"I'm an electrical guru. Wanna bet I can't get one of those 4 pin harness, and cut the 7 pin off a junkyard truck? "

Nope, you'll have to find someone else for that- I never bet a man on his own trick! IMO that would be the way to go- do all your splicing & "custom wiring" on the snap-in harness, & leave your truck wiring stock.

"I'll poke around the junkyards, see if they have any daks w/ hitch. It's 1997 to 2003, correct? How do I check year by VIN?"

The Hitch? Hmm...OK, I looked, that round-tube hidden model, Curt #13145, claims to fit Dakotas from 1987 through 2004, with some drilling &/or fitting needed for models up through 1994 or maybe 96. I assume other made-to-fit-Dakota hitches would have a similar or same model-year run. So to keep it safe, look for any 1997-2004 Dakota with a frame mount hitch, maybe you can find one of these junkyard bargains I keep reading about, but never find in my area.

The 4-wire snap in trailer Harness? Those didn't exist back when I had my 94 Dakota- and they still don't I guess, applicaions start with 1995. The Hoppy version, #42115, claims to work on Dakotas from '95 through 2003.

If you want to save a couple of bucks, I can give you the link to the EBay seller I bought mine from, send me a PM if interested(No financial interest for me, just the cheapest source I found- & he has a couple left!). Or you could probably find one at almost any parts store. Chains like OReillys, AZone, AdvAuto, Pep Boys etc are a good bet- you may spend a couple more bucks, but if something goes wrong it'll be a lot more convenient to exchange it- just remember that's *Before* you start cutting & splicing on it.

Checking year by VIN? I dunno- does this site have a Dakota VIN decoder?

 

ok so i know im a little late on this thread and i haven't read the posts cause im too lazy lol, but i did read the first posts and i have to agree on checking the scrap yards, cause some of the daks came with a class IV hitch stock, thats what mine's got.

btw welcome back magnethead haven't seen u in this neck of the woods in a while

 

My '95 Dakota has a 4 and 7 pin harness on it. I know the 4 pin is a hoppy plug n play, and IIRC it either had the 7 pin integrated into it or plugged into it. Oh, and the 7 pin is mounted under the bumper left of the reciever. My truck does have the tow package apparently though.

 

I can tell you now 7 pins are a pita to do if you have never done one before takes a little time I have a 7 pinn for my truck but didnt have time to put it on cause I was in a hurry my bro in law has done a few so ill wait till he comes up btw I got my hitch at autozone for 119.00 its a class III reese towpower if you can try to get a factory hitch off a dak much more hidden

 

I was thinking just take the 7 pin off a ram, w/ 6" of wiring pigtail? Hoping that colors might, off hand chance, match.

 

College is keeping me busy. As is work. Plus racking miles onto both dodge odometers....just did the RF hub replacement on the ram last week. The hubs are the only replacement items so far, in 218K miles.

 

If you get the plug and play harness with a 4 flat, you can get adapters for them. Mine is bolted to the bumper, and it has the 4 flat and the 7 blade RV plug in it and the 4 flat from the original wiring just plugged into the back of it.

 

well if your going to do that might as well get a 7 pin from auto zone I think mine was like 20.00 plus it tells you what wire is what

 

exactly what I did.

I bought the Hoppes adapter for $30, then the 7 pin socket for $10. Wired it with trailer taps, and everythign went in nice and smooth.

The Hitch was all of $65 sitting on the shelf at the same junkyard I got my hood and grille at. Hardware was 6 grade 8 1/2" bolts at tractor supply with matching lock washers and nuts. $4.08.

All told, $65 + $30 + $10 + $4.08 = Damn good deal!

 

well, towed the car-hauler home as a test. The hitch is definately too low, our other hitch (3") is too high when flipped. So dad's gonna keep the 2" drop in his truck, and I'm gonna buy a 2" and keep it inverted on my truck.

Even with OD off (the hauler only weighs 2K pounds), third gear hated me, and 2nd wasn't much better. It struggled to hit 40 MPH. Guess that's what happens when you try to pull with a V6. First gear is fine... but 2.74 and 1.54 are worlds apart in the torque department.

With the trailer hooked up, it sagged my truck all of 1".Nothing like the ram...when we go to the track, we have all 4 corners on the bumpstops (I'm not kidding, either).

Fully loaded in the ram, it'll be car hauler (2200 lbs) + car (2700 lbs), generator (old style, 150+ pounds), battery charger (15 pounds), tool box (50 pounds), plus dad and I, 350 combined. So that's 4900 lbs of trailer (call it 500 tongue wt) with 200 pounds in the bed and 300 in the cab. Hemi pulls it no problem with tow/haul enabled (even with it off, still doesn't care)