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LEDS!!!!!!!!!

and that last picture of the tailgate leads into my taillights again. i put up a post about modding my taillight wiring, specifically if or how i could make a second bulb light up in the taillights. it was suggested to tap into the wiring near the brake pedal, but i cheated and made it easier on myself. A trip to the local junkyard yeilded a set of brake light sockets off a wrecked 97 ram, and then i tapped the corrisponding wires to my rams brake wiring behind the taillights, and vola! i have two bulbs per side that light up. since i loved those leds ive been using, i bought a second set to match, and plugged it into the reverse housing in the taillights. aside from the picture above which is the daytime, heres a couple other pictures, at night.

this ones a bit rough, but it shows just how bright these suckers are, and this is without the brake on...

 

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the light up hitch accessory is a chrome ram head logo close to the 4th gens logo. i lopped of the four prong wiring and wired it into my license plate wiring, and the left and right wires from the accessory to the power wire as well, this way the only way this lights up is when the lights are on, it doesnt get brighter when i brake and it doesnt flash with my turn signals, just the way i wanted it. its just a small little touch, but i like it.

 

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MORE LEDS! like i said, im in love with leds, and my obsession hasnt subsided. thanks to vleds again, i oreded a set of switchback turn signal bulbs. if you dont know what those are, ill explain. when i turn my parking lights on, the leds light up white, mine specifically close to the 6000k white to match my headlight hids. then when you hit your turn signal, they cut to amber leds. once the turn is complete, they cut back to white. vleds offers two types, type one your turn signal flashes white/amber/white/amber and so on. type two flashes amber only, which is what i wanted, and got.

leds off

running lights

turn signal

and a full view

 

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and i took some pictures with those awesome white leds at night and with my headlights... perfect match!

 

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at this point i almost convinced myself my lighting was finished. well its not. over the past month ive been building sets of offroad hid driving and fog lights. i have completed set of hella 500 hid converts, 6000k of course, and i HAD a complete finished set of PIAA converts with, you guessed it... 6000k. at the time, the PIAAs had a colored lense that made the final output very yellow, and i liked that thought, using them for adverse weather. but South Dakota had other thoughts, and while test fitting them, a nice SD wind blew one off my bumper and smacked/smashed it all over the ground and shattered the glass. so PIAAs are out, and im in the market for more Hella 500s, specifically the fog lense. its up in the air yet if im going to run 3000k yellow hid bulbs or my favorite 6000ks.

heres my gathering of foglights, hid ballasts, and hid bulbs, pre-PIAA disaster

im calling this a test mount as the lights will never be mounted on this bumper, youll see where they go soon enough

all converts ive used a H3 hib bulb as its a very slim, slender base and glass, so it fits into those nice little pockets

 

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well for now... this is most of all my mods/creations. the trucks going to the shop for a few days for some bumper bracket fabrication. once thats complete, im mounting and wiring up the hellas. for now.... heres my teaser picture to ponder over

did i ever mention i love leds? ive got a few led mods in my head so stay tuned

 

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heres the cb antennas mounted to the toolbox

 

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Thanks. Most of the work has been cosmetic so far. I'm not going to dump a lot of money in the engine with as many miles as she has. I'm definitely going to aim for 300000 miles then ill treat it to a powerplant under the hood.

In a couple days ill put up some more mods.

 

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Yes and no for the rear bumper. I have made a decision on doing a roll pan, the shop that's fabbing my bumpers had an idea that I loved. 1/4 inch plate with welded brackets to mount to the factory bumper location on the frame, which allows for it to be designed around my hitch. Its food for thought right now, but the thought spurs only more ideas. Tow hooks? Loops? Plus its plate... so not flexable like a basic roll pan.

As for the plastic, its certainly been inspired by my first ram being a sport.

AND tomorrow is the day ... I'm not sure if I'm more excited to get my truck back or for the bumper.

 

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Agreed. Im not really a big fan of plastic anyways. Its just cheap to me. I'm building this truck to be solid so why go cheap? I want solid roll pan that I could rely on, say accidentally backing into a trailer when hitching up. Well more likely it would go under me with my lift....

 

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I really like your version of truck nuts. Way more original than the ones you buy at the auto part store...lol Great job on the truck so far.

There's a bit of a story to those...

I'm in the airforce, and the base has a law against anything profane, offensive, discriminatory etc from being displayed or produced from a vehicle. Truck nuts certainly fell under that law when an awesome military spouse called up about some 'monster truck displaying testicles on the back...'


This is my way around that

 

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Thats what I figured. I don't really know about the monster truck part, never really considered 5 inches and 35s close to that, but this was a military spouse complaining.....

Spose its a compliment either way ha.

 

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heres my next chapter 08 ram bumper fabbed for my 2000

not that it needed it, but they are some heavy duty brackets

 

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Awesome 2nd gen I've always loved em and yours is no exception love the lift and 35s combo

thanks man. its been alotta work, and theres still plenty left to do.

 

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I'm more than pleased with how well it turned out. Like you said the headlights line up with the drop in in the bumper so well.

Next up is trying to find a sport grill and a way to fill the gap a bit. I'm thinking some diamond plate plasti dipped black.

 

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Ok I lied... next up is my hid converted fog and driving lights... I have those I just need to put em on and wire em up

Oh a side note...

The step pad on the new bumper is sitting in my garage, with it off I might mount something under it for the gap...

 

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Great truck man, you've definitely made that into a very unique 2nd gen.

that much can be said now that this bumper is on and almost finished

 

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driving hids installed. Hella 500s, daytime pics

blue switch turns on the Hellas, and the yellow switch will turn on my PIAA 3000k hid convertions, once i get the new glass for one.

the PIAAs will sit to the outside of the Hellas

 

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I'm going to put some 3rd Gen factory fogs there anyways. The sport grill is gunna fill it out a lot, and I don't want to modify the bumper, I like the drop it has.

The goal is to produce enough light from the front end to mimic the sun ha...

 

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There more focused than my headlights and brighter too. My headlight hids are 35 watts and these ate 55 Watts. Lets just say they were bright enough to aim in the daylight.