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Number7

Smurftruck: 1997 Dodge 1500 4x4 Single Cab

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Truck looks great! Oh.. and... every time I see your rock pile, I want to park on it!

 

Hahaha it does look like a good place for a test flex.

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nice truck George! love me some dodge rams!

my three rams I had

grey one is an 03 ram 1500 hemi with tons of mods and lots of custom camo accents (nicknamed camoram appropriately)

black one is an 01 ram 1500 off road 5.9 gasser sitting on 35s

red one is an 06 ram 2500 5.9 cummins mostly stock, loved it but was costing me to much money

 

 

ill get another one some day...also wanna get that srt10 ram...

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This weekend was Smurftruck's maiden voyage; we went to Mt. Graham and the surrounding areas. We discovered that on moderate rocky trails the truck performs well enough, but we didn't want to push it on the street tires we're currently running, for fear of slicing a side-wall. The truck also performs very well in muddy and off-camber muddy situations, even on street tires.

 

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Meeting the GC crew:

 

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Smurftruck is going into the shop tomorrow for axle re-gearing to 4:56 gears, so we can run bigger more aggressive tires. We installed the new (to us) wheels today, pictures soon!

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Oops, missed this one of my handsome boyfriend and his handsome truck!

 

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We just got Smurftruck back from On Point Performance and Offroad (our old friend Joe Daro's new company) where he installed 4:56 gears front and rear. You can also see the new (to us) wheels we got.

 

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Sweet spokes. Looks like a more aggressive tread pattern on those tires too.

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Sweet spokes. Looks like a more aggressive tread pattern on those tires too.

 

Yes slightly but we need new tires.

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The head liner fabric was peeling off the foam so George removed the head liner and peeled off all the fabric. Then he diluted some roof-coating to half & half with water, and using a roller, he applied the mixture to the foam. He let it dry really well and then applied 3 more coats, letting it dry really well in between. Then he mixed up a batch and added some regular gray latex paint to it and did 2 more coats with that.

 

He reinstalled it and it came out really well, and he says it'll last forever! (sorry no 'before' pictures)

 

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I re-wrote this post and explained the whole process in much more detail in this thread under Multiple/Any Vehicle: http://offroadpassport.com/forum/showthread.php?p=41568#post41568

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When we got the truck back from Joe at OnPoint, he pointed out that the truck still had the original U-Joints in the drive-shafts. That prompted George to inspect the U-Joints in the front axle shafts, which were also the original ones and very worn. So we took both drive shafts and the front axle shafts to Phoenix Rack & Axle to be re-built.

 

Rebuilt and balanced front and rear drive shafts:

 

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Front axle shafts re-installed

 

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While he was taking the axle shafts out, George noticed we had a leaky axle tube, starting another project. To accomplish replacing the axle tube seals, he had to pull the carrier out and buy a special tool he found at Quad 4x4. He punched the old seals out with a pipe. The carrier had been shimmed in so we froze it before reinstalling it, and it went in easily and perfectly.

 

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This is the axle tube installation tool from Quad 4x4

 

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Right before we took Smurftruck on the Mt. Graham trip in July, George fabricated this radio mounting rack. He used one of the old CB Racks he used to build, and customized it to attach to the Compass/Temperature cluster in the front, and to the dome light in the back. He permanently ran a cable for our rooftop magnetized antenna-mount for my Baofeng. When we're using it, the Baofeng fits in the little neoprene case (attached to the mount with coated wire for now) and the antenna cable screws to it through the zipper opening.

 

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It worked really well on the Mt. Graham trip. The most notable distance coverage was between theksmith who was in Safford and us just after we hit pavement on the way down the mountain road. We could hear him really well always, and he could hear us when we were on the same side of the mountain coming down the switchbacks. :cool:

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