understand the whole fad. That's what four wheelers are for, to **** those up, not your transportation up. When I'm driivng, I just want to feel like I'm part of the road, not inspector gadget waiving around like I'm on iceskates. The lift is unsafe and limits towing and maneuvarbility. And the wide and tall tires are unsafe in snow and rain, and very unsafe in icey conditions. I just want to drive my truck without worrying I'm going to be be drifted off the side of the road because it's a little windy, or if the roads have a lot of potholes or if they slant heavily. There are so many variables that just make this truck really uncomfortable to be in. Almost all of the passengers in my truck don't feel safe in it. Seriouslly, our vans do better in the snow than this thing. I'm putting her back to where a 1/2 ton is supposed to be. She will still be great offroad when I do want to have some fun, but when I'm done having fun, it will actually be a normal ride. This way I can just enjoy the sound of my beautiful roaring flowmaster exhaust, and not have to worry about my truck flipping over. I can also finally put my truck to work, but right now I don't know what I'm going to do, the truck's tranny is ****ed up and I cant even use it. When she's back to size with 285s, man will she be a black beast though

 

I personally think the Rams look darn good with just a leveling kit, some 285's and a slick set of wheels. I think all that lifting stuff looks freakin' awesome...but I would never do it to my DD.

 

You want a lifted bad-**** truck that will perform...get a diesel...

 

Will any of you guys with the OffRoad edition Rams send me pictures of what your truck looks like unmodified with 285 tires? It'd be really appreciated, thanks.

 

If you want a truck that does'nt wander you should'nt have a second gen ram. Or any other solid axle truck. Also your truck should'nt handle all that bad I grew up, driving lifted eighties chevy's and dodges and none of those handled as bad as your explaining. Are you sure you don't have anything loose or broken in the front end?

 

Maybe if you quit trying to do burnouts with your 35 inch tires and undergeared axels your transmission woulnd't have pooped on you. Sorry to hear about that luck. The 4.10s will be nice with the 285s. You could really use 4.56 or lower gears for the tires that are on it now.

As for the wind blowing you around... welcome to highway driving in a big truck. Try to keep in mind that you're just a younger inexperienced guy, but you willget use to it. Ever try towing a 30' long trailer? You'd keep both hands on the wheel then

Also you might want to give your suspension a good once over. Make sure all the bolts are tight and what not. I don't know what kind of suspension lift you have, but you bought it like that correct? There's always the chance that some retard installed it half assed.

Replace your plenum gasket so you can start getting better gas mileage, and your truck can have power again.

Lastly, and don't take offense to this, but lift kits and big tires are probably better for more experienced drivers, and people with more mechanical knowledge. But your truck isn't that lifted and the tires aren't that big, so I'm guessing maybe your track bar came loose (since you said it "adjusted itself" in another thread) and your loss of power is most likley the blown plenum and the crapped out transmission.

lol and if you want to understand the whole "Mudding" fad go check out the bulletin boards at pirate4x4.com Lot's more solid information over there too then there is on this board, Hell of alot you can learn on there too. Not 100 posts a day about CAIs and ebay chips that don't work.

I was thinking too, you obviously prefer your brothers truck, correct? So I was thinking why not make your truck more like his? Swap the axels out with 1-tons. Get a 47re (since you're already replaceing the tranny) and put the heavy duty springs in. 1-ton steering (not an expensive upgrade at all, and a nice improvment over stock). Just an idea. That's basically what I plan on doing with my truck since you can't buy a 3500 regular bed short cab.

 

That all sounds nice, but it's just more money I don't want to spend. See me, I love speeding. I'd much rather have a truck that was a middle of the road offroader, but could really speed. I need speed. I love hearing a v8 opened wide up. To me, I love a truck that can towe, pass people effortlessly, be safe on the roads when it's snowing out real hard. This truck is not safe in snow storms, it slides all over the place, it's really top heavy, high speed impaired, I hate that. But your right, maybe the whole lift thing aint for me. I just don't care for all the **** that has to be working to make it work, especially since I don't know how to do everything myself. I'd much rather have this truck back to its offroad height, which is still high, and have some nice solid 285s on her. This way she'll haul some ***, still be badass, and a sweet solid 4x4 truck. I don't need the over extensive lifted truck. 1500s are useless this high, unless like you said you compensate with heavy duty axles and ****, which I dont want to do. So lift is going back down, 285s on her, tranny being repaired. And then she will be way safer, a real working truck, and it wont be the family joke anymore, with the all show no go in working terms.

 

must be something with yours because mine can top out at 95ish with 4.56 gears and 34 mtrs with no vibrations try getting your tires balanced and my truck wonders all the time its not a car its never going to drive like one