Bob <64ragtop@earthlink.net> wrote:
: Thanks to Bill White, the only respondent to my inquiry about Dakota
: wheelbases, track widths, etc.
: With his guidance, I found the FAQ section and the table with the info I
: needed. I'm looking at a Dak
: on ebag not too far away from me, but can't tell if it's a long or short
: bed from the photos. The owner
: doesn't know which it is either (???) He says he tried to put a tonneau
: cover from a Ranger on his Dak,
: but it was about two feet too short. I would guess that means his Dak
: is a longbed, but is there anything
: on a datatag, or other truck feature that would tell for sure?
There's nothing in the VIN about long or short bed, however
unless the photos are really crappy you should be able to tell
which it is. You didn't post the e-bay listing (I assume you
don't want to pique anyone's interest who might bid against
you, which is understandable). :-) I'm not in the market for
another Dak at the moment, so if you want to e-mail me the
link via private e-mail I'd be glad to take a look at the pics
and let you know.
If you'd rather go the DIY route, following are a bunch of
pics which should help you to identify the difference. I'm not
sure if the truck you are looking at is a GenI/II or GenIII, I am
assuming GenI/II since I believe '97 was the only year the GenIII
was offered with the long bed. If the truck is a Club Cab, it
will have the short bed, however its wheelbase will be the same
as the long bed. The short bed is 6', the long bed is 8'. It
does *sound* like it is the long bed if a Ranger tonneau cover
was 2' too short - if it were the short bed, that would mean the
Ranger's bed is 4'. Rangers are small trucks, but not quite *that*
small. :-) However, that method of deductive reasoning does require
you to rely on the memory of somebody who doesn't even know what kind
of vehicle they own. ;-) Here are those pics:
Long bed:
http://www.dakota-truck.net/meet/DMLBBQ04/pics/IMG_1701.jpg
http://www.dakota-truck.net/pics/lambert02.jpg
http://www.dakota-truck.net/pics/darville03.jpg
http://www.dakota-truck.net/pics/darville04.jpg
Short bed:
http://www.dakota-truck.net/pics/kuzia01.jpg
http://www.dakota-truck.net/pics/graff01.jpg
http://www.dakota-truck.net/pics/dorn06.jpg
http://www.dakota-truck.net/pics/clark05.jpg
http://www.dakota-truck.net/meet/daktoberfest2002/stills/Oct19_09.jpg
I hope that helps - good luck with the project!
--
-Jon-
.- Jon Steiger --- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com -.
| 67 Dodge Coronet, 70 Plymouth Barracuda, 76 Peugeot TSA |
| 78 Dodge B100, 90 Dodge Dakota Convertible, 92 Dodge Ram 4x4 |
| 96 Dodge Dakota, 96 Suzuki Intruder 1400, 96 Kolb FireFly |
| 99 Jeep Cherokee 4x4, 01 Dodge Ram 3500 CTD |
`--------------------------------- http://www.jonsteiger.com --'
.
.
.------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Make your plans NOW to attend the National DML Meet in Colorado! |
| Date: July 15-23, 2006 - More info: http://meet.dakota-truck.net |
`------------------------------------------------------------------'
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Mar 20 2006 - 10:38:59 EST