Alright I am close to making the choice to put my truck into a caccoon. You know shoving it into the shop while gathering the parts needed to do it right and with all of the good stuff. When it is all said and done I have several goals in mind. Utter reliability, respectable performance (400-450 H.P.), Able to provide 20MPG, carry anything a 2 5/16 ball can hook to. Track down the road straight and true with no wobbles or sore arms from correcting, Stop in a reasonable distance for a 3.5 ton vehicle. I want it to be able to traverse terrain that a full size should not be able to. Haul my families 28'travel trailer around with ease. Haul a cord of wood in the bed ( no stack). Use parts that are readily available, and easily field seviceable. Extend my range without stopping. Self recovery would also be nice. And oh yeah do it all myself in my shop.

Some thoughts I have are going to a manual tranny to many electronics right now for me. Lockers, and eliminate the pain in the neck hubs! Upgrade all of the gauges, put in an Atlas transfer case, and one piece driveshaft. Change gearing to something around a 4.11 or 3.73. Replace the suspension for more flex, handling and load carrying capability. Replace the body mounts with urethane. A large decent winch.

Alright enough of my rambling, I feel I have the skills, the money will come, and I have the place and the equipment to tackle it. Or go out and find a newer truck and put this one out to pasture?

Let me know youre thoughts.

 

Get an 03/04 with a 6 speed and the extended cab, lots of room, not as many steering problems, quiet, lots of power, easy to tune, lots of good suspension upgrades available and the list goes on! Good luck!

 

I vote for updating the 12V. I have a 3rd gen, and while it's nice to drive, it has not proven to be very reliable at all. As a matter of fact, it's the only truck I own that has left me stranded on the side of the road numerous times (cracked injector bodies on stock running truck). You just can't beat the dependability of a properly maintained 122V truck. I think you are on the right track, and I will be doing a full restoration on a '96 truck that will eventually become my daily driver.

 

I am not a big fan of electronics. I might pass this one off to one of my daughters.

 

Put the money into the 12 valve. Think about this for a minute, (and this is my theory on things) The money you were to spend, and THEN up grade another rig, if you put that into the one you already have, which I assume is paid for, that would be one helluva rig!

The return on your investment may not be near what you put into it, but in the end it is all worth it!
The 12valve is serviceable in the field, 90% of them get in the 20's on the highway, the aftermarket community is HUGE, your truck can fit your goals exactly how you wish!
Y the gear swap? You would not like 4.10's that will eat into the fuel mileage as well. If anything, 3.73's if you absolutly must swap gears. I wouldnt worry so much about the T-case, with the proper maintenance that 241 will handle anything you will want to throw at it.

 

I was thinking of going to a taller tire and fiberglass front fenders. That is why I would contemplate a gearing change.

 

Where is most of your driving at? If its mainly highway then the gear swap and taller tires would be good and should definately net you 20mpg, if its mostly city driving those 3.73's and bigger meats will hurt your fuel econ. It will take more pedal to get the momentum going just to hit the brakes again... Ya need to find a happy medium depending on driving habits..

 

I agree. I do want taller tires a gear swap would be help me maintain what I have. My driving is a mix of stuff; 60-70% 50 MPH and over, the rest logging roads. As for towing 15% of the time it is hitched up with nothing less than 7.5 K.

 

I wont let my 12v go. If I were to wreck the truck, I'd just go out and find another to build. Easy to build, easy maintenance. I love it.

 

How much bigger rubber are you going to? I'm running 4.10's and 39.5 Boggers, and the gears are too low. I want to run 3.73's with my 40's...the 4.10s are just too low on the highway...

What's your gearing right now? If you're staying below 35's, you don't need anything lower(numerically higher) than a 3.55. Once you start adding power to the cummins, you won't need gears to compensate for the extra torque of the big rubber.

If you run a 12V, you can eliminate virtually ALL of the electronics...running an A518 (91-93 Dodges with Cummins) or 47RH (94-98 Dodges with Cummins) The 47RH would be most favorable (or upgrade to a NV4500) as it's got the TCC LockUp switch.