You didn't order your Dakota as a pulling truck, that sounds like it was
ordered as a nice highway cruiser, and decent off-road toy. You should
have gotten it with a 5spd, 2wd, and a 3.90LSD or 4.10's for the size of the
load.. It just had too many factors working against it for pulling well.
Your new trucks gearing should make a nice difference, and the 6.0L Vortec
should have a little more power that your 318 did. Stick around long enough
to let us know how it does by comparison.
Aaron Wyse
94 RC WS 2.5L 5spd
86 Shelby Charger Turbo
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Gibbons" <mjgibbons@prodigy.net>
To: "DML" <dakota-truck@dakota-truck.net>
Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2003 9:07 PM
Subject: DML: Jumping Ship
>
> Well, I've gone and done it. I've left the Dodge community and now drive a
> Chebby. After almost 4 years of mostly lurking on the DML, I'll soon be
> signing off. While it was adequate, my '99 Dakota 4x4 318/auto/SLT+/w
3.55's
> just wasn't quite enough truck to pull my 23' Firehawk comfortably, even
> with all the usual mods. And with plans to upgrade the boat this year, I
> needed a tow vehicle that was up to the task. I tried to keep in the Dodge
> family, but with 2 Dodge dealerships REALLY underbidding the Dakota on
> trade-in ($9300 & $10000), Dodge just didn't seem to want to keep my
> business. Got much better trade from Chevy and 0% for 5 years to boot.
Dodge
> wants 2.9% for 5 years. That amounts to a fair chunk of change. I did test
> drive a 1500 Hemi, the S.O. Cummins 2500 and one of the first H.O. Cummins
> 2500 w/auto in the Wichita area. Really liked the H.O. Cummins but see my
> previous remark about trade-in and financing. Finally settled on a Chebby
> 2500HD LS 2wd w/6.0L gas/auto/4.10 locker/buckets/Bose. I actually drove
all
> the diesels and found Dodge had the quietest and best handling, Ford had
the
> smoothest and most powerful but the worst handling, Chevy was OK but a
> little coarse and wasn't all that thrilled with the Allison tranny. In the
> end, decided to go with gas. So that leaves me with a Jet Stage II (P/N
> 99914-S) and a Mopar Performance PCM (P/N P5007098) for 1999 Dakota4x4 318
> /auto w/Federal emissions. I think the Jet will also work on 2wd's and
maybe
> some other years but check applicability yourself. If anyone's interested,
> I'd take $60 for the Jet and $140 for the Mopar Performance, shipping
extra.
> E-mail me privately at mjgibbons@prodigy.net if your interested. Also have
a
> set of stock shocks with less than 30000 miles, stock cat-back exhaust,
> stock airbox/hat assy and stock throttle body w/o sensors that's about to
go
> in the trash. Come get it if you want it, I'm in the Wichita KS area.
>
> Best regards to all on the list
>
> Mike G.
>
>
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