Well, the insurance company totaled out my 2001 Ram 1500 Quad cab, and is sending me a check.

With the issues of even more expensive gas in the near future, I was thinking about buying a Dakota rather than aother Ram.

I like the 2nd Gen Dakotas.

I also have two kids that will be riding occasionally, and we also have a tent trailer that we use for camping about 4 times a year, but no long trips.

Looking at either a Crew cab or club cab, with either the V6 or the small 4.9 V8. Truck will mostly be used for trips back and forth to work, hauling small loads (home improvemnet), and some short trips (300 miles RT)

What are your experiences?

Also, insuraance check will be close to 8 grand......I would like to pay cash and have no loans outstanding.

 

Well i would definitaly go with a V8. your choices are 5.2 (97-99) 4.7 (2000-up) or the 5.9 which came in either the rt or awd package. I have a 4.7 and love it i get 18-19 mixed driving with 20's on the hw. The 4.7 is definitaly up to the task and can tow anything you throw at it. If your kids are smaller i would say that a club cab would be good but the quads are also nice and would be able to fit more stuff in the cab. I've yet to have any major problems yet truck has 103k miles on it. Check to see if the ball joint recall has been performed depending on the year that and making sure the tranny is good would be my biggest two concerns.

 

forthe price stick w/ the fullsize, ur only gna get mabie 4mpg better..

 

mine has 170,000 and still goin strong!!! i also got the 4.7L v8 and is gets about 12 in town (slaming the gas all the time) and about 20-22 onthe highway at anaverage speed of 77 im soon puting 20's on it soo i hope to get a lil more on the highway

 

the size of the wheel doesn't mean anything if the tires your getting are the same size as teh old ones it will be the same however if the tires are slightly taller you might see an increase on the high way. at least im pretty sure thats how it works.

 

I went with a taller tire and my mpg went down by atleast 2.

 

i was thinking that he was gonna go more street tires you also got more offroad tires then you had before too right? and they're wider. but unless your on the highway a lot taller tires will most likely take your mpg down.

 

it all depends on what you want to do. the dakota is a great truck and my 4.7 quad cab hasnt given me any trouble. i would go with a quad cab because it makes such a big difference in how comfortable the back seat passengers are and i would def. go with a v8 (4.7) because it gets about the same as a v6 and does it while sounding a lot better