I was thinking, since gas is at such a high price, and the Durango's weigh... a lot, is there anything I, or we can do to lower the curb weight of the beast? I was thinking about removing the AC completely from the D. Its just dead weight in my rig because the AC motor is seized up. At roughly 22lbs its a good reduction. The third row seats are also going to be gutted to save another ~50lbs, and then the spare tire for another 40ish lbs.

What else isn't necessary which weighs quite a bit which can be removed?

 

i would consider the spare tire to be VERY necessary, when you get a flat you will agree w/ me, and with the weight of these trucks, you wont be able to remove enough to make a significant difference in fuel mileage, iirc 100lbs is equal to 1% using the common average of 15mpg, 1% is .15 mpgs, your current numbers would net you just over 100lbs so about a 1% gain, so .15 mpgs, is it worth the effort? not to me its not.

 

If your that worried about weight you could always remove your engine oil and tranny fluids to lighten up the load a bit but, i heard somewhere that might be bad for your truck.....

 

If the compressor is seized up then the Durango won't run. Trust me I know this from first hand experience it is a PITA to start with the belt on so you're forced to remove the belt and once you get it started without the belt you are running on borrowed time before you overheat. If you try to start it with the belt you only have a few seconds before that belt goes bye bye all through your engine.

I doubt your A/C compressor clutch is seized if the Durango is still running. Just my .02 on this one.

As far as reducing weight, it ain't gonna happen. You can remove the spare all you want but what is that really achieving? Like shrp said, in a very well sought out description might I add shrp, reducing it is just going to be a burden in the long-run and isn't going to reduce enough weight to make a difference.

Think of it as the gas mileage difference of driving solo and driving with a 10 year old daughter in the backseat. Hmmm... Well when it's put that way! LOL

 

They are all correct, you wont lose enough weight to make it worth while. If you insist though I definitely would not recoommend moving the spare. The time you need it is going to be 100 miles from home, on a weekend night coming back from a family night out. Roadside assistance.....assuming you have it or friends are at least an hour away.. or even worse 100 miles from home Sunday afternoon in the country bad cell phone reception, low batterys you know the drill. Dont do it dude!

 

Also, check it out to remove that A/C compressor there's a bypass pulley system that you can use your same belt and not have to worry about finding the right size to eliminate the pulley out of the system. Was real easy and took all of 3 minutes to install. Hope that helps!

 

The thing is it works great on small cars, because those engines can barely even pull themselves, but the D has a ton of extra power behind it and 100lbs more for it to pull barely increases the load on the engine at all.

 

Buy a car

 

+1 on Topdogcustom

If you want economy get one of those underpowered little cars or a hybrid. For me, the Big D is what I need for my usage.

 

Exactly, you have to pay to play.