1994 Dodge Dakota

5.2 Magnum V8 Engine Build

There's something truly appealing about an older truck. Modern trucks are unnecessarily huge things, lumbering behemoths built more for the appearance of safety and passenger capacity than actually hauling cargo. But if you look back 20+ years, you can find trucks designed for actual work. To make matters better, they’re easy to work on! Very few special tools needed here, and everything is easily accessible (it takes about 20 minutes to change all six spark plugs; try that on a modern truck).

This 1994 Dodge Dakota drew me in with the promise of functionality. Featuring an 8 foot bed and a single cab, there’s plenty of space for hauling. It features true 4x4, meaning impressive driveability in the snow (important when we regularly get over a foot of snow and sometimes 2-3 feet of snow in a few hours). It also came with a 2” body lift, which slightly improves snow capabilities. The 3.9L V6 isn’t the most impressive engine in the world with an output of 180HP and 220 ft/lbs of torque, but the torque comes in early to make hauling easier. A five speed manual ensures better control and reliability over the automatic transmission offerings from that time.

So how do I actually use this truck? One of my most common chores is hauling slash (cut tree branches) to our local forestry yard. This is an important task, as we have a very real risk of fire here. Slash is generated by trimming the lower branches from live trees or cutting down and breaking up dead tress.

Why not just rent a truck? If only I had that few trees to work with! By my estimation, I’ve cleaned up about 50 trees and have another 100+ to go before my property is fully fire mitigated. On average, trimming 4-5 trees or cutting down 2-3 trees will fill the bed of this truck. The slash yard is about 1.5 miles away, but the nearest place I could rent a truck suitable for hauling is an 80+ mile round trip.

So let’s do some math (probably not why you came here, sorry). Let’s say I trim 2 trees for every tree I cut down. 66 trimmed trees / 4.5 = 15 trips, plus 33 cut trees / 2.5 = 14 trips. Let’s round that up to 30 trips total to clear everything I have left. On a good day (about five hours of work), I can generate enough material to justify 3 trips to the slash yard. So, I’ll need at least ten working days with a truck.

To drive the Dakota from my home to the slash yard and back 30 times works out to 3*30 or 90 miles of total driving. To rent a truck on ten separate occasions, I’m looking at that 90 miles PLUS another 800 miles of driving the truck to and from the rental location. Put another way, for each day I make 3 trips to the slash yard (9 miles total), I also drive an additional 80 miles just getting the truck where it needs to be. Not very efficient.

But it’s not that simple! I also need to factor in the drive time to and from the rental location, which about 3 hours total. If I can generate 3 loads in five hours, but I spend 3 of those hours driving, realistically I’m generating at most two loads of slash. So now I need that rental truck even more often – 15 rentals instead of ten, for a total of 1400 miles driven to/from the rental location. Now, I could probably mitigate this by doing the cutting work over several days and then renting a truck for all the hauling – except leaving huge piles of combustible material around is generally frowned upon. I’ve got to haul it pretty much as soon as it’s cut so I don’t get yelled at (did I mention my neighbor is the town fire marshal?)

Anyway, that’s just one example. I also haul a lot of logs, landscaping material, large parts for my other project cars, furniture, and trash (we don’t have trash pickup; all trash and recycling has to be hauled to the dump). Given the age of this truck it’s dirt cheap to register and insure, about $60/year and $45/month, respectively. Since it’s easy to work on and repair, good for actual work, and good in the snow, I’ll be holding on to it!