This is my first post on here. I have a few questions and looking for some opinions on what to do with my truck. I’m currently in Iraq and with the money I’ve saved up I figured now would be a good time to go ahead and get my truck where I want it when I get back. I have an ‘06 1500, 4x4 quad cab with the 5.7. So far I all I have installed is a K&N CAI, Flowmaster 40 series muffler and Line-X bed liner. I have purchased a Supechips 3815 tuner that should be waiting at home for me.
Some of my ideas are:

1: Leveling kit (2.5”) my brother did this to his 2500. I like how it looks but he also installed Air bags to the back a few months later to help when he has a load in the back. I’m looking into just a simple air lift ride control with the load controller 2. I don’t do as much towing and hauling as my brother but I do some here and there.

2: Tires. I still have the stock 245/70/17 and I’m looking for a larger AT tire. Still trying to figure out how big I actually want to go, but I don’t think I want to do more than a leveling kit to fit tires. Possibly thinking about Goodyear Wrangler Silent Armor but I can not decide what size I should go to. I hate how the stock tires look so small and the traction is just horrible. I do about half of my driving on dirt/gravel county roads and the other half on paved city streets/county highway 55-65 MPH and about once or twice a year I take a long road trip home to see the folks. (up to 75MPH) Along with weekend fishing and hunting trips on trails and some minor off road situations.

3: Gears: I would like to improve the acceleration and I will be using It for hunting trips in the Colorado mountains. I’m looking at 4.10 and debating 4.56. I’m not sure what size tire 4.56 would help out better than the 4.10 with the driving I do listed above.

4: LSD. Figured that if I’m already doing the gears I might was well do this too. I’m looking at the Detroit Tru-track.

5: Fog lights. I have an SLT and from what I’ve read on here it should already have the wires for it. Again I can’t really go out and look at it but I’m going to just plan on them not being there.

6: Clearance lamps. OEM

I’m be home in about a month for R&R leave and would like to get started on some things and then finish it up when I get back for good. Just wondering what everyone thinks and if I’m on the right track or not. Thanks!

 

I vote for gears and a LSD.

 

The tires I don't believe are really that small. Or are they?
I would think a 265/70/17 or similar would be suitable for your truck. I like all the ideas you have as far as practicality, but I see the clearance lights to be an issue on the 1500's. Many of us have spoke about it and unless it's a 2500 it wouldn't be right. Anyways, I just wanted to sum that p for you. You do what you want.

 

Personally I think the stock tires look just small and kind of funny on my truck.
I looked back in the forums and now that I think about it you guys are right about the clearance lamps on a 1500 so I'm probably going to go take that off my list.

 

Ok Jimbo, glad to see you're gonna put that gov't money to good use. Looks like you have the basic 3 covered in CAI, Cat Back and Tuner, so lets tackle the rest of your upgrades one at a time:

1) You basically have two choices for leveling your coil over IFS front end. Spacers or Struts. Spacers are the commonly chosen method, but are chosen solely by price. A nice strut/shock replacement like a Rancho Quicklift or Bilstein's equivelent would be a solid upgrade to your front end suspension, added benefit of the Rancho is the new shocks are fully adjustable. Installation is only marginally harder and more time consuming than spacers. Only downside is the cost will be about 3x what the spacers would be. Of course you are getting much stouter springs and industry leading shocks whether you opt for the Rancho's or Bilstein's. If I were planning on any off-road adventures, I'd spend the extra here and do it right.

2) The silent armor's are a good choice for highway use, but there are a lot of better choices for a daily driver that you still want to use to play with on the weekends. With just a level kit, you could theoretically fit 35s but you'll have some rubbing and scrubbing issues, especially off-road. I'd opt for 33's, look good in the tire well, not too small, but not so big that you can't flex it a little on the trails. I'd look at a non-aggressive A/T tire with good highway characteristics and a history of good wear. Mickey Thompson ATZs &Toyo Open Country A/Ts would be solid choices and 60k of treadlife is not uncommon with either.

3) Go for the 4.56s with any tire 33" of larger. You are only talking maybe 150 rpm more at intersate speeds over 4.10s but the performance, especially while towing will be noticeable over the 4.10's. Plus, if you currently have 3.92s, I'd have a hard time justifying that much cost for a relatively small gain.

4) True Trac - excellent choice, and doing them along with the gears will save you labor $... 'nuff said...

5) Fog lights - yeah you should have the wiring already in place, you may find you'll have to take it to the dealer to hook up the old Star Scan to enable fog lamp control for them to work. Some do, some don't.

6) Clearance Lights - obviously if you've been wandering around 3rd Gen at all, you've seen mine and read what I think of them, If you plan on building the truck up, they make it look like more of a beast! So you know I'm gonna say "go for it". I like the Recons for the look and the fact that they are LED instead of bulbs, like the Mopar ones. But aside from that, it's mostly personal preference as to what you like the appearance of. A plus with the MOPAR's is they come with a template for drilling...

Well buddy, that's my 2 cents, take it for what it's worth. I expect pics when you get home (and all of us at DF pray you and everyone else there with you, get home safely). Don't be shy, post your decisions and your progress, with pics of each mod as you go...

Sorry, failed to touch the Air Bag topic. Air lifts are great, although I just mounted a valve at the rear bumper because I don't use them on a regular basis. If I towed or hauled more, I'd opt for an onboard compressor as well. I'd never own another truck without putting bags on it after having these on mine...

 

Don't forget the rear wheel well liners if you don't have em already, they're an under rated mod but nice to have. And don't forget the gun rack!

 

Thanks for the Info Hammer. Ive looked at the spacers but I didn't think about Struts so I'm going to look into that some more. I'll also look into the tires you mentioned, and probably go with 33's with the 4.56 gears and LSD, I don't want to try and push it too much with 35's and have rub issues . I'll let you all know what else I come up and decide on. I'll get some photos up here when I start getting work done too. Thanks again!

Jimbo

 

Didn't even think about liners. Once I get the major work done I'll look into doing if I still have extra cash available. Already have the gun rack just need a break from deployments to use it more...lol

 

They're only $90 at the dealer and really clean up the look in the back.

 

Just a FYI, Jimbo. If you do air bags, the liners will have to be cut to fit around them. Not a big issue, but I've not purchased a set because I have a hard time justifying paying good money for them and then having to cut on them. Although I gotta admit, without them, getting all that famous Ga. red clay off the bottom of the truck is a royal PIA...