This may sound dumb to a lot of people but how do you start to set up your truck for pulling, as in like pulling other trucks. I wouldn't mind starting to do that it sounds pretty fun and there's a place close by that I could do it at. So any suggestions on stuff I could do suspension wise or engine let me know.

 

get a good set of ladder bars and a set of 4.10 or 4.56 gears. Should do pretty darn good with that set up. Thats if you have a good set of tires to compliment the other add ons.

 

Some of the stuff may not be transferable to hooking two trucks back to back, but a few things we've been working on for sled pulling is:

soften the front end as much as possible and as low as possible(not very practical on a daily driver)

Spools or welded front and rear. (I've run a welded rear on the street for many miles, but some recommend against it and there are downsides)

we mount our drawbar hitches to the frame roughly at the rear of the cab.

I haven't looked where the frame sits in relation to the rear riser blocks, but in my 67 I made a bolt in set of suspension blocks that go between the frame and the "ear" sticking off the rear block where the bump stops are supposed to be.

As dlyter09 said get some rear ladder or traction bars. Make a set or the diesel crowd has some off the shelf options I'm sure. When allowed, we try to run them along the same angle as the driveshaft which puts the front mount somewhere along the back of the cab on our trucks but haven't looked under these later trucks much.

That's all I can think of right now, might think of something later or if you have any questions just ask.

 

You could also try and fab something up for your front end to hang some weight off of it.

 

And what about the stock transmission? Will it be okay? Do you guys happen to have any links to these parts your recommending?

 

From what I have heard about the auto trannies, I don't think I'd ever start abusing mine. If pulling on loose ground that would help some, but just not worth it to me. Minimum I'd want a fresh fluid change, band adjustment, extra tranny cooler and maybe even a deep pan.

As far as the weight, yeah that's fairly common with classes above where I pull at. We run heavy bumpers, but not allowed to actually hang weight. Seen many guys build a detachable bracket to hold tractor weights. Not sure how beefy the new Dana44's are, but the old ones like to give up if the truck starts to hop so Dana60's are common.

My buddy and I both pull with NP435 manual trannies, him a divorced 205 transfercase and me with a divorced 201 case. He's broken a couple rear output shaft bearing retainers on a ~500 horse motor in the last year so I'd also be concerned about the transfercase as well.

Another guy we pull with is running a beefed up auto 727. I can't recall the tcase he's running, possibly a 241HD case, it's a late model married chain drive is all I can remember.

As far as the ladder bars, here's a summit link with a couple Dodge bars. http://www.summitracing.com/search/P...E/?Ns=Rank|Asc
I've never used aftermarket bars or talked to guys who have, most everyone makes their own stuff around here.

 

I really wouldn't trust these transmissions, they suck. My mild off roading destroyed mine, but I do have 143,000 miles on the clock

 

http://www.topguncustomz.com/Store/G...iview=44050096

Thats just a quick search in google. Shop around and see what all there is to offer. If you can't hang weights in your class just get a heavy front bumper of some sort. As for the stock transmission well it all depends on what you will be going against. Ive personally hooked up with quite a few trucks in my time with no problems. The toughest pull I had was against a full size blazer sittin on 36 inch super swampers. Did the all my pulls on pavement. You just need to know what your doing and when to just give up. Change your fluids adjust your bands and install a tranny cooler and the ladder bars and some gears and you will have a pretty stout truck. Just remember when your truck starts to hop you need to give up lol.. Ive seen some nasty things happen. Hope this helps ya man

 

Ya all the pulls they do are on a hard pavement no loose stuff. I will start with the ladder bars for sure. Thanks alot for all the info guys. and what do you think about the stock 5.2l besides the CAI thats all I have done.

 

best advise is if your truck starts to hop let off the gas. you don't want to break axles your drive lines....

also idk about a stock tranny that would scare me... mine has a HD shift kit and different TC and only has 32k on full rebuild/upgrade