I’ve had my Power Wagon about 2 years now, I guess it’s time to do a build thread.
The story starts when I traded in my 2015 Chevy Colorado. It was a pretty solid truck, put over 100k miles on it in 5 years, but I wasn’t as religious with some of the maintenance as I should have been, so I felt it was a bit of a ticking bomb. Also it had a few quirks (both flaws, baked in design oddities/limitations, and limited aftermarket support—though that has improved) that were driving me to get rid it it.
I did start getting into off-roading with it, didn’t do anything too difficult though. I put about 4” of lift on the truck, and it still handled really good: Icon rear shocks and front coilovers, 1.25” body lift, rear add a leaf, 32” tires which was the biggest I could fit…Unfortunately, you need like 5-6” of lift on that truck to clear 33s :/ Decided I wanted a full size truck, liked that the Power Wagon was set up for off-roading right out of the box and could wear 35s with no extra lift, and felt it was a far better value/will hold its value better then than a Rebel. I liked the Gladiator, but feel they are overpriced when you compare features to a Power Wagon, and I wanted a full size bed.
Fast forward to November 2019, I test drive a Power Wagon and tell the dealer I would like to do a custom order. The sales manager tells me he has a couple Power Wagons in transit that I might like instead. One checked most of the option boxes I wanted and he offered me a killer deal I couldn’t turn down vs probably paying best MSRP on a custom order. Importantly, it has heated seats and steering wheel. It just has the regular 8.4” screen and regular seats(no leather), but has surround view/blind spot monitoring! I would have not optioned the surround view, but not that I have it I love it. I also would have preferred vinyl floors, but the mats offer good coverage.
First things first, the tires swapped for 35s within the first week.
For the bed cover, I first got a Diamondback bed cover, ran that for about a year and a half. Though it looked great, and was solid…it just wasn’t working for me…felt like it was limiting the useable space of the bed. So, sold that and got a fiberglass topper. It has its compromises too, but I think it’s a better fit for my needs, and it looks decent.
I have added some armor to the belly of the beast, in addition to the factory skid plates: White Knuckle sliders, Dethloff transmission skid plate, Carli front diff guard, and AEV rear bumper. Valuable investments…front diff is low and exposed to rocks, transmission pan is higher up—but plastic, and the rock sliders serve well as entry steps, as well as protecting the body of the truck.
I loved the AEV rear bumper the first time I saw it, so I had to get one. Doesn’t improve the departure angle over stock, but it it does scrape, it is stout enough to handle it.
Sadly the factory aux switches are not available on the power wagon, so I installed the SwitchPros 9100 to control all my electrical accessories. This makes wiring much easier than running wires into the cab for every accessory, and looks so clean most would think it’s OEM.
So far, I just have an ARB compressor and rock lights, but Ive got some more lighting upgrades coming soon. The air compressor in mounted under the rear seat to a custom bracket, and I ran lines under the truck out to connectors in the front and rear bumpers for easy access for airing up tires.
I upgraded the alternator to the oem 220amp Denso hairpin-wount unit to help the battery keep up better when winching.
The story starts when I traded in my 2015 Chevy Colorado. It was a pretty solid truck, put over 100k miles on it in 5 years, but I wasn’t as religious with some of the maintenance as I should have been, so I felt it was a bit of a ticking bomb. Also it had a few quirks (both flaws, baked in design oddities/limitations, and limited aftermarket support—though that has improved) that were driving me to get rid it it.
I did start getting into off-roading with it, didn’t do anything too difficult though. I put about 4” of lift on the truck, and it still handled really good: Icon rear shocks and front coilovers, 1.25” body lift, rear add a leaf, 32” tires which was the biggest I could fit…Unfortunately, you need like 5-6” of lift on that truck to clear 33s :/ Decided I wanted a full size truck, liked that the Power Wagon was set up for off-roading right out of the box and could wear 35s with no extra lift, and felt it was a far better value/will hold its value better then than a Rebel. I liked the Gladiator, but feel they are overpriced when you compare features to a Power Wagon, and I wanted a full size bed.
Fast forward to November 2019, I test drive a Power Wagon and tell the dealer I would like to do a custom order. The sales manager tells me he has a couple Power Wagons in transit that I might like instead. One checked most of the option boxes I wanted and he offered me a killer deal I couldn’t turn down vs probably paying best MSRP on a custom order. Importantly, it has heated seats and steering wheel. It just has the regular 8.4” screen and regular seats(no leather), but has surround view/blind spot monitoring! I would have not optioned the surround view, but not that I have it I love it. I also would have preferred vinyl floors, but the mats offer good coverage.
First things first, the tires swapped for 35s within the first week.
For the bed cover, I first got a Diamondback bed cover, ran that for about a year and a half. Though it looked great, and was solid…it just wasn’t working for me…felt like it was limiting the useable space of the bed. So, sold that and got a fiberglass topper. It has its compromises too, but I think it’s a better fit for my needs, and it looks decent.
I have added some armor to the belly of the beast, in addition to the factory skid plates: White Knuckle sliders, Dethloff transmission skid plate, Carli front diff guard, and AEV rear bumper. Valuable investments…front diff is low and exposed to rocks, transmission pan is higher up—but plastic, and the rock sliders serve well as entry steps, as well as protecting the body of the truck.
I loved the AEV rear bumper the first time I saw it, so I had to get one. Doesn’t improve the departure angle over stock, but it it does scrape, it is stout enough to handle it.
Sadly the factory aux switches are not available on the power wagon, so I installed the SwitchPros 9100 to control all my electrical accessories. This makes wiring much easier than running wires into the cab for every accessory, and looks so clean most would think it’s OEM.
So far, I just have an ARB compressor and rock lights, but Ive got some more lighting upgrades coming soon. The air compressor in mounted under the rear seat to a custom bracket, and I ran lines under the truck out to connectors in the front and rear bumpers for easy access for airing up tires.
I upgraded the alternator to the oem 220amp Denso hairpin-wount unit to help the battery keep up better when winching.
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