Well about a month ago I was sitting at a red light in my 2004 Ford F150 5.4 4x4, an SUV comes down the hill on the cross street from me and tried to turn, he is going way too fast and jumps the median and plows into me. As I'm checking on my daughter in the back seats he decides to gun it in reverse to take off. I start yelling at him and he takes off. I find out later on that the police did catch him and he admitted to drinking and driving as well as doing a hit and run. It took a long time to get the police report with all of his information. I had my old Dodge truck that is basically a project vehicle that I had to register and emission to get it as daily driver till I could get all the information I needed about the other driver. Luckily he did have insurance, which of course they take their sweet time with the process. So in all the insurance totaled out the truck and will cut me a check. I will miss this F150 I had done a lot of modifications that built it up the way I wanted, from building it for offroading with full skid plates to winch and grill guard nerf bars and upgraded sound system tint and a lot more.

The hit bent up the bumper damaged the suspension and steering the load got transferred to the other side where it bent up the passenger fender, door, and firewall. Way too much damage to repair.







So I got a 2007 Dodge Ram 1500 4x4 5.7 Hemi Quad cab. I love this Ram, it does have more HP than my old F150s 5.4. The Hemi tows like a dream.




So far I installed some Nerf bars, this truck is tall from factory. I had to fix one major thing and a few minor things, one body bolt was rusted off, so I had to cut it down and drill out the bolt and tap it for a larger bolt. I had to fix it in order to bolt on the nerf bars.
The minor was like hood shocks and wipers and clear up the headlights.





Long term I will want to find a grill guard and add in my winch and Ram 2500 tow hooks. 1-2in lift larger offroad tires (which will be pricey with the 20's that came on it). Upgrade the stereo and skid plates underneath. Maybe a locker, I don't think there are any selectable lockers for the 9.25 axle, but I don't know.

 

Nice looking truck. Sorry to hear about the accident, but I think it's a good upgrade.

My advice on the tires is to ditch those 20's and go down to a 17" wheel (as small as you can go on these 3rd Gens). This will really expand your option on tires, and give you more sidewall to flex off-road.

 

Ya I'm not a big rim type of guy. I'll probably sell these to offset the cost of new tires.

 

I bought a bull bar on Craigslist for $50. This will do till I buy a Grille Guard with winch mount that I want.



I'm looking into an aftermarket radio next.