'97 Dodge Ram 2500, 4x4 Cummins Powered

[ExpoMike]

Thanks Robb. Little by little. Now if I can keep from buying these old Chevy's, I would likely be moving faster on this project. LOL

The backup light were from, http://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/LED-Work-Lamp It's the 116mm version. They work great. I got the flood version.

As for the TireGate, it has been working great!!! I too want to build a custom rear bumper but time/funds have not been there. I needed something and this looked to be a good "temp" alternative. It's been working well enough that it might be "temp" for a long time, likely until the point I swap on the flatbed. Done a couple trips with a bunch of wash board trails and it's still tight and secure. It has a wedge lock plus the pin, so it gets really snugged up. For my app. it happed to fit very tightly to the bumper so I am sure that has helped. No rattles but with the Cummins, I don't hear much of anything else anyways.

The hitch part rated at 750 lbs. tongue weight and 7,500 lbs. tow weight. I was a little nervious at first when I hooked the car trailer to it but it worked perfect.

About the only minor complaint (and most swing outs have this issue) is there is no "lock" to hold it open. You can snug down the pivot bolts to put drag on it but if on a steep enough angle, the swing out will find it's natural open point. It would be nice if it had a couple stops it would lock into, for hills and such.

I was lucky to find mine on Craigslist. Not sure I would have spent the full price on one but after having it and seeing how well it's done and weight rated, I would be more likely to pay full price. If you didn't need the hitch to be used and could weld, you could build one for a lot less.

Hope that helps.

[xdbx]

Mike, quick question re: the tire gate.

I've got a similar setup with ram, pop up camper. I occasionally tow a 6x12 enclosed and from measuring, I see the tiregate would hit the top of its tongue jack, even with the most agressive drop hitch I can buy. That means I canT swing the tire out more than about 30 degrees, my camper door is hinged opposite yours, so I won't be able to get into the camper with the trailer on. suck!

What are your thoughts on this from towing your panel home? Could you have gotten into the camper for an overnight stop without detaching?

[Spencinator]

Not sure if I'm understanding this correctly but cant you use a swing away tongue jack like this one?

[xdbx]

I wish I could. This is a substantially sized trailer with a welded in tongue jack. I have one of those folding dealios on my utility trailer that I drop thE camper on to and it's totally worthless with any weight on it.

I need to figure out something innovative. I'm not dumping the trailer for a long a-framed one at this time, and I have a local tiregate deal that is nagging me. I just need to figure out how to work it out with this trailer.

[ExpoMike]

Mike, quick question re: the tire gate.

I've got a similar setup with ram, pop up camper. I occasionally tow a 6x12 enclosed and from measuring, I see the tiregate would hit the top of its tongue jack, even with the most agressive drop hitch I can buy. That means I canT swing the tire out more than about 30 degrees, my camper door is hinged opposite yours, so I won't be able to get into the camper with the trailer on. suck!

What are your thoughts on this from towing your panel home? Could you have gotten into the camper for an overnight stop without detaching?

Hi. As for the TireGate and towing, I was a little worried at first thought of doing it but it worked with no issues regarding the hitch/trailering part of things. As for getting inside, since my door and the swing out go the same way, I was able to swing both enough to easily get into the back. I can't recall if I could have swung the tire all the way as none of my pics really show that well but I do know the U-Haul trailer has an A frame drop down tongue jack and the screw part is at a 45* angle versus vertical. This make the handle lower than a standard jack so it might have cleared. As it was, I really could have used another 2" of drop on the receiver drop. The TireGate raised the receiver mount by the hight of the tube (2"). With the jack all the way down, we still had to lift it up onto the ball.

I don't have a head on shot but if you look at this, the stock receiver height would be below where the TireGate one is, by 2". There is about 1" between the bottom of the arm and receiver. Figure out your drop hitch and that would give you the height of the swing out.



Hope that helps.

[BIGdaddy]

That's pretty slick, Mike. /\

[xdbx]

Guys,

Thanks for posting. I picked up the tiregate yesterday because the deal was just too good to pass up. Got home, did a bunch of test fits. Looks like it will work out very well!

Here are a couple photos for those that run across this thread and wonder similar. That's a 265/70 on the spare rim. my 285/70 hits in about the same spot.





I can even close the gate on the open door!



Don't forget the longer chains and trailer pin harness!

[ExpoMike]

Congrats. Looks good and glad it worked out for ya.

[ExpoMike]

Well an update on the Ram. Lately I have been having an issue with a fuel leak that I have not been able to figure out where it was coming from, since as it got to temp, the leak would go away. The general area pointed to a common issue where the fuel return hose gets old and starts to leak. Problem was, I could never feel any wetness on this line nor get a good angle to see if it was leaking from it. The other area I thought was the fuel filter housing. I wasn't sure if it might have a crack or leaking o-ring. Well, to get to the return hose (which most of the Dodge forums seem to point to) you need to remove the filter canister. Armed with a new filter/o-rings, I moved it from the street to the driveway. Getting up under the rig, to see where I needed to put a catch can to drain the filter, I noticed on the backside of the filter housing, it was wet. Hummm... think I might have found the issue. I removed the cartridge housing and was going to replace the return hose anyways. In Chrysler's widsom, they manage to put the connection from the rubber line to the hard line to the frame, about as far away as you could get something, yet still see it. Since it looks like it was replaced and wasn't leaking, I left that alone.

Now looking at the filter, I noticed the o-ring (actually a square cut o-ring) had a little spot where it might have been pinched during installation. New filter, 3 o-rings and put everything back together. After priming the system (they are nice enough to put a manual prime pump) I got it fired up and running smoothly. Let it idle for a few minutes and then drove it around the block. So far, no more leak!!! I guess time will tell if this solved it but I am guessing it did. Overall replacing the filter wasn't as hard as some made it out to be. It's a little tight but should only take about 30 minutes total.

[trust]

Loving your build, I have an 01 QC SWB that I'm very slowly evolving into a longer term, milder exploration truck for those trips where the Jeep Scrambler isnt necessary. A couple of thoughts/questions
1) you mentioned some gauges, did you get them done? I'd be interested in where you found them/what brand you chose and would suggest you might add fuel pressure to you rlist. I am not sure if your CTD uses teh lift pump arrangement that mine does but they are notorious failure points and the gauge has saved me on a couple of occasions from destroying the injector pump when the lift pump failed
2) Flat bed status? I have been toying with going that route myself and was wondering what your impressions were if you've gotten that far yet
3) Hitchgate, I did make a facsimile for my daughter's Scout 800 that did work out fine, for those of us with barely useful Craigslist and who are to cheap to spend new unit prices, thay arent hard to build. I have the material for another i was goin gto build for the scrambler but am not thinking that perhaps the Dodge would benefit more, The gas can mount intrigues me, which part did you fab and what was included in the AT set up?
4) Did you figure out your OBA yet? on my Scrambler I mounted the tank(s) under the body and the compressor (engine driven) under teh hood and simply plumbed quick connects to both ends of the Jeep, just a thought, but you could likely do some plumbing in lieu of making th ething portable

Love the set up! keep the updates coming please