Hello from El Paso
Hello from El Paso
Greetings,
I am new to this site, I had been looking up info through out the year and fineally decided to join. I have two Dodge trucks. One is a 2004.5 Ram2500 w/cummins 600 engine. Its a pulling truck and that is exactly what I got it for, to pull the toy hauler. The other truck is a 2000 Ram 1500 quad cab 4x4 w/offroad package. I got it in Nov of 1999, it was the first off road version to hit El Paso. This truck has been great from the beginning. Over the years I have wanted to make it better. In 2006, I put 4.56 gears and a yukon grizzly locker in the front and started running 35" tires. That was good till the end of last year when I started wanting more. This last march I put a BDS longarm suspension lift that took it to 5". I put a JB conversions HD Tcase with slip yoke eliminator. I also put 37's on it and a few months down the road I found the weak link. I knew the 37's would find a weak link somewhere, just didn't think it would happen so soon. The front locker exploded, while climbing some big sand hills. Thats when I started looking into an axle swap. With a little research I found that if I stayed with generation 2 axles, it would be a nearly bolt in swap. So I fineally found the axles out of Missouri, from a 2001 Ram2500 diesel with disc brakes. Once the axles got here I had a shop install 5.13 gears and ARB air lockers on both. They also went through them and replaced all the ball joints, ujoints, bearings and seals. They were like new when I got them back for the install. The front a Dana 60, was a direct bolt up just like planned. everything went like clock work. The rear a Dana 80, had to have some new spring perches put on, the originals were for 3" springs and slightly inset for my needs. My springs were 2.5". The new spring perches added an inch and with the axle being 1/2 inch bigger, I had a total of 1.25 inches extra lift. Now the back sat 2 inches higher than the front. I put some 2 inch leveling spacers up front and now it sat level. Had to get an adjustable track bar to the front back on track. The disc brakes were easily solved with an adjustable proportioning valve. So now I have a total lift of 7" and am very pleased with the results. Next project is a traction bar for the back to stopp the axle hop and spring wrap, this will happen soon. Next year the beast will get a stroker motor and a mega viper transmission. Well thats my story, hope to share some knowledge that I have gained from this venture and gain knowledge for some of you.
Thanks for reading and Happy Trails!
I am new to this site, I had been looking up info through out the year and fineally decided to join. I have two Dodge trucks. One is a 2004.5 Ram2500 w/cummins 600 engine. Its a pulling truck and that is exactly what I got it for, to pull the toy hauler. The other truck is a 2000 Ram 1500 quad cab 4x4 w/offroad package. I got it in Nov of 1999, it was the first off road version to hit El Paso. This truck has been great from the beginning. Over the years I have wanted to make it better. In 2006, I put 4.56 gears and a yukon grizzly locker in the front and started running 35" tires. That was good till the end of last year when I started wanting more. This last march I put a BDS longarm suspension lift that took it to 5". I put a JB conversions HD Tcase with slip yoke eliminator. I also put 37's on it and a few months down the road I found the weak link. I knew the 37's would find a weak link somewhere, just didn't think it would happen so soon. The front locker exploded, while climbing some big sand hills. Thats when I started looking into an axle swap. With a little research I found that if I stayed with generation 2 axles, it would be a nearly bolt in swap. So I fineally found the axles out of Missouri, from a 2001 Ram2500 diesel with disc brakes. Once the axles got here I had a shop install 5.13 gears and ARB air lockers on both. They also went through them and replaced all the ball joints, ujoints, bearings and seals. They were like new when I got them back for the install. The front a Dana 60, was a direct bolt up just like planned. everything went like clock work. The rear a Dana 80, had to have some new spring perches put on, the originals were for 3" springs and slightly inset for my needs. My springs were 2.5". The new spring perches added an inch and with the axle being 1/2 inch bigger, I had a total of 1.25 inches extra lift. Now the back sat 2 inches higher than the front. I put some 2 inch leveling spacers up front and now it sat level. Had to get an adjustable track bar to the front back on track. The disc brakes were easily solved with an adjustable proportioning valve. So now I have a total lift of 7" and am very pleased with the results. Next project is a traction bar for the back to stopp the axle hop and spring wrap, this will happen soon. Next year the beast will get a stroker motor and a mega viper transmission. Well thats my story, hope to share some knowledge that I have gained from this venture and gain knowledge for some of you.
Thanks for reading and Happy Trails!
Administrator
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 87,483
Likes: 4,223
From: Clayton MI
The 2000 is a second gen ram 04 is third gen. For a long running build thread, General discussion section might be best, but, it IS a tech thread.... so, pick a spot. 
Host your pics someplace like photobucket, or imageshack. Can't have a whole lot of 'em hosted here. Space is extremely limited. Just use image tags so your pics show in the thread.
Looking forward to seeing what you do.
Host your pics someplace like photobucket, or imageshack. Can't have a whole lot of 'em hosted here. Space is extremely limited. Just use image tags so your pics show in the thread.
Looking forward to seeing what you do.
