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Just a quick question regarding running boards.

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CB/Ham install ideas

I have a lot of work going on with the truck to get it painted to include a new cargo bed because this one's done and potentially a cowl hood as I can tell on the highway I'm trapping some air up under the truck and let her know I just like the look of it before I get it painted.

My plan is to keep most of the Chrome features off my truck in favor of black. I have the molten Pearl coloration which at this point just looks like torn up garbage so I'll either be going with a semi-flat black cherry that's close enough to the original color but a bit darker that has a clear coat designed to look like it doesn't have a clear coat close enough to match the door jambs or the professionally done bedliner job not something I do in my backyard.

I'd like to get some wheel to wheel running boards for my 2004.5 quad cab short bed without paying 5 to $700. I don't know if I'm necessarily a fan of the look of the bar that has the three settle bends. I see a lot of options on Amazon and on eBay and other places where they have just some no frills running boards even some that looks stock others that look like plastic or aluminum extruded rectangle. That doesn't look so bad and the price is an awful either but as soon as you tell them what year you are they don't have any that fit the quad cab and if they have any of that fits the quad cab they don't have any that fit the year. So I thought of looking for some running boards that were roughly the right size and maybe I could find some brackets that I could alter a bit? I started getting a bit lost there.

I have an idea that involves some standard galvanized pipe from home Depot and maybe some u-bolts along with another bracket or the same idea except modified brackets so you don't have to see the u-bolts. The other idea was to find a piece of extruded metal I already have some steel that would just about do the job but that much steel is pretty damn heavy I understand it's not too much of a consideration on these trucks but when I say it's heavy I mean it's a big chunk of steel even quarter inch. So I was thinking maybe aluminum perhaps drilling some holes large enough to fit a deep well socket into the top with bolts going through it into the brackets on the bottom and then covering the thing over with whatever perhaps some kind of a plug and working the entire step over with some kind of a grip paint such as aircraft Wing walk or bed liner. When I was looking at some of these pipes I was even thinking to myself that they might make nice compressed air compartments but then I'd have to worry about internal corrosion and draining them out it was a nice idea. you can tell I've been thinking about it for a while.

I'm only okay at welding and I haven't done it in a long time you'd better if I could find a step I could bolt together also for the purposes of if it ever had to come off. That could also use something fairly close to the stock brackets or perhaps something like them but I'm not aware of.

As a follow-up question these cowl hoods that I am seeing for sale used to be about $500 down seeing them six to $750 from key parts. Did any of these trucks actually come with those on it to where I might get lucky at a scrap yard? I know the SRT-10 and some others have hoods that have scoops and also somewhat of a cowl situation going on but it's not really what I'm looking for I don't want to jam more air into the hood I want to allow air from under the truck to slip over the top of the windshield and I also just think it looks a bit more robust it has a good look to it in my opinion. The only option I'm aware of is the key parts 2 in that sells it a number of different places but if there's something else I'd be glad to look at some options it's a good running truck I've probably spent around $20,000 trying to restore this baby and make it better make it into the truck that I want to keep forever it's about time that it looked like a truck that was well maintained and modestly upgraded. But I don't want to look like the SRT-10 or a race car with some kind of a ram air scoop on the front. I've also been looking at kits that you can buy I have a structural guy at work that I would trust to give me a hand with that but it seems like an awful lot and it also seems like something is just tacked on to the hood.

If there is a plug and Play option that maybe isn't overtly for this truck but would do a damn good job of bolting on or something I'm missing that would also be good.

Thanks in advance for any feedback help links whatever you got. Have a great day!
 
You might have luck at a salvage yard finding brackets for the running boards. Some yards pull accessories and offer them for sale. Might be worth a few phone calls or Internet salvage parts searches. Good luck.
 
Thanks I might do that sorry it took me a while to reply.

I wasn't aware that anybody actually made wheel to wheel running boards for my year and configuration of truck.

I guess what I'm asking is does anybody know of any wheel to wheel options whether advertised as fitting this truck or not that would do the job maybe with minimal modification maybe not.

It looks like there's a few options out there that might get the job done but there's no telling us to whether or not they will actually fit some of them look OEM and have that oval shape some of them are rectangular some of them are flat. None of them cost $500 to $750 which is pretty much the only thing I'm finding and those have the saddle bends that I'm not super fond of.

Just looking for some running boards that also let me step up into my cargo bed thank you..
 
I don't know how your search is coming or what you have found, but back in 2014 when I bought my 2004 dually it had wheel-to-wheel running boards, but they were done in two separate pieces. One from the front wheel to the back of the cab, the other from the back of the cab to the front of the rear wheel arch. Like this:
Running boards-2014.jpg


When I transitioned it to SRW later that year the back sections of running boards stayed with the dually bed, which the salvage yard that I bought my SRW bed from gave me a $600 credit for. While both the front running board section and the back section were aluminum diamond plate, I don't think they came together as a set.

Looking for something like that now, I feel your pain. $630 for just the rear pieces! Perhaps you could buy two sets of cheap front to back of cab running boards and and cut one set to length with custom brackets for the back section.
 
That's interesting several years ago I checked with Chrysler Dodge and they didn't have anything for me.

Like I said when I keep checking aftermarkets if it is my year of truck they either have it for anything that isn't a quad cab or anything that isn't my year it's almost like my ear is some kind of a pariah unless I want to get the super expensive ones. I just didn't know if anybody had any ideas or new if anything else would basically fit the area that was just a little bit of effort could make it work or perhaps I'm missing something all together.

I knew I should have gone to that welding school. Maybe it's time for me to start practicing.
I have some 5/16 rectangle steel tube in the backyard but boy that stuff is really heavy probably too heavy and when it comes to fabrication drilling holes in it and being precise about it takes a lot of work I use that along with a similar piece of 5x7 to make a steel rear bumper and drilling through it was quite a chore as well as making cutouts and things were reverse lights. Made me wish I had a water jet available.

I'm not against getting something that's close enough that'll basically work and then trying to figure out the brackets.

It just seems like everything I'm trying to do before I finally paint my truck as a $500 hit or $1,000 hit I'm trying to avoid as many of those jabs as I can. I just spent $10,000 on this truck that I'm never going to sell and prior to that all told I've probably spent about $20,000 I'm looking forward to making my truck look like it isn't a crap box anymore because I have put work into it and it is a solid vehicle.
 
I knew I should have gone to that welding school. Maybe it's time for me to start practicing.
I have some 5/16 rectangle steel tube in the backyard but boy that stuff is really heavy probably too heavy and when it comes to fabrication drilling holes in it and being precise about it takes a lot of work I use that along with a similar piece of 5x7 to make a steel rear bumper and drilling through it was quite a chore as well as making cutouts and things were reverse lights. Made me wish I had a water jet available.

I'm not against getting something that's close enough that'll basically work and then trying to figure out the brackets.

It just seems like everything I'm trying to do before I finally paint my truck as a $500 hit or $1,000 hit I'm trying to avoid as many of those jabs as I can. I just spent $10,000 on this truck that I'm never going to sell and prior to that all told I've probably spent about $20,000 I'm looking forward to making my truck look like it isn't a crap box anymore because I have put work into it and it is a solid vehicle.

Do it!

After breaking my 2nd rear window, I ordered the replacemant, but told myself I couln't install it until I bought or made a headache rack. After seeing how lousy the cheap ones are, and how stupid-spendy the good ones are, I decided to make my own. I bought square tube and expanded metal and after making a cardboard mockup, I started cutting and welding.

I did have wheel to wheel running boards on my '03 longbed quad cab.



20863637_10155070379777144_166903467299511903_o (2).jpg


Internal Memory 003.jpg
 
Do it!

After breaking my 2nd rear window, I ordered the replacemant, but told myself I couln't install it until I bought or made a headache rack. After seeing how lousy the cheap ones are, and how stupid-spendy the good ones are, I decided to make my own. I bought square tube and expanded metal and after making a cardboard mockup, I started cutting and welding.

I did have wheel to wheel running boards on my '03 longbed quad cab.



View attachment 141187

View attachment 141188
Nice Truck! Great running boards also. Are they out of the box or did you just make them fit?
 
They look nice I called them up and got a quote for what would fit my truck and we're looking at like anywhere from 12 to $1500.
The super fancy ones with the saddle bins we're going anywhere from 500 to 750 even though I'm not a fan of that look I was trying to avoid even spending that much money if I could avoid it.

I was thinking more along the lines of something that would fit the area that I could use essentially stock brackets or otherwise attainable brackets to make fit or something that's advertised not necessarily to fit the truck but you know it'll fit the truck or just get some running board stock and make it work.

I have a paint job a cargo bed and hopefully not injectors to worry about as well as tires and I recently just spent $10,000 on the truck doing a bunch of head gasket work and getting the whole front end redone with the steering upgrade new hubs you name it I did it.

Pockets only run so deep. And he filed a fit paint to match options?
 
Do it!

After breaking my 2nd rear window, I ordered the replacemant, but told myself I couln't install it until I bought or made a headache rack. After seeing how lousy the cheap ones are, and how stupid-spendy the good ones are, I decided to make my own. I bought square tube and expanded metal and after making a cardboard mockup, I started cutting and welding.

I did have wheel to wheel running boards on my '03 longbed quad cab.



View attachment 141187

View attachment 141188
Where did you get those running boards from do you know what running boards they are?

I guess I'm not looking just for an option I'm looking for options anything from direct fit to we can make that fit to home Depot sells galvanized pipe some u-bolts connects them to the brackets and some hardcore non-skid or aircraft Wing walk or bed liner if properly prepared make them black.
There must be a way to get this done properly without spending the amount of money that I would spend on a turbo.
 
I've never seen a factory cowl hood. I expect someone here might have actual data, and bet Ram designed the engine compartment with plenty of room to expel hot air out underneath, and any vent/extractor on the hood will only make your truck warmer inside the cab.
 
I've never seen a factory cowl hood. I expect someone here might have actual data, and bet Ram designed the engine compartment with plenty of room to expel hot air out underneath, and any vent/extractor on the hood will only make your truck warmer inside the cab.
Perhaps that's true aesthetically they look pretty nice and the idea behind it is that underneath the vehicle is high pressure air and going over the top of the truck is low pressure air so that high pressure air that's trapped up under the hood on the highway in particular would be able to run over the top of the slipstream which should give you less wind resistance as well as drawing more air through the club sandwich of coolers that we have up front.

Remember I'm talking about prepaints right now and like I said it is a company called key parts that sells these 2 in cowl hoods with a windshield side exit only not a scoop in the front I'm not trying to make the truck look like an SRT-10. Just make the hood look a bit more robust although based on what you're telling me if it has no value whatsoever I suppose I could skip it I'll at least consider skipping it what I'd really like to find is some method to use wheel to wheel running boards for my truck that doesn't cost $1,000 maybe something in the DIY category or maybe something that is meant for another year of truck or maybe something that's meant for another truck all together or maybe just something that's available that we can utilize brackets and put on there I'm just not trying to spend $750 bucks to even $1,500 on some running boards or side steps or I think your company out there called n Fab makes what basically looks like it a bar with three saddle bins on it and those saddle bends are where you put your feet the third saddle bend of course is near the rear wheel so you can take a step up into your cargo bed I like the look of having a continuous wheel to wheel side step of some sort but there has to be a better option and options for this year and configuration of truck are somewhat limited which is why I was thinking a little bit of personal touch or if we know something that will generally work or somebody simply has found something that I don't know about.

Screenshot_20240731-080617.png


Screenshot_20240731-080524.png
 
the idea behind it is that underneath the vehicle is high pressure air and going over the top of the truck is low pressure air so that high pressure air that's trapped up under the hood on the highway in particular would be able to run over the top of the slipstream which should give you less wind resistance as well as drawing more air through the club sandwich of coolers that we have up front.

I can't argue with aesthetics. For better cooling, I'm no aerodynamicist but I think the only way you get air stacked up under hood is if you close the bottom too; in a truck this heavy you can move a lot of air out the bottom without causing front-end lift. If speed builds air pressure underhood temps would tend to go up as speed does, but all of my cars and trucks have better AC and cooling performance at 50 mph than they do at 5. I have a car with an airdam designed to limit air going under the car which draws more through the cooling stack with no hood opening (I had to add a thermostat just to get oil to operating temp, and even though it makes 16% more power than stock oil still runs at 180-190F even at 4000 rpm, AC on, in 90F ambient) but it's only 3.9 inches off the ground. This drawing suggests the base of the windshield is low-pressure but I believe on old desert racers and stock cars they used this for the air intake as it was cooler and cleaner.
Screenshot 2024-07-31 at 07.20.56.png
 
I can't argue with aesthetics. For better cooling, I'm no aerodynamicist but I think the only way you get air stacked up under hood is if you close the bottom too; in a truck this heavy you can move a lot of air out the bottom without causing front-end lift. If speed builds air pressure underhood temps would tend to go up as speed does, but all of my cars and trucks have better AC and cooling performance at 50 mph than they do at 5. I have a car with an airdam designed to limit air going under the car which draws more through the cooling stack with no hood opening (I had to add a thermostat just to get oil to operating temp, and even though it makes 16% more power than stock oil still runs at 180-190F even at 4000 rpm, AC on, in 90F ambient) but it's only 3.9 inches off the ground. This drawing suggests the base of the windshield is low-pressure but I believe on old desert racers and stock cars they used this for the air intake as it was cooler and cleaner.
View attachment 141273

Interesting concept the airdamn. I have a Steel Bumper replacement the same as this person's truck in the picture. Probably will not accommodate one. My ECT runs a bit hotter unfortunately even after anew fan clutch and I did a head gasket recently. The radiator is new and have the banks intake. I am in Tampa and my Intake air temp gets pretty high. But my ambient temp is like 100 and I run an aggressive tune.. Though of the Banks scoop for my Banks box but not sure if that will fit either. But I digress.
I'd like to pull more air through if I could and I know why we have cowl flaps and such on our recip planes and that is for ground running and when the engine temp is up to let more air through the engine and around the cylinder fins (air-cooled.)
I can probably skip it. I found a few options for W@W running boards and steps that do not cost scary money but, they are still like $600. Guess it is what it is. Just exploring any body and other aesthetic options before the paint goes on.
 
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