Good afternoon all,
I'm having some conflicting responses in regards to towing with the Dakota. I was hoping you all had some input for me!

I'm looking to purchase a camper trailer in a few months. I've been prepping my truck to be able to tow. I'm trying to understand how close you can get to the maximum tow capacity of the Truck. Not that I want to. If anything, I'd rather be significantly under it. But if it was close, how detrimental is it to the truck? I want to make sure I can tow comfortably.

Here'es the specs of the camper.
Keystone Passport 199MLWE
Shipped weight - 4232 lbs.
GVWR - 5400 lbs.
Carrying Capacity - 1168 lbs.
Hitch 494 lbs.
Length - 21' 9"
Height - 10' 2"

Some people tell me the Dakota can only tow up to 5500, some say 6500, someone even gave me a 7900 capacity, which I doubt.

Any help is greatly appreciated, I can answer any questions as well!

Here's some facts about my truck.

2005 Dodge Dakota
4.7L V8 Magnum
4X4, Tire size 265 All-Terrain
127,000 Miles
No Idle issues, Transmission appears to run strong and no hiccups. 4X4 kicks in with no issues.

 

Should be a sticker on the inside of the drivers door frame that will tell you exactly what your tow rating is. Trans, and differential gears also come into play. Checking if your truck has any sort of tow package would be a good idea as well.

 

Thanks for your response!
I've attached the sticker below. I see the GVWR but not sure how it relates to the actual Tow Capacity.

 

Check out this thread, I posted the 2007 Dakota towing charts there. And here is the 2005 towing info.

Towing capacity varies on a few things; if your truck is equipped with the Trailer Tow Group Package, cab size, gears, etc.

Welcome aboard.

 

Thanks for the charts! I have some research to do before I figure out which Transmission mine would be.
I'm rather new to all of this.

For the truck, I do not have a Tow package currently. Only a Bumper Receiver ball.
It is also a Quad Cab, SLT.
I plan on installing a Transmission cooler as well.

I know on most trucks, the sticker tells you the Axle ratio, which is the huge difference in Tow capacity between the 3.5 and 3.9. The tags seem to be ripped off.

Thank you!

 

You can get your build sheet below, which will show what gearing your truck came with.

Copy the link below, and replace the VIN at the end with yours, and paste it into a new tab.
There will be a list of the truck with Standard Equipment, followed by Optional Equipment.

https://www.dodge.com/webselfservice...et?vin=YourVIN

 

From what I am seeing, your max trailer weight is 5750lbs.......

4.7L engine, 5A trans, 3.55 axle gears, 4x4.

 

This build sheet was exactly what I needed. Thank you!

And yeah, 3.55, Was hoping for the 3.9!

So the question remains, assuming I added a Transmission Cooler, proper Tow package, could I still tow that camper?

With the dry Trailer weight being 4200, I likely wont go above 5000 after loaded.

 

Don't see yourself stuffing 1550 pounds of stuff into the trailer?

Yeah, that should be fine.

 

Hey you guys are awesome. I'm really glad I found this forum.
Thanks so much for your help!