Can't afford most R/Ts at this point.

71ChargerRT

71ChargerRT

Well-known member
I did find one that I can. Lots of literal trading, including a golf cart, labor and things that go bang and I'm the proud new owner of this. Included in the trade are a pair of fenders and a grille (with lenses) for my Valiant. Right now it's safe in my brother's yard in backwater MD. Should be in my possession in the next few months.

2003 Dakota R/T club cab, with the Stampede pkg, black with gray leather, parked about 10-11 years ago after minor front end mishap with a little over 60k on the clock. Not sure what it'll take to get it roadworthy again, but it won't be nearly as much as the Valiant hanging out back.
 

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Received one interior pic, driver seat area. No radio, it was swapped out at some point for an aftermarket unit and subsequently stolen. Box is still in the back though, but it'll come out for something more reasonable, OE type sub most likely. signal-2023-02-12-18-53-29-240.jpg
 
I recently bought a V6 Durango, and it drives like a go-kart. With a 360 a good time should be had by all.

The bed sides look good, hopefully the cab is in good shape too. Mine is not but it's good enough.
 
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I had another Dakota R/T 15 years ago-ish, it was fun truck for short time I had it. My brother has been all over this one, fortunately its a Texas truck, but its been parked under a carport most of the time it's spent up north. He chose to grab the SS/T in the background over the R/T.
 
Can't afford a nice one for certain

No Reserve: 9k-Mile 1999 Dodge Dakota R/T Club Cab
$16,500 with 3 hours to go

No Reserve: 9k-Mile 1999 Dodge Dakota R/T Club Cab​

1999_dodge_dakota_Dakota-17-65560.jpg
 
My first one was Intense Blue. Love that truck in that color. Black is next to my least favorite color, flame red would be the color I might flake on.
 
The thing I like about my truck is it's not a club cab. There's a black standard cab at the other end of my street too. I don't think it's an R/T but I never paid a lot of attention either.

That reminds me the same guy has a New Yorker or something, smacked right in the post between the doors. I need to go up and strike up a conversation, find out if there's a chance the NYer has a 360 in it. At one time I was thinking about buying it until he walked me around to the side I couldn't see. LOL.
 
b-body-bob said:
That reminds me the same guy has a New Yorker or something, smacked right in the post between the doors. I need to go up and strike up a conversation, find out if there's a chance the NYer has a 360 in it. At one time I was thinking about buying it until he walked me around to the side I couldn't see. LOL.
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It depends on year. It would have to be a '79 CA car or '79-'81 if in fact it's a New Yorker and not a Newport.

The New Yorkers were always top-option engines (440, T or rarely U code) until '78, if memory serves. That one year, only CA cars got 360s and "high altitude" cars had 400s (the 400 may have been a "delete" option). The '79 switch to the R-body brought the 360 as standard. I'm not sure about '80-'81, but I think it remained 360 only. @Diplomat_Wagon would know better--he's got an R-body NYer. 360s went dodo in passenger cars after '81.

b-body-bob said:
The thing I like about my truck is it's not a club cab. There's a black standard cab at the other end of my street too. I don't think it's an R/T but I never paid a lot of attention either.
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All Dakota R/Ts are loaded extended cabs with awfulmatic transmissions. A standard-cab 5.2L/5-speed base Dakota will stomp any stock R/T foolish enough to try.
 
Yup, you are correct about the 5.2/5-speed Doc, but the R/Ts throughout the 1998-2003 production run were available in standard cab and club cab. Both of mine have been the club cab version.
 
I've never seen a standard cab R/T, only trucks people to which people added R/T badging. When my friend Andrew ordered his '98, they were extended-cab only. The Mopar Action article announcing the truck said the same thing.

The dealer from which Andrew ordered his truck had several low-option, base Dakota 2WDs with the 5.2/5-speed and Sure Grip 3.92:1 axles. We test drove one of those while we were there. Pretty gutsy little truck, I admit. Andrew said, "Now imagine it with a 360!" His R/T showed up a few weeks later. It was gorgeous, I'll give it that. Imagine his crushing disappointment on first stomp of his shiny new rig with just 60 easy payments left... on a 30% higher price tag.

I thought the whole situation rather funny, since he refused to do "truck things" with it. Why even have it?
 
You can't tow with the little trucks anyway, or at least a sane person won't pull more than a homeowner's trailer with one, so the V-6 is probably all the truck you really need. But as evidenced by Andrew, that's not the truck you want.

FWIW my truck has a 3.21 gear in it and scoots around just fine.
 
b-body-bob said:
FWIW my truck has a 3.21 gear in it and scoots around just fine.
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Mine had 3.55s. It was also 4WD, but it was pretty zippy regardless. Much credit goes to the AX15's 3.83:1 first gear. Overall first-gear reduction in high range (direct) is the equivalent to having 5.54 gears behind a 727.

71ChargerRT said:
Yeah, they're not really built for towing or hauling, I argue that point for most trucks without 8 lugs, but I'm biased.
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While I'm by no means advocating pulling an enclosed car hauler with a Dakota due to its size, @Stretch has done a lot of heavy towing with half-tonners: F150, Ram 1500, and Tundra. He never had problems, though the V8s in the Dodge and Toyota did fare a little better than the Ford's 300, though the latter's 5-speed helped quite a bit. Buddy Kev recently hot-shotted cross-country (GA to CO and back) to fetch his girlfriend's M3 340 Duster with the '99 Ram 1500 5.2 he bought new, sporting almost 300,000 miles on the ticker. Again, no issues... well, other than a bus trying to run over his new, literally never-yet-had-a-car-on-it trailer. Regardless, he's done a lot of towing with that one over the years, too.
 
honestly unless your hauling something down right silly i dont see the point of a 3/4 or 1ton truck..the f350 SD never impressed me in the slightest and while i overloaded it ALOT i also killed the trans on it more times than i care to remember....meanwhile i just wore the engine out on the 1/2 ton dodge doing similar loads on the same roads...mind you i always left the serious heavy lifting to the 350
as for "small trucks" honestly around town or "local" towing with them is fine, and even up to a few hundred miles i wouldnt have issues with, imo its more about HOW you haul and the wheelbase than anything
friends trailblazer hauls briliantly even at 70mph....the ford explorer sport(2dr) on the otherhand gets spooky under the same load at over 50...wheelbase is everything
 
I've towed a lot with 1/2 ton trucks, I even put my old, red 2500 on a trailer behind my '06 1500. That Cummins on the front of that trailer, and the draw bar flipped up so it had 3-4" rise, still had the rear of that truck almost dragging, I wouldn't have done it had there been another option. That said I've towed appropriate weights with a 1500, without concern, locally.

69 was your F350 a 7.3 or 6.0? Not that it matters, just curious. My old 7.3 was a workhorse, not big on power or mileage but it pulled pretty well, nowhere near the power of the 6.7 or the CR Cummins.
 
71ChargerRT said:
I've towed a lot with 1/2 ton trucks, I even put my old, red 2500 on a trailer behind my '06 1500. That Cummins on the front of that trailer, and the draw bar flipped up so it had 3-4" rise, still had the rear of that truck almost dragging, I wouldn't have done it had there been another option. That said I've towed appropriate weights with a 1500, without concern, locally.

69 was your F350 a 7.3 or 6.0? Not that it matters, just curious. My old 7.3 was a workhorse, not big on power or mileage but it pulled pretty well, nowhere near the power of the 6.7 or the CR Cummins.
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it was the 7.3 4dr short box 4wd, wasnt comfortable in the slightest, there was a tuner chip that really woke it up but the transmission was a serious failure repeatedly even with a MASSIVE trans cooler and its own fan i still smoked one...and the ABS sent me off the road multiple times..even a worn out ole 73 1/2 long box dodge pickup rode way better, the only "good" that ford was for was crazy weight long loads and the AC

the only rig thats ever truely made me feel unsafe was my ramcharger...that short lifted wheelbase could have that truck dancin in a hurry if something went wonky .....hell the 78 corolla wagon did 300 miles dolleying a dart happily..the a108 towed probably the most amazingly the sketchy part was always the front drum brakes
 
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