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Junkyard Gem: 1997 Dodge Ram 2500, Vanlife Edition

During my journeys through the big self-service car graveyards of Colorado's Front Range, I find some interesting art cars and labor-of-love hand-built camping vehicles, plus lots of machines with impressively high final odometer readings. Today's Junkyard Gem is one that combines all three types in one fascinating late-20th-century package. I shot these photos way back in December of 2019, just before the pandemic sent thousands of new adventurers pursuing #vanlife dreams on the roads of North America. This '97 Ram three-quarter-ton van is the third generation of a Chrysler van lineage stretching back to 1970. It began life as a 127" wheelbase cargo version with the Maxi stretched rear. The 2500 Maxi's total length of just over 19 feet made it a good starting point for a camper conversion. MSRP for this hauler was $19,600 when new, or about $36,505 in 2022 frogskins. So much work went into this Ram's interior fittings and exterior paint that I knew I'd be able to find something online about its history. After a few fruitless attempts soon after I shot the photos, I back-burnered my Adventure One Van research project for a while. Then, just last weekend, success! It turns out that this van was customized by Antonio de Irun, a multidisciplinary artist in Boulder, Colorado. He refers to this Dodge as an "Adventure Reform Van" and there's a page documenting its construction on the website of a Florida custom-van company. Most of the nice stuff that was inside got removed before the van entered the junkyard ecosystem, but you can see the general structure of the living and storage layout. Plenty of carpentry and upholstery work went into the Adventure Reform Van aka Adventure One. There's electrical wiring, insulation, everything needed for life on the road. Many, many hours of work must have gone into the intricate paint designs all over the vast expanse of Ram Maxi body. So why didn't this van survive into the era of pandemic vanlife? I think this odometer tells us why: 292,844 total miles, of which I'm assuming 200,000 miles were spent on a powertrain-punishing life of deliveries and trips to job sites. The engine is this 5.9-liter Magnum V8, a modernized version of the good old LA-series 360 equipped with the distinctive "beer barrel" intake manifold and rated at 234 horsepower and 330 pound-feet. The 360 first hit the road in the 1971 model year, with production of 360s and the later Magnum 5.9s continuing well into our current century.

FCA and Cummins named in diesel emissions class-action lawsuit

Chrysler is now the first United States-based carmaker to be sued for allegedly skewing emissions results. In a move that sounds eerily similar to the troubles of European manufacturers, Chrysler is claimed to have hid diesel engine characteristics causing emissions as much as 14 times higher than permitted by regulations. According to Bloomberg, the lawsuit alleges that Chrysler, together with its diesel engine partner Cummins, has concealed the nitrogen oxide output of certain Ram vehicles produced between 2007 and 2012. The NOx pollutants were meant to be broken down in a process called regeneration in the truck's NAC system, or NOx Absorption Catalyst, which predated the 2013-introduced SCR, or Selective Catalytic Reduction system. By design, the NAC captures and stores NOx emissions, converting them to nitrogen and oxygen through a catalytic process. The lawsuit claims the Cummins engine's system has a limited capacity to store the emissions, and as a result the pollutants escape, increasing emissions, worsening fuel consumption and wearing down the catalytic converter. The later, cleaner SCR system uses a urea-water injection, and it gradually replaced the NAC on Cummins 6.7-liter engines, as it was first implemented in 2011 and made standard in 2013. As Bloomberg notes, the model years of Ram trucks involved in the lawsuit predate the earliest Volkswagen "Dieselgate" models by two years. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of 500,000 truck owners, accuses Chrysler and Cummins of fraud, false advertising and racketeering. As an underlying motive, the filing mentions a 2001 change in EPA emissions standards. Announced to become effective in 2010, the EPA requirements drove Chrysler and Cummins to try and reach those already by 2007. However, the NAC system is said to have fallen short of these goals, and the filing claims that Chrysler and Cummins chose to "rig" the engines instead. The affected vehicles predate the 2014 merger of Chrysler and Fiat. FCA US has released a statement regarding the lawsuit, saying it will contest the lawsuit "vigorously". News Source: BloombergImage Credit: Getty Editorial Government/Legal Green Chrysler Dodge RAM Emissions Diesel Vehicles FCA cummins diesel

IIHS says these are the safest cars of 2013

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has revealed its annual list of Top Safety Picks, an award that highlights automobiles it says offer "superior crash protection." A new and still more significant award, the Top Safety Pick+ honor, is given to those vehicles that earn good ratings for occupant protection in four out of five areas of measure. And while some 117 vehicles were given the TSP seal of approval for 2013, just 13 passed muster for TSP+.
To be fair, IIHS only evaluated 29 vehicles with its new testing procedures for TSP+ (we'd expect that the number of qualified cars will rise substantially for 2014). Luxury and Near Luxury midsize cars were the first groups evaluated, followed by midsizers in the Moderately Priced Cars category - unsurprisingly, it's only midsize cars that you'll find among the class this year.
Only two luxury sedans made the list of 13 for 2013: the Acura TL and Volvo S60. The other 11 cars on the list included entries from domestic, Japanese and German car makers: Dodge Avenger, Chrysler 200, Ford Fusion, Honda Accord (sedan and coupe), Kia Optima (but not its close kin, the Hyundai Sonata, strangely), Nissan Altima, Subaru Legacy and Outback, Suzuki Kizashi and the Volkswagen Passat all made the grade.