Budget Beater Build: 2004 Dakota

[Shorty81]

Heck yeah!! Good job. That will make a good truck for her.

 

[Midnightmoon]

Heck yeah!! Good job. That will make a good truck for her.

Looks like it's going to be more of a spare vehicle for us. My daughter is really liking the Ram 1500 she is running currently and I don't think that she will want to switch.

 

[bigcountry78]

Man I would drive the wheels off that thing. Looks like a really nice truck to me.

 

[Midnightmoon]

Man I would drive the wheels off that thing. Looks like a really nice truck to me.

Thanks. It is sitting in the driveway as our spare for now. Definitely worth the little bit of money I have in it.

 

[bucket]

Man I would drive the wheels off that thing. Looks like a really nice truck to me.

Lol, I used to have a few customers that had those trucks. They quite literally drove the wheels off of them due to bad ball joints.

I agree though, it's a nice truck and I'd DD the crap out of it, if given the opportunity.

 

[Midnightmoon]

I have a couple of minor things to work on when I get the chance. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, there is an issue with the oil pressure gauge that I need to diagnose. I also noticed a little noise in one of the rear door speakers. It has that Infinity sound system that Dodge offered as an option. It could be an amp issue developing or just a simple speaker problem. A good project for over the winter. Finally, the headliner is starting to sag in a couple of spots. Not bad, but I'd like to get it back up before it tears.

 

[Midnightmoon]

Using the little truck to haul a small load of scrap wood today. I'm convinced that this is probably the first time that this truck has been used to haul anything other than a gas can.

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[Frankenchevy]

That thing is super clean for sure

 

[Grit dog]

Nice work @Midnightmoon !

 

[Midnightmoon]

Got the oil pressure gauge working today. Simple pressure sensor replacement. You could say that the old one was used up.

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[Midnightmoon]

So, my daily driver Ram decided that today would be a great day to start puking antifreeze out of the upper tank area of the radiator. Starting tomorrow, the Dakota is going to get commuter duty until I get the Ram fixed. I actually took the Dakota to Pittsburgh last week for it's first highway run. Other than desperately needing an alignment, it did well.

 

[SirRobyn0]

So, my daily driver Ram decided that today would be a great day to start puking antifreeze out of the upper tank area of the radiator. Starting tomorrow, the Dakota is going to get commuter duty until I get the Ram fixed. I actually took the Dakota to Pittsburgh last week for it's first highway run. Other than desperately needing an alignment, it did well.

I'll look forward to seeing how you like daily driving it for a bit. I'm also curious what kind of gas mileage you'll get. My biggest complaint about my dakota is the the mileage isn't much better than the square.

 

[Midnightmoon]

I'll look forward to seeing how you like daily driving it for a bit. I'm also curious what kind of gas mileage you'll get. My biggest complaint about my dakota is the the mileage isn't much better than the square.

I'll be interested to see what it does also. My bet is no better than around 14 or so with my mixed commute. But, seeing how regular unleaded is $2.05/gallon cheaper than Diesel right now here, I may actually save a little money this week. As I type this, gas is $3.95 and diesel is $5.99.

 

[SirRobyn0]

Ya, my Dakota does about 13 on my commute, and 16 on the highway. My square does about 12 on my commute and 14 on the highway, with the 305 / 700R4 combination if I hold 55 on the highway I can touch 16, but have only done that one time as 55 is not a reasonable speed to drive on 70MPH highways.

 

[AuroraGirl]

hows the blower motor resistor LOL