Bought a New Ram - No Thinking Required

Forgot to include a picture. This shows the shifter in neutral:

96c7187d-a98f-48ec-9d9d-19e924c141a7


Really it just needs to be bent upwards, and the ergonomics will be perfect. I'm not sure why they didn't do that in the first place.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
I sent a message to a friend of mine last night and said "Well it only took me 14 years, but I finally got that shifter I wanted for my Ram." :)

My 2004 had the same shifter, same rubber coupler, and I didn't like it then. So now I'm making that improvement.

The warranty is bothersome for me, just because I'd rather delete at least some of the emissions stuff, but that's a hard sell right now.
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i dunno.. i hear the hesitation, but I think that warranties are overrated.

That said, I think the emissions you have is pretty trouble free and isn't heavily damaging the engines like the 6.4 emissions systems will.

I suspect your biggest satisfaction improvement would be from removing the torque management induced lag designed to protect the drivetrain from ham fisted drag racing. there ARE plug in "temporary" pedal commanders that allege to help with the worst aspects of this.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Forgot to include a picture. This shows the shifter in neutral:

96c7187d-a98f-48ec-9d9d-19e924c141a7


Really it just needs to be bent upwards, and the ergonomics will be perfect. I'm not sure why they didn't do that in the first place.
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is that a separate 337 form for the bend? ;)
 
MIFlyer said:
i dunno.. i hear the hesitation, but I think that warranties are overrated.

That said, I think the emissions you have is pretty trouble free and isn't heavily damaging the engines like the 6.4 emissions systems will.

I suspect your biggest satisfaction improvement would be from removing the torque management induced lag designed to protect the drivetrain from ham fisted drag racing. there ARE plug in "temporary" pedal commanders that allege to help with the worst aspects of this.
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Your point about the emissions actually working are part of why I'm not in a hurry to remove things. Everything I've read has indicated that the emissions system just works. Early on people had DEF issues, but I haven't heard of regular problems these days.

@jesse was making the same point that once I do it, I'll wish I'd done it years ago. I think he's right, as are you that I don't put much stock into warranties. On the other hand, it was part of what I paid for on this thing.

MIFlyer said:
is that a separate 337 form for the bend? ;)
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No logbook entry required. ;)

James331 said:
I’m not even going to ask about the rubber glove
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Seeing as I actually use my truck for a truck and regularly move heavy/dirty/whatever stuff around, I tend to keep multiple sets of gloves (both standard latex and also heavier work gloves) for whatever I may be moving.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Your point about the emissions actually working are part of why I'm not in a hurry to remove things. Everything I've read has indicated that the emissions system just works. Early on people had DEF issues, but I haven't heard of regular problems these days.

@jesse was making the same point that once I do it, I'll wish I'd done it years ago. I think he's right, as are you that I don't put much stock into warranties. On the other hand, it was part of what I paid for on this thing.



No logbook entry required. ;)



Seeing as I actually use my truck for a truck and regularly move heavy/dirty/whatever stuff around, I tend to keep multiple sets of gloves (both standard latex and also heavier work gloves) for whatever I may be moving.
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same here. I keep a pair of leather gloves in the driver's side door pocket at all times, ratchet straps in the bed, and flashlight in the console.
 
Well, I realized on the drive to work this morning that the real issue with my shifter location is that I installed the shifter backwards. Oops. :mad2:

The problem has been rectified and I'll see on the drive home if that gets the position acceptable. I think I'm still going to have to bend the shifter a bit to get the knob where I want it, but this makes the ergos a lot better.
 
I've got the 6 speed manual in my '07 Ram CDT ... I guess since I learned to drive on bigger trucks, rowing the gears never bothered me to even make me think "this thing could shift nicer" (I still reach for the 2 speed rear axle button when I'm on mental autopilot some times).
 
gkainz said:
I've got the 6 speed manual in my '07 Ram CDT ... I guess since I learned to drive on bigger trucks, rowing the gears never bothered me to even make me think "this thing could shift nicer" (I still reach for the 2 speed rear axle button when I'm on mental autopilot some times).
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Keep in mind my previous truck:

IMG_0819.JPG

With a cable linkage, that was the worst shifting anything ever. However for what it was, it worked.

I'm always working on things better, that whole engineer thing.
 
Bill Jennings said:
Whatever happened to good ol' 41?
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Are you referring to my Kenworth? If so, I sold it about a year and a half ago, basically right after the 2017 bonfire.

In the end, the semi fulfilled a bucket list item. It could've been a fun project, but it was going to need a LOT of work to get it where I would've wanted it to be and it had the wrong engine in it. The L10 truly was a gutless wonder (as @flyingcheesehead can attest, since he drove it). There were some things I found that were also of concern long-term, and I didn't have any of the tools to work on it. Plus, some of the household things changed and it became obvious that a pickup was really the way to go. Plus, my experiences made me conclude that if I'm going to drive a semi, I really do want to have a CDL even though it's not legally required here.

Of course, then I went and bought a bulldozer, and if I'd stuck with it and gotten a proper trailer, that would've allowed me to buy a bigger dozer than what I did, along with other heavy equipment (thinking about a motor grader now, too...), so there's some question as to whether that was fully the right decision.
 
Bill Jennings said:
Who did it go to?
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A guy who owned some sort of construction company. I think he was basically looking for a cheap semi for relatively light loads that still needed a semi, probably similar to, say, the bulldozer I would've bought if I'd kept the semi. I made a profit off of the deal (a pretty significant one, actually) even factoring in all of the expenses I had.
 
NealRomeoGolf said:
View attachment 66962
Just sayin...
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There are some reasonably priced ones. I run into the same issue I did with the bulldozer, though... being overweight for my trailer. The little Allis Chalmers weighs in at only 8k lbs. While small, it'll still do the job for what I need.

Either way, it's a ways out before I buy another piece of heavy equipment like that.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
There are some reasonably priced ones. I run into the same issue I did with the bulldozer, though... being overweight for my trailer. The little Allis Chalmers weighs in at only 8k lbs. While small, it'll still do the job for what I need.

Either way, it's a ways out before I buy another piece of heavy equipment like that.
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Find a smallish Bush-n-Bog that the MF can pull. I don't remember the HP/weight requirements for those, but Google probably has some tips. With patience and that dozer and maybe a landscaping box for when you're fine-tuning the grade, you should be able to do everything you need.
 
CJones said:
Find a smallish Bush-n-Bog that the MF can pull. I don't remember the HP/weight requirements for those, but Google probably has some tips. With patience and that dozer and maybe a landscaping box for when you're fine-tuning the grade, you should be able to do everything you need.
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Some kind of disk was on the list of items to buy eventually.

Right now, the first plan is to use the dozer and start pushing over the tree stumps and clearing the general land. Once that's completed, then we'll need to fill up and run over everything with the sheepsfoot roller and crush the significant amount of rocks, especially in certain parts of the property. Perhaps a bit backwards in some ways, but we've got some really significant rocks that will need to get crushed before we can realistically do any sort of grading. I figured the bulldozer would do a good job pulling that roller.

After that would come going through it with some sort of disk. The dozer has both a PTO and a hook, so I could pull things with it just fine, and may opt to.

Then a blade or grader or something to try to get everything more or less flat, and a roller (probably flat roller) to smooth it all and firm things up.

Easy peasy, right?
 
The guys at the Grass Pad are going to love you when you get ready to seed.
 
I ended up driving 150 miles or so on Saturday, towing the trailer, and with some hilly/backroad areas. After that, I've determined that I do like the shifter as-is. I ended up ordering a Momo shift knob:

https://www.momo.com/en-us/product/anatomico/

I had this same shift knob in my Jaguars and loved it. For the truck I ordered the tall one. That should move the shift knob top up just a hair, which is fine and if anything will get it just about perfect.

I do really like how much extra feel there is of the transmission now. I really like anything that gives a good direct feel of what the component at the other end is doing.
 
At the one year mark I ended just under 21k miles. Did my 2nd oil change, this time myself. Easy enough although they’ve made the high pressure fuel filter a lot harder to get at. I’ll change up the tools a bit for next time.

Wednesday I got my Momo Anatomico shift knob and put that on. I had the same shift knob on my Jaguars with the 5-speed conversion and really liked it. Works great on the Ram too, very happy with that.
 
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MIFlyer said:
Nice Ted. It's a pretty turck and you're getting great use out of it
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I'm enjoying it, and one year in I have no regrets with my purchase decision. I do wish I could do the deletes on it and do a tune on the thing to get rid of the torque limiter, but that'll come when the warranty is expired. Otherwise it does everything I want it to.

When I started the truck to go to work this morning I had a check engine light. I'm thinking it's because I had several very short starts yesterday where it didn't run long. Per the manual, I'm going to drive it a few days on my normal cycles and see if it goes away. If not, I'll call the dealer.
 
sorry to hear that. you did say you got your first cleaning dpf recently as well. If you want to check while you wait

1. cold battery voltage reading?
2. consumption of DEF or has it stopped using it?
 
MIFlyer said:
sorry to hear that. you did say you got your first cleaning dpf recently as well. If you want to check while you wait

1. cold battery voltage reading?
2. consumption of DEF or has it stopped using it?
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Funny enough, the CEL was gone by the time I went to lunch. So my guess is that it was something relating to those short starts when I did the filter changes.
 
I've been driving the truck for a few months with the short throw shifter and am really enjoying it. It's nice having a much better feel of what the transmission is doing and feeling it click into gear. The negative is that I do get some more drivetrain noise in the cabin, but I've gotten used to it.

But, the power lag that I'm getting is really bugging me. It's always bugged me, but I'm getting to where I'm thinking about doing something about it. My understanding of the system is that it's got some computer controls that limit how quickly you can apply power so as not to hurt the drivetrain. I can floor it in any gear at any RPM and still watch it act as though I'm easing into the throttle a lot more than I am. My '04 wasn't this way.

So, I'm starting to think about chipping it. Here's what I'm looking for:

1) Improved throttle response
2) Ability to eliminate check engine lights when the truck gets deleted (preferably ability to remove codes for individual systems since I expect I'll do it one thing at a time). I am probably more likely to start off with an EGR delete as I would like to also do a grid heater delete and replace the intake with a much less restrictive/higher flow one
3) Maybe add a bit more power although I'm actually fine with how the truck is power wise.

I really have no idea about the different chips out there and I haven't found anything that objectively compares how the different ones are better or worse. Something that has the ability to tie into the ECU and live display engine data (like what @jesse has for his F-150) as well as make changes would be nice.

Any recommendations on which ones to look at, pros/cons, etc.?
 
Oh, something else I'd like to be able to do is make it so the exhaust brake goes to "auto" mode automatically when I start. The way it works now if I have a trailer connected, it will automatically go into auto mode when I start up. The rest of the time, it doesn't. This means every time I start the truck I have to hit the exhaust brake mode button twice. I know, not a big deal, but annoying that I can't change that setting.
 
EFI Live gets my 3 thumbs up. I use it along with an Edge CTS2 for monitoring. I had a Bully Dog programmer on my '07 and recently removed it. My mechanic out here (also a C-130 Flight Engineer, prior AF Engine mechanic) built the tunes for me. Besides Stock, I have Economy, Towing, Street and STUPID! (strip) tunes. Street tests the clutch, Strip reveals "clutch replacement imminent".

There should be a good shop near you that can provide EFI Live tunes, or I can put you in touch with my guy out here.
 
gkainz said:
EFI Live gets my 3 thumbs up. I use it along with an Edge CTS2 for monitoring. I had a Bully Dog programmer on my '07 and recently removed it. My mechanic out here (also a C-130 Flight Engineer, prior AF Engine mechanic) built the tunes for me. Besides Stock, I have Economy, Towing, Street and STUPID! (strip) tunes. Street tests the clutch, Strip reveals "clutch replacement imminent".

There should be a good shop near you that can provide EFI Live tunes, or I can put you in touch with my guy out here.
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So basically you buy the EFI live then and then build the tunes? I assume it also lets you change/deactivate emissions equipment?
 
Sorta kinda. EFILive is the company that developed and sells the calibration development tool, also called EFILive, and third parties, like my guy Rob, uses this tool to build and customize their own tunes. So, what I bought was Rob's custom tunes, and the 5 position switch to select which tune gets loaded, and the Edge CTS2 monitor.

I know Rob would love to answer any and all questions you may have about this, even if you don't use him. He's at MaxTorq Performance in Golden, CO at (303) 278-8038 Tell him Greg sent you from Pilots of America. Then talk airplane engines for a while, too :)

I believe if the emission equipment is controllable in the PCM/ECM, then yes, you could make those changes.

this is the first youtube hit I found - disregard the Duramax intro
 
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Gotcha, thanks for the description. I might be interested in chatting with your guy to understand better.
 
If you recall Nate posting about his Cummins (not including his Nebraska debacle), Rob worked over his truck as well.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Gotcha, thanks for the description. I might be interested in chatting with your guy to understand better.
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Personally, I'd just learn about EFILive and tune the thing yourself. In my opinion, diesel tunes are pretty easy if you have a decent understanding of how an engine works.
 
mondtster said:
Personally, I'd just learn about EFILive and tune the thing yourself. In my opinion, diesel tunes are pretty easy if you have a decent understanding of how an engine works.
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That would be another option, and I'm not exactly new to tuning stuff.

One thing I'm getting from Googling around some more is that it seems like my options are more limited if I don't want to do a delete. But that's probably were if I learned more about EFIlive I could probably customize my tuning a bit better. It lets you download the program for free and play with it in demo mode, so I might do that and get an idea of what it lets me do.
 
Ted if you have any questions about Edge stuff let me know. I used to run that business and still know most of the engineers there.
 
Wingsofglass said:
Ted if you have any questions about Edge stuff let me know. I used to run that business and still know most of the engineers there.
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Since you asked... :)

The Edge also has my attention.

Looking at this:

https://edgeproducts.com/shop/13-18-ram-6-7l-cummins-juice-w-attitude-cts2-203

It looks like the tunes let me pick however much power I want and then also enable the extra fuel for low boost spooling.

So as I understand that, it's strictly a piggyback computer, not actually changing the computer's programming, and thus should be untraceable and easy to remove?

That actually might be the ticket for what I want since it would be theoretically undetectable by the dealer under warranty. Then if I decide to do a delete or the like down the road I would have to handle that separately.

Do you know what sort of "satisfaction guaranteed" there is? I suppose the thing for me is that I'm really more looking for the throttle response more than anything, if I spend the $900 and decide it doesn't do what I want and I'll need to do a delete then am I stuck with it?
 
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