traxiii

What ratio, 4.56?

cwoody08

I went with 4.88's. After reading a lot, a lot of people said to go with 4.88'a for 37's. A lot said 4.56 too, but I think more said 4.88. I pull a 26 foot car trailer a lot, so I figured 4.88 would be the "better safe than sorry" route.

VA02SCREW

What brand of PA speakers do you have and did you run an amp to them?

Family_Wagon

Looks good. How's the bedliner holding up on the chrome rear bumper? What prep work did you do to it?

cwoody08

Alright, my regearing is done and I've put 2 tanks of gas in it, and it's absolutely awesome. I only got like half a tank in with the 37's before regearing, but it's such a huge difference. The 4.88's and 37's accelerate and feel more powerful/better than it did with the stock gears and 33's! Also, I got WAY better gas mileage than I've been getting. I've had a CEL on for a while now that's been a PITA to get off after doing my exhaust system, so I have been getting 10-12 with the 33's on. My first tank doing mostly highway with about 30 miles of interstate on the 37's with 4.88 gears I calculated 15.1 mpg... but then I remembered the difference in the odometer so I actually got 13.6. I'm losing about a tenth of a mile for every mile I drive right now, or 10%. But the fact that I got better gas mileage with the regearing and 37's than I did before pleasantly surprised me to say the least. I'll put some more tanks in and see if I keep getting better and let you guys know.

Overall, the regearing is AWESOME. It's more powerful than I was with 33's and stock gears and so far I'm getting better gas mileage. And it's WAY more fun to drive.

cwoody08

These are the speakers I got:

Just some cheap pyles. I don't run an amp to them, I just run them straight to my cb the Uniden Bearcat:


As far as I've seen, it's plenty loud. You can hear them clear as day coming from a long ways a way. People in their houses can hear me talking to them, and you can easily hear them across the length of a baseball field. It's cheap, it's easy, so I didn't feel the need to do anything else. I'm in class right now, but I put the cb in a really cool place that I can post up a picture of that looks really good once I get out.

cwoody08

I sanded it really well with like 40 grit sandpaper, cleaned real well with acetone, then used 3 coats of Duplicolor Self-Etching Primer, then 3 coats of Duplicolor black primer, then the bedliner.

It's held up really well so far. I haven't babied it either. I step on the bumper every time to get in and I have a long gravel drive every day and I haven't noticed any problems with the finish, it still looks awesome. So far the only two places that I've got to redo is where the plastic meets the chrome on the bumper. I hadn't noticed but when I flipped the bumper upside down to clean it, water pooled there so when I flipped it back normal that water washed away my paint, so just watch out for that. Also, it can't handle any power washing. I went mudding and put my power washer with the lowest fitting it had to get the thick mud off (40 degree fitting) and held it a long ways away and it still chipped some on my sides that I have to redo. You still can't tell unless you look super close though.

Over all it's held up super well so far, and the prep work is pretty easy, straightforward. The bedliner is really awesome to spray paint with because it's textured so as long as you don't just pour it on you don't have to worry about runs and uneven finishes near as much as you do with normal spray paint. Plus if you screw up and get a run somewhere (I did a couple) you can literally just dab off the run with a towel, let it dry a couple minutes, and coat over it and you'll never even be able to tell. It's an awesome product.

Family_Wagon

Wow thanks for the info! I want to do this pretty bad as i do not like chrome at all. If theres an issue with a pressure washer how do you think itd do in one of those drive through car washes?

cwoody08

No problem! I've done everything on my truck myself (minus the regearing), so I can answer questions about any of it.

I was in the same boat as you, I absolutely hate chrome. I honestly can't really tell you how well it'd do in one of the car washes as mine hasn't fit in one of those in quite some time but the great thing about this bedliner is it's super easy to do touch ups even if something gets scraped. If the power washer chips part of it off literally all you have to do is clean it well and spray a few more layers on. Because of that, I wasn't real worried about the occasional chip here and there cause I knew it'd be easy to touch up every once in a while.

cwoody08

Quick Update: I have just ordered lightning headlights and a full retrofit kit from TRS. Also my edge evolution programmer is on it's way as well so a couple pretty big things will be coming in soon.

I was out mudding to test out my new tires (which performed unbelievably) and my truck slid down like a 5 foot straight down drop and got pinned up on a culvert, which snapped my driveshaft. So I put the truck in the shed for a while and did a few things while I was waiting for my junkyard driveshaft to come in:

I changed out all my spark plugs. This really wasn't all that bad, not near as hard as I was expecting.

Put in a new fuel filter. This was a real pita to get the stupid "quick disconnect" hoses off. Sat under my truck for a while doing this.

Driveshaft off of a junkyard f150 is now put on, seems to be doing fine, I took the truck camping yesterday and it drove really well.

Painted my front bumper with the rustoleum bedliner to match everything else because the powdercoating was getting rusty and chipping off. Turned out really good.

Added three new rocker switches to my truck, one for the light bar and fog lights on the bumper, one for the roof that bar that I don't have yet, and a toggle switch to control my winch from inside my cab which is very handy.

Starting to paint some of the interior of my truck with the rustoleum bedliner. Not gonna go crazy with it but it provides a nice contrast I think.

Oh yeah I just realized that I didn't actually have a cold air intake, I just have a K&N air filter, so I'm gonna be getting one of those here pretty soon to compliment my programmer!

I think that's about it. I'm really excited to see how the headlights turn out and how the programmer does. I'll update with pics later and I'll be sure to post an update on how the programmer and retrofit go. I'm still getting better gas mileage with the 4.88's and 37's than I ever did with the 33's, so that's awesome lol. Hoping to get even better when the programmer comes in, especially since it should eliminate my no cats CEL.