Mounting a bed on a 4500

[Bill Stockard]

WOW!! A Ram 4500 pickup... just what I need for my heavy slide-in truck camper.



How does it handle your camper compared to a 1-ton dually pidkup? I'll bet your answer will be "no comparison". :-laf



Bill

 

[BIGNASTY]

Dont someone make a truck like bed for 45 and 55 hundred Dodges ? I thought I have seen them in one of my mag's?

 

[JSawtelle]

Well I can say that it handles quite nicely... ... . Gives me a lot more confidence on the road. No more sway or nose dive... .

 

[Bill Stockard]

Dont someone make a truck like bed for 45 and 55 hundred Dodges ? I thought I have seen them in one of my mag's?

Yep, Sterling, but they are out of business. Daimler, the owner, shut them down.

 

[HBarlow]

Bill,

You're saying Sterling offered a pickup style bed for their 4500/5500s? I don't remember ever seeing or hearing one. Where could I find a photo?

 

[dlmetzger]

See below:



View attachment 79445

 

[dlmetzger]

See below:



View attachment 79446

 

[HBarlow]

That bed looks good but it was obviously a standard Dodge 3500 dually bed modified by some aftermarket company.

I wonder who actually made it? I know there were several companies around the country who were doing it two or three years ago.

 

[morbius]

I can tell from the picture, but was the bed extended or the frame shortened ? The bed looks like a normal 3500 bed ... . It does not look the bed was lengthened.

 

[HBarlow]

I can't tell either. I can't even tell if that is a Sterling 4500 with an extended bed/shortened frame, or a Ram 3500 with a Sterling grille and aftermarket chrome wheels.

I would guess it would be cheaper to use light sheet metal to extend the bed rather than send a brand new truck out to have the frame, driveshaft, brake lines and cables, fuel lines, and wiring surgically shortened.

 

[dlmetzger]

See this link: New Sterling Bullet 4500 Medium Duty Trucks Pick-up truck For Sale in

It says that it is a 164" wheel base.

 

[Bill Stockard]

See this link: New Sterling Bullet 4500 Medium Duty Trucks Pick-up truck For Sale in

It says that it is a 164" wheel base.

If you notice, it's a 2008 year model, a four year old new truck! IIRC, that was the last year of production. Evidently, they didn't sell too well.



Bill

 

[rMetzger]

OK, now I'm confused. When did Sterling become Dodge's big truck brother, and quit being Ford's? This is the kind of thing that just perpetuates the "Ford owns Cummings" kind of weirdness.

 

[HBarlow]

Daimler began buying a very small number of Dodge Ram 4500/5500 cab and chassis trucks when they were introduced to the market in 2007. 5. Daimler wanted to offer a complete range of trucks from "medium duty" Class IVs and Class Vs through large commercial OTR tractors so they bought Dodge Ram C&Cs with a different grille and side badge and tried to sell them as Sterling Bullets.

That was about the time that the economy tanked (this is not the political forum so I can't state the reason) and sales plummeted so Sterling sold very few rebadged Rams before Daimler pulled the plug on Sterling and cut their losses. I assume their truck warranty disappeared but the Cummins engine warranty should be good for five years 100k miles.

There have been occasional posts here on TDR by Sterling owners with questions. Sadly for them, they became orphans when Daimler shut down Sterling. A Cummins dealer cannot diagnose engine problems on Sterling Bullets because their Cummins engines use Dodge Ram software, Sterling seized to exist, and Daimler dealers are no help because a Cummins is not their product. To make it worse many Dodge dealer service departments don't know what a Sterling Bullet is and may tell owners they can't work on them.

 

[Bill Stockard]

Daimler bought Ford's big truck division in 1997 and branded it Sterling.

Also Ford wanted the heavy truck production, which had a minuscule share of the market, moved from their under utilized Louisville assembly plant so they could begin production of their Super Duty line of trucks there. Daimler moved the Sterling production to somewhere on the east coast, I don't remember where. I presume Daimler bought the Ford heavy duty line of trucks in order to keep another truck manufacturer from taking it. The Sterling line was never very successful and were sold mainly to low bid government agencies which wasn't very profitable to the company.



Bill