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GraphiteDak
GenIII
 
9/06/2006
00:16:40
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 Subject: RE: The Dakota is a trailer towing BEAST :)
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That is funny. Those things look exactly like a Pilot with the rear cut into a El Camino style truck bed LOL!!!!
As for mileage, I didn't caluclate but I am guessing around 8 at best going UP to Flagstaff and maybe 10+ coming back.
On the way up, I was down to half a tank by Camp verde which is about half way. But we did stop and go for over an hour due to an accident.
On the way down it's more downhill than uphill.
What size trailer is yours?
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modain
GenIII
9/06/2006
02:07:57
|  RE: The Dakota is a trailer towing BEAST :)
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The box is 20' long, 8' wide. Tongue to ramp is 24' long.
What's your left foot doing?
=========================================
2002 Graphite QC SLT Plus, 4.7L, NV3500, Superchips 3715, 3.92 LSD, loads o'fun...
2001 Patriot Blue Durango SLT, 4.7L, 45RFE, Superchips 3715, 3.55 Open (for now)
1999 Forest Green Dakota RC Sport, 2.5L, NV1500, 3.55 Open
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GraphiteDak
GenIII
9/06/2006
02:50:26
| RE: The Dakota is a trailer towing BEAST :)
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Sounds about like mine. :)
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kenny
Dodge Dakota
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9/06/2006
13:11:36
| RE: The Dakota is a trailer towing BEAST :)
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I have to add this because it's the most impressive Dak towing story I've seen. In 04 my buddy had to run from one of the hurricanes because he lives in a travel trailer. Well four of us heard about it and called "road trip". So we went all the way to North Carolina and back pulling his 32ft travel trailer. He had an 03 club cab, 4.7, unsure of the gears. The trailer is 8700lbs dry and he had EVERYTHING he owned in it, plus 4 more people and our gear, full tanks of water etc. I guarantee it weighed no less than 10k lbs. And get this, because it caught him by surprise and he had never towed with the Dak before we had NO trailer brakes and NO load distro. She swayed like a drunk dancing on prom night but other than that pulled suprisingly easily (fortunately my buddy got his CDL in the military and is VERY good at pulling a trailer). I've got a pic of the beast of a setup somewhere, I'll try to post it if I can find it.
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jayb
Dodge Dakota
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9/06/2006
17:29:35
| RE: The Dakota is a trailer towing BEAST :)
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sounds like me pulling my 30 footer. but my truck is a 93 and weighs in at a couple hundred pounds less. i didnt have too much sway problem, but my a$$ end was sagging like 60 year old titties.
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GraphiteDak
GenIII
9/06/2006
20:41:16
| RE: The Dakota is a trailer towing BEAST :)
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Yup. I believe it!
Check this out. About a year and a half ago. I posted about it back then...
My friend had this POS antique trailer near Payson. I towed it to Scottsdale. NO air bags, NO sway control, NO electric brakes!!!!
I kept it at 50MPH or less the entire way. I had the stock gearing then too.
I dropped to 35MPH on one of the grades especially when the clutch fan engaged!
I figured this was 10k Lbs too! That is REAL wood cabinets in that battle axe!
And a bunch of CRAP including them two large spools of cable wire in there.
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deerridge
GenIII
9/07/2006
16:21:23
| RE: The Dakota is a trailer towing BEAST :)
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The guys with the RIdgelines, Tacoma's etc better watch it. Their axles aren't rated for those loads and they have load capacities of like 1200 lbs. MIne has a load capacity of 1850 vs the current Ram with only 1500. Trucks are typically under rated to tow, but I suspect the Honda is only truck like, kinda like the cheese on an airline vs real cheddar.
Real Horsepower
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GraphiteDak
GenIII
9/08/2006
02:15:21
| RE: The Dakota is a trailer towing BEAST :)
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"but I suspect the Honda is only truck like, kinda like the cheese on an airline vs real cheddar."
Well put LOL!!!
Someone recently told me they say a Ridgeline pulling a small trailer. And it was sagging to the ground.
Something else I keep forgetting to mention.
People are worried about overloading a Dak like I (we) do.
What about all those full sized F250/350, Chevy 2500/3500 etc 4X4 trucks with 6" leaf spring blocks, modded front spring/spindles on 35" tires jacked way in the air with them 2 FOOT drop hitches pulling big trailers???
I see them things swaying all over the road!
Now THAT would worry me!
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deerridge
GenIII
9/08/2006
10:03:20
| RE: The Dakota is a trailer towing BEAST :)
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I had a 70 3/4 ton gmc my dad left me. If you put a load on it the front end floated all over the place. It was scary.
Real Horsepower
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GraphiteDak
GenIII
9/09/2006
00:11:14
| RE: The Dakota is a trailer towing BEAST :)
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Yeah. Nothing worse than a OVERSTEER feeling either when you go around corners!
Oh well. The Dak's a pretty good so called MID SIZED truck.
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Dan M
Dodge Dakota
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9/09/2006
02:43:18
| RE: The Dakota is a trailer towing BEAST :)
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as a side note as I metioned in a towing thread. My 02 QC 4.7L Auto has the towing package which included a Class IV hitch which is a 10,000 lb hitch. I also have the RV style connector. I purchased a 7-to-4 adapter from wal-mart so i can pull uhaul and other smaller trailers.
A comment on oversteer. Anyone here ever loaded a mid 90s chevy astro passenger van full of ups batteries and ups's? Lol Talk about drifting driving 65-70 down the highway on curves. The front of the vehicle would bounce on rougher sections of road.
I'm guess we put about 2,000 ls in the back of the van. I'd say last 2/3 of the van space behind the drivers seat. we removed the other seats and had tools and other stuff up front. We were in a hurry and didn't load it correctly. The van was definately squatting and the tires bowing.
You gotta do what you gotta do to keep people's porn connections up! lol
- Dan M
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Kowalski
GenIII
9/09/2006
07:52:45
| RE: The Dakota is a trailer towing BEAST :)
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I know what you guys mean, but that's understeer - oversteer is when the rear is loose.
When the front end is pushing, its called understeer.
Lead, follow, or get out of the way
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Trukguy
Dodge Dakota
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9/10/2006
11:23:48
| RE: The Dakota is a trailer towing BEAST :)
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Kowalski has been watching too much NASCAR. ;.)
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GraphiteDak
GenIII
9/10/2006
13:53:52
| RE: The Dakota is a trailer towing BEAST :)
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LOL maybe. Those Nascar guys are a diff breed than the rest of us :)
Dan, didn't your truck come with the 7 to flat 4 adapter???
My 2003 did. It was in the glove box I believe, along with the pre wiring adapters for the trailer brakes controller. Which I have a Temkin or whatever spelled Electronic type.
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jayb
Dodge Dakota
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9/10/2006
13:59:52
| RE: The Dakota is a trailer towing BEAST :)
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hey graphite dak, how hard was it to install that LSD? I got a dana spicer trutrac and i want to install it. i have some instructions, but i dont understand some of the stuff. do you think its doable? ive worked on just about everything else on my truck, except that.
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GraphiteDak
GenIII
9/10/2006
14:53:31
| RE: The Dakota is a trailer towing BEAST :)
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I did the LSD at the same time I did my gears.
You have to remove the axles and carrier housing.
I'm not sure hwat a Tru Trac is. If it's anything like the Auburn LSD it is a entire new carrier housing.
If it's like my bro in laws PowerTrax, it just replces the spiders with some locking teeth and springs. In which was really easy since the carrier stays in place.
When you change the carrier you have to check and maybe adjust the backlash. Then it's real fun!
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jayb
Dodge Dakota
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9/10/2006
15:25:37
| RE: The Dakota is a trailer towing BEAST :)
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what is backlash?
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jayb
Dodge Dakota
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9/10/2006
15:30:53
| RE: The Dakota is a trailer towing BEAST :)
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a tru trac is made my dana. its a clutchpack like limited slip diff. so yes i gotta pull the entire open diff out, and replace it with the posi unit.
what im wondering is what is backlash, and what kind of adjustments and checks do i have to do with my 8.25?
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GraphiteDak
GenIII
9/10/2006
16:27:04
| RE: The Dakota is a trailer towing BEAST :)
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Backlash is the measurement from the teeth of the pinion gear to the teeth on the ring gear when you first turn the gears one way, then turn it in reverse to measure how much it turns the other way before toiuching the gear again. Kind of like meauring slop in a crude way of thinking.
Easy to do? Well, Put it this way.
Rebuilding an engine, is EASY compaired to setting up a rear differential for many people.
I've done a few "junk yard" swaps with rear end gears on POS beaters I was playing around with for fun and all.
But the 9.25 in my Dakota was the first one I did where I needed it to be reliable for TOWING and all. I read and read and read some more. Some guy on another forum was very knowledgable about setting up diffs and he helped a lot.
I had to redo my pinion setting once right after the first set up. I appear to have nailed it that time because the rear is quiet and I've been towing about 8,000 Lbs 3 times now.
The only problem I had was the Auburn LSD is a little noisy when I turn and chatters, especially after I changed the fluid to synthetic for a while. It didn't like it which sucks because I wanted Amsoil in everything eventually. My Auburn doesn't slip ENOUGH. It squeels the rear tires really easy when turning corners because they are trying to turn at the same speed, rather than letting the diff slip a little.
I am sure it will loosen up after a few years though.
There are a few good write ups on setting up diffs. And there are a few diff methods used on diff diffs. SOme use shims, some use adjuster nuts (like the 9.25 of mine did).
I think there's instructions from Yukon, and a good set from "Randy's Ring and Pinion" to get you started.
Hope that helps.
If you don't want to chance anything, the PowerTrax is easy to install. It takes about an hour. But is a sort of HARSH type locker compared to an LSD or clutches.
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jayb
Dodge Dakota
JOIN HERE
9/10/2006
17:32:30
| RE: The Dakota is a trailer towing BEAST :)
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ok so now i understand backlash. how do you set the bearing preload?
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