Magnum Build Thread

[MagnumPSI]

Starting a build thread to post progress as well as to ask and answer questions and provide reasoning for some of my decisions.

My truck is a 2020 Rebel level 2 quad cab. I wanted the quad cab as I rarely ever have to drive more than one other person and wanted the extra bed space since the end goal was to sleep in the bed while camping. The long bed also provided me with more cargo hauling usability than the crew cab would have. In addition to the extra useable bed space, everywhere I was looking quad cabs were significantly less expensive than their crew cab counterparts. That sealed the deal for me, I wasn't going to pay extra for backseat room I didn't need and a bed that was too short for my needs. I love the backseat room crew cabs have and I understand why they're popular, I just didn't need one.

At the time Rebels were still being offered in the quad cab configuration and this is what I decided on. I knew I wanted the rear locker and I wanted to run the stock Duratracs as long as I could since they're fairly good off road, as opposed to getting a different trim level and having to get new more aggressive tires immediately. I found a used quad cab Rebel below my budget with only 7,000 miles on it and got it during the summer of 2020, 3 or 4 months before prices for used vehicles shot through the roof due to chip shortages and supply chain issues.

I immediately started taking it off road on some mild trails and that fall got an ARE cap put on the back so I could sleep in it when camping. I was blown away with how smooth the suspension was off road and decided to keep it stock for a while, as I never really ran into any clearance issues on the milder trails I was running.

The majority of the trails where I live and go camping have water crossings, and I had no problem with the smaller ones and got more and more confident until I was on a camping trip with my friends during the summer of 2021. We drove down a washed out, rutted and muddy forest service road and camped in a beautiful spot next to a river. The next morning we decided to cross the river and drive out the trail from the other direction. It was no problem, as all three of us had capable rigs and had done plenty of water crossings before. As always we checked the depth before we crossed and it was no deeper than ones we'd done in the past(1.5-2 ft). My friends went through first, and I followed. They both got through fine so I started making my way through it and got to the other side when my check engine light came on. So I stopped on the other side of the river and let my truck sit for a few minutes and then started it up again. That was my mistake. Being unexperienced in off roading in general, I should've opened up the air box to check it but didn't. As I started my engine up again it made a terrible noise and I shut my truck off. It sounded like someone was banging on the inside of the engine block with a hammer. We then towed my truck out of the trail with one of my friends' trucks and got it towed to a dealership to get checked out. Apparently water had shot up through the front of my grill at just the right angle to get into the airbag and past the filter. Water got into the engine and hydro locked it. I had to drive a rental car for a month while they figured out what was wrong and fixed it. When I got my truck back I had a choice to make, either I trade it in for something else or I get a snorkel.

 

[MagnumPSI]

The truck as it sat 2 months ago.

 

[MagnumPSI]

Snorkel

Most of the fun trails within a reasonable driving distance of me have water crossings, and I knew I didn't want to be tiptoeing around those worried every time. I didn't want to trade my truck in either, like most of us, I'd fallen in love with the power and interior of the 5th gen. I also thought finding a snorkel for my truck would be relatively easy as tons of different rigs, new and old, have snorkels. How wrong I was about that.

After about a year of on and off researching I concluded that no one makes a snorkel for the 5th gen Ram 1500 in the US, so I looked elsewhere and found a fabricator in Australia, Platinum Mechanical and Suspension, who makes a custom snorkel and airbag kit for the 5th gens. After a long thread of emailing with their sales reps and techs, we concluded that their kit would work with our left hand drive 1500s and they could make me one and ship it over.

Snorkel and air box kit

It took almost exactly 7 weeks from when I sent my order in to when it arrived. I'm not super technically savvy so I had them ship it to a 4x4 shop near me. The total price of the snorkel + air box was pretty expensive but they gave me a little bit of a discount because shipping was so expensive. Shipping was $600, the snorkel + air box was around $1,700. This totaled up to $2,300. Definitely expensive but worth it in my opinion, provided it actually worked.

I got it and some ARB differential breathers installed and tested it last weekend getting to a camping spot I wasn't able to get to before and everything worked great. Forded some water that definitely would've tanked the engine before, probably around 2.5-3 ft deep. Glad to know everything's working as it's supposed to.

 

[MagnumPSI]

Here are some pictures of it installed, super happy with the fit and finish. Definitely different to what I was expecting having only seen safari style forward facing snorkels but it’s definitely grown on me.

Something I wasn’t expecting was the on throttle intake noise is crazy, and past 3k RPM it almost sounds like another exhaust pipe right next to the passenger window.

 

[boogielander]

good call on the diff breather. now i gotta go down and look at it to see if i need to extend the tube lol
by any chance, do you remember how high the stock breather tubes go?

 

[MagnumPSI]

This thread was pretty helpful for me

 

[MagnumPSI]

The rear is a decent height under the bed, but the front one is super exposed stock

 

[boogielander]

from the findings in the thread it looks like someone tested the OE valve and it's pretty good at keeping water out.
i'll look more into this... if OE is good as is (better than what the Toyotas have) then I don't really need to worry about it. Or else it's a PITA for me to do because I gotta remove all skid plates lol

 

[MagnumPSI]

Yeah, in my case I put them on before I got the RCI package so it wasn't too bad. I figured if I had a snorkel there wasn't much point in not having diff breathers too so I got them put on at the same time. Just a little extra insurance for me since I have water crossings almost every time I go out. If I had to take all of the plates off to put them on afterwards that would be annoying though so I get it.

 

[MagnumPSI]

Armor

Like a lot of y’all, I knew I needed additional underbody protection, especially between the front bumper skid plate and the front crossmember. I chose to get the RCI skid plate package during Black Friday and got a little bit off(I think it was 10% or something). I ended up getting the whole package minus the cat guards but I might add those later. Very impressed with the fit and finish on them and they’ve done a good job protecting my underbody so far, I’ve definitely put a few scrapes in them since they’ve gotten put on.

For the sliders, I knew I wanted some rocker protection and wanted a full heavy duty actual slider for the future when I start getting into some more technical stuff. I went with the white knuckle sliders, which as far as I know are the only ones that are frame bolt-on legitimate sliders for our trucks. In addition to that they also add a little bit of a step which is going to be nice when I upgrade my suspension. I optioned the black powder coat and the full cover plate.

Sorry about the bad pictures so far, I know there’s plenty of documentation on here on both of these products.

 

[MagnumPSI]

Armor

Like a lot of y’all, I knew I needed additional underbody protection, especially between the front bumper skid plate and the front crossmember. I chose to get the RCI skid plate package during Black Friday and got a little bit off(I think it was 10% or something). I ended up getting the whole package minus the cat guards but I might add those later. Very impressed with the fit and finish on them and they’ve done a good job protecting my underbody so far, I’ve definitely put a few scrapes in them since they’ve gotten put on.

For the sliders, I knew I wanted some rocker protection and wanted a full heavy duty actual slider for the future when I start getting into some more technical stuff. I went with the white knuckle sliders, which as far as I know are the only ones that are frame bolt-on legitimate sliders for our trucks. In addition to that they also add a little bit of a step which is going to be nice when I upgrade my suspension. I optioned the black powder coat and the full cover plate.

Sorry about the bad pictures so far, I know there’s plenty of documentation on here on both of these products.

 

[boogielander]

Armor

Like a lot of y’all, I knew I needed additional underbody protection, especially between the front bumper skid plate and the front crossmember. I chose to get the RCI skid plate package during Black Friday and got a little bit off(I think it was 10% or something). I ended up getting the whole package minus the cat guards but I might add those later. Very impressed with the fit and finish on them and they’ve done a good job protecting my underbody so far, I’ve definitely put a few scrapes in them since they’ve gotten put on.

For the sliders, I knew I wanted some rocker protection and wanted a full heavy duty actual slider for the future when I start getting into some more technical stuff. I went with the white knuckle sliders, which as far as I know are the only ones that are frame bolt-on legitimate sliders for our trucks. In addition to that they also add a little bit of a step which is going to be nice when I upgrade my suspension. I optioned the black powder coat and the full cover plate.

Sorry about the bad pictures so far, I know there’s plenty of documentation on here on both of these products.

i have the cat guards and i honestly feel you're not missing out much by not having them.
they make it a pain in the as* when lifting up the truck to do any oil change and other works.