Plow Snow Confidently With Your Ram HD.

As the weather begins to change, many Ram owners will start pulling out their snow plows. But your Ram may already come with built-in snow plow mode, a feature that will ensure maximum engine operation while operating in winter conditions. Snow plow mode allows the cooling system and fan to perform to their optimum capability when using a plow blade, which greatly affects the airflow around the front of the truck, ensuring that your engine temperature remains normal.

All Cummins-powered Ram Heavy Duty pickups and chassis cabs from model years 2008 and beyond are equipped with snow plow mode capability. Owners of 6.7L Turbo Diesel engines built prior to model year 2008 can receive the snow plow mode capability by requesting the J35 software flash update at your local dealership, if you haven’t received this software update on your truck already.

If you have snow plow mode capability, here’s how to activate it:

Key on your truck without starting it.
Pull in the cruise control cancel switch and hold. While holding the cruise control cancel switch, push the exhaust brake switch twice. Then release the cruise control cancel switch.
Repeat Step 2 three more times for a total of four complete times to activate snow plow mode.

You will then hear two chimes, which confirm that snow plow mode has been activated. Your truck will remain in snow plow mode until you deactivate it. To deactivate it, follow the same series of steps above. You will then hear four chimes, which confirm that snow plow mode has been deactivated. To avoid any risk of overheating, always be sure to activate snow plow mode on your truck while using your plow. Be sure to remember to deactivate snow plow mode once you have finished plowing so that you can maintain fuel economy during normal driving.

The Cummins 6.7L Turbo Diesel is built to take on heavy snow, and is always ready to work when you need it. By activating snow plow mode, you can be confident that your Cummins 6.7L Turbo Diesel will deliver the best performance and reliability no matter the weather.

©2011 Cummins Inc., Direct Marketing, Mail Code 60610, 500 Jackson Street, Columbus, IN 47201 U.S.A.

Ok fellas here you go, you asked and now you shall receive… The weather finally broke off here so I got a chance to sand, prime and paint along with install my Bushwacker Pocket Flares…
The preparation goes as follows or the same as my “Painting Factory Black to Match Color” write-up

This time from a tip from another member I used an alcohol cleaner on the plastic before I started to remove any wax’s or chemicals from the flares..
Then I took a fine grit sand paper and gently rubbed it on every inch of surface to be painted.. Then I used the alcohol cleaner to remove the dust particles.. Here is a picture of the products used in this application

Once this process is done let the fender’s dry.. Once dry start applying the Bulldog Promoter. Follow the direction to the T… A good word of advice.. Take your time I know these are a new toy for our baby’s but hurrying will make your end results look like crap.. Start applying the bulldog promoter in small amounts spraying from a 12″ distance. Be very careful not letting it pool up.. Once you have a good base coat let it dry for roughly 10 minutes or until tacky to the touch… Once you have the second coat on let it get tacky to the touch and get ready to start painting!!!

I stress this point a lot from my own learning!!!! Once you begin to paint do not think it will be done in one instant. Your first coat will be almost a ghost coat… Again take your time it will be well worth it!! Spraying from a distance of 10-12 inches moving the spray in an even and smooth flow.. This will take at least one can of factory matched paint for each fender. I used 1-1/2 for each. For only $6 it is by far cheaper than a paint company doing it!! Another tip is when spraying and you think your about empty STOP and throw the can away.. Once again another lesson learned the hard way.. When the can is low it will start to stop spray and spit puddles out!

From this point on while painting make sure you spread your paint evenly and on every inch paintable.. Making sure you get the tops, every hole, nook and cranny!! Also make sure you are in a somewhat ventilated area after one can of paint and no ventilation you will he UMM “Happy”!! Again more experience talking!!! Once you are happy with your end product let them sit and dry making sure nothing can get to them to be bothered, like kids, cats, dogs!!!
I let mine sit for 3 days due to weather!!! Trust me it was killing me..

Then follow the direction for install.. Another few tips I will hand out so you don’t have the problems I did.. For the “fake bolts” drill them from the back and be very careful on the last bolts on the bottom’s of the fender’s the fender is straight in line with the bolt hole and if not careful you will drill through the fender for the hole and into the fender and your hand!!! UMM no comment!! Again take your time..

Any??? Pm me and I will help out in any way…. Also I did not clear these due to the fact that it is winter. I will go back this summer and do that..

Shane

If you’ve ever change the fuel filters on your 6.0 you know the engine mounted one is a breeze. The one that causes you to take a diesel bath is the frame mounted one.  Some have said to use the drain plug to fix this, but I have found that you still will get some diesel on you.

So the following is my solution and it works like a charm. Take a piece of tin foil and make a catch area under the filter along the frame rail. Make sure you have a “funnel” at one end. Loosen the cap and let the fuel drain on to the aluminum foil catch. Use the “funnel” to direct the fuel into some kind of catch pan. You have a clean filter change. See the picture below to see one in place.

Also, if you are tired of paying $70 to $80 for a fuel filter kit from Ford or NAPA. You can order the kit through your local International dealer. Even though Ford buys the VT365 motor/block from International, the fuel filter set-up for our motors is from the VT275 (4.5L) motor.

Below is the correct part numbers. The filters from International are less than 1/2 the cost.  
Racor #: 32442C93
International #: 1847170C92

WARNING!: Make sure the horizontal filter has the white membrane that goes around the pleats. This is the water separator part of our filters. People have been buying filters that do not have the membrane and have been having problems with water in the fuel system.

• Fuel Tank:  

There’s only one thing to say about the stock OEM lift Pumps, regardless of which type you have. They are not sufficient to provide enough dependable fuel flow to the VP44 to keep it cooled off. If you are running any type of performance mods this just increases the weakness of the stock system. A fuel pressure gauge that is visible to you as you drive is the only assurance you can have to know if your lift pump is functioning properly. You can have 20psi at idle, but when you get on the go pedal that could drop to 0psi and then the very expensive VP44 is on its way to the graveyard. If you only do one Mod to your truck, make it a fuel pressure gauge.

• Lift Pump:  

The Water Drain Valve sometimes leaks fuel. If your lucky you can jiggle it around and break lose whatever is blocking it from closing completely, if not it will need to be replaced.

Seals go bad. Many of us have a tendency to change the filter but not use the new seals that come with the filter. It is important to change these to maintain to maintain an air tight seal.

• Fuel Filter:

Also known as the VP44, the injector pump is fuel cooled. The lift pump is expected to not only pump enough fuel to feed your injectors but enough excess to provide cooling action to this pump. The main failures to this pump are to the electronics that overheat and lose there ability to control the fuel flow. There are many different symptoms associated with this. Among them are a noticeable loss of power, loss of fuel mileage, hard starting when warm and/or a code of 0216 on the code reader.

Fuel Pressure Regulator is nothing more than a banjo bolt on the outgoing side of the fuel flow that maintains 14psi of fuel inside the VP44. If this goes bad it could either stick in the open or closed position or just get weak and not hold enough fuel pressure to the pump. If it sticks open or gets to weak to maintain pressure it will let the fuel just bypass the pump and return thru to the tank, not feeding the injectors. This will result in low to no power situation. Many $1000 pumps have been replaced because this $12 banjo bolt went bad. Test it before you replace the pump!!!

• Injector Pump:

You have several Banjo Bolts throughout the fueling system. These are the most restricting part of the fuel system. They are just a brass bolt with a hole drilled through the length of it and another that meets it drilled high on the threads to meet together. They allow fuel to pass through this hole when transitioning between fuel lines and the components on your truck. There are two on the fuel filter, two on the VP44 and two on the lift pump.

Some people have drilled the hole out bigger on these bolts to allow more fuel and some have replaced them with High Pressure fittings and gotten rid of them all together. The only one you can’t do anything with is the Fuel Pressure Regulator bolt, which is the outgoing line on the VP44.

• Banjo Bolts:

Rollover Protection Valve sticking shut. This will prevent your system from being able to pull air in to replace the fuel you are using, thus creating a vacuum. This vacuum will slowly pull your fuel pressure down as you drive. When removing the fuel cap you will hear the air pressure release. To test this try driving with the cap loose and see if that corrects your problem.

Fuel Pickup Tube corrodes on the outside or cracks inside the tank. The fuel pickup tube on the early models of 2nd generation trucks have a tendency to corrode and leak air into the system right on top of the module where the fuel line connects to it. If it cracks on the inside your truck will run fine until your fuel level gets below the crack. Then it will pull air mixed with the fuel. This is the same thing as putting a hole in your drink and trying to suck through it, you will get some drink but it is mixed with air. This will create low fuel pressure and a loss of power.

Fuel Pickup Screen clogs with debris inside the tank. On the bottom of the pick up tube is a fine mesh screen that sometimes will clog itself up if you have gotten bad fuel. This will sometimes fall lose when you shut the truck off and then re-occur as your driving. No real way to diagnose this except to get inside your tank and check it

Al Babneau – Summit

Well with a little help from T-Boe and everyone on here I installed my Cab lights that Dodge apparently couldn’t do… I have detailed notes along with pic’s but I borrowed my dad’s digital camera and don’t have the right USB cord thingy yet… I will get there…

Taking the Truck Apart…

This is really simple, mind that the directions from Dodge are S#@T!!!!

1. A-Pillar’s Pop the little cap’s covering the bolts on both sides. I just took my pocket knife wedged it in there and twisted very carefully… The Take a 10MM socket and and extension and run the bolts out.. Gently pull upward and outward and the A-pillar’s are off..
2. Sun-Visor’s… This is really simple. Take a Torx Bit (don’t remember which one) and unscrew the three screws holding the sun-visor’s up there.. If you have lighted Visor’s you will have wiring that will be attached There is plenty of slack there so just pull enough out so that you can set one end on the dash and let it relax there… Now for the little clips that the other end of the visor’s attach too. DA## Dodge there is no explanation how to remove these.. These little things took me the longest to figure out how to remove… Take a flat head screwdriver and separate the two pieced the key to this removal is to pull the front piece DOWN!! The front being the peice towards the window not the seat. Once it pulls down just keep pulling and it will pop out..
3. Overhead Console.. Really simple.. Pop the light covers off with a flat headed screwdriver and it reveals two more torx screws remove those and walla… Then there is a black cartridge that is attached to the roof that the overhead attaches to remove the two Phillips screws and set in with the a-pillar’s.
4. Then pull on the front of the liner and it pops loose.. I took my mag light and stuffed it up there so it was about 10″ below the original roof so I wouldn’t drill through it..

Earlier in the Day I stopped at a friend’s and measured his lights exactly so that I would know where to put the template and this is what I came up with.

First I measured the center light from the edge of the glass to the edge of the light it’s 4″ that goes for the other two on each side of the center light and then the last two – farthest ones are 6″ from the glass… Then starting from the driver’s side the lights go in order 5-3/8 – 17-3/4 – 26 – 35 – 46-5/8 to the center of the lights measuring from the back of the lights from the edge of the door when shut..

With these measurements I was able to put the template onto the roof with confidence and securely tape it down all across the roof and window…

DRILLING!!

First I took the 1/4 bit and slowly started to drill out each hole in the template.. I didn’t have a punch and didn’t need to keep the template so I just drilled straight through it.. First hole a little scary.. 9 more nooo problems.. Then the big daddy… The 7/8 bit… Yeas sir!! Went pretty darn fast.. I couldn’t believe how thin the roof was…. I just double checked making sure that the flashlight was still pushing down on the liner… Another safety feature would be too wrap tape around the bit up 1/2″ and make a sleeve so that it stopped on the tape when it hit the roof… Really No sweat… Then I was a little anal with silicone… Don’t want water running in there… So I filled each 1/4 hole with clear silicone and pushed in the Teflon catches…

Then from the inside I set the wiring up under the liner in it’s position. Then i pushed the wiring up through the hole that I just got done drilling… Once all the wiring was being help up by the liner I took out the flashlight and let the liner rest in a natural position and went back to the roof..

Once you have installed the Teflon catch’s for the light screws take a screwdriver and push down the tab’s in the center. This will lock them in there.. I also had enough silicone on there that they weren’t goona move or leak… After that I also made a bead of silicone around the 7/8 hole ensuring that the elements weren’t goona come in…

Take the supplied bulb’s and push them into their corresponding light capsule and were getting there… Attach the wiring to the cab lights with a slight push and twist.. From there set each light above the Teflon cap’s. I left each screw out from each light about 1/4″ so that I could make sure that they were going to hit the hole… From there run the screws into the Teflon catch’s and your attached… You can also add a small bead of silicone to the rubber under the cab-lights… I forgot to but only have one light that won’t quite seat perfectly so I ran some silicone around each light…

Once the lights are screwed down go back to the inside…

Wiring!! – If I’m like most people this kinda stuff really pisses me off… After doing a ton of research on here I found out that I could just tap into the passenger a-pillar and be done… We’ll I found the right wire and everything – I thought spliced into it went over to the driver’s side “hit the switches” andddddd NOTHING…. What… I was smart enough to leave my tester at the shop so I couldn’t figure out what was going on… From the female plug that everyone talks about I have a male plug also… Where does this wiring go??? After about an hour of talking with t-boe and not being to get these babies to light I went and dug the instructions out of the garbage and re-ran the wiring down the driver’s side a-pillar and hooked it to the positive on the battery.. WOLLLLLAA We have lightageeee.. So I followed the directions and found the wire from the factory fuse box tapped it and good to go..

From there I buttoned up the liner then the visor’s, overhead console and then the a-pillar’s

This is a really simple install and now that I’ve done it I could probably do it in two hours… But I was being extremely ANAL and it took me four hours plus one hour of trying to get power so not to bad of a project for an afternoon..

The real test was the last two days.. It has rained bucket’s here and no water…. I can’t believe Dodge wanted so much to put these in…

If anyone has any ???? Please contact me or PM me I will gladly help and I will try to get the pic’s up in the next day or so. I took pic’s of almost every step.. If I can’t upload them I’ll have to get them printed and the scan them in…

Thanks to everyone on here!!! Yeah you T-Boe….
Shane

On a good note I FOUND MY DIGITAL CAMERA!!! It was under my daughter’s bed in all of her crap!!! I was about to lose it.. I do have one pic of the lights on at night that I just took…

This is for the guys with the later model 1st Gens, who turn their full power screw in till it bottoms out on the threads, and still don’t get the max amount of power that is available. (Must have a welder to do this or know someone who does) You do not need to remove the factory collar from screw

WARNING: This is just a tip, I am not responsible for any mishaps. Don’t do this unless you feel very comfortable doing it, I’ve done this to quite a few trucks with very good results.

1. Remove the fuel screw from the pump. Place a drain pan on floor to catch fuel that leaks out of fuel screw hole) also note about how far the screw was turn in for reference when reinstalling.
2. Weld a small amount of material to the end of the screw that goes into pump. An 1/8 of an inch, a little more is fine. Be careful not to have the welder settings to high as you will burn the end of it right off.
3. Take screw to a bench grinder and grind a taper on the sides and a radius on the end. Then polish as much as possible with a wire wheel.
4. Install the fuel screw a few turns back from where it was originally positioned.
5. Start the engine, the RPMs should be about, or lower, than the previous settings. Turn the fuel screw in until the RPMs are normal.
6. Loosen the idle screw jam nut and back idle down to about 500-600 RPMs.
7. Turn the fuel screw in until the RPMs start to increase to about 900-1000 RPMs.
   IMPORTANT: Remove the intake tube from turbo and have a 2×6 ready in case you get a runaway. If this happens choke the air coming into turbo with 2×6 and the engine will die.
8. Manually increase the RPMs to about 1800-2000. You want to keep turning the fuel screw in small increments and revving the engine to 1800 or so until the RPMs start to come down kind of slow from the higher RPM. Once the RPMs start to come down slow, back off the fuel screw until it drops down to idle normally.
9. Tighten jam nut on the fuel screw and set the idle to normal. Tighten jam nut and that should be it.

Here is a before and after picture