Yea, they are fat pigs! my truck is "light" at 4,000 because it left the factory with NO options other than the V8 and the Premium audio package. it's got manual windows, mirrors, locks, seats, transmission, no A/C, and No cruise control. I'm impressed the factory even made such a combo!
as for brakes, all the Dakota's got the same brakes (for the same model year) 97-99 have the worst brakes--11" rotors up front and drum rears. 00-02 they went to larger pistons in the front calipers, but kept the same size rotor and same rear drums. 03-04 is the only year of the gen 3 trucks that had 4 wheel disc brakes, and they went to a 12" rotor, along with a dual piston front caliper.
after just 10 minutes of spirited driving on rural country roads, my factory brakes were soft and fading rapidly.
As far as suspension goes, there were a bunch of different combos. 4x4 trucks had front torsion bars and sat higher than stock/sport trucks. some trucks got rear sway bars, others did not. there are multitude of different size sway bars based on V8, 4x4/2wd, cab/bed combo, etc, and as always, no real rhyme or reason for why certain trucks got what they did. I've even seen trucks with rear axles that had the mounting pads for rear sway bars, but no rear sway bar installed.
the R/T trucks came with a 1" lower suspension than the 2wd sport trucks, and were the only trucks to receive the 17x9 aluminum alloy rims (until Dodge used up remaining inventory in late 03/04 on some of the 4x4 trucks)
If you ever want to modify and tweak your truck's performance, my personal opinion is that the 97-99 trucks are the easiest to modify. in 2000 they went to a one size fits all "california emissions" tune that included additional emissions junk that is difficult to remove without triggering check engine lights. the earlier trucks left the factory with either a california emissions package, or a federal emissions package, and on the federal, its much easier to delete the evap system and get rid of the solenoid and about 15 lbs of vacuum tubing between the manifold and fuel tank.
any other questions, let me know. I've learned a lot about these Gen III trucks over the years!
