That crew cab is WAAAY too long for me. My diesel is trouble enough in a parking lot.

Older toys are pretty much out too.

What I'm really wanting is a comfortable,clean,simple,driver that can haul a couple people, a wheel/fender/bumper/etc. and get decent mileage on my trips to MT. Project budget is about $10k total.

The purple truck is too nice to load up the dog and head off to deer country in the dark. It's also not real comfortable and the carb needs rebuilt. Of course if I rebuild the carb I should throw a timing chain set on. While I'm in there I should also...see where this is going? It would be fun to drop in a newer Hemi and update the rolling stock but I have a Gen I Viper now for a fair-weather toy.

The lifted diesel isn't the kind of thing you want to be in a tight parking lot in. Forget about parallel parking between two small cars...I'd have to do it by "feel". My back is so scrogged now that on the bad days climbing in and out of it isn't much fun either.

These are the reasons I'm leaning towards a '94-'05 Club/Quad cab I can lower, drive all over the place and not care if it gets left outside in the rain. Room for 2 plus the dog, cargo capacity, easy ingress/egress, small V8s get decent mileage for what they are, aftermarket parts availability has come a long ways on these models. I love the looks of the '02-'05 Quads lowered but the buy-in would take most of my budget. I like the looks of the few '94-'01s I've seen but there just aren't many out there lowered so it's hard to get a feel for what works well. I was the guinea pig when I built the '78, I don't want to go through that again. A '94-'01 would leave enough budget for bolt-ons like LED tails, new headlights, a better stereo (I haven't had a high end sound system since the early '90s!!!) maybe some small graphics/airbrush work etc.

I guess maybe I'm just thinking (typing?) out loud here.

Any links to pics of lowered '94-'01 Rams would be appreciated...doubly so if it lists suspension/wheel/tire specs.

Thanks all.