Just bought ramp truck hauler-suggestions?

[taxspeaker]

I have been looking for a ramp truck with A/C, 20' bed, cruise, seats 6, with a hitch to pull another trailer with car and must be a dodge diesel with enough towing capacity and finally bought one.  A little older than I wanted but excellent condition-184,000 miles. Its a 99 Ram 3500 with Cummins diesel and 5 speed. Bed includes 6 ratchet tie downs, working winch and lights.

I have never owned one and will be picking it up this week. Looking for suggestions from anyone on improvements. We already have plans to switch over headlights to LED, add a LED light bar for the bed, thinking about a backup camera system like in an RV. Mechanically it is sound but I will put new tires, shocks and brakes on it as soon as I get home with it, replace all fluids, filters, belts and hoses and get a front end shop to look at that.
SO, suggestions?
Thanks
Bob

[Alaskan_TA]

1999 - Intense blue...... 

I added West Coast mirrors in stainless to mine.

Interested in custom fit hood scoops? 

[birdsandbees]

Cool find and purchase Bob!

[70 sublime]

Are the ramps long enough that you can get a pointy nose car up the hill without catching ??

[Lennard]

I have no suggestions... but just want to say that you've bought a nice rig.

[taxspeaker]

1999 - Intense blue...... 

I added West Coast mirrors in stainless to mine.

Interested in custom fit hood scoops? 

I do like the mirrors! The hood scoops-if I change it I want a shaker hood! The diesel won't like that though!

Lennard-thanks-my son has already said he is going to sand blast and ceramic coat (?) that bed. Nice to have a son that embraces these things.

Now as to ramp length, that's a good question. The guy was hauling 1959 and 1960 cadillacs which may be the only car made that is longer than a Bird. On our open trailer we use a couple of 2x4's at the bottom of the ramp so the angle isn't as bad and I am hoping that I don't need them, but that the idea works here too. If you see a blue 1999 Dodge Ramp truck come up for sale you will know that the angle is too steep!
Bob

[Aero426]

Are the ramps long enough that you can get a pointy nose car up the hill without catching ??

My first thought.    You need long ramps.   Watch and see if you need to remove the front spoiler to get on and off.   

Looks like a nice truck.  Just broken in.

[John_Kunkel]

What's the red knob on the shifter?

With all that rear overhang, I would put some heavy-duty rollers on the bottom of the bed.

[70 sublime]

What's the red knob on the shifter?

2 speed rear end ?

[gtx6970]

What's the red knob on the shifter?

2 speed rear end ?

Me thinks aftermkt Jake Brake?

If I remember right that's one of the years that the 5 spd is notorious to have the nut back off in the trans ( keeps it from going into 5th gear )
Also I think with that much rear overhang behind the axle  your going to have a lot of weight to the rear of the truck . So keep that in mind if the front end feels light at speed.

nice looking truck btw

[taxspeaker]

I will know what that red button is for about noon Wednesday! I think Jake brake too, but not sure. With him previously using the hauler for old lead sled Cadillacs I think as long as I pull the car on it it will be ok. I am going to park the Hemi Bird on it since it is not quite streetable with open headers, slicks and a 3500 stall converter!

[gtx6970]

New York plates ?

Either way, take a long hard look at metal fuel and brake lines. They are notorious to rust, especially the left front and the one along the drivers side to the rear behind  the fuel tank

[taxspeaker]

Excellent thanks
Bob

[taxspeaker]

The red knob on the shifter was a jake brake-doesn't work though.

Picked truck up yesterday in Syracuse, drove 800 miles to Magnum Resto in CHicago, picked up this one I had up there for a front suspension and a few other things. Cummins diesel did not even know the car was on it. 21 mpg without the car, 18.5 with it, both at about 70 MPH. Found a few little things on the truck needed fixing-nothing big nor unexpected. The Hodges ramp bed has several bad rust spots that will need cutting out and repairing-it has dropped my estimation of them dramatically since the truck has no rust issues at all.

Hodges bed however has already proven excellent, will be fixing the winch controls, and rebuilding the really rusted out ramps. The ramp angle was too steep for the spoiler to clear so Mark @ Magnum had some race ramps we put underneath to lessen the angle-I have some at my shop too, so no real problem there. Tide down with those ratchet straps was easy once we figured them out.

[JR]

Man I would love a ramp truck. What a nice find.

I will add that a backup camera in a vehicle like this is a lifesaver. Once you've had one, it's hard to give it up. After maintenance items, that would be the first thing I added.

[Todd Wilson]

I would add a fuel pressure gauge to it. If I remember correctly those 24 valve Cummins engines will burn up their injector pumps if a fuel pump is getting tired and not providing full pressure and they are expensive to replace!  Cool looking truck! I need it to haul my B7 71 Charger to shows! 
That and I have a 95 half ton the same color!

Todd

[John_Kunkel]

I added a manifold pressure and EGT gauge to my Gen 1 Cummins ramp truck. I was instantly amazed at how easy it is to exceed the recommended limits for both.

[67440chrg]

Real nice rig. Great car on it as well. You can haul in style.

[taxspeaker]

An update:

My son replaced every light fixture and bulb, including headlights and roof markers with LED-a significant improvement!. He also replaced the radio with one of those that bluetooth's to your phone and has a pop out touch screen with GPS-wow, and it even hooks to the existing speaker system. I changed the oil, filter, transmission and rear with an excellent quality synthetic and McKee 37'd the windows while waxing it all. The winch is working and we are in the middle of rewiring the remote plug so it works too.

We called Hodges (the bedmaker) and they made us new aluminum ramps to replace the badly rusted originals, and my buddy Matt drove down there last week (about 3 1/2 hours) to get the ramps replaced and the old crank tie down straps replaced too because the ramps have a stay welded in and shipping was going to be $500!

About 15 miles from Hodges he had a catastrophic rear wheel bearing failure and snapped an axle, but was luckily able to drift off the shoulder without losing the wheel or flipping the truck. It now sits in the Benton, KY Dodge dealer where we are replacing the entire rear axle assembly since it was destroyed. While they have it I am going to have them go through the brakes and front suspension-we were going to do it here in the shop, but this kind of shook me up and I don't want to take any chances at all. A warning to everyone-when you do a repair on rear wheels, pull those axles out a bit and regrease them, it's not super hard.

On the bright side it will be one heck of a truck when I get it back!
Bob

[XS29L9Bxxxxxx]

I have a set of 3 pc Race Ramps rom ReverseLogic
https://www.reverselogic.us/race-ramps.html#!/87-2-Stage-Incline-Trailer-Ramps/p/22091494/category=5074102

On the Hodges bed, e track is useful for versatility in tie down of the cargo/vehicles.

Always wanted one of my own, and driven a few. The Hodges haulers are sweet, for sure.