4500 Dodge Truck Questions

Date 11-06-2013 12:30

Anybody have a 4500 Dodge crew cab rigged out?? I'm wondering about the gooseneck and if you have enough room to leave it at the location over the axle with your welder and stuff in place. I'm going to look at a bed today at a local upfitter. Dodge states they have a location already set for a bolt on gooseneck ball. I'd love to build a bed but time is an issue. It appears I am gaining almost a foot on bed length over my existing rig.

Picked up a 2013 Ram 4500 yesterday, 4x4, Aisin, crew cab, bells and whistles, ugly steel wheels and plain old white(Eewww!). This truck is a monster though, need a ladder to get into this thing, especially the back seat! I'll be cruising the highways and biways of America with a new helper and all of my gear barely fits on my current rig. My tv is my passenger in the front seat so adding a guy and all of his gear he would be sitting in the back of the truck someplace because of my tv! I went with the 4500 because I know I won't be able to overload it doing what I have been doing. The 3500's were right on the brink and my current truck I know for a fact is already at it's max. I contacted Ford and Dodge thru the internet and Dodge was the only one that responded, apparently Ford does not need my business! :lol:

I don't know if the 3500 Dodge cab and chassis is about the same when it comes to bed length or not, maybe if you have a 3500 rigged out what is your gooseneck situation? I really don't know if I will need to haul a gooseneck or not. All I own is bumper pulls and the company I will be working for uses mostly bumper pulls to haul gear but they do have a gooseneck to haul steel to jobsites if it is not being delivered. They also use it to haul equipment to jobsites as well so I might end up doing something like that for them from time to time.

Thanks for any info!

Shawn

By JeremyW83 (***)

Date 11-08-2013 11:45

I don't have a 4500 but I'd say as long as you keep your tool boxes on the sides low enough you shouldn't have a problems with a factory hitch location. But then again most guys with regular 1 ton rigs seem to always move their fifth wheel hitches behind the rear axel and have no issues.

Blab to hear you got a good gig going on. Is this a semi permanent gig doing the cellular tower mods?

By Stringer (***)

Date 11-09-2013 00:25

I've seen the bed removed, and a 1x 8 flat bar (drilled and tapped hole in middle for ball) welded down to the top of the frame. It could be seen as a warranty issue, but it's fast and your bed fits over it just fine (your mileage may vary depending on your exact location). I've seen this several times and no one has had any issues. The aftermarket bolt on fith wheels work but take up room.