Hi, I'm new to this group and am looking at a 84 Dodge Ram 318 auto trans. 68'000 orig. miles.It's in good shape used just to pull a horse trailer.I am a week end wrencher. I have a 85 240ti Volvo I restored but I need to get a truck to pull a 6500lb travel trailer occationally. As you can tell I like the older ones you can work on.Will this truck be able to haul it with little problems? If not what truck would be better.I'm old school and want a truck I can work on without or as little eletronics as possible. Thanks for any help. Charlie

 

I have an 06 dodge half-ton with the 5.7, and a 2000 Tahoe 34' trailer that weighs in at 6,300# with nothing additional (groceries,water tanks, or even beer) inside. The problem I had was tongue weight, the truck has the power, so to speak, but there was entirely too much doubt in my mind to pull it any farther than to a friend with a Cummins.

A few things you might want to look at is axle ratio, a 4:10 would be ideal in that 84, find out what your tongue weight is on the trailer and deduct that from your trucks payload capacity, if your even close you need to make some changes or purchase an equalizer hitch and overload springs. Honestly, IMO, that truck isn't the right choice to yank around that kind of trailer.

 

I would try and find one of the Chevy Towing vehicles from that era. You know the Crew Cab longbox dually with a 454 under the hood. That would be ideal, may seem a little big, but you really can never be too big *wink

 

I seem to remember an old truck of my dads, it was a Silverado (I think) Camper Special. It had some beefy springs and loading it over the roof with firewood barely squated it. Back in the day, they did make particular trucks already outfitted for the application.
My next truck is going to be a brand spanking new 1975 Chevy. The old Dodges are cool, but the aftermarket just dosent support them like the Chevys. I'd be willing to bet that you could have a 383 built, or build it yourself,(just to up the torque over a 350) that would more than tow that for a lot less than any Mopar.