One of Everything for a Power Wagon
It's not everyday that you get to stuff 40s under a Ram Power Wagon, but when the day comes it sure is sweet! Another one of our one of everything builds is this sweet 2014. The owner picked up a Carli Suspension lift kit, a new bumper, a truss, and all sorts of other goodies and we got to work putting it on.
The first major hurdle was getting the truss on the front AAM 9.25 axle. Carli sells the kit but says on their website "This is the strongest truss kit on the market and requires SUBSTANTIAL fabrication knowledge/ability to install". And they sure weren't kidding! We were able to get it all taken care of though, and there is no doubt this is one of the strongest Power Wagon axles after all that steel got welded on.
Once we got that all burned it we moved to the rest of the axle work. New ball joints, and of course a regear for the new monster 40s. That was, ungood. We do a TON of work on Jeeps and small trucks, but the 3/4 ton truck really put a strain on everythign we had. Here you can see the vise that decided it would rather leave the chat than live through that type of abuse for one more second.
The real problem however, was setting up the 5.13s. No matter what we did they just weren't even coming close to setting up properly. We called Nitro Gear who made the gear set and asked if we needed a ring gear spacer and were told that we did not unless we had an aftermarket ARB locker. The Power wagon comes with an E-locker from the factory but we were told the ring gear spacer wasn't needed in this application. Have you figured out yet that of course we ended up needing one? Bingo! We ordered a ring gear spacer and it set up beautifully. Lesson learned.
Next we got the Carli lift installed with the MASSIVE King shocks which we nitrogen filled in house. We got the sweet front bumper installed and set it on the ground for the first time.
After we picked our jaws up off the ground we had a late night torque session to get the truck ready for the customer to pick up. I know what you're thinking. No way it is that tall. Dave must be really short. Nope, it really is that tall!
Once everything was buttoned up we took it outside the new shop for this awesome picture and a test drive. You would not believe how nice this truck rides. Usually 40s, a bunch of lift, and 5.13s doesn't equal comfort, but in this case it sure does. You definitely get what you pay for.
Picture don't do it any justice. Check out the VIDEO