pistolhunter
New member
- Joined
- May 9, 2009
- Messages
- 22
Your towing rigs and trailers
- Thread starter GreatWhitehunter
- Start date
- Views: 1372659
flusher
Super Member
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2005
- Messages
- 7,555
- Location
- Sacramento
- Tractor
- Getting old. Sold the ranch. Sold the tractors. Moved back to the city.
Ah, the 4035 is one sweet machine. I looked one over a few months ago at Dave's Tractor. Excellent choice.
patrick_g
Elite Member
Terrific looking Dakota. I have an 89 regular cab long bed 4x4 V-6 automatic that is a beater. Compared to mine you have one that looks better than show room. Great looking for an 88!!!!
Mine is doing good to pull itself up a hill at the speed limit (always downshifts even on a slight upgrade) much less much of a trailer load. I do have a receiver hitch but don't ask it to pull much more than a trencher, welding trailer, chipper, or the like, not a dump trailer, stock trailer or anything very heavy.
Pat
Diamondpilot
Super Star Member
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2007
- Messages
- 16,316
- Location
- Daleville, IN
- Tractor
- Jinma 254/284 Ford 861 Powermaster at work
We used our 96 Dakota with a V6 to take a airplane engine component to St Louis one time. It was a Auto Tranny Regular Cab Short Bed and at the time maybe had 40,000 miles on it. The Dakota was our company work truck. My boss drove it hauling the smallest enclosed U-Haul trailer. The trailer maybe weighed 1,000# and the engine component weighed maybe 75#. Anyway he had to stop ever 100 miles to get fuel. He could not believe it was only getting around 5 mpg on I70 though Indiana and Missouri which are both flat. It did no better on the return trip.
The V6 was never a power house or gas sipper. We got rid of it a year ago and every drop of fuel and maintenance was tracked. It only averaged 12 mpg but most of that was stop and go around town stuff.
Chris
Dmace
Elite Member
My old 98 Dakota 4x4 V6 3.9l handled towing very well for a mid-size with a V6 auto. Every weekend throughout the winter, that truck hauled a 2-place enclosed trailer with 2 sleds (~2800lbs) plus a 600lb sled in the bed along with 3 adults and all their riding gear. The trip is 3 hours each way with more then half of it up hill climbing form 600ft above sea level to over 2200ft through the mountains.
It averaged about 18-20mpg empty and from 10-11.5mpg loaded up like this:
Come to think of it, that truck hauled two sleds on a trailer easier then my fathers old 98 F-150 V8 4.6. I sold it to get a larger RAM but it's still on the road with 246k miles and working hard for a local electrical contractor. Great Truck!
It averaged about 18-20mpg empty and from 10-11.5mpg loaded up like this:
Come to think of it, that truck hauled two sleds on a trailer easier then my fathers old 98 F-150 V8 4.6. I sold it to get a larger RAM but it's still on the road with 246k miles and working hard for a local electrical contractor. Great Truck!
Diamondpilot
Super Star Member
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2007
- Messages
- 16,316
- Location
- Daleville, IN
- Tractor
- Jinma 254/284 Ford 861 Powermaster at work
My old 98 Dakota 4x4 V6 3.9l handled towing very well for a mid-size with a V6 auto. Every weekend throughout the winter, that truck hauled a 2-place enclosed trailer with 2 sleds (~2800lbs) plus a 600lb sled in the bed along with 3 adults and all their riding gear. The trip is 3 hours each way with more then half of it up hill climbing form 600ft above sea level to over 2200ft through the mountains.
It averaged about 18-20mpg empty and from 10-11.5mpg loaded up like this:
Come to think of it, that truck hauled two sleds on a trailer easier then my fathers old 98 F-150 V8 4.6. I sold it to get a larger RAM but it's still on the road with 246k miles and working hard for a local electrical contractor. Great Truck!
I think there is quite a difference between a 96 and a 98. Ours was the old square body style and had a 3 speed auto. I am not sure what rear end but I am sure my 4 Cylinder Satrun would pull a 1,500# load just as well as it would.
Do not get me wrong, it was a good truck for a airport truck. Did everything we ever need it to do. The poor mpg was because it did quite a bit of slow driving around town and about 1 hour of idling a week or more. As a matter of fact it was traded with 100,000 miles and I can only remember it being on the highway 3 times and the longest trip was just over 300 miles to St Louis. It also went 2 time to Chicago and thats it.
All in all it was a decent truck but started rusting bad 2 years ago. It had the tranny replaced at around 80K with a Jasper unit and larger tranny cooler. The AC would only hold a charge for 2 months and was that way from about 2001 on. The radio also crapped out a year before it was traded.
Chris
patrick_g
Elite Member
My '89 Dakota's Radio is one of its best operating features. 4x4 works good too and the soft suspension makes it very pleasant to drive around my property instead of the bone shaking F-250 Super Duty PSD or the '97 Ram-Cummins 3500 with super custom HD suspension. It always starts immediately even in 0 degree temps parked out in the weather. The down side is poor economy and lack of power. I put in a fresh long block a while back and it didn't help much. The newer Dakotas are so very much improved.
Pat
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hackalot
New member
2008 F-250 V10, 4.10 2008 Moritz 20+5 15k GN, 2006 Kubota M9540
