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malibubts's 2022 Ram Power Wagon Build/Adventure Thread

malibubts

malibubts

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Hey all, new to the forum and figured I'd start a build since I did a ton of research here when trying to decide what truck to move to. As much as I loved my 2015 Ram 1500 with the EcoDiesel, I finally hit a breaking point with all of the emissions gear required by a modern diesel. To make a long story short I had just about every emissions component replaced in the past 2 years with the truck accumulating a ton of downtime. I had actually been seeing a bit of reliability in the past 6 months, but then the truck started regen cycles every ~25 miles during highway driving. I was under an extended special warranty for the emissions parts at least, but I was coming up to the end of it. I figured it was time to move on while I could.

Wanting to move my Snap Outfitters Tree House Camper left my options fairly limited. Either find/order a Ram 1500 Classic in a CC 6'4" bed configuration or do the same in a 2500. At this point I wanted reliability so I'm hoping I can get that from the 2500 platform. From there it was either a slightly optioned Tradesman and building out a bit myself or going with a Power Wagon. Looking at the numbers and the features I think it made sense, and at least wanted a bit of a functionality difference from my 1500.

After a few weeks of looking I finally found a dealer willing to accept Tread Lightly pricing and not pricing the truck at or above MSRP. The truck was in transit, but I put down the deposit. Unfortunately it sat in a rail yard for about 30 days and I was just able to pick it up this past weekend. With the assistance of a forklift I got the camper pulled, swapped trucks, and got the camper back on the truck.


DSC00175 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr

This will be a fairly tame build thread and a lot of gear will be moved over from my 1500, but I'll track it anyways.

Planned Mods
  • Have Fun?
Completed Mods
 
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I got the Decked drawers moved over pretty easily. They work fairly well for what I use them for. I really like some of the builds people make with more cabinet styles, but at least for now the Decked is 'good enough' and also let's me use the full bed easily when I need to run to the Home Depot.


DSC00105 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr


DSC00107 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr

I'll get the fridge, battery, and water system back in soon. They just strap down to the top of the Decked, but want to keep the space open to deal with the tires for now.

There are new tie down points in the bed corners on the newer Rams, but this was easily fixed with an oscillating tool:


DSC00112 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr
 
It is nice to see another PW build. How is it climbing up onto the tailgate and then the Decked drawers to get into the camper at night?
 
Etoimos said:
It is nice to see another PW build. How is it climbing up onto the tailgate and then the Decked drawers to get into the camper at night?
Click to expand...

Haha that one’s a bit rough. The 1500 was no problem really, both the wife and I could hop up onto the tailgate pretty easily. I haven’t been out on a trip yet in the 2500 but just getting things setup out in the driveway it’s much more difficult to get in.

From the Decked up to the Bed it’s not bad at all. The camper actually came with a little ladder for that, but it’s removable and kinda in the way so I pulled it out.

Im going to get some sort of portable/collapsible step stool I think to put at the tailgate for when we’re camping. I’ve seen the kick steps that come out but not sure how well that would work for the wife.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
My wife's 1500 has the factory side step thing... I find it a pain in the ass to use, so I never do. She thinks it makes it easier to get into the bed, but she almost never does that. I believe there was also a recall or something on those steps, not to mention in a PW doing PW things it would probably get smashed up. lol I would think your best options is the folding stool idea you had.
 
Congrats on the upgrade. Nice looking rig.

The factory step that comes with the bed package is awesome. I'm glad I got it. easy to use and makes it so much easier getting into the back of the truck, even more so since I put 35's on it.

Take a look in my build thread on how I did my VHF radio install. Not all that hard. Not sure which system you plan on using. I have a kenwood with a remote head, so mounted the main radio under/behind the rear seat and sub woofer box. I also got the bullet proof diesel 3rd bake light antenna mount, but not sure that will work on your rig with the camper. It's a nice piece, just over priced in my opinion. But I needed one for a trip and my buddies 3d printer wasn't big enough to print one, so I bought theirs. Nicely designed and works great.
 
Etoimos said:
My wife's 1500 has the factory side step thing... I find it a pain in the ass to use, so I never do. She thinks it makes it easier to get into the bed, but she almost never does that. I believe there was also a recall or something on those steps, not to mention in a PW doing PW things it would probably get smashed up. lol I would think your best options is the folding stool idea you had.
Click to expand...
Yeah they look like they would on one hand be kinda convenient, and on the other hand a PITA to actually use. I'll just find one I can strap down to the top of the decked, the windows on the side make it pretty easy to access that without getting into the bed and we should be good to go. Something like this might work pretty well, and even though I'm 6' help getting into the engine bay and whatnot, this is one tall truck.

Crusty old shellback said:
Congrats on the upgrade. Nice looking rig.

The factory step that comes with the bed package is awesome. I'm glad I got it. easy to use and makes it so much easier getting into the back of the truck, even more so since I put 35's on it.

Take a look in my build thread on how I did my VHF radio install. Not all that hard. Not sure which system you plan on using. I have a kenwood with a remote head, so mounted the main radio under/behind the rear seat and sub woofer box. I also got the bullet proof diesel 3rd bake light antenna mount, but not sure that will work on your rig with the camper. It's a nice piece, just over priced in my opinion. But I needed one for a trip and my buddies 3d printer wasn't big enough to print one, so I bought theirs. Nicely designed and works great.
Click to expand...
Nice build thread, just went through the whole thing haha! I like your resonator delete, might have to look into that some more.

I had an Icom 2730 in my 1500, I had the non power seat so I could stuff the unit there and then had a dash mount for the head/mic. On that truck I actually just had a local shop drill the roof and put in an NMO mount towards the back of the cab, but that became useless once I got the camper on. For the Power Wagon I ordered an NMO fender mount, probably won't be as good as the roof NMO but it should work.

I actually decided to mix it up though a bit on this truck, I've got too many different radios as is with different menus, programming, chargers, batteries, antennas, programming cables, etc. So my plan is to sell the Icom 2730 as well as the rest of the other radios I have and move over to a Motorola based system. I picked up an XTS5000 in VHF, in 700/800, and will get one in UHF soon. The key piece of kit though is going to be the Convertacom / XTVA, it's basically a dock for the radio that charges, provides an antenna hookup, and a remote mic head. The idea is put one of those in the truck, put one in my office as a base station, then my HTs are my main radios that are always with me and can fill multiple roles. All the same programming software, radio menus, batteries, chargers etc. I'll lose a bit of power in the mobile setup, but I think I'll be fine with an antenna external to the truck. Hopefully it works out well and gets me out of the like 5 different setups I have right now, but we'll see.
 
I got the radio and antenna installed over the weekend.

As I mentioned in one of the earlier posts, I actually decided to mix things up a bit here. In my last truck I had an Icom 2730a and I have too many HTs. My programming would always drift between different radios, programming the radio in the truck was always a challenge, and in general I was annoyed with all of the juggling between my radios. Not to mention all the differences between power, charging, batteries, antennas, etc.

Looking into things a bit I found that the older Motorola XTS5000 radios (as well as newer APX, but they are way to expensive) had vehicular adapters for the HTs. These are known as Convertacoms or XTVAs and basically are a dock for the HT, they provide power, an antenna output, and a remote mic. The Motorola XTS5000 is only single band, but I plan on running one in UHF and one in VHF. Putting a dock in my truck and at my desk will allow me to use just the two HTs with the same accessories and software and just move the radio around to where I need it. I will lose some power, 5/6W instead of full mobile power, but I don't think that will be too big of an issue. I've got a little bit of cleanup to do since I had to order some more split loom, but have it mostly finished up.

Docked:

DSC00153 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr

Outside the Dock:

DSC00164 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr

Handheld Control Head:

DSC00158 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr

For the antenna I just went with the Comet fender NMO mount, with a coax cable, and a Signal Stuff Signal Stalk antenna.


DSC00130 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr


DSC00143 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr
 
Nice, how’s the clearance on the hood/fender with that specific mount?
 
Pretty neat I’ve never seen those…pretty smart from a simplicity/portability standpoint though you loose the main benefit (imo) of a true mobile radio since the wattage is so much lower.
 
el_barto said:
Pretty neat I’ve never seen those…pretty smart from a simplicity/portability standpoint though you loose the main benefit (imo) of a true mobile radio since the wattage is so much lower.
Click to expand...
Slight inconvenience if you typically run a collar mic as well.
 
Do you have issues with it rubbing on your leg?

Do you use the radio daily?

I did mine the way I did because I only use it when doing race support. That way when not in use, I can roll up the cord with the head unit and speaker and store it under the rear seat.
 
flan said:
Nice, how’s the clearance on the hood/fender with that specific mount?
Click to expand...
It has just enough clearance. I've seen some folks mention they've had to bend their mounts a bit, but I did not. I'm definitely going to be very careful though closing the hood going forward.

el_barto said:
Pretty neat I’ve never seen those…pretty smart from a simplicity/portability standpoint though you loose the main benefit (imo) of a true mobile radio since the wattage is so much lower.
Click to expand...
Crusty old shellback said:
Do you have issues with it rubbing on your leg?

Do you use the radio daily?

I did mine the way I did because I only use it when doing race support. That way when not in use, I can roll up the cord with the head unit and speaker and store it under the rear seat.
Click to expand...
I'm lucky enough to work remote, so I really only need to drive on trips and little trips around town. Usually doing either I'll have the radio in a scan of some local repeaters or the calling channels. My biggest problem is I'd always forget how to get into the deeper menus in the radios, the key steups, and spend forever digging around in each programming software. Programming the mobile in the truck was always a pain too, and all the different cables, etc. Plus I can add a XTVA at my desk and an antenna outside and essentially have a base station all on the same set of radios. I looked around too for mobiles that were closer to my HTs so I could deal with things easier, and there were just so many weird things like Yaesu mobiles not having memory banks, needing to desolder caps for GMRS frequencies (don't hate me radio police), etc.

I like simple solutions (to a fault sometimes) so this called me in when I found it, we'll see longer term if I like the move or not. The real only downside I saw was the lower power, but I'm not too worried about about that since I can still hit all the normal repeaters just fine and can certainly still do local comms. Honestly if something is real bad anyways and I need immediate/severe help I'm going to be pulling out my Inreach.

Radio mount clears my leg as well, not by a ton but it does.
 
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Tried to order some 35x12.5R17 Falken Wildpeak AT3Ws while I was at Sam's Club today, but it appears they went out of stock since I checked last night. Guess I'm going to have to keep an eye on their site and see if I can find them in stock to order.
 
I ran into a bit of trouble finding the Falkens in stock and a tire shop that was willing to install non-OEM sized tires, so I eventually just ordered from Tire Rack and used a local mobile installer. Granted it's been a couple of years and we have all of the supply chain issues, but I did not have nearly this much trouble getting larger tires on my 1500. At the end of the day though, the new tires are installed so I'm happy!

35x12.5 R17 Falken Wildpeak AT3W vs the stock 285/70 R17 Wrangler Duratracs:


IMG_4545 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr


On the truck, looks much more size appropriate, though I wish it were less logistically challenging to run 37s:


DSC00181 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr


DSC00185 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr

I had the spare tire replaced with a size matching one, though this was a bit tough to get back into place it did fit. I ended up having to air the tire down pretty much all of the way and give it some force, but I got it in there.

And given the theme of small challenges with the new tires, I also had some issues with my ProCal Snap. Even though it was reporting the tires as set to the new size the speedometer was not matching my GPS reading. I tried resetting the settings a number of times and couldn't get it working. As a last ditch effort I tried changing the tire size to something else, then back again and it worked. Not sure what the issue was there, but changing the sizes like that got the speedometer accurate.
 
The OEM side steps had to go since they hung down too low, I knew eventually they would cause some problems off road. If I were ordering the truck I wouldn't have added them on, but the dealer did this on all their trucks. As far as unwanted options go though $400 for some side steps isn't a big deal, especially considering the market and being able to get Tread Lightly pricing.

At first the plan had really been White Knuckle Sliders, always see the great reviews of them and they are built like a tank. However there's no denying they do cost a bit, and also eat into the already limited payload of the Power Wagon. Looking around on the forums, the 75A sliders caught my eye. A lot of people also seem to take them off for one reason or another (not good enough steps, went WKOR, etc). With that you can fairly easily find a pair for sale and usually at a pretty competitive price.

I was able to pickup a pair shipped at $375 and sell my OEM side steps for $225. For $150 it was definitely worth the upgrade. The Ram 'sliders' for sure aren't going to be as tough, but will still provide a good amount of protection, weigh less, and cost less. Not to mention the WKRO in reality are probably a little overbuilt for me anyways since I don't really do any hard core rock crawling or anything.

Cleaning them up a bit:

DSC00188 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr

On the truck:

DSC00196 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr


DSC00213 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr
 
The new sliders look good on your truck. I ended up going with WK's and opted for their wide version since I wanted more of step, but I really wish there was something between the 75A and the WK strength wise.
 
Randy Ellis would be what you are looking for.
Etoimos said:
The new sliders look good on your truck. I ended up going with WK's and opted for their wide version since I wanted more of step, but I really wish there was something between the 75A and the WK strength wise.
Click to expand...
 
The install is definitely not one you can take back. But it does allow you to keep the factory step mounts available for AMP or another option.
 
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