after going to the phila auto show last week i had an opportunity to drive a 04 quad cab 4x4 w/4.7. i was very impressed. good power all round and quiet on the highway. so sat i went to the local dealer and test drove the 05 dak with the same level of equip.
what are you or anybody towing with these. i will have the need to tow about 5,000 lbs for short trips of 10 to 30 miles. i see in the brochure that the hi output should be able to handle over 7,00 lbs. but what is your personal experience.i really like the size of the new breed of midsize trucks versus the fullsize units. so, can anyone help a new guy out here?
thanks, rob

 

That load for that duration should be okay with the 4.7 and either axle ratio. I opted to stick with the 3.55 gears (which seem to be standard with 4.7/automatic) and it's supposed to be able to handle 5750 lbs (though that's just the difference between the maximum rated Gross Combined Vehicle Weight and the lightest the pickup could be.) It looks like the HO gets the 3.92 gears (an option on standard 4.7's) and my understanding is that the towing capacity of a 3.92'ed regular 4.7 is supposed to come out pretty close to the HO, around 7000. From personal experience I'd say that you can go a little over the recommended overall weight without hurting anything. I haven't towed with my pickup yet but I know my dad's '93 Dakota with the Magnum 3.9 can handle 4 tons or so for occasional short hops and that's just a 180 HP V6 with a 5-speed.

 

thanks for the info. thes are some of the guys we want to haul around. we haul them-they haul us.

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Nice horse's Rob how old are they.

This is what I bought my Dak for, weekend /week get away's w/ my family.
A 24' tow behind dry weight is 4,300 when it's all said & done it's close to 4,800 we have made two short weekend trips with it.
I was surprised with the power this truck has, cool breezin @ 65-70MPH on our trips there was no real big hills so there has been no need to take the O/D off,but very impressive!!

 

the one on top is 13, the bottom one is about 6 or 7. he is a camp horse the we keep year round except when he is in camp.
trailer is about 2700
top horse is about 1300
bottom horse is about 1000
2 people and saddles and blah, blah, blah
so if the tongue weight is 25% that puts about 675 on the hitch, empty. using a weight distributing hitch will remove some of that though.
total weight is about 5500.
we weighed the trailer once but it was still hooked up to the tow vehicle but was the only thing on the scale.(truck was on the pavement) the weight was only 2160 so i added 500 for the tongue. we'll weigh it again when we take the one horse back to camp
what i have read is that the little v6's from toyo and nissan will acutally accelerate faster towing the same weight than the dakota. I saw a magazine article in which the three trucks towed the same boat and were timed for accel runs. the toyo beat the dak to sixty-24 versus 32 seconds.
i will say i saw the article at the toyo dealer so i did not have time to read the specs on the vehicles except that the dak had the std 4.7 v8 and not the h-o version. i don't know what gear ratio it was equiped with. and i can't find the magazine article when i search the net. i think it was trailer boat or some such.
i really liked the dak but i don't want the little wife to be ill equipped for some of the places that she will want to go with the setup. my next choice will be the tundra which has an outstanding reputation and using the same size engine has better hp and torque using regular fuel, but it just doesn't stir the soul. plus i like the slightly smaller size of the dak. if it sounds like i'm bashing i'm really not. i think that if i am making a large purchase i want to know in my mind that i have made the best choice. being that there is so little info out right now on the 05 dak it is a little difficult to get an accurate picture.
this is the current fleet that i would like to downsize.

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