Well, let’s face facts, my jeep will NOT be on the trail anytime soon. Basically I want to invest money into quality parts and build it so that the important parts are bullet proof so that whenever the time comes that the body is just junk and full tube is the next step, I will have a solid foundation that I can build off of. To make this a longer process, I refuse to buy anything hobby related with credit cards, no cash, no parts, so saving money to buy stuff will be going slow. SO to get my ass back on the trail behind the wheel of a vehicle, I present to you, my new trail beater.
This is a super budget build, I do not want to invest too much money into this build, I have a very hard budget ceiling that once I hit that point, I’ll simply junk or sell. The truck is a 97 dodge ram extended cab short bed 1500, 5.9l, auto, CAD d44 front and 9.25 rear.
This was my Father In Laws truck, he was the original owner and the truck has only has 83K miles. It had new master cyl, front brake lines, and rear lines to just behind the cab and new alternator (on the driver’s seat). The trans was also service shortly before it was parked, just not sure what that means. Oil was changed regularly and the truck was well maintained until my father in law bought a new truck and this one got put on a back burner. His plan was to fix all the issues and then sell, but he simply has not gotten to it in the past year and my mother in law is nagging him to get rid of the truck. I offered to help him by fixing all the issues so he could sell and he ended up telling me that if I get it out of the driveway, it’s mine.
SO.. What it needs. Rear brake lines from the cab back, tires, battery ground cable looks pretty bad so that will get replaced. After the trans was serviced, it never was easy to shift between park-reverse-and drive, the previously mentioned alternator, and the main reason I believe it was parked, the driver’s window is stuck in the down position.
The only rust on the truck’s body are the rockers under the doors, they are gone, otherwise the body is pretty rust free. Surprisingly the bed is pretty straight and the tailgate is good.
Beyond fixing the known issues and address some serviceable items, my plan is to pull the bed off and sell it, front fenders will get a healthy trimming. Might build a simple flat bed with a tool box and storage. Some very basic bumpers with recovery points, and the winch off the jeep. I already bought some 35’s with rims and I had a 35 that I will use as spare. I will cut out the rest of what is left of the rockers and build some basic rocker guards. I am contemplating just taking the doors off, but we’ll see. The driver’s seat is piss poor (F-I-L is only 5ft 5in so the side is very worn) Gonna search the junk yard for some bucket with some side bolsters, also gutting the carpet, it is gross and smells funky.
In my research, other than the C-clips the rear is pretty stout for a ½ ton axle of that era. 9.25” ring gear, the shafts are about the same diameter at the splines as a Dana 60, and they gradually taper out getting bigger at the flange to almost 2" diameter. I have yet to crack the diff on this truck, but I believe it is a LSD rear. I might see if I can find a junk yard open diff then weld it up.
Front is a CAD d44, EMS offroad as a CAD delete kit that replaces the inner shafts with solid chromo’s for a decent price, might consider this route then weld up that diff.
So far with tires I bought and some other parts to get it running, I am at a total $255. I’ll try to document my spending on this as I go.
Topic: The Trail Plug, temporary wheeler (Read 289 times)
