www.laspeedgarage.com

A quick video of a bone stock, 80k mile Dodge out doing its thing in Utah. Fully aired up and loaded with family and kiddies. Just pulled in off the highway for a quick spin while on a recent road trip to the Utah Parks. Enjoy.

Wow, you embedded a video!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great video.

I love terrain like that. Not so much into rock crawling.

You would have a blast on the Bradshaw Trail (the last trip I did) or the Mojave Road with that rig.

Yeah, I was not at all prepped for Dune running. I literally pulled right off the highway from running ....um, fast for quite a long time and just drove in.

Like I said, fully aired up, cab full of kiddies and family, aired up and the bed empty. I had previously had a great time in the Dunes in this truck out at both Olancha and Dumont. With a few hundred pounds of fire wood in the bed, it totally eliminates the wheel hop and if I were to air down, it would really get around.

I had also discovered that running in "Tow/Haul" mode really helps spice things up, as that program is set to run around higher octane fuel, runs a more aggressive parameter regarding timing and better yet, holds gears in the Auto trans a lot longer and makes firmer shifts when it does go for another gear.

I made the mistake of being in a hurry, all alone out in the middle of no where with no recovery gear or anything. Being just with the family in totally unfamiliar territory, I was playing it VERY safe. Not getting into anything I couldn't clearly get myself out of.

What was stupid was, that if you shut off the truck, it defaults to the "normal" fuel efficient, lazy shifting low octane tune when you restart it. I had shut it off to play with the GoPro mounts, and it did just that. I didn't realize it at first, so for most of that video, the truck can be heard lazily slugging around, hunting back and forth for gears, etc. In the other mode it is much stronger, responsive and firm. Plus, with an empty bed and high tire psi, you can see it wanting to wheel hop if I got into anything over half throttle. But, it worked. Good truck.

I was looking for a close up of the 20" wheel / tire combo on it, but these are all I found.

Ignore the dent in the door...

Have you ever heard of Carli Suspensions?

http://www.thecarlisuspension.com/dodge-ram/suspension/

No. Looks expensive!

I gotta admit something really stupid. The main reason I have kept this truck 100% bone stock (can't EVER remember doing that before) was because it came with the "Lifetime Powertrain Warranty" when I purchased it. I bought it and thought , man! I'll keep this thing FOREVER! They'll be hating me, when in 15 years and 200k miles I roll in looking for a new motor and trans.


Trick was, you have to go in every five years for a factory "Check Up" to confirm that the vehicle wasn't modded or whatever to continue your warranty coverage. Now, when I looked through the paperwork, I logged that info away in the back of my mind. That was five years ago. It was due, shortly after I had crashed out at Willow last Sept. breaking my ribs, collarbone and giving myself one hell of a concussion that resulted in some memory loss and some on-going goofyness. Well, I put it off until I could get myself together and then went down there. Sure as hell, -yeah, like you didn't see this coming- I was exactly SIX days late in getting the inspection done and they flat dropped the Lifetime Warranty!!! No if's, ands or buts. Oh well. It has and continues to be a damn fine truck, and I don't regret it a bit. But ain't that a bitch?

Brakelate wrote:No. Looks expensive!

I gotta admit something really stupid. The main reason I have kept this truck 100% bone stock (can't EVER remember doing that before) was because it came with the "Lifetime Powertrain Warranty" when I purchased it. I bought it and thought , man! I'll keep this thing FOREVER! They'll be hating me, when in 15 years and 200k miles I roll in looking for a new motor and trans.


Trick was, you have to go in every five years for a factory "Check Up" to confirm that the vehicle wasn't modded or whatever to continue your warranty coverage. Now, when I looked through the paperwork, I logged that info away in the back of my mind. That was five years ago. It was due, shortly after I had crashed out at Willow last Sept. breaking my ribs, collarbone and giving myself one hell of a concussion that resulted in some memory loss and some on-going goofyness. Well, I put it off until I could get myself together and then went down there. Sure as hell, -yeah, like you didn't see this coming- I was exactly SIX days late in getting the inspection done and they flat dropped the Lifetime Warranty!!! No if's, ands or buts. Oh well. It has and continues to be a damn fine truck, and I don't regret it a bit. But ain't that a bitch?

Well if you have lifetime powertrain, the shocks shouldn't affect any of that (yes I know dealers like to weasel out of everything)

I remind them of this though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson–Moss_Warranty_Act

Well, I tried the Magnussin (Sp?) decision years ago and got beat down by Ford for simply adding a drop-in K&N filter on my '01 Cobra years ago when it was throwing CEL codes. Turned out to be a bad COP but got me ejected from AVFord for raising hell. Sure, you can be right, but you'll go broke fighting Ford, or any other large corporation over it.