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The Oliphaunt - Our 2022 2500 Tow/Trip Rig

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dantex

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Earlier this year, our 2000 Excursion had a catastrophic failure converting itself from a v10 to a v7, so we picked up our 2022 2500 Billet Silver Metalic Tradesman CCSB off the lot.
While we would have preferred a PowerWagon, we didn't want the extra dealer upcharge ($30k) from what we could find on the lots, and the tradesman ticked most of our needs if not wants.

Oliphaunt.jpeg

It's a 2022 Ram 2500 CCSB 6.4 Hemi with the off-road package, snow-plow prep, 4.10s with Anti-Spin/LSD, 8" non-nav, and Connected Services Delete.

Modifications completed so far:
  • Front Hitch
  • PowerAmp Running Boards
  • 285/75R18 Falken Wildpeak AT3W
  • Remote Start
  • Remote Tailgate w/ damper
  • Cheap/Temporary Soft Toneau Cover
  • MudFlaps
  • V-Bar Snow Chains
  • OEM LED Fog Lights
  • Front Trail Camera
  • Front ParkAssist Sensors
  • Line-X Spray-in Bedliner
Modifications in progress:
  • OEM Aux Switch addition
Modifications planned but not yet in progress (not in any order):
  • Onboard Air
  • Digital RearView Mirror w/ Trailer Remote Camera
    • Probably not OEM, so looking at ones with Rear Seat Mirror/Rear-View Mirror Camera
  • Rear Seat Child Pacifier Video/Tablet mount
  • Fire Extinguisher and Mount
  • Lighting upgrades:
    • OEM LED Headlight Upgrade
    • Aux Reverse lights
    • Camp/Scene Lighting
  • Differential Lockers (If air/e-lockers ever become available)
  • Winch
  • Comms:
    • HAM Radio Install (have FTM-400XDR)
    • GMRS Radio
    • Center Dash Speaker w/ Amp (if needed)
  • Canopy (RLD/RSI/AT Habitat/OVRLND/GFC)
    • Roof Top Tent (If no pop-up/Sleeping platform)
    • Sleeping platform (If no Roof Top Tent/Pop-Up)
  • Refrigerator
  • Seats:
    • 60/40 Split Rear Seats
    • Premium Cloth upgrade
      • w/ Heated/Cooled Seats for front buckets and 40% side of rear bench at least
      • Keep Jumpseat not console
    • Neoprene seat covers
  • Spare Fuel Storage (Cans/Aux tank/Swingout/TBD)
  • Awning (Removable vs Permanent vs Freestanding/180+90 vs 270/)
  • Bedmat/Spray in liner
  • Electrical/Power upgrades:
    • Dual Alternator
    • Dual Battery
    • Inverter and 110v outlets
    • Solar Panels w/ DCDC Charger
  • Tailgate Ladder/Step/Ramps
  • Fender Flares
 
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What suspension mods do you have in mind? I see roof top tent on the list, however if you plan on taking the truck on some trails you'll want more travel and a softer ride.
 
I don't know about a suspension upgrade yet. At the moment, I am expecting to keep it stock until it becomes a problem, though a Thuren swaybar upgrade is something I'm considering adding to the list.
And the Roof Top Tent is an option I haven't fully decided on. We have a small TT (20', 6k lbs), but I'd like to be a bit more spontaneous, so I'm not sure if that's a home-made sleeping platform under the canopy, or a pop-up tent style canopy like the GFC/AT Habitat, or a RTT that I can put on and off for 2-3 nights on the move.
 
It's been a while, and I've completed a few projects since I last updated this thread.
  • OEM LED Fog Lights
  • Front Trail Camera
  • Front ParkAssist Sensors
  • Spray-in Bedliner
PXL_20230204_231851610.jpg

The OEM LED Fog Lights went in pretty easily while doing the Front ParkAssist setup.
I initially got the OEM Fascia harness, then had Jimmy07 modify and re-pin it to work with the M2 harness I had gotten from the other forum for the LED lights so it would have the Front Parkassist sensor wires. Getting the fog lights and parking sensors in and wired up wasn't too bad, I was able to do them without lifting the truck or dropping the bumper. Though there were 2 fascia screws holding in the lower grille that were a pain, but when they broke off I didn't really care as I had to replace the grille with one that had the sensor holes anyway. The truly hardest part was getting the wires into the BCM for the fog lights. It took way longer because while I am not a big guy, I am also not a contortionist. If my daughter was older and could follow directions, I'd have had her under the dash connecting them in while I watched through the headlight switch hole in the dash.

PXL_20230204_233704741.jpg
PXL_20230212_002526310.jpg

The front trail camera is one of the Natika ones mentioned in the thread about it, and it seems to work well. I wanted it to be able to tell how close I am getting in parking spots, and to make sure there's not a toddler running in front of the truck as I leave the house, which it works well for. At driving speeds the quality on the camera is pretty poor, but I don't really expect to use it a lot in those situations. I mounted it by drilling a hole in the crossbar under the A in the grille logo, so it looks similar to how the OEM camera would only it's a little smaller and lower. I took the upper half of the grille off and pulled it out while I screwed the nut onto the shaft, then ran the wire down the center support, along a wire harness, and back behind the radiator. From there I added an add-a-fuse to the dashboard 12v port and moved that into the ignition mode instead of battery mode. And ran the signal portion of the wire back through the grommet with all of the other wiring going through the clutch block-off plate, and into the back of the radio. It plugs into the Tazer RCA adapter meant for the Jeep Uconnect, which Jimmy07 helped me convert to the right connector pins. I've removed the parking lines and flipped the camera since taking that picture, that was the first test of how it worked. It is super wide, and that's my chrome bumper in the bottom of the image, so I can easily tell before I hit the little car that disappears behind the hood in the spot in front of me in tight/full parking lots.

And I thought I had a line on an RLD canopy, so I got the bed lined before I had a canopy permanently mounted on. However, once I drove up to Seattle, then waited around for the installers to show up, the installers told me the 2010-2019 Ram 2500 canopy wouldn't fit my 2022, and would leave a 3-4" gap above the tailgate, and absolutely refused to install it on my 2500. So I wasted 6 hours of driving and a full tank of gas to have Adventure Ready in Seattle tell me that they wouldn't sell me the canopy that they had agreed to sell me. And I am fairly positive it's because they don't know the difference between a 2019+ 1500 and a 2019+ 2500, but oh well.
 
dantex said:
It's been a while, and I've completed a few projects since I last updated this thread.
  • OEM LED Fog Lights
  • Front Trail Camera
  • Front ParkAssist Sensors
  • Spray-in Bedliner
View attachment 52697

The OEM LED Fog Lights went in pretty easily while doing the Front ParkAssist setup.
I initially got the OEM Fascia harness, then had Jimmy07 modify and re-pin it to work with the M2 harness I had gotten from the other forum for the LED lights so it would have the Front Parkassist sensor wires. Getting the fog lights and parking sensors in and wired up wasn't too bad, I was able to do them without lifting the truck or dropping the bumper. Though there were 2 fascia screws holding in the lower grille that were a pain, but when they broke off I didn't really care as I had to replace the grille with one that had the sensor holes anyway. The truly hardest part was getting the wires into the BCM for the fog lights. It took way longer because while I am not a big guy, I am also not a contortionist. If my daughter was older and could follow directions, I'd have had her under the dash connecting them in while I watched through the headlight switch hole in the dash.

View attachment 52698
View attachment 52699

The front trail camera is one of the Natika ones mentioned in the thread about it, and it seems to work well. I wanted it to be able to tell how close I am getting in parking spots, and to make sure there's not a toddler running in front of the truck as I leave the house, which it works well for. At driving speeds the quality on the camera is pretty poor, but I don't really expect to use it a lot in those situations. I mounted it by drilling a hole in the crossbar under the A in the grille logo, so it looks similar to how the OEM camera would only it's a little smaller and lower. I took the upper half of the grille off and pulled it out while I screwed the nut onto the shaft, then ran the wire down the center support, along a wire harness, and back behind the radiator. From there I added an add-a-fuse to the dashboard 12v port and moved that into the ignition mode instead of battery mode. And ran the signal portion of the wire back through the grommet with all of the other wiring going through the clutch block-off plate, and into the back of the radio. It plugs into the Tazer RCA adapter meant for the Jeep Uconnect, which Jimmy07 helped me convert to the right connector pins. I've removed the parking lines and flipped the camera since taking that picture, that was the first test of how it worked. It is super wide, and that's my chrome bumper in the bottom of the image, so I can easily tell before I hit the little car that disappears behind the hood in the spot in front of me in tight/full parking lots.

And I thought I had a line on an RLD canopy, so I got the bed lined before I had a canopy permanently mounted on. However, once I drove up to Seattle, then waited around for the installers to show up, the installers told me the 2010-2019 Ram 2500 canopy wouldn't fit my 2022, and would leave a 3-4" gap above the tailgate, and absolutely refused to install it on my 2500. So I wasted 6 hours of driving and a full tank of gas to have Adventure Ready in Seattle tell me that they wouldn't sell me the canopy that they had agreed to sell me. And I am fairly positive it's because they don't know the difference between a 2019+ 1500 and a 2019+ 2500, but oh well.
Click to expand...
I like the front camera and that it’s tied into your 8.4” display.

Is there a how to someplace on doing it?
 
It's not so much a how-to, but this is the thread I used: https://hdrams.com/forum/index.php?threads/anyone-add-front-camera-to-8-4.2593/#post-38840 and maybe some info in this thread: https://hdrams.com/forum/index.php?threads/adding-a-front-camera-to-a-2019-biggorn-3500.9180/
I got the same camera and Tazer video adapter from the last post: https://hdrams.com/forum/index.php?threads/anyone-add-front-camera-to-8-4.2593/post-195260
However, that Tazer adapter is for UC4, not UC5 which is whats in my 2022, so it had to be modified to use the right pin types. Jimmy07 was nice enough to do that while making and modifying other harnesses for me, so I can't tell you the appropriate pin types. Here's the Stak50h PDF of how to open, close and de-pin the blue 32-way connector: https://www.molex.com/pdm_docs/as/AS-160014-001-001.pdf

Aside from that, it was pretty much figure out where I wanted it, drill the hole in the grill, pull the air dam over the radiator to get behind the grill and run the cable up to the relay box, where I used an Add-a-circuit micro-fuse tap: https://a.co/d/fJWO2zr
I used that in fuse 90/91. They are side by side, and in one position that is battery powered, in the other it is ignition powered. That fuse is for the power port in the dash, which I haven't used yet, so I felt it was appropriate to a) use and b) convert to an ignition switched circuit.
Other than that, this setting needs to be changed in AlfaOBD if I remember correctly to enable the cargo camera.
VehConfig 1: CHMSL Camera needed to be set to Yes

Because I have a 2022, I might be able to add a second Analog Aux camera, but I have not yet checked to see if I enable VehConfig 8: Auxiliary Trailer Camera present if the second Aux camera icon shows up and will allow me to add a trailer/rear-canopy camera. I am more interested in those being setup via the Digital RearView Mirror, but that's a whole level of expense and effort I have not committed to yet. I am more likely to go aftermarket for those.
 
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