Bought a New Ram - No Thinking Required

[Ted]

These are interesting. It basically turns the factory 727 transmission and axle into a hi/lo axle.

That's one way or looking at it. More literally it turns the TF727 into a 3x2 transmission by adding the overdrive on the back of the transmission. Not different from the 6-speed automatics that Ford put in some of their gasser trucks starting in... I want to say 2003 or 2004, which as I recall were pretty much the same scenario with a 3x2 just all shifting handled automatically.

I've looked at their units several times over the year and I like them. To me they make the most sense on a 3-speed automatic like you have since they get you an overdrive at all.

They make one for the Ram's G56 transmission, although it looks like only for the 4x2 version not the 4x4 version like I have. And in reality I have no true need for one. I would like one, it would never pay for itself or its complexity. But for you with a 4x2 TF727 equipped truck, it could make sense if you want to do some level of road trips with it.

 

[ElPaso Pilot]

Got the Borg-Warner predecessor to Gear Vendors unit on a ‘64 Chevelle with a 3-on-the-tree manual tranny.

Can either split shift for giggles, or flip the switch to get overdrive on the highway and drop the revs by a third.

https://www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/how_it_works_borg_warner_overdrive

 

[Ted]

Not entirely Ram related, but sort of. My Ram came with a year of SXM radio included, which I let lapse at the one year mark. Now, about a year after that, I decided to sign up for their "$5/month for the first year for re-subscribers". With the extra fees it came out to $78 for the year, whatever that's cheap enough. The radio stations we have around here are ok, but I was finding myself missing some of the features that SXM has when integrated with the truck, including my "favorites" list. So now I just have to remember to cancel in a year after I've used up the full 12 months and then get them to do the $5/month thing again.

 

[Zeldman]

Not entirely Ram related, but sort of. My Ram came with a year of SXM radio included, which I let lapse at the one year mark. Now, about a year after that, I decided to sign up for their "$5/month for the first year for re-subscribers". With the extra fees it came out to $78 for the year, whatever that's cheap enough. The radio stations we have around here are ok, but I was finding myself missing some of the features that SXM has when integrated with the truck, including my "favorites" list. So now I just have to remember to cancel in a year after I've used up the full 12 months and then get them to do the $5/month thing again.

Good idea. I need to do the same thing.

 

[Ted]

Good idea. I need to do the same thing.

Part of how I looked at it was that if we don’t support SXM, they may not be around when we want them. When I was driving 40-50k miles a year all over the country it was a no brainer, now less so. But it is nice and the station quality is much higher than local. So I think it’s worth the $78 for a year.

 

[denverpilot]

I can’t imagine paying for SXM when I can stream nearly anything for free through my phone.

I can’t even imagine using a dashboard nav system anymore either. The phone Nav toys get updates and new features. The dash stuff, not so much.

They should just make both a USB and BT standard that lets the silly car become an extension touchscreen for the phones. And no, not the unmitigated software disaster that both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are. Just a simple “extension screen and audio path”.

The days of automotive infotainment systems should already be numbered. Kill them with fire.

 

[Ted]

I can’t imagine paying for SXM when I can stream nearly anything for free through my phone.

I can’t even imagine using a dashboard nav system anymore either. The phone Nav toys get updates and new features. The dash stuff, not so much.

They should just make both a USB and BT standard that lets the silly car become an extension touchscreen for the phones. And no, not the unmitigated software disaster that both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are. Just a simple “extension screen and audio path”.

The days of automotive infotainment systems should already be numbered. Kill them with fire.

To each his own. I love the integrated nav on my Ram. The directions work well, graphics are great, shows me turn-by-turn directions on the dashboard as well as the big touch screen. Man would that have ever been nice to have when I was hauling cars for a living. The "phone extension" is nice and all, but it would need to be able to just use the maps function independently to be as useful. With my Ram's setup, I can still use my phone completely independently of navigation, or talk on the phone.

As for SXM, yeah, I can stream anything I want from my phone. That said, sometimes I like just having the radio station pick out a good mix of stuff. Sometimes the programmers do a better job of picking out songs than I do.

The future of infotainment systems? Well, for the time being the major players are continuing to offer them and work on improvements in some way, shape, or form. Are their days numbered? I expect so. But this past weekend we had a rental Subaru with an infotainment setup that was much more blasé than the Ram's, and I found myself significantly missing the Ram.

 

[Chuck Buchanan]

Beautiful ride.

 

[gkainz]

I renewed my SXM again since most of my trips with the truck involve first the cell signal going away and then the FM signal dropping ... or vice versa. Yeah, I'm talking about you, Wyoming and Utah.

 

[bnt83]

I'm kinda bummed that the radio in this '79 D200 only works on FM, I'm sure it the original unit from when the truck was built. Just been using iheart radio on my phone.

I did finally get the eye sore off it and toyed with keeping at the airport.

Would be nice to get a straighter bumper on the rear too.

 

[SoonerAviator]

I'm kinda bummed that the radio in this '79 D200 only works on FM, I'm sure it the original unit from when the truck was built. Just been using iheart radio on my phone.

I did finally get the eye sore off it and toyed with keeping at the airport.

Would be nice to get a straighter bumper on the rear too.

View attachment 78587

You can always get an FM modulator if you want to "stream" the iHeartRadio from your phone to the radio. I'm sure there are Bluetooth unit these days that would pair with your phone to stream it to whatever open FM frequency you wanted.

 

[Ted]

I renewed my SXM again since most of my trips with the truck involve first the cell signal going away and then the FM signal dropping ... or vice versa. Yeah, I'm talking about you, Wyoming and Utah.

In college I quickly realized that the radio stations on my routes all over the country were generally not to my liking. So I got a Sirius radio (that was before the SXM merger) that I put in the Ram, piped through with an FM modulator. It was one of the early ones that had a poor screen quality, it was slow to respond. The antenna was magnetic that went on the roof (I suppose they still do that) and it did pretty well but still had more drop-offs.

The thing that was really good about it was having programming and schedules wherever I went. When I was hauling cars all over one summer I had a pretty consistent schedule of what I liked listening to during the day, it was nice. However the modern setup built-in to the system is orders of magnitude better than what I had back then.

You can always get an FM modulator if you want to "stream" the iHeartRadio from your phone to the radio. I'm sure there are Bluetooth unit these days that would pair with your phone to stream it to whatever open FM frequency you wanted.

The FM modulator works to a degree, the catch being you'll have to tinker with it some as you drive down the road. If you stay mostly local, not a big deal. Still, if you want to keep an original look, it would make sense.

 

[SoonerAviator]

In college I quickly realized that the radio stations on my routes all over the country were generally not to my liking. So I got a Sirius radio (that was before the SXM merger) that I put in the Ram, piped through with an FM modulator. It was one of the early ones that had a poor screen quality, it was slow to respond. The antenna was magnetic that went on the roof (I suppose they still do that) and it did pretty well but still had more drop-offs.

The thing that was really good about it was having programming and schedules wherever I went. When I was hauling cars all over one summer I had a pretty consistent schedule of what I liked listening to during the day, it was nice. However the modern setup built-in to the system is orders of magnitude better than what I had back then.



The FM modulator works to a degree, the catch being you'll have to tinker with it some as you drive down the road. If you stay mostly local, not a big deal. Still, if you want to keep an original look, it would make sense.

Right, they'll all have to have the frequency tweaked as distance is traveled to avoid the bleed over from stations as they come into range. However, I'm not aware of another way to go about it with a 1970's vintage radio without some headache of trying to wire a splitter into the antenna feed and some sort of modulator. On more modern vehicles, many have auxillary inputs or line-level inputs that can be accessed in the rear of the head unit to accommodate a 3.5mm headphone connection or a Bluetooth module. Obviously on the most modern vehicles, they usually have Bluetooth and USB/aux inputs readily available, so none of the other magic is necessary.

I also can't imagine the 1979 D200 FM radio also included a cassette player (a bit early for most automotive factory units), but on vehicles that have the cassette player, the old cassette tape adapters are still available and would be the best solution since it eliminates the hassle of an FM modulator and requires no batteries/power source.

 

[bnt83]

One last shot. I’m not done cleaning it up but dang it’s looking great

 

[MIFlyer]

Well Ted, you're fornicated for waiting.

EPA has basically shut down the tuner market.

 

[Zeldman]

EPA has basically shut down the tuner market.

Oh man.... what does the EPA have against fish.??


(sorry)

 

[Ted]

Well Ted, you're fornicated for waiting.

EPA has basically shut down the tuner market.

Yeah, I’ve noticed that it’s been getting harder and harder to find tuners anymore and the EPA has been going after each company one by one.

So I guess I’m stuck with the equipment. Or maybe it’ll make tuners get more inventive.

Unfortunately I think it’s the people who are rolling coal rather than the people who just do a normal delete that got the EPA’s attention. Sigh.

 

[MIFlyer]

Yeah, I’ve noticed that it’s been getting harder and harder to find tuners anymore and the EPA has been going after each company one by one.

So I guess I’m stuck with the equipment. Or maybe it’ll make tuners get more inventive.

Unfortunately I think it’s the people who are rolling coal rather than the people who just do a normal delete that got the EPA’s attention. Sigh.

I know. I have things set for lowest default fuel so I'm not smoky driving around, but some people are kiddos

 

[Ted]

I know. I have things set for lowest default fuel so I'm not smoky driving around, but some people are kiddos

Around here there are a lot of people who specifically have “maximum smoke” tunes. It is obnoxious.

Old mechanical engines will get more popular...

 

[Matthew]

Around here there are a lot of people who specifically have “maximum smoke” tunes. It is obnoxious.

I go to drive though a cloud of that a couple days ago when the guy on on the other side of the intersection made a left turn, in a hurry, in front of me. I and the guy behind him got treated.

 

[Ted]

I go to drive though a cloud of that a couple days ago when the guy on on the other side of the intersection made a left turn, in a hurry, in front of me. I and the guy behind him got treated.

I’ve never understood why people think it’s cool.

 

[denverpilot]

Yeah, I’ve noticed that it’s been getting harder and harder to find tuners anymore and the EPA has been going after each company one by one.

Hopefully it goes back to the open source world and then the battle begins anew with Dodge trying to do takedowns of Github projects by pretending they have copyright on their data bus data formats and such.

 

[Zeldman]

I’ve never understood why people think it’s cool.

To me serious smoke out the exhaust is the sign of a serious engine problem.

 

[Matthew]

Loose nut behind the wheel.

I watched a truck smoke a cyclist a couple years ago. Interestingly, it was at that same intersection. I was behind the pickup, the bicycle was heading the same direction (no bike lane), and it took a fee extra seconds for the truck to get past the bike. We all came to a stop at the next light. Truck in front of me and bike next to the truck. When the light changed, the bike and I and everyone else got smoked. Dumbass.

 

[Ted]

Hopefully it goes back to the open source world and then the battle begins anew with Dodge trying to do takedowns of Github projects by pretending they have copyright on their data bus data formats and such.

I wasn't aware of that history, but it's not surprising. All the manufacturers want to have control over those things.

What I was more thinking was the idea of a stand-alone ECU, similar idea to MegaSquirt (or any of the other options out there) but for diesel. In some ways it's harder in some ways it's easier. The real problem these days is trying to maintain all of the integration to the rest of the truck, which probably just isn't doable. But if you're talking an older truck, like your previous one, or even my 2004, maybe moreso.

To me serious smoke out the exhaust is the sign of a serious engine problem.

Exactly. When you looked at the olden days of mechanical diesels, those things when running properly smoked under heavy load/acceleration but they didn't belch it out. That's not what these people are doing. Plus big tall stacks 10 feet in the air are different than low at car level.

 

[Matthew]

To me serious smoke out the exhaust is the sign of a serious engine problem.

There are people that think it’s cool to be able to turn it on and off on command.

It results in things like this:

 

[bnt83]

I’ve never understood why people think it’s cool.

What kind of fan do you have? This thing has a direct drive flex fan. With the three speed 727 and 4.10 rear i think it makes a ton of noise above 35ish mph

 

[Ted]

What kind of fan do you have? This thing has a direct drive flex fan. With the three speed 727 and 4.10 rear i think it makes a ton of noise above 35ish mph

Mine has a clutch fan with an electric clutch.

On yours I’d go with some high power electric fans with a thermostatic switch. You’ll also see a mpg improvement.

 

[denverpilot]

I wasn't aware of that history, but it's not surprising. All the manufacturers want to have control over those things.

What I was more thinking was the idea of a stand-alone ECU, similar idea to MegaSquirt (or any of the other options out there) but for diesel. In some ways it's harder in some ways it's easier. The real problem these days is trying to maintain all of the integration to the rest of the truck, which probably just isn't doable. But if you're talking an older truck, like your previous one, or even my 2004, maybe moreso.

Bad wording by saying “going back”. I don’t think any of the current manufacturers of tuning software started as open source. What I was really saying was if they go under, it’d be nice if they’d release their code into that world, so if the EPA makes their business non-viable, the code goes public and anybody can use it as they please.

It’s fun to panic government with the worry that they can’t control things.

But then I lamented that they auto manufacturers will make up some fake copyright reasons to keep people from touching their insecure computers and data busses to placate the regulators... oh well.

All EPA can do really is regulate sales. They can’t regulate the information. If a company has to die to keep them happy, that company should upload the code to GitHub on their way out.

 

[Ted]

Most of these companies are only shutting down their tuner divisions. So they offer other parts and services which are still viable, although perhaps of diminished value following the shutdown of the delete tunes.

 

[denverpilot]

Most of these companies are only shutting down their tuner divisions. So they offer other parts and services which are still viable, although perhaps of diminished value following the shutdown of the delete tunes.

Still the same sentiment on what they should do with the now useless IP. Upload it anonymously and the community can take it from there.

 

[Ted]

If I owned the company I don’t think I would first thing. I’d hold onto the information and expect that things would somehow change such that the info would still have a monetary value. Companies rarely give away their investment.

 

[bnt83]

Old tech can be really awesome.

All 4 of the square glass headlamps for that '79 D200 is $12. About another $10 buys all of the external lighting bulbs. (from rockauto) and all are GE bulbs. Bought reproduction tail light lenses for $30 each, I'm really skeptical of aftermarket lenses, but they are great. (LMC Truck)

I've been really impressed how well the lighting works on this pickup, its plenty bright. You can spend way more than that at autoparts stores just buying headlamp bulbs and then install them into plastic sun damaged foggy housings for newer vehicles...

Also need a new heater blower switch, $12.

Interested in working on the air-conditioning next year. The electrical side of it appears to work fine, the pump will run and sounds fine when bypassing the pressure switch.

Looked at some lockers but a bit pricey and I don't need one any. Some 17 by 8 wheels to replace the 16.5" ones would be nice. Tire selection in 16.5" is poor lol.

 

[denverpilot]

If I owned the company I don’t think I would first thing. I’d hold onto the information and expect that things would somehow change such that the info would still have a monetary value. Companies rarely give away their investment.

Yeah if there is any hope, sure. I suspect with as much as lead burning airplane people even complain about anything that mildly smokes anymore, and how badly auto manufacturers want to placate the powers that be for their fleet mileage numbers, politically the tuner companies are dead. (Especially considering trucks are still exempt from those standards and will be forced to join the rest of the fleet in fuel sipping misery soon. LOL. Ooh let’s trash a good design and put a CVT on a pickup truck! LOL!)

 

[bnt83]

Thank got the blower switch is easy to buy, not seeing any of the bigger vacuum/switch controllers anywhere. Hopefully I never need one.

 

[Ted]

Yeah if there is any hope, sure. I suspect with as much as lead burning airplane people even complain about anything that mildly smokes anymore, and how badly auto manufacturers want to placate the powers that be for their fleet mileage numbers, politically the tuner companies are dead. (Especially considering trucks are still exempt from those standards and will be forced to join the rest of the fleet in fuel sipping misery soon. LOL. Ooh let’s trash a good design and put a CVT on a pickup truck! LOL!)

A CVT isn't making its way into a pickup anytime soon, but I think it will drive the manufacturers to push more gears into the automatics. Take a look at Jesse's F-150 with a 10-speed. Right now the 3/4 and 1-ton trucks are 6 speed autos (they used to be 4). Rear ends have also gotten lower ratios (numerically). My '04 Ram had 3.73s, the '17 has 3.42s.

One thing that they'll need to do, though, is try to make the DPF process more efficient since that consumes fuel. We'll see what happens with it.

I think later this week I'm going to get the tires changed on the Ram and take advantage of the discount on the tires I want to buy for it.

 

[gkainz]

Well crap - my '07 Dodge 2500 is starting to yelp, chirp and grind out increasing louder blend door noises. Looks like pulling the dash is on the to-do list this winter.
I've looked into the HeaterTreater and other blend door fixes, but just can't bring myself to butcher an access hole into the airbox.

 

[SoonerAviator]

A CVT isn't making its way into a pickup anytime soon, but I think it will drive the manufacturers to push more gears into the automatics. Take a look at Jesse's F-150 with a 10-speed. Right now the 3/4 and 1-ton trucks are 6 speed autos (they used to be 4). Rear ends have also gotten lower ratios (numerically). My '04 Ram had 3.73s, the '17 has 3.42s.

One thing that they'll need to do, though, is try to make the DPF process more efficient since that consumes fuel. We'll see what happens with it.

I think later this week I'm going to get the tires changed on the Ram and take advantage of the discount on the tires I want to buy for it.

Yeah, the ZF 10-speed transmission (joint venture between Ford/GM) is probably where it will plateau for a while though. At some point, transmission complexity and weight will surpass the fuel efficiency gained by adding more gearing. At some point the logarithms needed to choose what gear to be in will make drive-ablility worse for the user as it hunts between whether it should be in gear 10 or 12, lol. The downside to dropping into higher gear ratios in the rear end it that it moves the stress normally relegated to the stout rear end gears into the transmission itself. I suppose as long as the transmission programming is adept at sensing load and not trying to pull 10K+lbs in 10th gear it will be fine.

 

[denverpilot]

A CVT isn't making its way into a pickup anytime soon, but I think it will drive the manufacturers to push more gears into the automatics. Take a look at Jesse's F-150 with a 10-speed. Right now the 3/4 and 1-ton trucks are 6 speed autos (they used to be 4). Rear ends have also gotten lower ratios (numerically). My '04 Ram had 3.73s, the '17 has 3.42s.

One thing that they'll need to do, though, is try to make the DPF process more efficient since that consumes fuel. We'll see what happens with it.

I think later this week I'm going to get the tires changed on the Ram and take advantage of the discount on the tires I want to buy for it.

Yeah I was being sarcastic about the proliferation of crappy CVTs in vehicles forced to meet unreasonable standards. All it’ll take for a pickup maker to try it is desperation to get 1 MPG lower. At the expense of the consumer who won’t have a solid transmission anymore.

Re: Subaru CVTs overheating when using the vehicles for off-roading, something they used to excel at. They still have the best AWD system, now it’s mated to a garbage transmission. Doesn’t matter how many fancy traction control buttons they add, they’re all useless when the CVT gives up to save itself.

 

[Ted]

Yeah, the ZF 10-speed transmission (joint venture between Ford/GM) is probably where it will plateau for a while though. At some point, transmission complexity and weight will surpass the fuel efficiency gained by adding more gearing. At some point the logarithms needed to choose what gear to be in will make drive-ablility worse for the user as it hunts between whether it should be in gear 10 or 12, lol. The downside to dropping into higher gear ratios in the rear end it that it moves the stress normally relegated to the stout rear end gears into the transmission itself. I suppose as long as the transmission programming is adept at sensing load and not trying to pull 10K+lbs in 10th gear it will be fine.

I agree that at 10 speeds we're basically at the maximum usable for the moment. However personally I already find that we're at the "worse driving experience", which started once you got past 6 speeds. I actually thought the CVT driving experience was better, but the durability of CVTs was a real problem.