What did you do to your Ram today???

[FLiPMaRC]

I just put the 7709 on a 2021 rebel. Fit fine even though Amazon said it wouldn't

Thank you!

 

[DanoUF]

Did the post purchase refi. 1.49%

 

[jimothy]

On Saturday, I did something very important: I got my truck! By Sunday, I was home and gave her a bath.

Today, I got the windows tinted. Llumar Formula One Stratus all around. I also scheduled an appointment for PPF and ceramic coating. That'll be done in about three weeks. Whoa, I'm putting a lot of moolah into this truck.

Front side windows: 35%
Back side window and rear window: 15%
Sunroof: 50%
Windshield: 70%

35% is the legal limit in Georgia for the front side windows, and I don’t want to risk it. My main goal is heat rejection and UV protection, since I can’t fit the truck in my garage so it’s outside all the time. The ceramic tint should help with that.

Funny story while I was at the shop: They offered three levels of the Llumar film, from lowest to highest priced: Classic, Pinnacle, and Stratus. Pinnacle and Stratus are both nano-ceramic, while Classic is dye-only. They had a display with a heat lamp, the three types of film, plus clear glass, and you could feel the difference in heat transmission between them. The difference between Pinnacle and Stratus felt minor to me, and I would have gone with Pinnacle, but my wife said she could feel a big difference, so I splurged. (In case you’re wondering, this isn’t the funny part).

I had completed my transaction, and a woman comes in to get her car tinted. She was going to get the Classic, and I thought to myself, she's really should spend a bit more to get the heat rejection. We might not be Arizona, but we still get plenty hot in Georgia!

But, it's none of my business, and I really shouldn't say anything, but...screw it! I had to say something. I asked if she checked out the heat lamp. She said no, then she gave it a try, and told the shop she'd like the Pinnacle film. I think I deserve commission. I also think I helped her make the right decision.

Lastly, I installed the VLEDs license plate reverse lights. I had these on my 2019 Laramie, and they do help a lot. I used a Curt 56584 harness and Tirol 5-way wire harness extension, which made it easy to uninstall from the Laramie and install in my new truck.

No license plate yet, so some free advertising for the fine folks at Mark Dodge.

 

[jimothy]

Here’s a before tinting shot for comparison.

 

[Moosefire66]

Did the post purchase refi. 1.49%

Thru who??

Sent from my SM-G991U1 using Tapatalk

 

[traveller09]

On Saturday, I did something very important: I got my truck! By Sunday, I was home and gave her a bath.

Today, I got the windows tinted. Llumar Formula One Stratus all around. I also scheduled an appointment for PPF and ceramic coating. That'll be done in about three weeks. Whoa, I'm putting a lot of moolah into this truck.

Front side windows: 35%
Back side window and rear window: 15%
Sunroof: 50%
Windshield: 70%

35% is the legal limit in Georgia for the front side windows, and I don’t want to risk it. My main goal is heat rejection and UV protection, since I can’t fit the truck in my garage so it’s outside all the time. The ceramic tint should help with that.

Funny story while I was at the shop: They offered three levels of the Llumar film, from lowest to highest priced: Classic, Pinnacle, and Stratus. Pinnacle and Stratus are both nano-ceramic, while Classic is dye-only. They had a display with a heat lamp, the three types of film, plus clear glass, and you could feel the difference in heat transmission between them. The difference between Pinnacle and Stratus felt minor to me, and I would have gone with Pinnacle, but my wife said she could feel a big difference, so I splurged. (In case you’re wondering, this isn’t the funny part).

I had completed my transaction, and a woman comes in to get her car tinted. She was going to get the Classic, and I thought to myself, she's really should spend a bit more to get the heat rejection. We might not be Arizona, but we still get plenty hot in Georgia!

But, it's none of my business, and I really shouldn't say anything, but...screw it! I had to say something. I asked if she checked out the heat lamp. She said no, then she gave it a try, and told the shop she'd like the Pinnacle film. I think I deserve commission. I also think I helped her make the right decision.

Lastly, I installed the VLEDs license plate reverse lights. I had these on my 2019 Laramie, and they do help a lot. I used a Curt 56584 harness and Tirol 5-way wire harness extension, which made it easy to uninstall from the Laramie and install in my new truck.

No license plate yet, so some free advertising for the fine folks at Mark Dodge.

Congrats and thanks for sharing! Question about the VLED License plate light. That is a really cool product I had never considered before. Why did use the the 2 additional wire harness kits? Does it not come as a complete package or were you trying to avoid the "splice tap" kit that came with it? Just trying to understand the benefit.

 

[jimothy]

Congrats and thanks for sharing! Question about the VLED License plate light. That is a really cool product I had never considered before. Why did use the the 2 additional wire harness kits? Does it not come as a complete package or were you trying to avoid the "splice tap" kit that came with it? Just trying to understand the benefit.

Correct, I used the adapters to avoid splicing into the existing wires. This was particular important because I knew I would be selling the Laramie at the time I ordered the VLED.

I could have still used just the Curt 56584 harness and spliced into it, but somewhere on 5th Gen Rams, I found the idea to use the flat 5-wire adapter, and it was an elegant way to hook things up. That part was only $8 or so on Amazon, so compared to the VLED and Curt parts, it was cheap enough I figured, why not?

Using the adapters also meant I could do the simple splice I did have to make (two wires from the VLED kit to two wires on the flat adapter) at a table. Splicing into the truck's trailer wiring would have been awkward and error prone, since I'd be doing that from beneath the truck. To be fair, I could still have spliced at a table into the Curt harness.

 

[jimothy]

Congrats and thanks for sharing! Question about the VLED License plate light. That is a really cool product I had never considered before. Why did use the the 2 additional wire harness kits? Does it not come as a complete package or were you trying to avoid the "splice tap" kit that came with it? Just trying to understand the benefit.

I found the thread that gave me the idea to use the flat adapter. Thanks to @dad2steph for the idea, and a belated happy Father's Day!

 

[traveller09]

Correct, I used the adapters to avoid splicing into the existing wires. This was particular important because I knew I would be selling the Laramie at the time I ordered the VLED.

I could have still used just the Curt 56584 harness and spliced into it, but somewhere on 5th Gen Rams, I found the idea to use the flat 5-wire adapter, and it was an elegant way to hook things up. That part was only $8 or so on Amazon, so compared to the VLED and Curt parts, it was cheap enough I figured, why not?

Using the adapters also meant I could do the simple splice I did have to make (two wires from the VLED kit to two wires on the flat adapter) at a table. Splicing into the truck's trailer wiring would have been awkward and error prone, since I'd be doing that from beneath the truck. To be fair, I could still have spliced at a table into the Curt harness.

Perfect thanks, I might just go for that whenever my truck finally arrives. I really like the idea of not splicing into any factory wires!

 

[DanoUF]

Thru who??

Sent from my SM-G991U1 using Tapatalk

Tower FCU. It's 36 months, any longer and your at 2.24% but I planned on paying it off quicker anyway.

 

[Moosefire66]

Tower FCU. It's 36 months, any longer and your at 2.24% but I planned on paying it off quicker anyway.

Gotcha, thanks. Wifes credit union is 1.99, mine is 2.99

Sent from my SM-G991U1 using Tapatalk

 

[Tophert08]

Got my wheels on. No Rubbing at all!
20x10 -25 ARKON Lincoln 285/55/20 Toyo AT3

 

[brian42]

Lastly, I installed the VLEDs license plate reverse lights. I had these on my 2019 Laramie, and they do help a lot. I used a Curt 56584 harness and Tirol 5-way wire harness extension, which made it easy to uninstall from the Laramie and install in my new truck.

Make sure you check the clearance with the plate frame and the tailgate when it's down.

The fascia looks like there's lots of room to put various styles of plate frames back there but when you drop the gate it comes pretty close to the plate.

I had a plate frame and read of the clearance issue and checked mine. I could barely pass a piece of paper between the gate and plate frame when the gate was down so I removed the plate frame as that was too close for my comfort.

Luckily I did not have any damage. Some have complained about the gate rubbing on their plate frames (and have rubbed the paint off the edge of the gate).

 

[jimothy]

Did you know your center console has a place to hang file folders? The guy at Mark Dodge (I unfortunately forget his name, but he is a college student, an intern, and I believe the nephew of the owner, not to mention a helpful and great guy) showed me this.

Could be a handy place for maintenance records and such.

 

[jimothy]

Make sure you check the clearance with the plate frame and the tailgate when it's down.

The fascia looks like there's lots of room to put various styles of plate frames back there but when you drop the gate it comes pretty close to the plate.

I had a plate frame and read of the clearance issue and checked mine. I could barely pass a piece of paper between the gate and plate frame when the gate was down so I removed the plate frame as that was too close for my comfort.

Luckily I did not have any damage. Some have complained about the gate rubbing on their plate frames (and have rubbed the paint off the edge of the gate).

Good advice.

I had clearance issues when it was mounted to my Laramie. I solved this by drilling new holes down a bit (and slightly to one side, to space them adequately from the existing holes). I also had to trim the bottom of my license plate by a millimeter or two so it would fit.

On my new truck, there’s plenty of clearance; I knew from the first install to check for this by slowly lowering the tailgate and making sure there was no contact. I tried to take a picture showing the clearance, but it didn’t turn out. It’s a good 1/8-1/4 inch though. (Forgive the mix of metric and imperial units).

When my new plate comes in, I’ll see if I need to trim it. And if I do, I’ll try to do a better job than the ragged cut I put on the old one.

 

[broman66]

I’m not 100% on the material.

The sound though is fantastic. Leaps and bounds better than stock even though this is the “moderate” version. Definitely sounds like there’s a 400hp hemi under the hood now. Great rumble during acceleration, quiet as stock during cruise

I don’t have a before video but this after the muffler and 5” tip install.

https://imgur.com/a/aDEZ850

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That does sound better.

 

[broman66]

Added a Massachusetts Inspection REJECTION sticker.
Tint added to front windows showed 11% on their meter. Minimum is 35%
I guess I drive the summer with dark windows and a big RED sticker. LOL
This commonwealth blows!!

 

[bill-e]

Got the truck in for the post winter maintenance detailing. Washed, clayed and topped with Ecocoat Premier. I was going to do this myself but there was a lot of contaminant in the paint on the hood and roof and the price was cheap enough to have him do it for me. The coating and the paint in general weathered the winter very well and the detailing came out great.

 

[GadgetMason]

Added a Massachusetts Inspection REJECTION sticker.
Tint added to front windows showed 11% on their meter. Minimum is 35%
I guess I drive the summer with dark windows and a big RED sticker. LOL
This commonwealth blows!!

Ya, our state sucks.... Can you get UV protection without tinting?

 

[vincentw56]

Ya, our state sucks.... Can you get UV protection without tinting?

Yes, they have a clear ceramic film.