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Yzergod Recovery Vehicle |
| In November 2005, I decided that I needed a
truck to tow the yzership
and my atv's around with. Follow along as I convert a basic pick up
into a killer Recovery and Support rig that can haul my toys and carry
needed recovery supplies and spare parts. Everything I did to this
truck was a bolt on and can be obtained from the various websites I've
included in this article. With the price of new trucks in the ¾ ton range through the roof, I looked to eBay Motors for a new rig. I ran across a company with a user name of OregonPrime2000 who is a governement agency that only deals with government surplus vehicle dispositions. They had a fantastic feedback score and most of the people that had purchased surplus vehicles had no problems with them. Knowing that government vehicles get far better maintenance than privately own vehicles, I followed a few of their auctions. One thing about them is that most of their vehicles come from either police agencies or agencies such as the BLM or Forest Service. I found an auction that was for a truck near me and I set my buying limit and bid on a couple of vehicles. I lost a 2001 Expedition that went for $8200 that upon inspection was super clean. I later found out that it was driven by a supervisor who was near retirement. It literally was the mystical "little old lady" owned vehicle. What a steal! I did however win a 2001 Dodge Ram 2500 4x4 extended cab short bed. It had 78,000 miles and the only real flaw was a dime sized rust spot on the front fender. It was a BLM vehicle that had no leaks and perfect compression. Other than manual windows and doors, it had every option I wanted. At $8800, it was well under the $14,500 Blue Book value. In addition to the 5.9 liter V8, I found out it had a heavy duty D60 rear axle (instead of the typical D70 with drum brakes) that came with disc brakes and 4:10 gearing! It also had the plastic floor liner (instead of wet, nasty old carpet) and cloth seats! Here it is fresh from picking it up...  Now, the ¾ Ton Dodge trucks come from the factory with some serious elevation. However, they have that factory rake that slopes towards the front that I don't like. So the first thing in order was a 2" leveling kit from Daystar. This kit consists of 2 polyurethane "pucks" that install on top of the coil springs to level out the truck and allow for larger tires. The install was fairly simple, but believe me when I suggest you go to AutoZone and rent their coil spring compressors! The kit took about 3 hours to install using a vehicle lift. It does use the factory shocks, which are a pain to take out and replace due to how they mount at the bottom. Some PB Blaster, flexible arms, and patience is needed to deal with them. Here is the truck with the leveling kit installed...  Now, it was time to replace the puny looking 265/75R16 BFG's (about a 32" tire) with something that fit a little better. The factory steel rims were ugly and I knew that I wanted one of the new style black rims because, 1) the mag chloride they use on the roads around where I live in the winter ruin the finish of polished aluminum rims and, 2) the black rims are about $100 less than the same rim with the polished finish. I narrowed down my selection to the Moto Metal 951 and the Helo Maxx 8 and only went with the Helo's because Onlinetires.com was out of the 951's. I researched tire size fitments on PavementSucks.com and found out that a 35" tire will fit my application without any problems and that a 17" rim looks good and is cheaper than the 18", 19", or 20" size of the same rim. In fact, they were almost $100 less expensive! Since I didn't need Dubs to make my rig look good, I ordered the 17x9 Helo's with 35x12.5 BFG AT's. I chose the AT's over the MT's because of how well they were rated in the snow, something I get a lot of in the winter. Having to do it over again though, I would go with the MT's. That is because I'd rather sacrifice the extra bit if traction in the snow over the amount of small rocks the AT's throw while driving over the dirt roads I live on. To ensure my new meats wouldn't get taken, I ordered a set of Gorilla locking lug nuts from SummitRacing.com along with a Gorilla lug wrench with deep well sockets. Here is the tires/wheels fresh off the FedEx truck...  and placed next to the truck for comparison...  Wow, what a difference the tires/rims/leveling kit made! Really gave the truck some badly needed attitude!  While researching tire size fitments on PavementSucks.com, I ran across a guy that was selling a set of nerf steps for cheap, another guy that had a cold air intake, and another guy that had a Hypertech Power Programmer III. By installing the programmer I was able to correct the speedometer for the increased tire size. And with the air intake and programmer I noticed a couple of miles per gallon on the old dino juice. I wanted to add some sort of graphics to make my truck stand out from the umteen thousands of other white trucks in the area and also wanted to incorporate my yzergod logo somehow. I snapped a couple of pictures and played around with some different graphics I got off the internet from places like DecalFX.com and WestsideVinylGraphics.com. I liked the different Dodge style striping I saw on WestsideVinylGraphics.com the best and ordered a basic black rear "Hemi" stripe. I replaced the word "Hemi" with a set of the yzer logo I had custom made at a local graphics shop. The truck really looks custom now and it was such a cheap and easy addition! Here is a close up of the stripe...  and the truck with the stripe and nerfs installed...  The only real addition the interior needed besides a set of floor mats was to replace the factory AM/FM stereo. Again on PavementSucks.com, I read about a guy that builds custom sub woofer enclosures that fit between the seats and that uses factory color cloth. He makes a box the same size of the center seat made for a 10" sub, or one that is a few inches taller that houses a 12" sub. I found him on eBay and ordered one of his stealth boxes for the 12" sub. I got on CarDomain.com and ordered a Pioneer 1½" DIN head unit, Sirius receiver, Rockford Fosgate amp & matching sub woofer, and Kicker replacement door speakers. I stuffed the stealth box with poly fill and hooked everything up with an amp wiring kit. The new system is really noticeable and the sub is awesome! I like the larger box as the armrest is in a more natural position for me and that in looking into the truck, you can not tell where the sub is. Here is the stealth box next to the center seat it replaces...  I wanted to replace the dinged up factory bumpers, so I contacted the guys at Road Armor. They've been in business longer than all of their imitators combined, and put out a beefy, high quality product with a Lifetime Guarantee. As with any bumper of this magnatude, off road lights and possibly a winch are needed to complete it's functionality. Here is a picture of the front bumper installed...  Click here for the complete front bumper install! Click here for the complete rear bumper install! |