This is a friendly warning to other RAM owners..

I dodged a big time bullet with mine today. I was on the way to a shop to have my windows tinted (pics to come).. I got up to the shop and when I got out of the truck heard a hissing noise.. One of my tires had a puncture in it.. No big deal swap in the spare..

So as many of you know the tools to lower the spare are under the seat with the jack.. The bolt that holds all of that stuff together under the seat was EXTREMELY hard to release.. and in the end... the actual Nutsert or whatever you wanna call it.. The threaded insert.. that the bolt goes through broke free and was just spinning with the jack hold down..

Now lucky for me i was able to undo the straps for the tools to lower the spare without removing the jack.. was a bigger PITA but still.. And I know the guy at the shop so while he was doing the tint I borrowed his floor jack to pop on the spare..


That being said if that flat had occured on the road I would have been totally up **** creek. I'm not sure yet how I'm going to fix it yet.. or how I'm gonna get the jack hold down out with that insert free spinning.. but I will from now on be putting antisieze and some penetrating lube down there after I have it fixed.

This is just a heads up to anyone that maybe hasn't taken out their jack before... I'd suggest checking it because when you need it... you freaking need it.. not venting at all.. **** happens and I'll fix it but if my near miss can possibly save a fellow Ram owner from being screwed over on the side of the road then good.

 

Your jack and tools are under your seat? What bolt are you talking about?

**edit**
Thinking about it, by "under the seat", I assume you mean under the rear seat? Which still begs the question, what bolt?

 

In my regular cab it is under the passenger seat with that bolt holding it to the floor. Thats a good tip but I'm too lazy to use the stock jack and I always seem to be helping friends work on their cars so I keep 2 mini hydraulic jacks in the toolbox.

 

Oh, I didn't even notice it was a RC. Thought I was missing something. Carry on! LoL

 

Yeah man all 3rd gens, regardless of cab type, are mounted underneath the passenger seat held in place by a long jack screw. That jack screw screws rights into the tub holding the jack and tools into place.

 

Mine is under the passenger side seat too.

I was trying to lift mine with the stock jack (before I lifted it) and the hook that turns the crank twisted into a loop? Its useless now, I just keep the tools to lower the spare.

I ended up having to keep a higher lifting jack in the truck (and now some 4x4s) to even get the jack to where it will lift the truck up at all, but its a good idea to keep a good floor jack in the toolbox or w/e anyway. Much easier and safer IMO

 

Pics? Mine has been under the rear seat since I bought it. I do remember a very large-headed bolt under the passenger seat when I was vacuuming, but it was very close to the floor.

I would like to get a floor jack now that it's lifted though. A smaller one should fit under the rear seat.

 

The whole tool "pack" is under the front passenger seat in mine. It was in that same place in my Gen II, I think. I only use it to crank down the spare. I have a small floor jack in the tool box.

 

Never even taken mine out before. Better try it out. But I don't think it will work with my lift. My truck is now 4 years old and I never even thought of the jack! Dumb! Think I'll go by something that will work with my lift!

 

My truck is at stock ride height so the jack works fine. I've only had to use it once before. Today I was able to look at it and I got the bolt out. Took a lot of force and a good set of vice-grips, and a liberal coating of PB blaster

IDK what caused that bolt to be so seized.. It wasn't cross threaded.. there wasn't rust on the threads. It almost reminded me of people talking about breaking off plugs in aluminum cylinder heads.. the damn thing was just seized up.

Luckily the threaded insert is steel so I'm just going to weld it back into the floor on the truck. Really easy fix. For some dumb reason dodge went with a rivet/press in thread insert instead of a welded in one. So obviously once it gave a little bit there was nothing left. Just a stupid design.

Once I get it welded in and solid again I'm going to coat the bolt with anti-seize and WD40.

Not a big deal I just wanted to let it be known so that somebody that doesn't keep a better jack in the truck thinks to check this before being up **** creek on the road.