New Snoking RAM thread! (Name changed)

Use this forum for technical questions regarding tow vehicles.

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snoking

Re: Who has gone from a long boxTV to a short box?

Post by snoking »

Well this morning I installed the factory hitch pucks in the frame brackets and put the trailer plug in the bed. You have to tip one side of the bed up at a time to install the pucks. Took about 3.25 hours for the pucks and .74 hours for the in bead trailer plug. OH, and a garbage can pee'd in the bed Friday. Truck weighed in at 8220 coming out of the dump with a full tank of fuel and a few light plastic garbage cans.

Order the Hijacker picture frame this morning and a B&W RVK3270 18K manual slider. Chris

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Dogpatch
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Re: Who has gone from a long boxTV to a short box?

Post by Dogpatch »

snoking wrote:Well this morning I installed the factory hitch pucks in the frame brackets and put the trailer plug in the bed. You have to tip one side of the bed up at a time to install the pucks. Took about 3.25 hours for the pucks and .74 hours for the in bead trailer plug. OH, and a garbage can pee'd in the bed Friday. Truck weighed in at 8220 coming out of the dump with a full tank of fuel and a few light plastic garbage cans.

Order the Hijacker picture frame this morning and a B&W RVK3270 18K manual slider. Chris

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Nice job snoking!

Shame about the garbage can pee. Probably should have let him out earlier! LOL
Les, Bonnie, Morgan and (Four Leggers) Bella and Bruce
2010 Cardinal 3450RL pushing our 2015 Ram 3500 Laramie 4X4 SRW SB 6.7 ltr Cummins Turbo Diesel, 68RFE Trans, Air Bags, Pullrite Superglide 2900 18K
snoking

Re: Who has gone from a long boxTV to a short box?

Post by snoking »

Fedex is saying that the Hijacker picture frame and B&W RVK3270 manual slide hitch should be here today. Ordered them yesterday from Tweety's and they drop shipped them from a warehouse in Toutdale, Or. Chris
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Don Wilson
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Re: Who has gone from a long boxTV to a short box?

Post by Don Wilson »

snoking wrote:Fedex is saying that the Hijacker picture frame and B&W RVK3270 manual slide hitch should be here today. Ordered them yesterday from Tweety's and they drop shipped them from a warehouse in Toutdale, Or. Chris
If you had to pay freight you probably could have driven down and picked it up cheaper.

Don
We don't know a stranger only friends we haven't met yet!

Don
2019 Cardinal 3350RLX Luxury Edition
2014 Dodge 3500 2WD DRW Long Bed

2023 Nights Camped 33
2022 Nights Camped 24
2021 Nights Camped 46


Rallies Attended - 50
Frog - 5
snoking

Re: Who has gone from a long boxTV to a short box?

Post by snoking »

Don Wilson wrote:
snoking wrote:Fedex is saying that the Hijacker picture frame and B&W RVK3270 manual slide hitch should be here today. Ordered them yesterday from Tweety's and they drop shipped them from a warehouse in Toutdale, Or. Chris
If you had to pay freight you probably could have driven down and picked it up cheaper.

Don
Shipping was free along with a very good price from Tweety's. Besides I already have the first 500 miles on the clock, plus another 1K. :)) :)) :))

Chris
snoking

Re: Who has gone from a long boxTV to a short box?

Post by snoking »

Sold the 2001.5 today. Chris
snoking

Re: Who has gone from a long boxTV to a short box?

Post by snoking »

Ok, getting the hitch put together. With the B&W RVK3270 and Hijacker 6099 picture frame it is going to be around 270 lbs. So I went to Harbor Freight today and bought a 880 lbs AC hoist, so I can put it in and out as a single piece. It was to fast in 440 single line, so I put the snatch block in. Will be able to lift the heavy front box in and out also, along with the yard waste tote to go to the dump. Now if I could just get the missing pieces for the Hijacker picture frame!!

Chris

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snoking

Re: Who has gone from a long boxTV to a short box?

Post by snoking »

Well, yesterday I finally received the missing Demco pieces and have the B&W RVK3270 slider hitch installed in the truck. The V-Box with a replacement Park View camera is going to fit behind the hitch fine. The front Truck Trunk box is going to have to be modified on the back lower corner to clear the wheel wells and the front of the slider hitch. That is today's project to cut a 6" H x 12" L rear lower corner off and invert it and pop rivet it all back together with aluminum angles to hold it in place. So the box will have one area that is 16" deep in the front 14.5" inches (front to back) and then raise up to 10" deep in the back foot. I may put a vertical divider at the step up, so I can store my tools on the upper level without them falling down into the lower level.

Another advantage of running the V-Box and not the tail gate is that with the 12" slider they warned me that the tail gate would have to be lower to slide it back and not the pin box/mount contact the tail gate. It appears that this is going to be a good solution to that issue and provide the enclosed storage that we are use to. The front box will be close the the front of the hitch when in the travel position, so that is not going to be a lot of extra room in the bed. Box - Hitch- Box. For the B&W release lever to swing forward, the hitch will have to be in the rear position, which will more or less force me to slide it before starting to spot the trailer, which is good and lessens the chance of damaging the back of the cab. After this front box installation it will be time for a test tow and look to see if the pin box bike rack is still going to work or if the bikes will have to go on a roof rack on the crew cab.

Oh yeah, the electric hoist is working great. I played around yesterday with standing the hitch on its rear vertically on my 4 wheel dolly(not the garden cart pictured above) so it can be stored in the garage when out of the truck. I hope to be able to "pick" the whole hitch and picture frame as a single unit(270 lbs) out of the truck for storage. Chris

In this picture you can see the camera cabling coming out of the back of the bed and into the box. The black dot in the middle of the box in the Park View Video camera. I order a replacement OEM camera and the two OEM cables to make this work for around $225. I did get rid of the connectors between the two cables, soldering and heat shrinking the wires together. These extra large plugs inside a tail gate would not be a problem, however in the V-Box they would have just been in the way of the two golf bags.
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The Demco Hijacker picture frame has very robust latches that lock into the frame pucks.
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snoking

Re: Who has gone from a long boxTV to a short box?

Post by snoking »

Modified the front box today and got it installed.

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Tight on box in tow position.

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Rear position.

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Front latch under box step.

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Top off view.

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Snoking
snoking

Re: Who has gone from a long boxTV to a short box?

Post by snoking »

I hooked up and did a test tow today. Did a little clearance testing to the front box. The removed the braces for the front of the bike rack down to the pin box and will reinstall them a bit farther to the rear.

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I did some tight turning without sliding the hitch back, and later went to Wally World's big parking lot and test sharp turns going forward. I did cut the corners off the turned up lip on the pin box after this picture.


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Truck settled to level towing.

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So I ran it down to Donna's truck stop in Marysville and weighed it. It is not loaded for Arizona, so 400-600 lbs of Stuff will be added most likely.

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It appears to stay in 5th gear in TH at 60-65 mph. Tows nice, mirrors work nice, and I am a happy camper. Truck settles 2 inches with hitch in rear position.

Trying the bike of the rack now, and bikes a going to clear the cab fine. I moved the straps for the bike rack to pin box back, so they will not be an issue.

Time to go for a camping trip.

The DEF was down below 1/2 a bit so I bought a 2.5 gal jug for WM and it only took about 1.5-2 gals to fill it back up.

Chris
snoking

Re: Who has gone from a long boxTV to a short box?

Post by snoking »

Stage 1:
So I have been playing this with WEBOFCAM app free for the play store on two android devices. A tablet and an old smart phone. One can be set as camera and the other as the display. They need to be on a common wifi network in the truck, so I turned on the hotspot on current Moto X. Hung the old smart phone from the box in the bed just ahead for the hitch and set the tablet on the console, and I had a hitch'n camera for free. There is a slight delay in the picture, so you have to go slow. Will work on a mount for the smart phone to be just placed on the box while hitch'n.

Going to see if I can find another app that is also free with less delay. Also will check to see if I hang the smart phone on the back of the trailer for park assist if it will reach the cab with the signal.

Stage 2:
Found another free IP WEBCAM app that has less delay. On the remote device you just use the browser and flash. You need to be on a common WiFi network, which the hotspot will do. And I have a Verizon JetPack, so that makes a good offline WiFi hub/Router. Here is a picture of the tablet, HTC Rezound Smart phone pointed at the JetPack. SNOKING

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Stage 3:
Here is a picture of the tablet with the hitch via the smart phone to tablet link using IP WEBCAM.
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Now to work out an easy quick mount! Remote control for front jacks would be good!

Stage 4:
Ordered a smart phone mount to play around with on the back of the front box.

Chris
snoking

Re: Who has gone from a long boxTV to a short box?

Post by snoking »

Well I got to try this out this morning. Takes a couple minutes to boot up the tablet, hotspot and old smart phone, however it is really worth it. Watched it slide right in and latch handle swing closed. Chris

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Old Smart phone just sits on the box while hooking up.
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snoking

Re: Who has gone from a long boxTV to a short box?

Post by snoking »

Well last night was my yacht club's Commodore's Ball and I turned the leadership of the club over to my Vice Commodore. They had the club house decorated really nice. As you may know we sold our boat after 19 years this fall and bought a new RAM 3500 with the proceeds. And guess what was on the center pieces of all the tables? You guessed it RAM trucks! The party host spent hours detailing this little truck out adding the silver to the rocker panels and bumpers so it matched our new truck. Pretty neat! The hood, front doors and tailgate open, and the center console matches are Laramie! Chris

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Re: Who has gone from a long boxTV to a short box?

Post by Double D's »

How VERY thoughtful of them to DO that for you!!! I LOVE IT! And the TRUCK, BTW! My very most favorite color........ Now, GO CAMPING!
http://www.ddbalfanz.blogspot.com/

Double D's - Dennis and Donna

2013 Cardinal 3675- The "Double D Retreat"
Trail Air Pin Box and Suspension
2007 Chevy Dually 3500, Duramax
Rallies - 20
Days out in 2015- 145
Days out in 2014 - 71
Days out in 2013 - 187 Alaska
snoking

Re: Who has gone from a long boxTV to a short box?

Post by snoking »

Look at the detail inside the model truck! Chris

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