So about three months ago I traded in my '96 2wd 3.9l Dakota and picked up this '99 4wd 5.2l Dakota. So the other day I was peeking under the back end and found these little hangers, there is one on each side of the spare tire and sit about halfway between the bumper and the last exhaust hanger. What are they for?
This is on the drivers side

 

I'd think those are for the stock exhaust pipe that were cut off. I'm assuming the truck has a new catback? Or at least a different tail pipe.

 

It has a stock exhaust now. But the muffler and tail pipe doesn't look that old, so it might have had dual exhaust at one time, idk.

 

thats a bracket where it was once dualed out. Sadly our trucks arent very dual friendly so the places to plumb it are limited.

 

Here is a picture of the passenger side, you can see the stock exhaust. I thought it was a broken exhaust hanger at first but the pipe is fine. Then I found the one on the other side. If it did have dual exhaust why would someone remove it?

 

rotted out... cheaper to single it back out... didnt like the noise.... many different reasons...

 

Yikes you back east people deal with a lot of rust dont you I never see that in the southwest California/Arizona.

Wow thats rusty

 

Yea, that's why it's good to buy cars near Cali. Rust around here where I am is nuts

 

Biggest thing with our trucks is running duals around the spare tire. I took my duals off because I liked the sound with my exhaust dumped after the cat. Now Im putting my duals back on but leaving out my muffler should be happy for a little bit again lol

 

Thank you guys, you confirmed what I thought. Now if I decide to run duals I know a good place to hang them.
Rust is a big issue up here. My '96 was rusting out everywhere when I got rid of it.