slow build- 97 Ram CTD family truck/expo rig
- Thread starter bloodyWEST
- Start date
moderndaynorseman
Active member
So other than going to 37s and a new leaf pack off the start, not much different which is pretty cool.
I've heard that wheel hop can be an issue with these rigs; have you ever noticed any from yours?
Any details on the 3rd gen brake swap? Part of the reason I was thinking of the 2002 was for the better braking of 4 wheel discs especially when loaded up with armor, big tires, and all my other crap.
No matter which way I go, my plan will be to do a full tear down so I can learn the truck inside and out. I'm going back to school for an engineering design program, so hopefully I can use what I learn to do a couple projects I've had bouncing around in my head.
bloodyWEST
Adventurer
I was having axle wrap issues when climbing in 4 low. Axle swung forward and damaged the carrier bearing on the 2 pc drive shaft. I bought a DIY traction bar kit from RuffStuff to stop that, then had my driveshaft rebuilt.
There are differences between the early 2nd gen and late 2nd gen front axles. I swapped in a 2001 axle which has dual piston calipers. At that point the bigger 3rd gen rotors are a bolt on. Google it for details, they are like 1.25” bigger.
Also let’s you run the 3rd gen steering gear too. Must run 17” wheels though.
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There are differences between the early 2nd gen and late 2nd gen front axles. I swapped in a 2001 axle which has dual piston calipers. At that point the bigger 3rd gen rotors are a bolt on. Google it for details, they are like 1.25” bigger.
Also let’s you run the 3rd gen steering gear too. Must run 17” wheels though.
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moderndaynorseman
Active member
I can see how that would work. I was thinking of running 17" beadlocks so that would work out nicely.
VroomSIX
Member
What made you go from the camper to a RTT? Just curious how the setup is working for you. The utility bed seems like a great way to carry all those tools and odds and ends without intruding into living space. My biggest issue right now is that with my setup and the tools I like to carry (along with spares) I'm losing a lot of interior living space.
bloodyWEST
Adventurer
In hindsight the camper would have been better for the Alcan Highway. It’s just a long flat drive, nothing technical.
The camper felt too heavy and “big” for the off-roading and remote camping I like to do. Too tall, too wide, too tippy. And I don’t really “hang out” inside it.
FYI I don’t run away bars.
I’m sure with better springs, and 2 sway bars the truck would have felt better. Also I’m sure a newer truck with a fully boxed frame helps too.
For my overall use, I think the RTT is great. I like to cook outside and just crawl into a giant super comfortable tent after dark.
Down side to tent is folding it up when wet, and trying to sleep in high winds.
Truck bed has tools and spares down one side,
Camping gear and recovery down the other side. 2 spares, a shovel and 20 gal of water in the bed. 55 gallons of diesel under the bed. All without looking like an overlander gypsy wagon yard sale.
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Seabass
Idiot
I couldn't imagine a better overall setup. A lot of what you've seen, and liked I've experienced too. I am running 35's, and while they aren't as tall as yours- the ride is night and day different from 33's. I was very surprised. My old 97 Power Stroke doesn't have a boxed frame either, and I can definitely tell when my old Jayco slide-in is loaded. That's why it wears a topper and the camper now lives on a trailer. I gotta give a shout to the Atlas springs, as they are well worth the investment. I'd like one of them RTT's.....but dang I don't have time to use what I got. So I guess I better sit on my money for now. Sure do love what you've done Lance!
bloodyWEST
Adventurer
Had a flawless drive to Tuktoyaktuk on the Arctic Ocean and then home.
Picked up the truck from the storage yard in Fairbanks, AK, hooked up the battery and the truck fired right up after 3 months in storage.
Stopped at an REI and my dad picked up a new down sleeping bag (needed a new one and couldn’t pack it in his carry on)
Had a quiet evening camping at Chena lake outside North Pole AK, just a bit south of Fairbanks.
Interesting note, many campgrounds in AK, the Yukon and NWT are “closed” for the season, but the gates are still open and you can camp, there are just no services available.
Doing this drive with my dad was very different than the drive up with my 7 year old daughter, a lot less Taylor Swift and a lot more nice restaurants and good whiskey.
We drove the Top Of The World Highway again, with better weather and better views than last time. You could see beautiful snow capped mountains to the north.
We had a nice dinner in Dawson City Yukon and camped at an RV park in town with a hot shower.
The trees were turning colors, even camped in town the view was nice.
I woke up at 2:30 am and wandered around the CG trying to hide from the street lights and flood lights enough to see the Norther Lights. It was too bright for a good view, but I could see a faint green smudge across the sky.
20* is darn cold for this Southern California boy.
We hit the road, and fueled up at “mile zero” the intersection where the Dempster Highway starts.
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Picked up the truck from the storage yard in Fairbanks, AK, hooked up the battery and the truck fired right up after 3 months in storage.
Stopped at an REI and my dad picked up a new down sleeping bag (needed a new one and couldn’t pack it in his carry on)
Had a quiet evening camping at Chena lake outside North Pole AK, just a bit south of Fairbanks.
Interesting note, many campgrounds in AK, the Yukon and NWT are “closed” for the season, but the gates are still open and you can camp, there are just no services available.
Doing this drive with my dad was very different than the drive up with my 7 year old daughter, a lot less Taylor Swift and a lot more nice restaurants and good whiskey.
We drove the Top Of The World Highway again, with better weather and better views than last time. You could see beautiful snow capped mountains to the north.
We had a nice dinner in Dawson City Yukon and camped at an RV park in town with a hot shower.
The trees were turning colors, even camped in town the view was nice.
I woke up at 2:30 am and wandered around the CG trying to hide from the street lights and flood lights enough to see the Norther Lights. It was too bright for a good view, but I could see a faint green smudge across the sky.
20* is darn cold for this Southern California boy.
We hit the road, and fueled up at “mile zero” the intersection where the Dempster Highway starts.
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bloodyWEST
Adventurer
I won’t try to do justice to the views. I’m not patient enough or articulate enough. But you cross 3 mountain ranges and countless rivers, before you descend down onto the tundra. It’s about 500 miles of gravel from the turn off to Tuk.
About 200 miles in we ran into these 2 cool ladies. Pushing a cart to Tuk. They left Skagway in May, they had backpacked, then rafted 600 miles down the Yukon river, were now carting the Dempster. Their brake had failed, so we took time to drill a few holes and reattach their drag behind friction brake. We gave them a couple beers, enjoyed the camaraderie and went on our way.
The road was very nice. They were running graders in many places. I don’t know how often they do that, but the road was very nice, 55+mph in most places.
We crossed into the Arctic Circle and into the Northwest Territories.
We bought fuel in Ft McPherson. $180 CAD for 104 liters.
We then turned and drove 5 miles back to a territorial campground right on the Peel river. We enjoyed a nice sun set.
Free from the city lights, we were now determined to see the Northern Lights.
We woke up at 3am, it was cold. My dad made coffee while I packed up camp. We could see a cool green stripe in the sky. I fired up the truck, we were standing there shivering with hot coffee in hand when the lights finally started to dance.
Bucket list stuff right here
, camped in the arctic circle with my dad, drinking coffee watching the lights. 
it was awesome. They danced and swirled and shimmered all across the sky.
We hopped in the truck and started north at 4am. We had a long day to get to Tuk. Driving in the dark, several times we pulled over and killed the headlights to look at the sky again.
We drove until about 5:30am when I realized I made a big mistake. The Mackenzie River ferry doesn’t start running until 8:30am ??♂️. So we napped/rested in the truck for 3 hours alongside the river.
We rolled into Inuvik mid day, it’s a big town. We bought groceries and sat down to a nice lunch, checked all the fluids on the truck before heading north.
Most of the lakes(pools?) were beginning to freeze. Miles and miles of vast nothingness
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About 200 miles in we ran into these 2 cool ladies. Pushing a cart to Tuk. They left Skagway in May, they had backpacked, then rafted 600 miles down the Yukon river, were now carting the Dempster. Their brake had failed, so we took time to drill a few holes and reattach their drag behind friction brake. We gave them a couple beers, enjoyed the camaraderie and went on our way.
The road was very nice. They were running graders in many places. I don’t know how often they do that, but the road was very nice, 55+mph in most places.
We crossed into the Arctic Circle and into the Northwest Territories.
We bought fuel in Ft McPherson. $180 CAD for 104 liters.
We then turned and drove 5 miles back to a territorial campground right on the Peel river. We enjoyed a nice sun set.
Free from the city lights, we were now determined to see the Northern Lights.
We woke up at 3am, it was cold. My dad made coffee while I packed up camp. We could see a cool green stripe in the sky. I fired up the truck, we were standing there shivering with hot coffee in hand when the lights finally started to dance.
Bucket list stuff right here
, camped in the arctic circle with my dad, drinking coffee watching the lights. 
it was awesome. They danced and swirled and shimmered all across the sky. We hopped in the truck and started north at 4am. We had a long day to get to Tuk. Driving in the dark, several times we pulled over and killed the headlights to look at the sky again.
We drove until about 5:30am when I realized I made a big mistake. The Mackenzie River ferry doesn’t start running until 8:30am ??♂️. So we napped/rested in the truck for 3 hours alongside the river.
We rolled into Inuvik mid day, it’s a big town. We bought groceries and sat down to a nice lunch, checked all the fluids on the truck before heading north.
Most of the lakes(pools?) were beginning to freeze. Miles and miles of vast nothingness
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bloodyWEST
Adventurer
We made it to Tuktoyaktuk at 1:30. The weather was beautiful, clear blue skies and sunshine, light breeze. There were a few other tourists at the end of the road.
This stranger was putting his feet in the ocean at the same time I was. We look at each other smiled and returned a thumbs up to each other. That was all it took in his book to become friends. He was very excited to pose for a picture together ??♂️
I was determined to drive to “the end of the road” so I drove down a dirt path to this bar where it looks like they launch boats.
That was it! No time to waste, we headed south. We had decided to just drive though the night and try to get back to Dawson City, even if it was 4am.
I made a mistake again, at 9pm I realized I had not bough fuel and that the stations were closed. So much for driving though the night. We stopped at 11pm at Eagle plains where they had a fuel station, but were closed. I wasn’t confident I could make it the 240 miles to the next fuel station at mile zero. Running a 12valve Cummins out of fuel at 3am on the Dempster sounded like a bad idea.
I guess that’s one bad side to carrying 55 gallons of fuel, sometimes you get cocky and forget to have a strategy
??♂️.
We pulled off the road and set up camp at 11pm. I was still on an adrenaline high so I cooked up some pork chops and sipped some Canadian whisky. There was a large moon in the sky, but I could still see he green on the northern lights. The next morning showed us the best sunrise of the trip.
We had to wait around until the fuel station opened at 8am.
Then we hit a grouse.
We made it back to pavement, checked my odometer and adjusted for my tires, 1,089 miles of dirt!!
We were in a hurry to make up time. Stopped for groceries in Dawson City, rode the ferry across the Yukon river for the 3rd time this summer, they started back across the Top of the World Highway.
Note, we could have gone south from the mile zero Dempster junction, but there was a stretch of a few hundred miles on the Alcan Highway that I had not yet run. And of course I wanted to “do the whole thing”
This time across the top of the world highway we got snowed on, saw a porcupine and a fox.
We got back to Tok, AK and rented a nice cabin for $129. We split a pizza and a pitcher of beer at “fast eddies” restaurant. It was so nice!!
Now it was Sunday morning, and we were only 200 miles from the airport we landed at in Fairbanks 4 days prior. This news did not make my mother happy when she asked us “how’s the trip going?” On the phone.
We were now really headed south.
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This stranger was putting his feet in the ocean at the same time I was. We look at each other smiled and returned a thumbs up to each other. That was all it took in his book to become friends. He was very excited to pose for a picture together ??♂️
I was determined to drive to “the end of the road” so I drove down a dirt path to this bar where it looks like they launch boats.
That was it! No time to waste, we headed south. We had decided to just drive though the night and try to get back to Dawson City, even if it was 4am.
I made a mistake again, at 9pm I realized I had not bough fuel and that the stations were closed. So much for driving though the night. We stopped at 11pm at Eagle plains where they had a fuel station, but were closed. I wasn’t confident I could make it the 240 miles to the next fuel station at mile zero. Running a 12valve Cummins out of fuel at 3am on the Dempster sounded like a bad idea.
I guess that’s one bad side to carrying 55 gallons of fuel, sometimes you get cocky and forget to have a strategy
??♂️. We pulled off the road and set up camp at 11pm. I was still on an adrenaline high so I cooked up some pork chops and sipped some Canadian whisky. There was a large moon in the sky, but I could still see he green on the northern lights. The next morning showed us the best sunrise of the trip.
We had to wait around until the fuel station opened at 8am.
Then we hit a grouse.
We made it back to pavement, checked my odometer and adjusted for my tires, 1,089 miles of dirt!!
We were in a hurry to make up time. Stopped for groceries in Dawson City, rode the ferry across the Yukon river for the 3rd time this summer, they started back across the Top of the World Highway.
Note, we could have gone south from the mile zero Dempster junction, but there was a stretch of a few hundred miles on the Alcan Highway that I had not yet run. And of course I wanted to “do the whole thing”
This time across the top of the world highway we got snowed on, saw a porcupine and a fox.
We got back to Tok, AK and rented a nice cabin for $129. We split a pizza and a pitcher of beer at “fast eddies” restaurant. It was so nice!!
Now it was Sunday morning, and we were only 200 miles from the airport we landed at in Fairbanks 4 days prior. This news did not make my mother happy when she asked us “how’s the trip going?” On the phone.
We were now really headed south.
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bloodyWEST
Adventurer
At this point the trip became a bit of a marathon. Dad and I were in a bit of a hurry to get home to the small plumbing business we run. We averaged 600 miles a day for the next 5 days.
We camped at a provincial park just north of Watson lake. Then the next morning we went into the sign post forest to post this sign from my local town. How it ended up in my truck I don’t know ??♂️. This park is known as the “largest collection of stolen property, never prosecuted”
For a change of scenery we decided to take the Cassiar Highway south from Watson lake. To get closer to the ocean. This was a beautiful road. A smallish Highway, a 450 mile dead zone for cell phones. Most tourist activities had dried up for the summer. Just a long drive, countless beautiful lakes and fall colors.
We made it to the super cute town of Smithers BC. and enjoyed a nice dinner and got a motel for the night.
We were now driving past vast cattle farms, very old farm houses and rolling hills. It was beautiful, really breathtaking country.
We drove though Prince George BC, the highway leading us toward Vancouver follows the Fraser river. A wild canyon with an insane amount of train traffic. Trains moving down both sides of the deep canyon, countless tunnels, huge cliffs. Lots of big rig traffic on the road. This highway was 100% road trip gold.
Too cool to stop and take pictures I guess, I can’t find any, sorry.
Dad and I were happy to have cell the last few days, Mark Levin on the radio and we played an audio book of Jordan Peterson’s new book when we didn’t have cell. Quality time with dad!
We camped in an RV park in Hope, BC where we enjoyed “warm” temps and our first campfire of the trip. More beers, then grilled hot dogs. Very damp and wet. Not good for a roof top tent. You stay plenty dry inside, it just sucks to fold up a wet tent.
We had an uneventful drive through Washington, stopping once for fuel. We got a hotel again in Grants pass Oregon.
On the way home I decided to push my fuel range. Curious how far I could really go. I ran my rear aux 20 gallon tank dry, then ran my main tank down to 1/8th and the light came on. That got me home to SoCal. I filled up the next morning, 778 miles on 48.2 gallons. 16.1mpg.
Total for the trip was 9200 miles. Of which 1250 were dirt/gravel. In Fairbanks I had jiffy lube change the oil and rotate the tires. Then I added 1/2 a quart of oil in Washington state. No flats, Zero mechanical failures!
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We camped at a provincial park just north of Watson lake. Then the next morning we went into the sign post forest to post this sign from my local town. How it ended up in my truck I don’t know ??♂️. This park is known as the “largest collection of stolen property, never prosecuted”
For a change of scenery we decided to take the Cassiar Highway south from Watson lake. To get closer to the ocean. This was a beautiful road. A smallish Highway, a 450 mile dead zone for cell phones. Most tourist activities had dried up for the summer. Just a long drive, countless beautiful lakes and fall colors.
We made it to the super cute town of Smithers BC. and enjoyed a nice dinner and got a motel for the night.
We were now driving past vast cattle farms, very old farm houses and rolling hills. It was beautiful, really breathtaking country.
We drove though Prince George BC, the highway leading us toward Vancouver follows the Fraser river. A wild canyon with an insane amount of train traffic. Trains moving down both sides of the deep canyon, countless tunnels, huge cliffs. Lots of big rig traffic on the road. This highway was 100% road trip gold.
Too cool to stop and take pictures I guess, I can’t find any, sorry.
Dad and I were happy to have cell the last few days, Mark Levin on the radio and we played an audio book of Jordan Peterson’s new book when we didn’t have cell. Quality time with dad!
We camped in an RV park in Hope, BC where we enjoyed “warm” temps and our first campfire of the trip. More beers, then grilled hot dogs. Very damp and wet. Not good for a roof top tent. You stay plenty dry inside, it just sucks to fold up a wet tent.
We had an uneventful drive through Washington, stopping once for fuel. We got a hotel again in Grants pass Oregon.
On the way home I decided to push my fuel range. Curious how far I could really go. I ran my rear aux 20 gallon tank dry, then ran my main tank down to 1/8th and the light came on. That got me home to SoCal. I filled up the next morning, 778 miles on 48.2 gallons. 16.1mpg.
Total for the trip was 9200 miles. Of which 1250 were dirt/gravel. In Fairbanks I had jiffy lube change the oil and rotate the tires. Then I added 1/2 a quart of oil in Washington state. No flats, Zero mechanical failures!
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Last edited:
Kingsize24
Well-known member
Such an awesome post! Looks like a great time was had. For sure a bucket list item, especially since you were able to do this with your father. Thanks for sharing.
Jason
Jason
snowaddict91
Adventurer
Looks like a great time! Pretty sweet you got that experience with your dad too. Someday I will drive to AK.