Not totally new... I bought my 2001 Dodge Ram 2500 4x4 as an early Christmas present to myself. I needed a decent truck that I could drive daily and still use as a tow rig for my track car...

My old 32 ft long Flatbed Ford 7.3 IDI Non-Turbo was a bit too much to drive daily, so it sat most of the time...

I was doing research and settled on a 12 Valve, but couldn't find one that wasn't a complete rust bucket or otherwise beat to hell; And people still wanted 12g-15g for them...

But I did stumble on a good deal on a $9,000 24 valve! So In November, I traveled from Washington D.C. to NewJersey to pick up my new toy with 160K miles on the clock. Still was a bit paranoid about the VP44 and 47RE that I had read about. The test drive went well, and I returned home with my wife's Nissan on a U-Haul behind me...

Being a 2001 with rear disc brakes, it saves me the extra work of putting a new disc brake axle in a 12 Valve truck... And it's got the kiddie seat hooks for when the wife and I do end up having ankle biters.

I figured I was good since I got 15 MPG at 70+ MPH with an extra 3500 lbs behind me.

I started cleaning up previous owner junk, like some hack job wiring under the hood. I figured it was for the previous owner's slide-in camper or something.

Lo and behold, one week later, the VP44 died on me. Turns out that some of that hack job wiring was done by the Dodge dealership for the in-tank lift pump... I thought Dodge had access to fancy things like Zip Ties and Heat Shrink tube. I didn't know professional mechanics twist wires together and wrap them up in tape. I didn't realize it but I had driven around for a while with no lift pump.

My $9,000 toy just became a $11,000 toy. Fresh VP44, AirDog 165, and a set of Isspro gauges ordered.
At least the block heater kept me warm while I changed the VP44 in a foot of snow.

I'll upgrade to a P7100 later on for reliability and compatibility with HomeBrew BioDiesel, Hence I got the adjustable pressure AirDog 165.

For now, It's time for me to save to build up the 47RE. So far it's working well. (Knock on wood.) I chose the auto because I got sick of losing momentum between shifts on the old tow rig. I assume I'd also lose boost on a turbocharged engine as well. I usually don't like autos because they run on voodoo black magic and you need a PhD in quantum physics to rebuild one.

 

 

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