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New To Towing (Re-post from General Discussions)

6K views 10 replies 5 participants last post by  silby 
#1 ·
Greetings!
I am new to the forum (but glad I found it), and have a question that may have been asked, already. Forgive me if this is true...

I bought my pre-owned Dakota almost 2 years ago, mainly for access to rougher, remote areas for tent camping and fly fishing. My family recently pushed to get a Travel Trailer, for larger group outings. Looking up the Dakota, I found that it had a nice towing capacity (just shy of 6,000, if I researched correctly) so we picked up a trailer with a dry weight of 4100. I had never towed anything, previously. We just took the trailer for our first family trip and I was concerned with the rpms when climbing towards the mountain passes (4000+ at times). The low mileage I had expected, of course.

My question is: did I mis-gauge the towing capacity (and have ended up with too much load) or am I simply being overly concerned about rpms because I don't have experience with towing in general?

Thanks for any insights / advice!
 
#2 ·
We used to tow a 3000 lb travel trailer that I probably had overloaded to 4000lbs. We towed it with our 96 Dakota with the V6. Manual trans. Had to keep it under 63mph, and stayed in the flatlands going to Kansas. Would have never made it in the mountains. You should be OK with your V8. As long as the RPMs don't get into the red, and everything is staying cool, you should be OK. Get a trans cooler if you don't have one. Watch your travel weight. People, gas, water, propane, hitch, etc all counts. Consider a weight-distributing hitch. We didn't and we had some white knuckles going through Missouri. We did get some spring-assisted shocks for the rear end on the return trip, and that helped a lot. Since then we bought a larger truck and then a larger camper! Enjoy it, and we'll see you on the road!
 
#3 · (Edited)
Excellent! Thank you.

*Update* Took the truck/trailer and family down to Oregon last weekend. Did fine even with the return path going from 100' elevation to a 3100' pass in the span of about 25 minutes. Cooler installed, and I had a temp gauge added, just to be safe.

Thank you, again, for the advice!
 
#4 ·
Follow-up questions:

I've taken the camper out 3 times, now. Even going up into the mountains on a day where it hit low 90's, and with stop/start movement due to road construction, the transmission temp never went above 190.

Upon returning from the most recent trip, I found that there was a quarter-sized oil drip each day, for a couple of days. Does anyone else have this happen?

I see a lot of posts on the internet about moving up to 10w30 when towing (especially in hotter weather). Don't see this referenced in the owner's manual. Anyone else do this with their Dakota?

Thank you!
 
#5 ·
This is only my opinion, and I'm sure there will be other responses. I think once you cross 100,000 miles, you need a thicker oil. I used to use 10W40 AND put in a bottle of STP (yes, old school!) at every oil change. Keep in mind what these numbers mean: The 10 means it will never get thicker than 10wt oil does when cold, and the 40 means it will never get thinner than 40wt will when hot. So there is some real protection in hot weather, for an engine that has worn some. The leak could be anywhere, very likely valve cover gaskets. At this point I'd just wipe it up and forget it.
 
#6 ·
Another update

Got back Sunday from taking the family on a camping circuit through Oregon, Southeast ID, and Western MT. Dakota did great, overall, except for the front seal on the AC failing (looked like original, 2002 AC) and getting pretty tough on a couple of mountain passes. Used truck lanes in those instances, due to the extended climbing with full load.

My question is: what would be some modifications that anyone could recommend to boost the HR/Torque, and just how much of an increase would they provide (rough terms)?
 
#10 ·
I have a 2001 dakota 4 dr with the 4.7 and never had a problem with towing. I changed out the muffler to a little freer flowing one and a K&N filter in the factory box, added an edge tuner and went over the smokies (I know they're not the rockies) But we were sitting at almost 12000 lbs truck and trailer and no problems at all. Still averaged 10.5 MPGs too. Just keep your speed down around 60-65 if you go that heavy.
 
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