I had a '97 Dakota SLT with the 5.2 to tow my jetski (~1000+lbs, including
trailer). Basically, I never even knew the jetski was
there. It's rated at over 5000lbs, so 3000lbs will be a breeze. I tried to
buy a stick, but was told I would have to order one
from the factory. The automatic worked great, but I regularly had to drop it
out of overdrive to stop it hunting going up hills. I
live at 5000+ft, so this may not be an issue at lower altitudes.
I liked the truck *a lot*, comfy, quick (for a truck), decent handling (for a
truck) and the Infinity sound system was the best of
any car I've owned (including some much more expensive German vehicles).
However, we did have some problems. My wife got stranded
in the middle of Kansas in it once. Got it towed to the dealer who
"reprogrammed the ECU", charged her $150 and off she went. No
explanation of the actual problem. I had axactly the same happen to me. Truck
stalled and wouldn't start. Got it towed to the
dealer. It started fine for them, but the computer had no codes stored and it
was returned to me "no fault found". This might have
been an electrical gremlin isolated to my truck, but you never know. This is
the main reason I got rid of it.
Another issue that I think is endemic to that generation Dakota is its desire
to eat up lower control arm ball joints in 20-30k
miles. The symptom is exactly the same as a warped rotor, but the fix is much,
much more expensive as the ball joints are not
serviceable and the whole lower control arm has to be replaced. Be aware of
this when looking at a particular vehicle.
Good luck,
Graeme
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-autox@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-autox@autox.team.net]On
> Behalf Of David Disney
> Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 10:31 AM
> To: autox@autox.team.net
> Subject: Towing Question: Dodge Dakota
>
>
> I'm thinking of retiring my old '79 F-250 (351M) and getting a '98
> Dodge Dakota with the 5.2L (318) engine. I need something a little
> more comfortable on long trips (with good A/C!).
/// unsubscribe/change address requests to majordomo@autox.team.net or try
/// http://www.team.net/mailman/listinfo
/// Partial archives at http://www.team.net/archive
|