I’m about 4k from the expiration of my 7yr/70,000 mile drive-train warranty. This is not a big deal to me as I expect to keep this 05’ NV5600 equipped SRW 3500 for a long time.

In Montana, we’re incentivized to drive older vehicles. After five years, the registration costs are cut by 2/3’s. Currently the tag costs $130.00 per year. At the ten-year point, you can buy a permanent tag for 1.5 times the current tag price. No more registration fees after that. My Jeep Cherokee Sport is 15 years old, has 267,000 miles and is going strong. I’ve owned it from mile 0 and I’m planning the same maintenance discipline for the CTD.
That said, it occurs to me that a practical upgrade may make a lot of sense. The Dodge’s main weakness is in the front end – steering linkages and front axle driveline.

It seems to me that if I could keep all that stuff from spinning 24/7 (whenever going down the road), at lot of maintenance issues go away. Lubing that front driveshaft is a knuckle-busting PITA and if it didn’t spin except when 4wd was needed, then how often would it need grease? Then there are the unit bearings and the drive shaft U-joints. Likely the latter would last a long time also.

And then the ball joints, the track bar, and the steering box reinforcement. In other words, a Carli upgrade? Having just completed 9000 mile tour of the US with a 3000# Lance camper mounted, the one thing I didn’t like was the steering. Vague is an understatement. Any sway in the box resulted in a drift in the opposite direction. That part wasn’t so bad as the dead space in the steering to get it headed back the other way. Factory ball joints probably. Steering dampener maybe. Tires and shocks are top shelf (Bilstein and Toyo).

So now the main questions are what to buy? And were to get it installed?

I do not have the workspace or tools to do that Free Spin front axle upgrade. So got to go somewhere, hopefully not so far away. Luckily, the Lance camper gives me a place to stay while the truck is being worked on.

There’s also the driveshaft, but I’ll ask about that in another post.