I know Dakotas have their issues but is the 2008 a fairly solid year? I've been doing a lot of reading about this but thought Hey, might as well come to the people who would know.

it's a 2008 ST crew cab RWD v6 with 200,000kms on it for $6500 which in my area is very competitively priced.

i just need a truck for pulling 4000lbs max and will only be driving it once or twice a week so gas mileage isn't the biggest deal. I had a '98 Dakota and the transmission died 1 month after I bought it but it was a fun truck and I'm excited to be possibly buying one again.

Thanks for any advice

 

I have a 2008 V8, 4x4, Automatic, 4 door. It starts every morning and gets me to work and back. It will pass everything but a gas station. I have had to change ball joints and tie-rod ends. My transmission cooler lines leak at the radiator connections, pi$$ing off my wife and neighbour because it stains the new driveway.

But it hasn't been abused, and has been well maintained, which makes ALLLLL the difference.

So, yes, it is reliable.

 

Ditto ^^.

If maintained, any vehicle can be reliable.

 

I hope that 08 has a 2" trailer hitch. Towing from the bumper drops the towing capability in half.

Gears & trans determine what it can tow:
kH9Nhu9.png

 

Hey guys Thanks for the welcome!

Well I bought it! Really nice looking truck and was in my price range. She's going to be babied. She's gotta last us a long time! We pick her up tomorrow and are very excited.

I'm a total newb when it comes to trailers, my husband knows a bit more. I'm looking to buy a trailer, from your helpful post I can see that with an auto trans v6 crew cab the gross carry weight is 9300. I plan to be way, way under that. I'm thinking of getting a fairly lightweight trailer, not sure what I should be looking for specifically. How the heck can you tell the weight of a trailer!? Is there a rule of thumb for trailers? Example a 4 x 8 foot trailer will typically weigh this much, etc, etc I would really like a 4 x 8, or bigger if possible. We are just going to be hauling furniture mostly, nothing particularly heavy but the bigger the better. I just want to keep way under what I "can" tow.

Thanks for mentioning about the hitch, I know nothing so this is all very helpful. If it doesn't I'll pay to have a proper hitch put on. Or my husband is fairly handy, not sure how difficult of a job it is but maybe he could do it. I'm trying to be extra careful as this is all new territory to me and I don't want to do anything wrong/stupid/damaging/all of the above.

 

usually there will be a sticker on the trailer somewhere, that will tell you how much it weighs, and what its capacity is. If not, the manufacturer should have that data available somewhere. (might have to call 'em.) Given that your truck will haul 9K pounds.... you could prolly do an 6X10 trailer without any problems at all. Just have a good receiver hitch installed, and down the road you go. (putting them on really isn't that bad, unless the bolts are really rusty. Air tools make the job MUCH easier.)

 

Send us a picture of the butt-end, focussing on the bumper and what is below it and we will let you know what we see for hitching.

 

I have the 4.7 just hit 70k