Wow, its been over a year since I last posted.
Lots has happened but the truck has been on the road since last October. LOVE the engine/trans setup. I'm surprised how much power that 4 cylinder Cummins has and paired to the 8 speed and the 3.92 gears it pulls real hard. I swapped out the EPS for an old school power rack from a 2012 truck and mounted a PS pump on the engine. Had some overheating issues with the stock 5.7 rad so I shoehorned in a Mishimoto aluminum one from a RAM 3500 and that solved the overheating. It pulls our little 5th wheel with no problem and looks like its going to get about 16-18 MPG when towing, not great but better than the 5.7.

 

I'm thinkin' 16-18 while towing is STELLAR.

 

That same engine in my Dakota did 20-22 towing so I was hoping for a bit more.
Still have some more trans tuning to do but I don't think it will make that much difference.
The Dakota has a NV4500 manual trans so that would add a bit of mileage.

 

Well, the full size truck weighs a bit more than the dakota as well. Dakota probably has better aerodynamics too...... (less frontal area.)