I plan to use the Dakota to pull my Challenger bracket car. I've already swapped the 3.9 for a 5.2 and now need to beef the suspension. To me, it looks like the springs are bent, but the ride height seems OK. Also, when I sit on the tailgate (~180 lbs) the rear of the truck drops about an inch. Are these springs toast, and if so, what should I go with? I've heard of people using springs from a Ram 1500. Would this be a simple R&R job? I've got the original springs from my Challenger that I thought I might add to the stock spring pack, but if the main spring is bent I don't even want to mess with doing that. Any suggestions?

My springs look the same way on my '96 (last of the Gen II body style), and have looked that way for over 7 years that I have owned it. They look even worse when you start hammering on it. I have 125k on the clock, I am pretty well convinced they have had it as well as the front springs.

As best I can tell, finding rear springs will basically be from a spring shop, and I am sure a couple of mail order places---I just haven't really looked into it yet.

BTW, if its a Dakota short bed, Definatly make sure you have a weight distributing hitch and sway control--actually good to have no matter what. These trucks (even long bed or extended cab for the extra length) are border line in my opinion for towing anything but a 2000 lb car and trailer. And yea, I have towed much more than that in the past I hate to admit.

That's what I kinda figured. I've been looking under every Dakota I see, and all the leaf springs look like that. I was starting to believe that's just how these appear, whether worn out or not. My truck is a long bed extended cab and I'll be pulling roughly 3500lbs with the Challenger and trailer. I used a 2005 4wd Quad cab Dakota to pull this combo for years and had no issues. Thanks for the reply.