This might need to be moved or relocated.

We found a hitch type adapter thingamajig when we cleaned out the truck bed. I'll put some photos up. (Pardon the huge mess, I spent several hours yesterday cleaning the 'pit of despair' aka, our workspace that's turned into a trash pit.) Good news for any clean freaks!! I found the entire tabletop before I left!!

We've already got the usual trailer hitch for basic hauling and such. This thing that was in the back of the truck looks more like it's designed to have a large 'pin' securing everything. Any ideas would be helpful.


Sideview of the "Hitch" adapter thing

More front view of this thing..

(Pardon the axel. That's one from our '87 Ford TurboCoupe. The standard has a different gear ratio then the wife's current automatic transmission. So we're saving it for future conversion)


So, there's the photo(s). Probably upside-down? But I'm not sure exactly how this bugger operates. If anyone knows the make/model of this thing. It's not something we're going to get use out of. But it'd be nice information to have on hand.

S-

 

The center hole with two side holes below it suggest (to me anyways) that this is the drawbar for a weight distributing hitch. But, I don't recognize it; so, I'm not sure.

 

Yep, I think you nailed it.

That makes sense, as this Dakota used to be a working fire dept vehicle when it was still in 'Service'.

It's a shame it didn't include the rest of the assembly. We have no intention of using it. (As noted we already have a normal hitch on hand if we need it.)

Thanks! We'll probably add it to our metal pile at this point. Without the other pieces it's not usable. (And it's heavy!!!!)

S-

 

It looks pretty substantial. More like something I'd see on the back end of 3/4-ton truck rather than one of our Dakotas.

 

That is the hitch part of an equalizing hitch. The top hole is for a rather substantial ball. The two lower are for the equalizer bars. Find some bars and the attaching clamps for the trailer tongue and you can pull a pretty good sized trailer. Yours is adjustable. I have one just like it. Those are NOT cheap. I bought mine back around 1989 or so and I believe I paid about $400 then. I pulled some pretty large cars with a small truck. I had an '88 S-10 with a V-6 and 5 speed manual transmission and remember clearly hauling a 1962 Ford Galaxie 2 door hardtop.

 

Considering the history of being a utility truck for a fired dept just outside of Albany, that makes sense. They wouldn't have scrimped on the budget. For all I know it could have been setup for towing a 'Cascade' system to refill air tanks at fire calls. (Former Vol. FF myself. We had one of the only ones in the county I used to live in. We got mutual 'aided' out many times to refill tanks for other depts on the site of the fire.)

S-

 

Interesting. I'll keep an eye out for the rest of the assembly. I hit the local flea market (they are year-round) and a lot of the time the scrappers show up with some oddball stuff. It wouldn't be a surprise if someone showed up with either a complete assembly or parts of one. Gotta be careful! A few of them are like sharks. Show a bit of interest and it will get their attention (and a high price boost) pretty fast.

The wife already noted while driving this ol' crusty gal around, it's got a lot of power for something with almost 200k on the odometer.

The former owner left the window sticker in the glove box. Thankfully the mice didn't eat that. It came equipped with a class-4 hitch, external transmission cooler, etc..

Sadly, during the years someone removed the factory cooler, and it was restored back to the normal radiator cooling for the transmission. If we decide to tow anything substantial, it's going to get another external cooler rigged in. Plenty of space in front of the radiator. (Although after fighting to replace the cross-mount for the radiator- I'd love to slap a Dodge engineer that came up with that design. We wound up cutting a huge set of notches in the replacement steel panel to get it installed.)

Thanks for the "ID" on that!! As mentioned, we do have a normal hitch already set for it. But who knows? Might be something we'd put up for sale locally.

S-

 

You can run your truck's VIN through this website to get the official build sheet: https://fcacommunity.force.com/RAM/s/equipment-listing
You can also get the truck's sales brochure from here: https://www.auto-brochures.com/dodge.html. Sometimes that helps to decipher or visualize what the build sheet is saying.

It sounds like your truck was built with the "Tow Package". That means that it would have come from the factory with the Class IV hitch receiver, trailer wiring (4- and 7-pin connectors), plug for a brake controller under the dash, 6x9" tow mirrors, and "HD engine cooling". I believe that the HD engine cooling meant that the transmission fluid is run through the radiator. I don't think any of the Dakotas came from the factory with an external transmission fluid cooler. My 2011 has the tow package and does not have an external tranny cooler. It runs the fluid through the radiator.

Maybe ask the department you got it from if they still have the ball, bars, and trailer mounts? Or, if they'd like to buy the hitch back?

 

It's been several years I would imagine. (The fire dept retired it.) The "Story" I got from the last owner was he purchased this Dakota at an auto auction. It was a former FD utility 4x4. I think he said either Albany or Schenectady. I was looking over the sticker in the glove box area. (attached)

Thankfully it also has the 'anti spin differential', so the 4x4 works very well. Except that it doesn't want to return to 2wd mode unless we come to a stop and put the truck in neutral. We can live with that until spring. The old case (we did this in the other post) had a bad shift motor and was filled with gear oil.

 

Never did understand why they didn't put the 3.92 axle on the trucks with the tow package.