[dentat2]

I have a 98 dakota sport 4x4 club cab with a 5.2 v8 and just recently bought a 24ft aerolite camper dry weight is 4700lbs . i can pull the camper at 65 mph without the ac on. not much power left though. any suggestions or upgrades i can do to the truck?? also the truck has 225k miles
thnx

 

[DakAttack25]

I would upgrade to heavier duty shocks like maybe Rancho 9000 or Bilsteins and I would upgrade to rear disk brakes because I believe your truck doesn't have them. That's where I would start. Hope this helps,

Eli

 

[Primus]

What is your axle gear ratios?
How was the maintenance done on it?
How much do you have to get into the throttle to get going?
You shouldn't be struggling with that trailer, as the 5.2 was rated at 235hp and 295ft-lbs. of torque and while I haven't pulled that much with my 94 due to the higher mileage, I know that the 5.2 capable of pulling 5000lbs. with the 3.55 gears. Over 5Klbs. and you need to consider regearing.
It sounds like to me that the engine at those miles needs a rebuild if it is struggling to pull that much without the A/C.

 

[dentat2]

Gear ratio is 3.55. Not sure how well the previous owner took care of it. It doesnt struggle to much to get going it just runs out of steam around 50 mph. Im thinking its a gear problem. At 4700 dry weight im sure me n the wife have to much crap in the camper and the truck to send it well over the 5k limit. Any gear suggestions?? 4.11's maybe??

 

[cbr600rx7]

Maintenance is where you should start. If you are unsure of what has been maintained or hasn't been maintained you should start with a basic tune up. Dirty filters, poor plugs, and even old fluids can have a direct impact on your trucks performance. A 318 has a huge amount of low end torque and are widely regarded as work motors. I would disregard the first post by DakAttack25 since shocks will not increase your towing capacity and disk brakes are over rated on our trucks IMOP. Both seem like a waste of time and money.

Re gearing is normally a good option for towing however if there is a underlying issue with the motor where it is not making power in the mid range of the power band do to a air or fuel issue it may not help.

I would say trouble shooting is going to be your best bet to figure out whats going on. Maybe a compression test and some basic maintenance would be a good place to start.

 

[DrPepper]

Primus nailed it with the gears....or

My 03 QC - 3.9 V6 Stick shift, has pulled more weight than your camper, but it was after I installed 3:90 gears and modded the motor.
You don't say what trans you have, but if it's the 3 speed with OD 4th gear, your probably going to be dropping into 3rd to get the rpm to do the job on hills and passing. If you have the 4 speed Auto, make yourself a chart of speed vs RPM, watch your RPM as you drive and have someone write down the RPM in 3rd and in 4th. Then you can see what your engine has to deal with. Seem like the 318 likes ~1500 to 3500 RPM and signs off. This is a curve so if 4th gear has you at 2000-2200 at 65 your dead. (RPM stated is a guess, only you can verify what it's doing).

The other thing that will make a big difference is a modification to the intake manifold to get the RPM your missing. There are pros and cons about it killing the low end torque. I did it to my 3.9 and have been very happy with the result. No exhaust mods, stock exhaust manifolds, runs up to red line if I let it without hesitation. It still has plenty of torque to get started and the biggest factor is the pulling power in mid range right where it fell off prior to the mod.
Do some research on the web site under "kegger mods".

The other two things would be a really good trans cooler and a 180 thermostat.

DrPepper

 

[DakAttack25]

Sorry I wasn't making a reply for motor performance I was just simply stating if I was towing a 24ft camper I would want heavier duty shocks over the stock junk ones and would prefer disk brakes. Disregard my post.