Hello all, new '06 Dakota owner here, new to the forum as well. I'm trying to figure out, the truck I bought did not have the spare tire on it. I got a tire on it but when I tried to use the jack pieces to lower the tire, nothing seems to fit into the hole to turn to lower the cable for the spare tire assembly.

Not sure exactly what I need to use, there is a piece from the jack that has a hook shape on the end, but when you look inside the hole there is a white cone shaped piece that it goes into, and it looks like a square fitting of some sore.

Any help anyone can provide on how to do this would be greatly appreciated.

Jon

 

thanks again, I will try some more when I get off work. It certainly wasn't going in easy even with the square extension, but it is very sunny and was hard to see with the shine of the bumper.

 

maybe you have a special key that fits in its place. mine comes with a special key so that just anybody can't steal my rim and tire. Mine was in my glove box when I first purchased the truck. I had a key for my spare and a key for 1 lug on each wheel so that nobody can steal them

 

Yeah I just read about spare tire locks, I'll check my glove box and see if anything is there, do you know if those are universal or is each unique to the lock? It would somewhat defeat the purpose of having the lock if anyone with a key could steal it but maybe not. I see where you can buy one for $35, the key that is.

 

Bad neighborhood?

 

you put the two extensions together, and use the square side IN first. Remember, you put the rod in on an angle. Theres a notch in the bumper, then to the right of that, behind it, should be a painted guide ring, so you will angle the rod in that direction, then feel around until its in corretly. Then you use your tire iron to make a crank on the other end of the extension, and begin to lower the cable down counter clockwise.

Its really a PITA if you were to pop a tire in the rain or on the highway, and then you have to do all this, and climb under the truck to get the spare off of the cable.

Thats why I am a fan of chaining the spare in the truck bed lol.

Problem is with my 32" tires, the damn spare takes nearly a quarter of the truck bed when laid on its side lol.

 

While I have an audience here, anyone know the true towing capacity of the 06 Dakota 3.7L V6, mine has the class III hitch which can support up to 5000lbs but something tells me the engine can't handle that much.

I have done some research and I know per the manual and google the GVWR is 6500lbs, that doesn't help if you don't know the weight of the truck itself.

 

No neighborhood is not bad. Came stock with my truck.

BTW here is the pic of my "keys"



As far as towing, i've been a believer that the midsize trucks are advertised a little under what they can actually do so that they don't bite into the sales of the full size. My raider weighs about 100 lbs more that a 2006 Ram 1500 quad cab 4x4 4.7, but it can tow about 1400 lbs more than me, and I have the 3.92 gearset where it has 3.55. It's also all about safety, if Dodge says you could tow 8000 lbs with your truck there would be people out there, like me, that would say well 1000lbs isn't THAT much more and would get into trouble. As long as YOU feel safe you will be alright. Just don't go too far.

BTW your tow rating is 3150. Also I got 6100 GVWR.

http://www.cars.com/go/crp/research....=&aff=national