coptezr
1/2 ton status
how much did you guys spend $$ on oyur autometer setups?
CK5
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Dakota digital gauges worth it??
- Thread starter dallassnowman
- Start date
i had most of mine laying around from another project... got the oil and trans temp for x-mas.. i run 8 pro comp gauges.. they'd run about $550 new.. but that is 8, most peeps run 6... tach and speedo are what can get spendy if you so choose...
oh, and the dash was in the neighborhood of 40 hrs and maybe $50 in material..
oh, and the dash was in the neighborhood of 40 hrs and maybe $50 in material..
dallassnowman
1/2 ton status
ryoken said:yup, and the angled down thing bugs me... don't like it... that place is a total ripoff... you can buy the gauges for 1/2 of what they sell em for and just dremel your own bezel like Sweetk30 did..
think everyone here has seen mine but here they are anyway for chits and giggles...
Kinda hard to tell, but are your gauges angled??
yup... the original bezels follow the plane where the light switchs are... the lower 1/2 of my dash.. the angle starts above that... you can see up toward the top they are recessed about 2"s... worked out perfect... 
dallassnowman
1/2 ton status
Oh now I can see the angle!!
CGT80
1/2 ton status
Covans classic/auto meter review
covans has a new version of their panel out that is angled more than the first, but it is only angled slightly more than the face of the original. The original gauges are angled even more. I have the new panel in brushed aluminum finish and auto meter ultralite full sweep all electric gauges in 5" and 2 5/8" and also a lokar LED shift indicator. I have around $1500 to $1700 into the entire setup. The full sweep gauges are in increments of 2/10ths of a volt and 2psi on oil, etc. They are very accurate and it is easy to tell exactly what values they read vs. the stupid original gauges that are marked 0-30-60 for oil. Also, the gauges have peak and warning lights on them. I went with the plain tach. rather than the recall tach. since I am less concerned about RPM than oil, temp, voltage, and the plain tach. also looks cleaner. On the 5" gauges, the speedometer goes to 160mph and the tach. 10,000 rpm. I thought I might not like only using half the gauge, but It doesn't bother me.
The covans panel looks nice but it did not line up with the ac vents, wiper switch, ac controls, or headlight switch. Everything was off a bit so I had to modify the top right AC vent to screw it to the back of the panel, put washers behind the ac control board and moved it left 3/16 of an inch, etc. My seat is built up with a lot of foam, I am 5'9", and the angle of the dash is just barely enough to read the number 5 on the tach. at the top. Covans could have easily set the top of the panel back another inch or two. I wish someone would mill a billet aluminum panel in the USA for these trucks. It would be very durable and look great. It would cost a fortune but look at the price covans gets for a POS, probably made in china, soda bottle turned into a dash panel. The covan panel seems thin but has been ok so far. The area for the radio is better than the original because it is flat and not recessed. Now I can fit the trim ring for my pioneer onto the face. Before I could not use it. I also ordered the cover for the bottom of the steering wheel, to mate up to the dash panel, in the matching aluminum. It doesn't fit at all. I will have to hit it with the die grinder to make it match.
You have to install LED's for blinkers, etc. into the covans panel. I bought some nice leds from radio shack and laid my panel out with tape. I have the marks perfectly laid out (I could measure everything in triangles and get the same measurement all across the board) but when I drilled the panel I ended up with one hole off a little. I should have started with a smaller bit or a punch. Its not super bad, but of course I see it every day and can see it a mile away. Others may or may not notice. It would have been nice to have an option of having them drill for LEDs. It is nerve wrecking to have to drill into a $300 piece of somewhat fragile plastic and know that you could mess it up and not be able to fix it.
Covans customer service sucks. They told me they had a new version coming out but did not have photos. I bugged them for a while and finally got some. I called later to see if they had gone into production, but found that they had some issues and had to alter the mold. This lead me to believe that they may have been working on having them made overseas. I can't be sure of this, but I don't think it would take that long to make changes in the US and get a sample for photos.
The dash in my truck is far better than stock, but the lighting on the autometer ultralight procomp gauges could be better (the correct angle would help), the covans panel looks nice but needs to be refined.
The sad part is that the covans panel seems to be the best replacement out there. I have not seen the dakota dash in person. Maybe it would be a better fit. I was going to build an aluminum sheet panel dash, but none of the controls on the dash are on the same plane. Some stick out further than others, and a panel with a flat rear would not work well. This would have been over my head. If a good fabricator had a cab or section of a cab to mock up a dash and some time it might work. I wanted this for my DD so I could not leave it torn apart. I even went to the junk yard to get the framework for a dash, but realized that I would have needed more than just one section of metal to get something to work from.
Sorry for the long post. hopefully this will help some people out.
covans has a new version of their panel out that is angled more than the first, but it is only angled slightly more than the face of the original. The original gauges are angled even more. I have the new panel in brushed aluminum finish and auto meter ultralite full sweep all electric gauges in 5" and 2 5/8" and also a lokar LED shift indicator. I have around $1500 to $1700 into the entire setup. The full sweep gauges are in increments of 2/10ths of a volt and 2psi on oil, etc. They are very accurate and it is easy to tell exactly what values they read vs. the stupid original gauges that are marked 0-30-60 for oil. Also, the gauges have peak and warning lights on them. I went with the plain tach. rather than the recall tach. since I am less concerned about RPM than oil, temp, voltage, and the plain tach. also looks cleaner. On the 5" gauges, the speedometer goes to 160mph and the tach. 10,000 rpm. I thought I might not like only using half the gauge, but It doesn't bother me.
The covans panel looks nice but it did not line up with the ac vents, wiper switch, ac controls, or headlight switch. Everything was off a bit so I had to modify the top right AC vent to screw it to the back of the panel, put washers behind the ac control board and moved it left 3/16 of an inch, etc. My seat is built up with a lot of foam, I am 5'9", and the angle of the dash is just barely enough to read the number 5 on the tach. at the top. Covans could have easily set the top of the panel back another inch or two. I wish someone would mill a billet aluminum panel in the USA for these trucks. It would be very durable and look great. It would cost a fortune but look at the price covans gets for a POS, probably made in china, soda bottle turned into a dash panel. The covan panel seems thin but has been ok so far. The area for the radio is better than the original because it is flat and not recessed. Now I can fit the trim ring for my pioneer onto the face. Before I could not use it. I also ordered the cover for the bottom of the steering wheel, to mate up to the dash panel, in the matching aluminum. It doesn't fit at all. I will have to hit it with the die grinder to make it match.
You have to install LED's for blinkers, etc. into the covans panel. I bought some nice leds from radio shack and laid my panel out with tape. I have the marks perfectly laid out (I could measure everything in triangles and get the same measurement all across the board) but when I drilled the panel I ended up with one hole off a little. I should have started with a smaller bit or a punch. Its not super bad, but of course I see it every day and can see it a mile away. Others may or may not notice. It would have been nice to have an option of having them drill for LEDs. It is nerve wrecking to have to drill into a $300 piece of somewhat fragile plastic and know that you could mess it up and not be able to fix it.
Covans customer service sucks. They told me they had a new version coming out but did not have photos. I bugged them for a while and finally got some. I called later to see if they had gone into production, but found that they had some issues and had to alter the mold. This lead me to believe that they may have been working on having them made overseas. I can't be sure of this, but I don't think it would take that long to make changes in the US and get a sample for photos.
The dash in my truck is far better than stock, but the lighting on the autometer ultralight procomp gauges could be better (the correct angle would help), the covans panel looks nice but needs to be refined.
The sad part is that the covans panel seems to be the best replacement out there. I have not seen the dakota dash in person. Maybe it would be a better fit. I was going to build an aluminum sheet panel dash, but none of the controls on the dash are on the same plane. Some stick out further than others, and a panel with a flat rear would not work well. This would have been over my head. If a good fabricator had a cab or section of a cab to mock up a dash and some time it might work. I wanted this for my DD so I could not leave it torn apart. I even went to the junk yard to get the framework for a dash, but realized that I would have needed more than just one section of metal to get something to work from.
Sorry for the long post. hopefully this will help some people out.
Capt.D
1/2 ton status
My Jimmy had them when I got it but i Really like them..I'd pay for them if I were to do another truck since I have seen them work....No problems seeing mine when I drove it home..
4xcrazy
3/4 ton status
interesting that someone would "subscribe" to a 4 year old thread, alond with others as well throughout the board...
