BTF Fabrication Ram 1500 4wd LT Build

[DirtKingDodge]

Hey guys and gals,

I'm Rob. I've been a long time lurker, sometimes poster, and now I'm (finally) making thread for my Ram LT build.

I've wanted to do a LT kit since back in 08-09 when I first saw KORE come out with their Tech series kit. Being in college/broke/young, I never had the chance to pull the trigger. Fast foreword a few years and the stars aligned to where I can finally pull it off. After a few unsuccessful attempts at finding a shops to do the work, my buddies at CJC Offroad recommended BTF who had just finished a Ranger build for them. After discussing details and a timeline with them, I drove to California from Texas and dropped off my truck! Below I will post the build specs and progress pics. They are just now getting started on stuff so nothing super cool to see yet....but stay tuned! Truck is a 2007 Ram 1500 4wd

Parts list (I'll list what I think is going to go down and I'll update it once we actually order everything)

- BTF fabbed Upper and Lower (boxed) control arms and spindle (heimed tierods, 1.5" uniballs)
- BTF engine cage/simple bed cage
- 17" KMC Enduro black beadlocks (I've had a man crush on these wheels forever)
- 37" Toyo MT's
- Fiberwerx front glass (still haven't decided on the rear, will either get rear glass or roll the bed sides)
- Some type of race seats

Front:

- 10" King 2.5 Coilover
- 10" King 3.0 Three Tube Bypass
- Straps

Should be around 17" of travel WITH functional 4wd

Rear:

- LT Deavers undersprung with BTF 12" dropped shackles
- 18" King 3.0 Three Tube Bypass

Hoping to net around 19" of travel in the rear

Current mods on the truck:

- Built 5.7 Hemi (cammed, new internals, Diablo tuned, angry)
- LT headers -> Magnaflow exhaust
- Edge torque converter 2800 stall (on its way out)
- 4.56 Motive gears
- Intake
- ADD Bumper w/lights bars

It should get me from A to B! I know I'm going to need an interior cage, I'll have to save back up and take it easy for now. That and maybe linking it will come later on. Other plans are upgraded transmission, slip yoke eliminator and new drive shaft.

Here are some current pics of the trucks since I dropped it off with BTF. Right now the plan is to pic it up the first week of March!

That's all I have for now. Over the next few weeks I'll post progress pics as I get them! Also, since my truck has been at their shop, some all Ram prerunners have popped up that are pretty sweet. I'm a big fan of the Chevy prerunners, but it's nice to finally see some Rams coming into the game!

Thanks for reading, stay tunned! Feel free to ask any questions and I'll do my best to accurately answer!

 

[DirtKingDodge]

Adding a few small update pics! Making some progress on the spindles, as well as testing the fitment/cycle. 16-17" 4x4 travel

The last pic has my old 35s on just FYI



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[baja619]

What are you doing for fender flares?

 

[DirtKingDodge]

What are you doing for fender flares?

Looking into Fiberwerx. Brandon said I'm going to need 6" flares after seeing that last pic. I don't want a very high rise. For the rear I still haven't decided. I've seen a few Dodges with rear glass and it I've never liked them, they're always way too wide. I'm either going to try to roll them or just bite the bullet and get bedsides. BTF is going to let me know once we have the wheels and tires.

Ps thanks for saying something, thought this thread might go from start to finish with no action lol

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[Dezertpilot]

Pretty cool build. How much power is the engine putting out?

 

[DirtKingDodge]

Pretty cool build. How much power is the engine putting out?

Thanks! I'm not 100% sure, I want to dyno it when I get it back but when I did the rebuild I added around 100hp in parts, plus my 93 octane tune. I would say since stock is around 345 (shaft) for mine, I'm probably around 400-420ish at the wheels now? Gears help me alot. I definitely want to get it dynoed though. They make a nice supercharger for this (its on the futures list)

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[Millermetalwerx]

Looks sweet! How do you like your engine setup? I'm gong to need to do something about my engine sooner or later. The pistons are breaking apart. I'm in between staying with the 5.7 or going 6.1.

 

[DirtKingDodge]

Looks sweet! How do you like your engine setup? I'm gong to need to do something about my engine sooner or later. The pistons are breaking apart. I'm in between staying with the 5.7 or going 6.1.

It's awesome man. I through 2 rods out of my block so I had to do a full rebuild. I was trying to decide between the 2 as well and went with rebuilding a 5.7 mainly because of cost. I did the mods below for just under 5k including install from a shop (bulk of the cost). The internals and the tune put me right about a stock SRT8 which, with my 4.56 gears and LT headers, gives you quite the kick in the pants! The right torque converter helps too. I might do a supercharger someday, maybe, we'll see. But yea I love it

08 Charger block
- HHP Non MDS Lifters
- New Cam and Crank bolts
- PSI 1511 Springs
- Trend Chromoly 0.080 5/16” Pushrods
- Milled my heads to 0.020
- Custom Comp Cam (212/220 .581/.576 110+1)
- Custom Diablo 93 Tune by Dave (Whitelightning)

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[pwerwagn]

That's lookin good!!

 

[Millermetalwerx]

Any updates?

 

[DirtKingDodge]

Man! Sorry for the lack of pics. I really got nothing to show. They are so busy over the haven't had time for pics. I did talk to them last night and he said the front is done and he'd get me some pics today so stay tuned.

So the front is done, glass will be there Friday and installed. The rear is getting done by next week. Wheels have been a PITA to get. KMC has been giving us the run around, but says they will be delivered next week, then they'll go straight to powder coating.

I'm heading over to mess with it/install some lights/do some testing on the 9th and 10th then head out to Barstow! Definitely going to be a photo finish.

I'll post up some pics today when he sends them over

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[DirtKingDodge]

Some small updates, it's crunch time! I'm going to pick it up a week from today!

Wheels and suspension components need to be painted, engine cage finished, rear bed cage finished, leafs/shackles installed, glass finished and some small things. They got it!

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[DirtKingDodge]

Update time!

Unfortunately I roasted the power steering in the first 20 min but, stuff like that is going to happen. That's going to be half the fun, finding the weak spots and hopefully bullet proofing them.

Here's the picture dump. They surprised me and completely redid my bumper (ADD prerunner bumper is for sale by the way) because my tires were hitting in with the up travel I have. The new bumper is so awesome. Very impressed with that and the kit overall. The rear is designed for 19" but it's strapped at 14.5" for now to save my drive shaft. I need to get something figured out there.

I'm not 100% happy with how it sits. I think I will be once the Deavers settle down a little bit. I think I'm used to seeing alot of 2wd trucks and how they sit, but I'll always be a little lower in the front being 4wd. He's adjusted the front us as much as he can. We did talk about swapping out the coil over springs (shorter top coil and longer bottom coil) which will give me a little more lift without affecting my travel, but that'll be a process with shipping back and forth with King, so I'll wait on that a little while.

Other than that it rides amazing! It way out performs my confidence in it (for now). Brandon at BTF and ride test drove it and he kept saying "you can hit that, go faster!" It's going to take me some time to get used to it and figure out what I can and can't go through. It was especially crazy in Barstow with doable whoops mixed in with canyons, and you can't tell what's what until you're on top of it. I was super impressed with what I drove through though. Did enough driving to find the rubbing spots and clearance issues with my rear fenders (easy fix).

Lastly, I can't say enough how awesome BTF was to work with. Their craftsmanship on this kit is really awesome/designed well. They are offering this a 2wd or 4wd kit now.

Future plans (ever growing): caged, new brakes, fix steering issue, slip yoke eliminator (get strapped to 19"), tubed rear bumper/tire carrier, new trans, procharger for the Hemi

Any questions let me know!

 

[DirtKingDodge]

Bump for the crickets lol. Any questions about anything?

 

[baja619]

Looks solid! Let us know how the 4wd works.

Have fun with it and keep it rubber side down.
That is what really matters!

 

[DirtKingDodge]

Looks solid! Let us know how the 4wd works.

Have fun with it and keep it rubber side down.
That is what really matters!

Will do on both counts! I'm still messing around with the power steering, trying to figure that out. Once that's good to go I can actually get some seat time and learn how to drive it all over again

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[John Bitting]

Congrats it looks bitchin. Cant wait to hear how it works once you get the little things worked out.

 

[Zambo]

That thing is going to go pretty fast. Take it easy with no roll cage. I took a Ramrunner down to Baja once, it really sucked up the bumps well even in kit form. Your build will no doubt exceed that by quite a bit. Also, don't sacrifice reliability for an extra inch of travel, make sure that thing is strapped and bumped well within its limits. Sorry for the free advice, your truck looks very cool.

Also, we ran an aftermarket trans controller with paddle shifters on our 45rfe and it worked very well. Not sure if they're still using that trans or something else in your truck but its something to look into. I wound up using the shifter on the tree in my Dodge without the controller to keep the RPMs up and prevent it from lugging like it wanted to do, which made it heat up.

 

[DirtKingDodge]

That thing is going to go pretty fast. Take it easy with no roll cage. I took a Ramrunner down to Baja once, it really sucked up the bumps well even in kit form. Your build will no doubt exceed that by quite a bit. Also, don't sacrifice reliability for an extra inch of travel, make sure that thing is strapped and bumped well within its limits. Sorry for the free advice, your truck looks very cool.

Also, we ran an aftermarket trans controller with paddle shifters on our 45rfe and it worked very well. Not sure if they're still using that trans or something else in your truck but its something to look into. I wound up using the shifter on the tree in my Dodge without the controller to keep the RPMs up and prevent it from lugging like it wanted to do, which made it heat up.

No I definitely appreciate it! Especially with your Dodge history. A buddy of mine is making WIY cages for 3rd gen Dodges and they are turning out pretty sweet. I'll be in line this summer for that, I plan on using the time before then and now to get used to the truck. I definitely have some cycling/adjusting to do. The straps have settled some so I need to re-adjust the front and get the valving right in the rear. Work in progress but that's half the fun right?

I'm planning on adding a trans cooler and most likely a cooler for the power steering pump. I have a PSC pump I'm putting in this weekend to see if it helps things stay cool, if not I'll get the cooler. Thanks again man

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[DirtKingDodge]

Got some updates! (finally)

Finished up the PSC pump/resi conversion. I'll detail what I did below. Had to have a couple of fittings made and finangle the resi in there, but all I can say is WOW. Turns like butter. Spins those 37s like they aren't there. It's almost TOO touchy. It's such a relief after PSC told me on the phone 1) he'd never heard of anyone doing this to a rack and pinion system and 2) he "had some concerns....but it should be fine", that made me feel great! So far so good though. The worst that can happen I guess is that I blow some seals out of my (new) rack, but so far it's been fine, even at lock to lock which PSC said I shouldn't do.

Here I had to find a place to bolt the bracket to hold the resi. It needs to be above the pump but close enough to make the connection hose as short as possible. Here's what I came up with. I'm sure I could improve it with some welding/grinding, but this was an easy bolt on solution that was quick and turned out GREAT after I hooked everything up. It's hard to tell, but I bolted it through the bottom of the battery box. It's sitting on this little filter looking thing, you'll see in a sec.

I also had to keep in mind I'll be airing the truck out so it needed to be secure. It was tight by itself, but got alot more secure once the hoses were in place.

Above shot. So from left to right you have the HP line from the pump dipping down below the resi going to the rack (fitting needed) , then you have the return line (fitting needed) from the cooler to the resi, then the feed line from the resi to the pump.

Back side shot you can see a little better

2 more pics of the feed line. It is really short. There is a 90 degree and a 45 degree fitting used at the pump an the resi which adds some length. If you look at the first pic I rotated the resi to be basically facing the firewall so that the 90 and 45 could work together and still be short and still have no bends in the line.

The tricky part you'll want to note about this pump is 1) my pump didn't come with any holes in the pulley (unlike the stock pulley), so you have to install the pump first, then put the pulley on after. Not that big of a deal, just an initial shocker. 2) this pump the HP line is on TOP, unlike the stock pulley which is on the bottom. If you look at a stock HP line, it come out of the bottom of the pump, does a little 90 degree swoop with a metal fitting, then the hose goes around to the metal fitting which plugs into the rack. I had to have a hose company make me a female fitting (pump connection) > hose > male fitting (rack).

Also something I'll have to work out later. Because the HP line comes straight up out of the pump, it can only bend so far and in certain directions. Behind the pulley is the only way for this to work, but unfortunately it's a tad too close, so I had to pull the zips out. I'm thinking of putting a 90 degree fitting adapter at the pump to make it 90 down and then to the rack, but that will be another call to PSC on another day, it works for now.

That's pretty much it! Let me know if you have any questions or want any more up close pics of anything. I'm stocked at how well this works. Just a few more tweaks of some things and I can hopefully get some actions shots. I'm planning on going to the Texas Raptor Run in Blackwell on the 20th. Show them SVT boys how its done!