tail gate ramp
From : scott
Q: ron m. wrote first i want to thank all you guys for your advice and encouragement. i could not have done this without you. literally. in my case theres really not a down side. it works perfectly. note here im talking about the powertrax no-slip and not the powertrax lock-right. the no-slip releases the inside wheel during turns which eliminates the problems tire chirping jerking etc. associated with driving lockers on the street. when not turning however it locks up absolutely rock solid. most of the time i cant even tell its back there. it does sort of clunk a little bit more felt than heard sort of like a gear shifting when you accelerate out of a turn or from coasting but its really not noticeable. the fact that im using 75w-140 synthetic gear oil helps too. but its great. the inside tire quietly disengages in a turn and in straight lines it locks up steel-beam-solid with full power to both rear wheels. theres one place leaving my house where you stop at a stop sign going up a very steep slope. when its raining its almost impossible to move out of that stop without spinning a rear wheel fast enough to smoke the rubber. with this baby though my truck moved up that hill in a pouring rain like it was being pulled with an invisible cable. wonderful. i can hardly wait to try a little mud. i have heard of some people having problems with powertraxes or a lot of noise or whatever but they are in a small minority. of course youd feel it more if you slammed the gas pedal to the floorboard every time you went through a turn or something. but otherwise if its installed correctly it works. theres a 2-year warranty by the way and its approximately 3 times stronger than your rear axle itself. a couple of things. first its kinda scary installing it the first time especially if youve never been in a differential before. sometimes things dont line up the way theyre supposed to so you push and pull on stuff or do it over and then it works. you have to be a little creative because it doesnt always work exactly the way the instructions say. for example - i couldnt turn the case so the pinion shaft hole would line up. i had to lever a big screwdriver against the pinion gear teeth to turn it. - when replacing the bolts in the differential cover and the pinion shaft retaining bolt there is no mention of using loctite which is absolutely vital. - the final test where somebody holds one wheel and the other one rotates freely in the opposite direction didnt work right. the r wheel would disengage while somebody held the l wheel but not vice-versa. i could not disengage the l wheel. in a panic i called powertrax tech support and they were nonchalant they said it was just a stiff synchro ring no problem just drive it a while to break it in and loosen it up dont worry about it. - i had to remove the disk brake calipers so i could slide the axle in and out a few inches as is required. no big deal just two bolts holding on each caliper and then i hung it from the axle to keep the weight off the rubber hose. easy. but.... i had no idea that the brakes would close up after i took them off the rotor!!!!! the rotor was an inch thick but the brakes had closed up to about 1/2 an inch!!! what i did was get a 1/2 ratchet wrench then put a 12 socket extension on it. then i stuck the handle of the wrench between the brake pads and twisted it using the extension as a lever. it forced the pads far enough apart to get them back onto the rotor. it had me worried for a while there... -; since i went slowly it was my first time and i was being meticulously careful i spent two days on this. now though i could easily do it in less than an hour and most of that would be spent removing tires brakes the differential cover etc. the actual installation taking maybe 10 minutes. these arent designed in new cars because they can sometimes be tricky to drive especially on ice or snow. since most streets slope downwards to the outside on ice the outside wheel can pull you down to the curb if youre not careful. theres also the matter of occasional clunks and thunks which can bother some people. the limited slip which is standard on almost all so-called 4 by 4s isnt a locker. if one wheel is spinning it allows about 15%-20% power to go to the other wheel. thats all. they are expensive and have numerous parts to wear out and break. differentials are critical parts and must be reliable. working on a differential is not something youre going to do by the side of the road under a tire jack. trust me. the powertrax no-slip releases the inside wheel during turns but in a straight line it locks up solid with full 100% power going to both wheel spinning or not. thats why they call it a locker. there is no slipping of any kind within the system. the standard open differential is simple cheap quiet lasts forever and theyre what most people are use
Replies:
From : roy
that idiot who made the killfile comment i forget his handle because hes already in my killfile need to leave this wonderful country and never return. i know this is not the correct forum for political topics but without the heroes past and present we would not have any forum to talk about anything. just my two cents... copper you can talk about anything you want this forum is not moderated. roy http//members.cox.net/classicweb/heroes/heroes.htm -- fmb only one b in fmb .
From : roy
i prefer the reg cab so from yalls experience which one will last the longest the one you do regular maintenance onyall thanks for the tip id never have thought of that. how long it take you to come up with that kind of wisdom tb .
From : trey
hello iam needing tires on a 2002 dodge ram 4x4 and am trying to decide if i should bite the bullet and jump to the 20 in rims and tires. was wondering if anybody has made the change and if so how it affected performance. i assume the bigger rim will hurt it some with speed as well as mpg any thoughts thanks in advance tom .
From : bob
from the op today i installed the powertrax no-slip in my 2002 dodge ram 1500 2wd. its a regular open differential. what vehicle did you install that in -- if at first you dont succeed youre not cut out for skydiving first i want to thank all you guys for your advice and encouragement. i could not have done this without you. literally. in my case theres really not a down side. it works perfectly. note here im talking about the powertrax no-slip and not the powertrax lock-right. the no-slip releases the inside wheel during turns which eliminates the problems tire chirping jerking etc. associated with driving lockers on the street. when not turning however it locks up absolutely rock solid. most of the time i cant even tell its back there. it does sort of clunk a little bit more felt than heard sort of like a gear shifting when you accelerate out of a turn or from coasting but its really not noticeable. the fact that im using 75w-140 synthetic gear oil helps too. but its great. the inside tire quietly disengages in a turn and in straight lines it locks up steel-beam-solid with full power to both rear wheels. theres one place leaving my house where you stop at a stop sign going up a very steep slope. when its raining its almost impossible to move out of that stop without spinning a rear wheel fast enough to smoke the rubber. with this baby though my truck moved up that hill in a pouring rain like it was being pulled with an invisible cable. wonderful. i can hardly wait to try a little mud. i have heard of some people having problems with powertraxes or a lot of noise or whatever but they are in a small minority. of course youd feel it more if you slammed the gas pedal to the floorboard every time you went through a turn or something. but otherwise if its installed correctly it works. theres a 2-year warranty by the way and its approximately 3 times stronger than your rear axle itself. a couple of things. first its kinda scary installing it the first time especially if youve never been in a differential before. sometimes things dont line up the way theyre supposed to so you push and pull on stuff or do it over and then it works. you have to be a little creative because it doesnt always work exactly the way the instructions say. for example - i couldnt turn the case so the pinion shaft hole would line up. i had to lever a big screwdriver against the pinion gear teeth to turn it. - when replacing the bolts in the differential cover and the pinion shaft retaining bolt there is no mention of using loctite which is absolutely vital. - the final test where somebody holds one wheel and the other one rotates freely in the opposite direction didnt work right. the r wheel would disengage while somebody held the l wheel but not vice-versa. i could not disengage the l wheel. in a panic i called powertrax tech support and they were nonchalant they said it was just a stiff synchro ring no problem just drive it a while to break it in and loosen it up dont worry about it. - i had to remove the disk brake calipers so i could slide the axle in and out a few inches as is required. no big deal just two bolts holding on each caliper and then i hung it from the axle to keep the weight off the rubber hose. easy. but.... i had no idea that the brakes would close up after i took them off the rotor!!!!! the rotor was an inch thick but the brakes had closed up to about 1/2 an inch!!! what i did was get a 1/2 ratchet wrench then put a 12 socket extension on it. then i stuck the handle of the wrench between the brake pads and twisted it using the extension as a lever. it forced the pads far enough apart to get them back onto the rotor. it had me worried for a while there... -; since i went slowly it was my first time and i was being meticulously careful i spent two days on this. now though i could easily do it in less than an hour and most of that would be spent removing tires brakes the differential cover etc. the actual installation taking maybe 10 minutes. these arent designed in new cars because they can sometimes be tricky to drive especially on ice or snow. since most streets slope downwards to the outside on ice the outside wheel can pull you down to the curb if youre not careful. theres also the matter of occasional clunks and thunks which can bother some people. the limited slip which is standard on almost all so-called 4 by 4s isnt a locker. if one wheel is spinning it allows about 15%-20% power to go to the other wheel. thats all. they are expensive and have numerous parts to wear out and break. differentials are critical parts and must be reliable. working on a differential is not something youre going to do by the side of the road under a tire jack. trust me. the powertrax no-slip releases the inside wheel during turns but in a straight line it locks up