Great Lakes 4x4. The largest offroad forum in the Midwest banner

Project Cumdumpster

77K views 307 replies 108 participants last post by  p.o.r.n. 
#1 ·
My buddy and I just got done building up his '05 CTD. I put my Scrambler project on hold for a month so we could get this nailed out by Memorial weekend at the dunes, but we got screwed by Deaver and didn't get the rear leafs in time. Anyway, it's together now so here are some pics. I did all the custom design and fab, he did the other stuff like teardown and all that sh1t.

He had a nicely built '01 Sierra but got sick of blowing out the front end, didn't wanna solid axle it no matter how hard I tried to convince him, so he went for the upgrade. His old truck:


He got an '05 Ram 2500 CTD back in August, 5 days later it was up at the dunes for Labor Day weekend. It did great for a stocker but who wants a stock truck? He wanted to be able to haul across the dunes effortlessly at 60+mph and I wanted to make it happen. I talked him into a long travel suspension and 37s but he still wanted bigger. Then I found a great deal on some 40x13.5R20 XTerrains on here and it's been downhill ever since. Here's the specs:

-12" lift, all custom
-40" XTerrains on 20x10 KMC Diesels
-10" Full Throttle Coils, 12" travel Fox remote resi shocks, custom longarms and bracketry by BBA Fabworks
-8" Deaver leafs, 2" extended shackles, 14" travel Fox remote resi shocks, traction bar
-Axle trusses front and rear
-Drop pitman arm and sector shaft brace
-Custom trac bar and brackets
-Clocked t-case, new driveshafts, etc.
-A bunch of other little crap here and there

He's got a massive tuner, FASS, intake, stacks, and some other mods so it turns the 40s really well but it'll still get regeared before too long. It'd still blow most trucks out of the water.

We started on it the first weekend of May, got it on the road last Sunday.

How she sat the first afternoon


Stock coil next to new one and blingin shock


Then I figured I might as well blow a couple holes in the frame and start adding some reinforcement plates




Built up some adjustable UCA brackets out of 3/16" box and 1/4" plate




Then I had a cool picture in my head for the LCAs and tying everything together. Obviously beefiness is priority #1 but I can't just leave it looking plain either. I think the frame brackets turned out :rock:









I figure with an 8000 lb truck coming down on the front end some more reinforcement wouldn't hurt, and it makes it look a lot cleaner





The pics don't do it justice so far but oh well.
 
See less See more
14
#108 ·
if ya remember a few years back there was a guy with i think 44's on a dodge reg cab short box and he rolled it over jumpin the dunes and had to crawl out his back window the cab was almost flattened right out the guy is lucky to be alive. its on youtube i watched the guy do it scary thing to do without a cage. but when i was watchin you guys you weren't hittin it balls out and you atleast gave it a few test runs before going big.
 
#109 ·
if ya remember a few years back there was a guy with i think 44's on a dodge reg cab short box and he rolled it over jumpin the dunes and had to crawl out his back window the cab was almost flattened right out the guy is lucky to be alive. its on youtube i watched the guy do it scary thing to do without a cage. but when i was watchin you guys you weren't hittin it balls out and you atleast gave it a few test runs before going big.

link?
 
#114 ·
The axles are AAM 9.25 front and AAM 11.5 rear. Stock axles are strong but the tubes are not as thick as a dana.

As far as the suspension goes might have pushed it a little but have never gotten shock fade or even rebound after that jump. With the reworked suspension that we are doing I should not be able to come close to its limits at silver lake!
 
#124 ·
well jim i see no issues with jumping a truck as long as you know what you are doing..this group of guys has been running the dunes for many years, so it is not there first rodeo...most of the rollovers are from new people hitting a dune too fast and not knowing what is on the other side...
so i say launch it!!!! it is your money.it just makes you build them better the next time.

a cage is a good idea though...
 
#126 ·
We didn't even try to get this thing together for Labor Day, we both had way too much going on recently. The mega-trussed HP60 is sitting under the truck now, control arm brackets are built and going in place tonight while he cuts all the stock coil bucket assemblies off the frame, and a bunch of other miscellaneous bracketry and stuff will be coming together very soon. I'll start posting pics soon.


Nope the cage won't be happening for quite a while, that's all up to the owner. He's still making payments on it and technically it's still his primary/only vehicle so he hasn't gone to that level of "extreme" yet. When the time comes for a cage it'll probably also get tubed out in back with coilovers, 4 link, etc. But when it does happen it'll get A, B, and C pillar frame tie-ins, and of course something in the bed and probably into the engine compartment too. A cage would definitely be a good idea at this point but it ain't my truck to decide on.....I'm just the designer, fabricator, and overall bad idea instigator.
 
#127 ·
Finally got the beast over to my house and started hammerin down so here are a few crappy pics:










The mounts and stuff are still a work in progress but you get the idea :thumb:
 
#138 ·
They're standard HP60 tubes....something like 3.5"OD, .5" wall if I remember right. The truss is 2" wide so it covers some of the radius at the top and bottom, maybe that makes them look smaller.

The rear currently has this:

The truss is already wider than the front used to be, the axletubes and housing are bigger and beefier, and it's got 1/2 the weight coming down on it so functionally there's not much concern there. It would look better to have something that matches a bit more, but I'll leave that up to the owner.
 
#140 ·
Some pics from a few days ago. Haven't gotten to work as much as planned but it's coming along....

Lower shock mounts


Cramming the crossbrace in




Don't worry about strength of the brace or any of the mounting, there's LOTS more to come everywhere.....just wanna get everything in place first then make it nice and strong.

Hover Dodge! Hummins?


Abuse or not, I don't think $900 Deaver leafs should do this after 2 years.....:poke:


This one doesn't surprise me too much though.....told him bumpstops needed to happen ASAP:


The bar is just 1.5" .120 wall DOM but I'm still surprised it bent that close to the mounting point. The brackets and welds held fine but it's actually bending the inside of the framerail right there! Oh well, just some more work to do. Already got the bumpstops to put in, just gotta redo the shock mounts now too.
 
#147 ·
Should be in the next few weeks. Axles just came out for gear installs, shock hoops and cross brace are 95% done, panhard bar will be in place in another couple nights, steering will be a piece of cake, bumpstops will go quick, etc. It's moving along pretty well and turning out great....I'll post more pics soon.
 
#151 ·
I think based on the calculator we ended up at 500/600 for spring rates. The shocks are currently set at 6.5" of uptravel, 4" of which will be buttery smooth bump travel thanks to the airbumps that arrived at my house last night. Limit straps will stop droop at about 6", so about 12" travel. The rear uses pretty much all of the 14" travel shocks that are back there but still undecided what'll happen cuz Deaver isn't exactly cooperating. There was talk last night of 4 linking the rear with coilovers come springtime....

I don't think we'll be making it up to the dunes again this year to put it to the real test. I'm sure it'll get beat down lightly around here but there's really not much to work with, even with Michigan roads.
 
#153 ·
Thanks Brent. Sorry to tell ya, but it's lookin like the Scrambler's gonna get parted out....I need money for a house.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top