2002 Dodge Dakota

The winters are pretty fierce in the Colorado mountains. I regularly see a foot of snow come down in a few hours, and in a few cases we'll get 2-3 feet over the course of a day. The road crews up here are well-appointed and know their business, but they focus on the primary roads first. Since I'm on a side road, I need a form of transportation which I can guarantee will get me to and from the house easily.

This 2002 Dodge Dakota meets that need! It features a quad cab, so I can haul the entire household (five people including myself). The bed is large enough to fit car parts, construction materials, and other large items. With the camper shell, I can keep those items dry and safe. This Dakota is equipped with the 4.7L Powertech V8 making about 230 HP and 295 ft/lbs of torque, although at this elevation those numbers are derated by about 20%. Four wheel drive and aggressive Goodyear Wrangler tires give it strong offroad and snow capability, which ensures I'll always be able to make it out of our neighborhood onto the main roads. In the four years I've lived in this area (as of 2023), I've only gotten stuck once. In the same period, I've pulled at least two dozen other vehicles out of ditches and snowbanks.

The Dakota was one of the few midsize trucks available in 2002 (none are currently sold today). It has the hauling capacity and offroad capabilities of a larger truck, but it does quite well in traffic and tighter urban areas. That said, I rarely take it further than about 20 miles from home, unless I'm picking up materials or parts. Despite the smaller size, the V8 and large tires mean I only get about 13mpg, which is pretty terrible. Luckily the truck runs fine on 85 octane! The manual transmission helps with the fuel economy a bit as well, although it's such a heavy truck that the engine always struggles a bit to keep up (especially when the truck is loaded down). The closest truck you can get these days would be a Toyota Tacoma, which is available in a V6 quad cab manual with 4WD (note that a modern V6 makes more power than this V8).

I have a number of future plans for this truck. First, I'd like to pull the cab and bed off of the body and apply rust preventative to the frame. While I'm under there, I'd like to convert the rear axle to use disc brakes. I've already swapped the front brakes to the 2003+ dual-piston calipers, which has resulted in noticeably better braking performance. You'll see why the improved braking will be important in a minute.

There aren't a lot of options to increase the output of the 4.7L Powertech, which is a shame. The engine was more robust in a lot of ways compared to the 5.2 and 5.9 of the same era, but folks gravitated towards the larger displacement and established platform. However, I plan to swap in a set of high output camshafts and a high output intake, which should boost output to about 250 HP and 310 ft/lbs of torque. The next step would be a supercharger, but those start at $6000 and require significant work to see maximum benefit. Forced induction at elevation is a huge boon, but for that price tag I think I can do without for now.

Why all the performance upgrades? Well, I'd like to try building this truck out into a mini RV. The next step after improving my base (better brakes, better suspension, more power) will be to remove the bed and build a custom box frame. It will be tight, but I should have room for a bed two sleep two (located primarily above the cab) along with a toilet, sink, hand shower, water tanks, batteries, a solar charging solution, a small generator, AC, and a basic kitchenette (hotplate, fridge, microwave). I'm looking to add about 1000lbs to the truck, so the better brakes and engine will be necessary to ensure I can stop and accelerate safely. But this isn't going to be some crazy behemoth of an RV. The truck should still be just under 9' tall with all of this added on! I've only started planning this project, but I'm eager to take the first steps.