In the fall of 2005, I purchased a 2005 Dodge 3500 4x4 short bed SRW Laramie. Since then, I have been planning and saving money for my offroad project.
In mid May of 2007, I delivered my truck to Desert Racing Concepts in Thousand Palms, California.


After much planning and research for Phase 1, I finalized the deal to install the following:
-KORE Unlimited Suspension System, 3.0 Fox Racing Remote Reservoir shocks in the front, 2.5" Fox Racing Remote Reservoir shocks in the rear.
-Glassworks Unlimited fiberglass fenders and bed sides.
-DRC front axle truss
-Regeared to 4.10
-Installed an Eaton E-locker in the front axle.
-Toyo MT Open Country 37" x 13.5" Tires
-Center Line 17" x 8" wheels that were powder coated black.

Because of the fiberglass work, the truck was scheduled to be repainted. However, due to the color (Light Almond Metallic Pearl) it was discovered that it would be very difficult to match. So to do it properly would have cost 2500 - 4000 dollars to repaint the truck. So out of cheapness, I began exploring alternative options. Almost as a joke, I offered up to my builder that we just coat everything in Line-X. We began researching it as an option and weighed the good and bad aspects of such a "paint" job.

This was my poor photoshop job on the scheme I wanted. I wasn't sure what texture the truck would be when finalized. So I guessed. The price was significantly cheaper than painting it. It would be very tough also and offer some additional protection for an offroad truck. I wanted all the badges gone and to loose as much chrome as possible. So we debadged it, removed the door spears. We did some research and found that the grill and bumpers could be coated in Line-X with some prep work.


Once all the hardware was installed and we were waiting on Line-X, I photoshopped a real photo of my truck to show the design I wanted.

At the time, I did not pay to have the hood done due to price, and future plans to replace the hood. Luckily they did the hood by accident!

It took about a month to get all the parts to DRC -- Mainly due to the Baja 500 which was going on at the time. Using the 3.0 front shox from Fox Racing gave us additional delays. Once everything had arrived, the truck was pieced together rather quickly. The front fenders went on very easily. However, the bedsides were very difficult to install. Several hundred spot welds had to be drilled out. These fenders are not drop in fit. They took a lot of additional work to get everything to match up properly.
Once everything was installed, the truck was sent off to Line-X. They screwed me around for a while and caused some delays that I wasn't happy about and tried to back peddle several times.

I was pretty scared about how the truck was going to look.

When I went to pick the truck up, we had to force the Line-X people to finish the job. They didn't want to do my Laramie grill or bumpers.

When it was complete, the truck looked absolutely amazing.


We did some testing with the truck. We beat it bad, real bad. We hit a jump at 50 - 60mph and had it airborne 4 to 5 feet in the air. We landed pretty hard, and sheared the tail gate off the truck. The fiberglass bedsides remove a lot of structural integrity of the bed assembly. I had been warned about this, but I didn't think it would do that. When it sheared off, it tore out a tail light and we lost the driver side front bump stop. The tail gate was being drug behind the truck for a few hundred feet. The pivot mounts at the bottom were bent and it had a small dent at the top in the center from where it hit the rear bumper. Even though it had been drug, the Line-X had not a single sign of wear on it.

We patched everything back up and we're looking at different methods to deal with the tailgate issue.

I am returning to DRC in a week or two to hammer out some steering bugs that I had before I went to DRC.

Here are some additional photos that I've taken while beating on it for the past few days.




This thing soaks up the hits. I took some co-workers curb churpin' and they were amazed at how much the suspension soaks up. I think he shat his pants when we did a jump. Washboard roads are nothing. I was hitting them at 60 - 70mph and my cell phone wouldn't even fall out of the cup holder. No bottoming out of the shocks when hitting uneven dips and ruts. No brake lean at all.

Thanks for looking!

Now on to Phase 2!
-Steve

 

Man, that is a sweet truck thanks for sharing, whats going to happen in phase 2?

 

Nice truck dude, I like the line-x. How much did it cost for all the line-x, I am thinking about doing my bumpers, or my rocker panel area, or both? Also, I think I found the bar on the internet, was it $360?

Looks good man!!

 

Thanks for the compliments.

I have a little bit of a rubbing issue if I'm really hard on the truck and have the wheels turned all the way over. So when I go back to DRC, we'll trim some of the inner fender. I'm looking at installing some custom inner fenders to keep the debris out of the engine bay and out of the front door jams. We'll be replacing a lot of the steering linkage when I go back to eliminate the pull to the left. I think I had bent an end link or the track bar when it was stock.

Phase 2 is still being developed. Mainly, it will compliment Phase 1 and try to mitigate any deficiencies that arose.
Since we're encountering so much frame flex, I'm looking to do a partial roll cage that stiffens up it up by putting runners into the bed. I don't want to gut my interior though. So it will have to be tastefully done.
I'd like to install some safety equipment like racing seats. This will add another level of suspension between the rider and the dirt.
I feel the brakes need to be upgraded to slow this monster down.
We've got some prototype design plans to move as much weight as possible to the rear of the truck. Yet, keep the bed clear and leave it still useable. I don't really care for stacks for exhaust, but it might free up a lot of room for my plans. Or I may just dump it in front of the rear wheel.
I'll probably do the Dynatrac manual locking hub conversion also while the brake rotors are out.
The differential covers need upgraded. I'm looking at the ones from HRC. Those are bomb proof.

Funny about the weight. The suspension allows you to travel so fast, that you find the rear end floating around in the dirt. Especially around 60 - 65mph on really washboarded roads.

 

Oh, it is a DRC Light Bar. It makes a pretty good nerfer also.

I'm not sure of the price, it came in a package deal.
You can shoot them an e-mail, Jeremy is always on top of things.
http://www.desertracingconcepts.net/

I heard some stories of one of these bars where a guy hit a tree at 25 - 30mph, and it bent the bar to the stock bumper, but that was it. Teach that guy to try to avoid a pig.

-Steve

 

My compliments on a project well done.

Can you get Line-X in any color, or is that beige just a standard color that Line-X comes in?

 

About the light bar..... I can lift the front end of my truck by using my Hi-lit jack and my DRC light bar.

 

You can get line-x in any color you want to, within reason. The truck looks really good man. And welcome to the site. Do you have any engine mods or just external?

 

that's quite a change you put your truck thru! Looks interesting with the linex on it. I noticed you have a sunroof...[:@]I miss having one but I think they belong in cars, it'll be interesting to see if you develop any leaks down the road after pounding on your truck...

 

As mentioned above by someone else, you can have the paint matched to your color code. It is pretty accurate. However, the texture and the level of shine are naturally off.

I was worried about the sunroof also. After looking at the engagement design I think it should be alright. Especially with the roll cage I'm designing. It should stiffen up the cab. If you beat these trucks hard enough, you'll break the windows out of it. I like the sunroof though, it adds a lot of light into the interior. If I get a leak, I'll fix it. Plus, the amount of rain we get in Arizona, I don't see it to be much of a problem. Plus, I'm going to have the Line-X put over the cab also. It won't cover the seam, but it will stiffen up the roof.

Engine work will be put after Tranny work. We've put together guidelines on what type of work to do to the engine to get us to a reliable efficient 450 - 500 rear wheel horse. I'm not into programmers or software type fixes. I prefer to make power with hardware. I won't bump up the power levels until the Transmission has been built up. Truthfully, the stock power levels with the 4.10 gear ratios are pretty powerful. More power is always nice, but this engine isn't gutless out of the box. Faster spool up of the turbo would be nice.

The Line-X is 100% functional. I hit cresote bushes at 40 or 50 mph, and they do nothing but wipe the dust off the side of the truck. The bushes are in pretty bad shape since it is like getting hit by sandpaper at 50mph.