Looking at a new Dodge, help me decide!!! (Power Wagon vs Cummins)

[continentaldrifter]

dang.....is it spring already by you guys ??

 

[crismateski]

Not yet, that was last year

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

[n2dfire]

Got the truck back yesterday..... Took it out today and put her through the paces at my semi secret testing grounds. Everything seems to be working well. The lockers lock easily. When I got back home I checked the front differential oil, and there was some metal fragments on the dip stick, have mag hytec diff covers. The metal on the towel next to the dip stick is frome the plug. So I changed out the front diff oil and will check it again in a few days....I plan on changing the diff oil a few times in hopes of getting as much of the metal fragments out as I can.....The fragments are very very small, looks like silver paint. I probably will start another thread from here.....kind of hyjacked this one....guess its all good. Thanks to all of you for the praises and comments!

 

[87GMCJimmy]

n2dfire: Glad to see you've got your truck back and working right!!!! Looks like that Maghytec diff cover is a nice ugrade to have your diff oil that easy! Definitely looks to be a good idea to do real frequent changes of oil there! Glad to hear that you are leaning toward keeping the truck, that is WAY too nice a truck to let it go!!!! Oh, and no worries about hijacking, you aren't- you are addressing concerns that I might have about my truck as well!!!

crismateski and n2dfire: Looks like some beautiful area in the places that y'all wheel!!! I am quite jealous!!!

A little update on my truck:
Steers and handles great again now!!! Still have a driveline clunk of some kind though. : (
Just got done respooling the winch line under tension (finally got around to it) gonna be going to Uwharrie for a volunteer trail work day tomorrow so, wanted to have the winch ready just in case!

 

[n2dfire]

Hey, post up some pics of the Uwharrie trip.....Your going to be suprised as how well the truck will do out there, Sorry to hear about the drive line clunck....I am not sure what would cause that , maybe bad U Joints, I dont know if you know about Tom Woods, but he builds really nice drve lines for Jeeps mostly, I have had a few made for other projects, but he is a good reasource if you might have questions.....Keep us up to date, I am interested . I drove my truck 20 miles and checked the diff fluid, its nice and clean, thank God! Best wishes and have fun with the truck!

 

[87GMCJimmy]

n2dfire: sorry but, no pics from this weekend, my phone went dead! : ( Only got to snap one pic- a parked pic of my truck with the guardrail we dragged behind it. (Driving a near 20' long truck dragging guard rail that's over 20' long through tight trails can be a little bit of a challenge, lol!) The Power Wagon did a good job Saturday! Hauled a bunch tools in the bed- power augers, post hole diggers, big bags of fasteners, etc and pulled some guard rail behind it! Dragged belly a lot over the berms (long wheelbase=dragging! (Aka- testing out the factory skid plates, lol!) but other than that I made it through no problem! Really surprised by how well it does on the all terrains- hit some wet clay uphills and still didn't have a problem without even locking the diffs! I still haven't gotten a chance yet to lock the diffs. : (

Hopefully will get to snap some pics on the next outing- hoping I'm gonna be able to make it to the Tread Lightly/John Deere work weekend on the 15-17. (At Uwharrie)

Yup, still have the clunk. : ( It's definitely still there. IDK what is causing it. I did discover though that I get a suspiciously similar sound from twisting the front driveshaft cw/ccw abruptly but, I doubt that could be it since the clunk occurs without a change in direction. Merely with the application of throttle combined with abrupt lift. (It is now VERY easily duplicable whether that's good or bad IDK, lol!) We shall see what happens!

Yup! Tom Woods makes good shafts- I ran a set on my ZJ years ago! I ran High Angle Drivelines on my K5 and had good luck with them as well! Can't go wrong with either in my experience!

Glad to hear things are still looking good with your truck's frontend! Hopefully it can win back your confidence now! (I gotta confess, hearing your trials and tribulations, was making me nervous for my front diff!)

 

[87GMCJimmy]

Oh, forgot to explain the guard rails, lol! The reason for the guardrails was to keep people on the designated trail, rather than cutting through the forest. People have "blazed" their own trails through some areas in the past and that's bad for erosion, etc.

We put up nearly half a mile worth of guard rails on saturday, got a lot of work done! There were about 30 volunteers or so yesterday, a great group of people! This was only the second workday I've gone to but, I plan on making it to as many as I can!

 

[87GMCJimmy]

Well crap, apparently I already have plans for the 15,16,17- my wife reminded me that we are going to the St. Patrick's day parade. Sucks that I am going to miss URE. : (

 

[jasonL_031]

i should stop looking at this topic making me remeber my old power wagon

 

[87GMCJimmy]

jasonL_031: That's a good looking Power Wagon you had there sir!

Mine's back at the dealer again- frontend has been popping... we shall see what it is.

 

[n2dfire]

87Jimmy, Sorry to hear that the rig is back in the shop.........Hopefully this is the last time for a long time! Sounds like your using the truck as it was designed to be used! Good Luck and keep us up to date!

 

[87GMCJimmy]

n2dfire: Thanks bro! I am hoping I am done with dealer visits for at least a little while. The front end was making popping noises, they said it was the ends on the drag link, they said the boots on the ends were pretty well destroyed, guess it might have been from the extra force on them when the trackbar bolt was bent? They replaced both ends of the drag link. Seems to be fixed now, we'll see!

 

[n2dfire]

that makes sense....its frustrating when stuff like that happens.....you would think that the mechanic would check all that out when they fixed it the first time, Hope thats it, now its time to just enjoy your ride.

 

[87GMCJimmy]

n2dfire: thanks bro!

Went to Uwharrie workday today, had a good time but, it was a bad day for my truck:

The popping in the frontend is back. : (

Winch cable came loose from the ferrule (I believe that's the word for the crimped attachment that bolts to the drum?) rendering it useless. Idk why it did that, I had darn near a full wrap on the drum and all we were doing was pulling two posts. (Had two snatch blocks with tree savers placed on a tree, so it was a straight horizontal pull to a dang near straight vertical pull on the posts, so it was not near the amount of force required compared to pulling the posts horizontally out) IDK how I am gonna fix the cable, maybe it'll be warrantied? I think the cable could be wrapped with something to hold it together, cut about 6" worth of unraveled cable off, crimp a new ferrule on (and don't most people throw a tack weld on it too?) and bolted back up? Some friends are trying to encourage me to switch to synthetic line but, I don't think I can swing the $$$$ plus I'd either have to buy a new roller fair lead or figure out a way to adapt a Hawse fair lead in?

And a minor thing, the first scratch on the truck- put a nice big scratch on my tailgate by accident with a guardrail.

 

[crismateski]

You need to have at least 5 wraps on the drum, the crimped end is only there to hold the line in place when you do the initial cable instal. Many people just hold the cable there and put a wrap or 2 of electrical tame over it to start winding. The crimped end should never be taking a load of any kind.


quote from warn

Unspool the fulllength of the wire rope, leaving 5 wraps
on the drum. Apply at least 500 pounds
of tension. You can do this by setting up

an anchor point and pulling your vehicle
to it on

a slightly inclined, flat surface
and letting the vehicle roll.

here is the full article http://www.warn.com/corporate/images/90/TechGuide_PN62885-A2.pdf