AdamChandler's "Shadow" 2021 Ram 1500 Limited Night Edition w/ EcoDiesel Build Thread

[AdamChandler]

Hi everyone.

I'm new to this site and intended to join so I could learn as much about these trucks as possible before purchasing. Now that the truck has arrived, I've found a nice little community here of a few hundred passionate truck owners. I've really enjoyed my time here and so I wanted to give back with one of my classic build threads but with a twist. Some people on this site know me from other sites and they know my build threads generally involving every modification I can find being thrown at the new toy. That won't happen here. Instead, I wanted to take some time initially to tell some stories that center around the truck. From there, I'll highlight some of the 'build' items that are going on the truck and these will primarily be comforts and protective bits. Once those are complete, the thread will focus on my experiences with the truck. These could be trips we take together, issues that are warranty covered and some that are not and embarking on doing my own maintenance and I'll be creating videos & photos of those maintenance items that will be for entertainment purposes only. I am not a mechanic but people seem to like my videos where I show how things are done according to me. The build thread will conclude in 7-10 years when I sell the truck.

So you can get a feel for my style, I'm linking to a few of my other build threads. You'll see that on this thread, I don't really edit myself or try to be concise, nor do I stay on topic. If moderators find something is out of line, just let me know but while we might go off topic sometimes, I do try to keep things on topic as much as possible. Online, I am myself..I'm Adam Chandler everywhere. My livelihood, family and even where I live are all easily googleable and so I am myself online and don't hide behind an avatar or made up username because I believe in transparency and treating others with respect and kindness. I'll ask people that participate here do the same. So be nice to each other. We're all just people hanging out online with a common interest...no need to be mean or name call. Let's just be friends! I always learn more from my build threads than I contribute. This is my soap-box but I'll read every comment and learn from your advise and corrections.

Extended Reading of other build threads:

• AdamChandler's "Rosie Red" 2018 GS Adventure Build Thread
• AdamChandler's "Felicity" 1995 K75RT Build Thread
• Heather_B's "Buzz" 2019 F750GS Build Thread
• Just got a quarter million mile Ford Escape
• AdamChandler's 2016 Golf R "Bertha" Build Thread
• AdamChandler's "Big Cheez" 2020 Husqvarna 701 Enduro LR Build Thread

Glossary of sorts: (These will become links once I have those posts done)

• Prologue - Why a RAM 1500 and Why do I need a Truck?
• Ordering - Maximizing Incentives and Rebates and working with Mark Dodge
• Taking Delivery - Flying and driving 1900 miles for a truck (Parts ONE, TWO, THREE)
• List of modifications and Farkles (functional sparkle)
• Why are you not doing a lot of modifications like you do to your motorcycles or Golf R?
• Ongoing maintenance
• Issues with the truck and how it was sorted by RAM/FCA/Stellantis/Dealer
• Wanderings and Adventures
• Epilogue - Saying goodbye to my RAM 1500 through theft, collision or sale

Before we dive in, there are places you can stalk me before this thread is updated..lots of the content is already on Flickr & YouTube

• Flickr
• Blog
• YouTube
• Untappd (I sometimes post what I'm drinking while working on the truck)
• Instagram
• Podcast
• Rest of my links

Technology Used to Log modifications:
The content on this report is primarily shot on iPhone 11 Pro with a DJI OSMO Gimbal as my primary video camera these days. I've sold all of my other cameras that shoot video. Helmet camera / on-Bike videos are shot with the GoPro Hero 9 with a Microphone Adapter And Shure Lavalier microphone. Still images are shot with the Canon 5D Mark IV generally with my 24-70 f/2.8 lens. I edit in Adobe Lightroom and Final Cut Pro on the iMac.

Disclosures:

• Anything I receive for free or at a discount WILL be disclosed as is federal law. I also generally acknowledge when I pay full price for something just as a matter of habit.
• I work for a company who is a supplier for Stellantis but nothing to my knowledge we supply to this truck. Our supplier relationship is for UConnect5 and beyond, not before so there's no conflict of interest I know of in talking about my RAM 1500 ownership experience

This is going to be a ton of fun. Thank you all for following along.

 

[AdamChandler]

Prologue - Why a RAM 1500 and Why do I need a Truck?​

From late-August until the 1st week of September, I was sitting passenger in a small extended cab Toyota Tacoma pulling a fairly light enclosed trailer with two 500 pound motorcycles and everything we needed for a two week adventure in Colorado’s wilderness. This wasn't my truck...it's never my truck since I'm always using someone else's. PS, that ride report is here. Before this event, I had just used Heather’s Golf to trailer my dirt bike to a rally which was only a couple of hours away but 4 days of camping meant carrying more than the Enduro-style motorcycle could handle. During that trip to Colorado, I started to realize just how important it would be for me to be able to haul things. Not just bikes but trash runs, having started cleaning leaves in our yard and filling 25 trash bags of brush only to have to ask my neighbor, again, to borrow his truck. This once a week occurrence of needing something to put things in and getting by with my winter-beater Ford Escape was hitting a breaking point. As we concluded our trip out West, I was relieved that we didn’t have to ride 2000 miles each way just to ride in Colorado. Towing allowed us to get there in 2 days instead of 5 and be ready to take on the trails instead of needing a few days of rest. Events that are just a few hours south all the way up to March Moto Madness in TN require a truck and a trailer because the bikes you want to bring can’t be driven long distances and the gear you need for a week of camping can’t go on the bike. This sort of issue finally put me over the edge when one of my dirt bikes stranded me half an hour from the house in October. We had 25 trash bags full of leaves, some old furniture and now, a dirt bike stranded far from home that I had to leave at a person’s home, hop in Heather’s car, go borrow one of her friend’s trucks so we could go back and load my bike up only to have to then put a trailer on her car again to drive my dirt bike the 2 hours away in New York to the nearest dealer. I knew in 2021, I would be attending 4 events far from home that required hauling the bikes or not going at all in addition to the regular things in our lives that would require something bigger than a Volkswagen Golf.

I don't have to tell individuals on this forum why a truck is a necessary part of an active lifestyle. You're all sold on the concept but I arrived at this need much later in life. After getting a Camry as my first car, I sold it and moved to San Francisco where I was car-less until moving to New Hampshire 5 years later. From there, I started a path of German car ownership participating in all of the things German car people do like car shows, track events and making good friends with a trusted mechanic.

We still have two cars in our household. This one:

..and this one:

After that Colorado trip, the truck hits just kept coming. My dirt bike stranded me far from home and I had to take it 3 hours away to the nearest dealer for a wiring harness recall:

In fact, in 2020 there were a dozen situations where I ended up needing to get a thing that was too big for our cars 2-5 hours away and couldn't unless I could borrow or rent a vehicle. I'm not really hauling plywood or building materials but I am responsible for trash runs at our house and the reason we bought a Ford Escape a few years ago as our winter beater was to be a trash truck and it definitely got some use but it only takes one leaking trash bag to make you ever regret using an SUV for trash.

In 2021, as we looked ahead and this was a look-ahead from 2020 I saw a few things taking place this year:

• Haul my K75 to Portland to have some wiring work done
• Bring home a new Husqvarna 701 which is already done now
• Sell my Beta which is also done
• Bring a dirt bike down to March Moto Madness in Tennessee
• Bring the dirt bike north to Maine for a riding weekend at least twice
• Haul 2 motorcycles down to North Carolina for the BMW Riders Association Rally
• Haul a BMW to Montana if I couldn't find a cheap flight for the BMW Owners of America rally
• Bring two freezers and a bunch of equipment out to Goshen Vermont for my wedding along with food for a week for 150 people and a bunch of other supplies..oh and a couple of bikes
• Haul 2 dirt bikes down to Alabama in December where we'll spend a month in an AirBNB
• Spring & fall yard work that always requires a truck for hauling out leaves to the brush dump
• unexpected things like furniture disposal or a bike break down
• Just this Saturday I have a Husqvarna MC going in for a recall 3 hours south and would have had to pull it behind the VW with a trailer and now I don't have to

There's always something I need a truck for and now I don't have to worry about it anymore.

------------------------

Why did I pick a RAM 1500? ​

My dad had one, I remember that but he never really cared for it that much. It was a truck, it did its job and never let him down so there's that. My family in Florida who runs a 2,500 dairy cow farm operation has always owned Chevy trucks. They won't be caught dead in a ford for whatever reason but there was no brand loyalty for me but I admit, I started the journey looking at Fords because they have to be the #1 truck in America for a reason, right?

Ford's recent revisions along with the hybrid motor, onboard battery and appealing cabin certainly spoke to me. It drew me in. A few things pushed me away from Ford..remember I'm coming at this totally blind.

First was the resale values. With so many F-150s out there, the depreciation hit is a lot harder those first few years for Ford trucks. In addition, these were not cheap to get into. You would be paying $70,000 for a platinum and dealers didn't seem interested in trying to earn your business even before COVID. prices were fairly set. I also found that the exterior of Fords were pretty boxy / blocky for my tastes and the cabins more 'old man' than I was interested in. You did have to pay handsomely for all of the technology features and they were not going to just give it away. Trucks are expensive now but it does seem like Stellantis wants to provide customers value and technology at all trim levels where you feel like you're getting more truck than you're paying for.

I obviously looked at non-American truck options but thanks to the Chicken Tax, you can't get a full size truck from any European auto makers and while Toyota's have this esteem around reliability, I personally don't see it..not that they aren't reliable but I feel like Toyotas are reliable because they're simple and sort of find something that works and repeat it in every car they make but I want high tech features. I want digital gauge clusters and big screens and soft feel buttons. Toyota charges you $40,000 for a truck and It feels like you're sitting in an econobox that costs $18,500. I want to enjoy my time driving, not drive a boring existent for 25 years. The truck will last that long but will my boredom kill me first?

Nissan wasn't in the running. God bless their soul. We've had Nissans in my family. They were fine but Nissan isn't trying anymore.

What about unibody trucks like the Ridgeline? Nah, same issue as Toyotas although Hondas at least try to add some creature comforts and not charge too much for them.

So...Chevy. Well, had I waited a year, Chevy may have put out a truck I wanted to buy. Their prices are on par with RAM albeit slightly cheaper but their cab is a 5+ year old design and while you can get full leather, everything feels like I'm using an iPhone 4 with hard buttons with hard edges around them. I'd go Chevy if I needed a work truck, Ford if money was no object even though they're ugly and RAM, well RAM just had the whole package.

....I have to mention electric trucks. In late 2019, I did put down a deposit on a Cybertruck. They should be calling me in about a year to collect the rest of their money. Depending on how in demand these trucks are for resale, I may flip my cyber truck if someone gives me more than I paid. I reserved the top-tier trim with all of the bells and whistles. There are a few reasons why I didn't wait for that truck.

First, well, I didn't want to wait. My truck could be here in one year or three. I have no idea. I needed a truck 2 years ago and was tired of waiting. In addition, the Cybertruck's interior is too minimalist. I want a button of Mute and for AC and I want a turn signal stalk and I want a button to turn off the headlights and a big console full of lots of little nooks. Tesla took all of those cubbies away and expects people to just self drive their way everywhere.

Second, there's EV issues in general. In preparation for getting a cyber truck or at least seeing if I wanted one, I leased a Hyundai Ioniq EV for $75 a month and sold it to Carvana for enough to basically make money on the lease all - in and through that process I learned about how spread out the charging network is where I live (only 2 DC Fast chargers in my entire state and they're at opposite ends of the state) and battery being about 60% of max when it's cold out, charging issues in the snow & rain and of course, the possible issues of towing and the battery life being even worse so with all of the EV issues we had and knowing we love road trips, I've written the Cybertruck off. I bought this RAM and drove it 1900 miles home. That would have taken an extra day or two in an electric vehicle waiting on charging and by contrast, this truck gets 700-850 miles to the tank meaning we only filled up with gas 3 times. Take that, Tesla.

What is it about the RAM 1500 that really was the icing on the cake for us then? I'll list out the few top areas that I think the RAM 1500 is better than the competition:

• Design - These trucks are gorgeous inside and out and they easily beat Ford's latest redesign on exterior styling
• Diesel efficiency, cost & extra large tank versus the Duramax
• Luxurious interior that bests the Ford Platinum & Denali packages from their competition
• Air suspension which increases fuel economy but also allows me to pull in and out of my driveway when I get home (this isn't a joke and I'll share some photos in a future post
• Full LED lighting like full, no one else offers this
• Manufacturer rebates / incentives, GMC may have RAM beat here but from what I could tell, RAM 1500s are very affordable compared to their peers after you factor in rebates

This was a long post but I hope it clarifies how I arrived at the RAM 1500 after I realized over the last few years how much I needed a truck.

 

[AdamChandler]

PART ONE: Taking Delivery - Flying and driving 1900 miles for a truck​

Heather and I, on Valentines day were alerted to a United mileage promotion. 4,000 miles round trip to DC from Boston per person which was about $40 each way per person. We'd be vacinnated by then and she has family in Falls Church so we booked the tickets and found a Hilton for $85 a night. She waited for Nationals tickets to open up and booked a single game ticket against the Reds behind 3rd base.

We had a really nice time for those 3 days. Here are a few photos:

A few weeks later, I ordered my truck and figured it'd be about 16 weeks before arriving or late-June, just in time to get it before a few motorcycle rallies I had lined up that required towing.

Good Afternoon Adam,

I’ve attached the buyers order, the incentives sheet and proof of your truecar coupon. Let me know if you have any questions. I left taxes, title and licensing off of the buyers order.
Aaron Ginsburgh

Early May, it had been 8 weeks since ordering and I messaged RAM asking for an update. The truck was built and shipped. Already!?!? Well, it'll take 4 weeks at least to get to a dealership, right? I called the dealer in Lake Charles, Louisiana who told me the estimate was between May 20th and June 9th. I could buy the truck when it came in and fly down a week or so later to pick it up.

RAM Chat:
"Thank you so much for holding. I appreciate your patience. I am showing that your vehicle is in the shipping stage. Current Dealer ETA is 05/19/2021 - 06/02/2021"

ME: Looking at this a different way, I ordered the truck at the end of CY Week 11 and shipping estimate is week 20-22 for delivery so that's 9-11 weeks from order to delivery. I was expecting 12 at minimum so this is a nice surprise.

The Monday before we flew down to DC for our Memorial Day weekend trip, I receive an email with a photo of the truck I ordered with the subject line, "pics of truck".

I will call as soon as I free up to put everything together. Congratulations!

Things moved pretty fast because the high voume dealership wanted this truck off the books and sold. 6 Hours later, I had virtually signed everything and the truck was mine. I sent over my FCA Affiliates code, insurance binder and Heather and I began to look at ways to make the pickup worked. Flying into Lake Charles was expensive as in like $450 one way expensive. The flights were slightly cheaper out of DC so we started thinking of ways to make that option work. Initially, we thought I'd just fly down without her and cannonball home but she has been wanting a Southeast road trip for a while even if it was a short one.

The pricing was still high. United wanted 32,000 miles for us to fly south which is roughly $500 a person. Someone on the forum told me that Mark Dodge will deliver a vehicle up to 200 miles so I floated the idea of New Orleans instead of Lake Charles. They agreed. I then threw in another wrench...Saturday at 7PM on Memorial Day Weekend? "No problem, book it" they said.

So we ended up spending an additional 8,000 miles for the two of us to fly home via New Orleans rather than back to Boston.

Heather noticed that Amex Platinum had a few offers one for Best Western (20% back) and Marriot (20% back) if you book direct with those hotels so we lined up 2 hotels:

1. SureStay Hotel by Best Western Meridian MS
2. Marriott Columbus University OH

She also arranged our map to hit a couple of points of interest:

1. Ray's On The Ave 1139 Saint Bernard Ave New Orleans, LA 70116
2. Craft Brewed 2502 Franklin Pike Nashville, TN 37204
3. Hattie B's Hot Chicken 2222 8th Ave S Nashville, TN 37204
4. Chuck's Wine & Spirits 386 Three Springs Rd Bowling Green, KY 42104

We wanted to enjoy some good food & grab some bourbon we can't get in our distro area. Going through Kentucky on a Sunday meant most of the places we wanted to see would be closed.

Let's get on with the trip & experience!
------

New Orleans is a small airport and landing there, it was cool to see the big football stadium dome in the distance. Growing up in Florida, I'm used to lowlands but Heather was kind of amazed how much water there was. Caseways, creeks and intercoatal waterways aren't normal in New Hampshire. I could only respond, "yeah, there are a LOT of bugs"

The driver from Mark Dodge was WAY too nice for a Saturday night. He and I were in touch throughout the day and he had my flight number so knew the flight would land 12 minutes later. He was at the arrivals section at the end of the road with a driver there waiting to take him home. I walked up, "Adam?" he said and handed me the keys. He offered to show me around and I said "go home and drink, don't worry about me" and that was that.

I had a temporary tag in the rear window of the truck and an owners manual. Nothing else in the vehicle to prove it was mine except a window sticker that said "Built for Adam Chandler" I had all of the PDFs and Insurance Cards on my iPad if I ever got pulled over but truly it was a simple exchange and I didn't even have to show ID.

I waited for Heather and she hopped in and the first thing we did was leave the airport and pull out into a spot that said no parking and took a few photos:

...and like I said, by this photo, the condensation really set in and you can see just how ghosty it is:

The photo that I've been using every where (1st post) was a total matter of circumstance. I haven't photograhed in humid environments in a very long time so my camera's lens fogged up as I started shooting. So the super nice and soft photo isn't a filter. It's just an overexposed first photo of my new truck because i felt I had to over expoe to compensate for dark paint & bright back ground and then the condensation hit the lens and boom, nice, soft, perfect aperture photo. It's a GREAT picture. I'm still sort of blown away because I don't usually take great pictures.

After 2-3 minutes, we hopped in the truck and headed right to Ray's no the Avenue. We needed a place that served dinner late, cheap, had some music and was only locals...oh and had street parking in an aread that wasn't built up. We rolled into the local hangout where there were no tourists and we definitely got some stares but the menu was short & sweet and cheap! The music was a live DJ spinning some R&B and some "Quiet Storm" grooves. Miller High Life was $1 a glass so we spent $20 on dinner and 2 beers.

Then we hopped in the truck and started heading North up to Meridian MS. The drive was fairly uneventful but I will say that getting used to a truck that occupies nearly the entire width of the road took some getting used to. This is the first time I've driven a diesel in 15 years and about the same time since driving a truck these size outside of the U-Haul from time to time. My first job out of high school was a Class D license driving a box truck for a window company and this was a lot smoother. I'll talk more about the RAM 1500 from a review perspective though in a different post.

Arriving in Meridian was a bit of a shock because I didn't expect to see every hotel packed with people. Turned out that it was graduation weekend for the local MS State School so a lot of people were in town for that. We would have stayed at the Marriot or Hilton but there were no rooms so Best Western it was. Heads hit the pillow at 1AM and we were out!

6AM, alarm goes off. The truck is covered in dew. I told Heather don't bother showering because there's already chest hair in there from 3-4 other people. it was not a clean room but a bed is a bed so long as the sheets are clean.

We were out just around sunrise and took some photos of the truck because I knew it was only going to get dirtier from there. The front already had a lot of bugs and some road debris.

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS TAKEN THAT DAY ARE HERE - https://5thgenrams.com/community/th...n-w-ecodiesel-build-thread.32322/#post-464803

Then we hit a truck stop and got some coffee and a hot egg burrito to go oh and some jerky. Boy do we love beef jerky on road trips.

Heading North, this was the 2nd day in a row I had work. I Manage HOAs as a side job so I had two annual meetings, one on Saturady and another on Sunday so via Zoom, I reported on a year of mangement activities to 50 owners and did it via the AT&T 4G Hotspot which really came in handy on this trip just for conveneince. The truck came with 1GB of data for free but that Zoom call and I had already usd 6.5 gigabytes of data. WOOSH.

We passed through Birmingham and even though I wanted to stop at Vulcun and look up that iron skirt of his, I was still in a meeting so we continued on.

Again, in huntsville, I wanted to see the air and space museum I went to as a kid when I went to space camp but...30 minute detours were out of the question so we kept going.

We rolled into Nashville for lunch and stopped for fuel and Heather pre-ordered some Nashville Hot Chicken from Hattie B's. They were late putting it togeher so we walked down the road to see about buying some beer to go for that night in Columbus while we were in the hotel room. They served food there too and beers for in-house or takeaway but I asked "can I bring food in? I'll buy a few growlers" and they agreed. So we went and picked up the food, came back and ate it at the craft beer bar. I had a pilsener, heather a Berliner and we got two growlers to go.

Back on the road by 2PM...next stop Columbus.

 

[AdamChandler]

PART TWO: Taking Delivery - Flying and driving 1900 miles for a truck​

..Nashville to Columbus - that part of the drive was uneventful which is good. We did stop in Bowling Green KY to pickup some bourbons. We went into an off the beaten path store called chuck's and just loaded up on 8 bottls of their barrel picks. Some labels I can get at home but not single barrels and same with Bourbon Cream. We can't get that in New England so it'll sit in the cellar until Christmas time when we break it out.

We then went to Mammoth Cave national park just to get some more photos, drone shots and call some family on FaceTime. We didn't enter the park but some of the single lane roads made for some decent videos.

We didn't roll into Columus until around 9:45PM which is late. Only two restaurnts were still delivering food and one was mediteraneon so we had chilled the beers in the RAM 1500 built in cooler apparatus in the rear cab and loaded those storage bins full of beer so food was ordered, I grabbed some glasses from the hotel bar and we watched a movie and just enjoyed some food in the room.

..Our last day of travel! We were up at 6AM again, in the truck by 6:30AM and heading north toward buffalo. We stopped again at a truck stop to get coffee and some snacks and we kept going.

Lunch was DairyQueen. yeah seriously, I shoudl have just gotten ice cream. Didn't finish the chili dog (those things tasted better when I was a kid) and back on the road we were heading East now to the NY/VT Border. From Albany to Bennington Vermont then east to I-91 North. Soon we were headed across the New Hampshire border and only 3 miles from my house.

Here's the new RAM 1500 next to my old daily driver:

The trip home in this RAM 1500 Limited was trouble-free. I had a lot of concerns around a truck I've never sat in before. Would it be comfortable? How are the headlights? How is the sound system and how distracting is it to navigate such a complex infotainment system without bein distracted? Would the fuel economy really be close to 29MPG? So. Many. Questions.

In truth, the truck took a backseat to the fun of going on a road trip with Heather. We had some good food, enjoyed ourselves immensely and took turns driving which made my time getting home a lot more enjoyable and relaxing since I was able to keep up with work.

How did we do on fuel?

I hope you enjoyed this (short) post of driving our truck 1900 miles home from Louisiana.

Here's our Travel Vlog:

 

[AdamChandler]

List of modifications and Farkles (functional sparkle) - Last updated 6/3

There are no performance modifications planned so I’m sorry to disappoint those looking for exhaust, shocks or super charger add-ons

I’ll add links and details to these as I order items:
Trailer Hitch
Dirt Bike Chocks
iPhone Mount
Locking Safe
Mud Guards
Window Tinting
Black wheel lug nuts
Dog bed
Step up guards for the paint
Extra Mount points in the bed
Roadside kit (first aid, tire repair, tools)
Ramp for motorcycles
Custom License Plate
Detailing or some sort of Paint Protection
Floor Mats
Bull ring mounts
Dog car door protector
12” UConnect Screen protector

​

 

[AdamChandler]

Why are you not doing a lot of modifications like you do to your motorcycles or Golf R?​

Some people might know me from the Volkswagen forums or find the Bertha build thread and say to themselves, “oh man, this is going to be a wild build!”

I actually set aside this space to talk about the RAM 1500 Limited and how it’s not a truck you should pick if you want to put a lot of money into modifications. There’s very little to customize on these trucks because they are already so packed with functionalities that make modifications pointless.

For a long time, I would tell friends that I’m the kind of guy that should never buy a Tacoma or Wrangler. Those trucks are blank slates…very capable but need to be customized to the owner’s use case. Ignoring the mall-crawler group, there are vehicles out there customized because they are built for a purpose like rock-crawling. You shouldn’t take a stock Jeep Wrangler to Moab. The RAM 1500 in the Tradesman/Big Horn and Laramie trims do have some areas of improvements depending on use. Shocks is one area that you may want to modify. You also may want to add a bull-bar, an off road array of LEDs or some kind of under carriage protection. Leveling kits are a popular aesthetic mod I see people do that add nothing but ‘look’ and then there’s modifications to make more power.

If you look at the RAM 1500 Limited with every option checked, you’re severely limited on the modifications. I could add a bull-bar but it’s hard to find one that wouldn’t interfere with the front sensors I paid extra money for and it would hide the gorgeous night-edition grill that really is a looker! The bull bar would also add weight on a truck that is already down to its last 1000 pounds of payload on the sticker. Suspension, well with air suspension, I paid extra to not need shocks and since this truck isn’t going off-road, I want comfort and don’t need lift or crazy fast rebound for Baja racing or rock crawling. The lights are all LED except the vanity mirror so it’s covered on lighting. I’d like more forward facing light for where I live where there is no street light and we often drive for miles down one way dirt roads and while a hidden light bar could be added later, it’s not a priority. The bed already has the spray in bed liner, mount points, cover and I have the step to get in, split tail gate and just add a ramp and in goes a dirt bike.

Okay, what about making more power? The diesel comes with a 5 year, 100K mile warranty and I’m going to leave the engine alone until that warranty expires. Given the various diesel issues experienced by the last generation of this motor and the throttle delay current gen owners are seeing, I think it’s best to leave that system alone for now.

OOOH Wheels & Tires, good time to ask about that actually. All of my vehicles are sized down for Winter setups. Meaning the 22” wheels will be swapped for 18 or 20” wheels for Winter time. This gives me more sidewall for unexpected ruts and potholes covered by snow, those wheels & tires are cheaper and also less prone to bending. I’ll keep the summer wheels (22” night edition) + the stock tires until those go. When those go, I’ll be buying the most fuel efficient, lowest rolling resistant touring truck tires I can. No extra tread I don’t need will be there. I like running two different wheels because it also means twice a year, I don’t have to mount & balance again. I can swap from winter to summer mode in my own driveway. If anyone has any black 18 or 20 inch wheels to sell me, let me know.…extra points if you’re in the northeast.

So….the Golf R was a performance hatch back for auto cross and drag racing and I modified it to have a lot of braking, a lot of go power, good suspension, light wheels and grippy tires and the RAM…well it’s just a truck and won’t be doing anything but hauling my stuff around so I’m keeping it simple.

This post brought to you by people who inevitably ask me why the RAM isn’t being modified too much.

 

[AdamChandler]

HERE:

• Ongoing maintenance (I'll link to posts that are in later pages where I do various fluid changes or other maintenance items. Sometimes just a photo or a log of miles and sometimes I'll share a video

 

[AdamChandler]

HERE:

• Issues with the truck and how it was sorted by RAM/FCA/Stellantis/Dealer

 

[AdamChandler]

HERE:

• Epilogue - Saying goodbye to my RAM 1500 through theft, collision or sale (hopefully it'll be a while before anything is put here)

 

[GadgetMason]

Adam! Just watched your YouTube video ~ almost all the way through ~ before I realized it was you! Until you said your order date and home state

“Do not like and subscribe, I'm not a truck person” ~ @AdamChandler

 

[Olive Green 5.7]

That is one good looking truck. I'm looking forward to watching this evolve.

 

[AdamChandler]

Adam! Just watched your YouTube video ~ almost all the way through ~ before I realized it was you! Until you said your order date and home state

“Do not like and subscribe, I'm not a truck person” ~ @AdamChandler

Yes-sir, I really am not an automotive YouTuber but I like sharing things I do to my toys so there will be a couple of videos but my channel is odd, it’s like 4,000 Volkswagen fans, 6,000 Motorcycle fans and maybe 20 of them own a truck. I hope you enjoyed it though. I’ll be posting those videos here anyway so no need to subscribe or anything.

That is one good looking truck. I'm looking forward to watching this evolve.

Thanks very much. I’ll be doing a post every couple of days editing the posts above this one. Already a few modifications on the truck that I’ll make their own posts. Nothing crazy, just quality of life improvements

 

[JoeCo]

@AdamChandler I just checked out your video tour of your new truck, well done and it looks nice!

The one question I have to ask though, why the open differential with the type of weather we get?

 

[AdamChandler]

@AdamChandler I just checked out your video tour of your new truck, well done and it looks nice!

The one question I have to ask though, why the open differential with the type of weather we get?

Because after months of deliberation, I forgot to order one with it.

Once all of the individual posts above are filled in, I'll start occupying this space with more exciting stuff (like the video and photos) but those who want to get ahead of themselves, some photos are already up here - https://www.flickr.com/photos/adamjackson/albums/72157719319271909

 

[mophead]

Why are you not doing a lot of modifications like you do to your motorcycles or Golf R?

Some people might know me from the Volkswagen forums or find the Bertha build thread and say to themselves, “oh man, this is going to be a wild build!”

I actually set aside this space to talk about the RAM 1500 Limited and how it’s not a truck you should pick you want to put a lot of money into modifications. There’s very little to customize on these trucks because they are already so packed with functionalities that make modifications pointless.

For a long time, I would tell friends that I’m the kind of guy that should never buy a Tacoma or Wrangler. Those trucks are blank slates…very capable but need to be customized to the owner’s use case. Ignoring the mall-crawler space, there are vehicles out there customized because they are built for a purpose like rock-crawling. You shouldn’t take a stock Jeep Wrangler to Moab. The RAM 1500 in the Tradesman/Big Horn and Laramie trim does have some areas of improvements depending on use. Shocks is one area that you may want to modify. You also may want to add a bull-bar, an off road array of LEDs or some kind of under carriage protection. Leveling kits are a popular aesthetic mod I see people do that add nothing but ‘look’ and then there’s modifications to make more power.

If you look at the RAM 1500 Limited with every option checked, you’re severely limited on the modifications. I could add a bull-bar but it’s hard to find one that wouldn’t interfere with the front sensors I paid extra money for and it would hide the gorgeous night-edition grill that really is a looker! The bull bar would also add weight on a truck that is already down to its last 1000 pounds of payload on the sticker. Suspension, well with air suspension, I paid extra to not need shocks and since this truck isn’t going off-road, I want comfort and don’t need lift or crazy fast rebound for Baja racing or rock crawling. The lights are all LED except the vanity mirror so it’s covered on lighting. I’d like more forward facing light for where I live where there is no street light and we often drive for miles down one way dirt roads and while a hidden light bar could be added later, it’s not a priority. The bed already has the spray in bed liner, mount points, cover and I have the step to get in, split tail gate and just add a ramp and in goes a dirt bike.

Okay, what about making more power? The diesel comes with a 5 year, 100K mile warranty and I’m going to leave the engine alone until that warranty expires. Given the various diesel issues experienced by the last generation of this motor and the throttle delay current gen owners are seeing, I think it’s best to leave that system alone for now.

OOOH Wheels & Tires, good time to ask about that actually. All of my vehicles are sized down for Winter setups. Meaning the 22” wheels will be swapped for 18 or 20” wheels for Winter time. This gives me more sidewall for unexpected ruts and potholes covered by snow, those wheels & tires are cheaper and also less prone to bending. I’ll keep the summer wheels (22” night edition) + the stock tires until those go. When those go, I’ll be buying the most fuel efficient, lowest rolling resistant touring truck tires I can. No extra tread I don’t need will be there. I like running two different wheels because it also means twice a year, I don’t have to mount & balance again. I can swap from winter to summer mode in my own driveway. If anyone has any black 18 or 20 inch wheels to sell me, let me know.…extra points if you’re in the northeast.

So….the Golf R was a performance hatch back for auto cross and drag racing and I modified it to have a lot of braking, a lot of go power, good suspension, light wheels and grippy tires and the RAM…well it’s just a truck and won’t be doing anything but hauling my stuff around so I’m keeping it simple.

This post brought to you by people who inevitably ask me why the RAM isn’t being modified too much.

Aww come on!!! Shoulda de-badged it before you took a single pic. LOL! Good thread Adam. I'll be following.

 

[AdamChandler]

Aww come on!!! Shoulda de-badged it before you took a single pic. LOL! Good thread Adam. I'll be following.

Super stoked to have you. Have enjoyed our interactions elsewhere so far so thanks! I'm sorry for being so long-winded but it is my thread.

So far, quite a few tiny quality of life mods have gone on but nothing major. I just scheduled window tinting today so that'll be a few weeks out but taking my dirt bike down south tomorrow and loaded it up quite easily. Have seen a lot of YouTube fails so it looks like I did it right the first time

 

[AdamChandler]

​

Prologue: Due to a limit of 20 images per post, I had to split the ride-report into two posts! So the section about price paid and negotiating from MSRP will be written and added some where down here. Sorry everyone. There are also a few images that could not fit in those two posts. I would love it if Admins could increase the limit to like 100. It just makes it easier.

Parts one - https://5thgenrams.com/community/th...n-w-ecodiesel-build-thread.32322/#post-462008
Parts two - https://5thgenrams.com/community/th...n-w-ecodiesel-build-thread.32322/#post-462010

Overflow images from the road trip:

​

EDIT: For people doing a fly & ride, note we used airline miles for this trip so that was all well..hard to calculate but the DC trip + getting home is here:

'

So with a diesel truck and 1900 miles, it was $258 in fuel, $479 for hotel (including DC so cut that in half)

 

[vegasandre]

Awesome thread. How is it all going after 2 weeks?

 

[GadgetMason]

Awesome thread. How is it all going after 2 weeks?

He went radio silent... Now sleeping in his truck

 

[AdamChandler]

He went radio silent... Now sleeping in his truck

Awesome thread. How is it all going after 2 weeks?

I'm glad someone asked. First, I sort of blame how this forum is setup. I don't get notifications that someone replied to a thread I started. Not sure where to turn that on but I had to search google to find this thread to see that people had posted to it. I'm sorry.

Second, I was expecting more collaboration..note, not validation as in I needed people saying "sweet truck" but more discussion here back and forth about things. I haven't seen that so I didn't feel like putting an hour into each post just to have no one reply and ask questions or give tips and offer advice.

Here are the modifications performed since receiving the truck:

1. Trailer Hitch
2. Dirt Bike rack
3. door jamb protector
4. dog bed cover
5. door covers that keep the dog from drooling on the leather
6. ProClip phone holder
7. A suite of cables, chargers, tech gadgets to make road trips easier with the hotspot feature (my wife and I will swap driving and will work on our laptops while the other drives)
8. Radar detector
9. front & rear dashcam
10. Undercoating spray that's 'lifetime' from ValuGuard
11. Weathertech floor mats
12. window tinting
13. Motorcycle ramps that you can ride up on
14. custom license plate
15. Mud flaps
16. A suite of things I may need for road trips (gloves, EDT, bright safety vest, tire plug kit, tools, car cleaner w/ towels, straps, wine bottle holder that folds down and a few other things that live under the rear seat)

Since getting the truck, I've had a few issues reported in another thread I posted but now can't find in addition to:

1. I was rear ended at a boat ramp parking area which caused $4800 in damage and so the truck was at the body shop for a month
2. My 4G hotspot isn't working and we leave for another 1000 mile trip next week so I have to get that fixed
3. My truck didn't come with a front plate bracket so I had to buy that from the dealer
4. some fit & finish things that the dealer near me refused to take care of since I didn't buy the truck from them so I'm just dealing with them

The truck, despite being out of commission for a month, already has 6700 miles on it and will be at 10K by Labor Day so that's 10K from Memorial Day to Labor Day basically.

I can spend all day Sunday doing write-ups and photos and videos on everything I've done so far but I just didn't feel like people really cared much so I didn't see a lot of value in it but I could be wrong?