I have a 2" reciever with a shackle on as well. Got it for Christmas, I think its a smitty bilt, came with a recovery kit. I was thinking about getting the smitty bilt beaver step though. Its solid and $60 at 4wp.

 

Ok that's what I thought on the dash parts. Yeah I'm going to have to look into those reverse lights. You got them off amazon right? I think you linked to them before.


Thanks guys. Glad to hear the smittybilt is holding up well. I think I'm going to get one. Either of you guys have a pic where it shows the whole rear of the truck with it on? Was just wondering how it looked compared to the rest of the truck.

 

Yeah I can link them in the am...well it is the am technically lol.

Check back a page or two I have a rear end shot of it. Looks better than a rust colored hitch lol.

 

Ok thanks Matt. Yeah it is pretty late, haha. I thought I was the only one that stayed up late all the time. I guess I'm not the only one, lol.

Yeah I found. I remember seeing it a while back, but it was actually a better pic than I remembered. It looks good I like it.

 

Fwiw I would suggest picking up a pintle hook, much higher rating which is why I picked one up over a dring shackle especially for our trucks being 7-8000lbs

 

Here are the Lights linked from Amazon, they went up $5 from when i got them last week but still $40 for these guys and they pack a punch for output cant beat it.


A pintle hook isn't a bad idea and you can use them to hook trailers up as well.

 

Matt, the dash swap is looking great and those backup lights are pretty slick.

I need something like that for my truck. Backing up to a trailer in the dark sucks lol.

 

Thanks Dennis, i hope to wrap it up fairly soon, backing up in general sucks for me, honestly the red form the taillights provide more usable light. I think since they are so bright i may wire them to just a switch because unless I'm in a field or an area without street lights i don't need them because its well lit usually. I can always make them work with the reverse lights later as well, i already ran a wire for the light bar.

EDIT: Just ordered some bed lights and some waterproof connectors so i can get my fuse panel wiring underway. I should have them by Thursday and then i can start to wrap up my wiring and complete the physical install of the 08 dash.

 

Whats your total time on this so far from actually installing?

 

The dash? Roughly 12 hours. This includes all the wiring I'm doing as well, without the wiring I would say it can be done in some weekend if you work on it all day both days and know what to expect along with having everything ready.

 

You know, now that I think about it. I'm kinda starting to like that idea. I think it might be a little more useful with being able to tow trailers and all. And I know that's all my Dad and all their work trucks use, since that's what all their trailer use. So I might have to look into it more. Thanks for the idea.

Looked into it a little before I finished typing this. I think I'm going to get the D-ring shackle for now since its way cheaper, and then get the pintle setup someday.


Thanks for the link Matt. Those look good. I think I'm going to get those eventually. Definitely a lot cheaper than the Rigid dually floods that I was going to run for reverse lights, and they still have good light output.

 

I removed my seats today and started to wire up my amps.The splitter is in the engine bay only because there wasn't a whole lot of room to run 0/1 gauge into the cab and running it in the channel under the seats would have been tight with the other wires as well.




Both amps after i pulled the carpet back:


Sorry this last pic got distorted i think.

 

Started to run speaker wire yesterday with the hour of free time i had this weekend lol. It was pretty easy except the rear doors...i don't want to do the passenger side just because of how much crap has to come out. First you need to remove the rear half door panels, once those are removed you then have to unscrew the top mount for the seat belt then you need to remove the rear backrest from the seat. After that is don't you need to unscrew the seat only on the side you are on because the seat is in two pieces so the drivers side will come off without unscrewing the passenger side. Once the seat is out you then unscrew the lower seat belt mount and form there pop off the plastic pillar trim. Once you get that off run the seat belt through the hole that it goes through then unscrew the seat belt entirely, once that's out you can get the wire through the rubber channel between the cab and the rear half doors lol.

All that for two wires to run my rear speakers lol...anyway here are some pics. I am using 100ft of NVX speaker wire, it is very flexible and great quality it was $40 for 100ft which is way more then i need but i can use if for other things as well. At the ends i took my speaker wire and cut off the speaker adapters i got when i first got my new speakers and crimped them onto my newly run speaker wire.






Damn my truck is a mess lol, I will be wrapping up most of the wiring that requires the seats to be out over the course of the week and then I'll start getting my new remote start installed once I order all my new steering column connectors this week as well.

 

Glad to see this is getting done. Pretty soon someone will find this and make an offer for you to work on there truck. Hint Hint I have beer

Great job on the progress.

 

Thanks!, I will gladly help anyone that is close enough to me, i enjoy working on cars just doesn't pay enough to keep playing with my own the way i do lol.