I actually bought an RV cam from Hughes last year! I also found a regular, low-rise Performer intake to replace the Performer RPM that's on there now. The guy that built the engine in the truck made some poor choices, none of it works together.

The overall plan for the truck was to make it a better driver and first on the list was to ditch the NP435. I scored a super rare bellhousing to put an 833 behind the big block in a truck. I have a regular and OD variant 833. The non-OD has better gear ratios, would help to keep the motor in the sweet spot.

I drove it back and forth to Carlisle last year, (approx. 600 miles round trip) it was a little rough. Definitely a blast from the past - it was hot, noisy and not real comfortable. I don't think those trucks were meant for long trips. The whole time I was thinking about what it would be like to have a trailer behind me and it seemed unrealistic.

There's a decent-looking '70's dually in the classifieds right now. I actually thought about finding something like that for towing the Duster and buying a Charger instead of a Ram...

After rereading this thread and considering whats been stated I have to think your asking the wrong question. I think what you need to ask is this "I need a new commuter vehicle and something to tow a trailer occasionally, what should I do?"

I also note a couple of pertainent questions that havent been asked, What does your wife drive/need? How old are the kids? And perhaps most importanly what's your budget?

You've stated that you don't want a truck and from the sounds of it using one as a commuter vehicle would definitely not suit your needs. You've also pointed out that you have little need for a truck, but you already have one and feel it doesn't suits your needs.

Assuming you're looking at new or very late model truck, Im going to guess your budget is 35-45k (including cash and trades), not bad to work with. My answwer then becomes find a good commuter and figure out how to come up with a decent truck. This won't be hard.

Actually I'll dial back a bit from that last sentence, I'm probably the last person you'd ever want to ask about a new commuter car. So I'll just leave this thought on that: Late model Hyundais are actually pretty decent cars, especially the larger models. Note that they are also looking to boost sales right now so a new one may not be a bad deal at all. So pick the car that best suits your needs, use the remaining budget on a truck.

Lets put some numbers to this just for the sake of the math (wether they're accurate or not can be determined later)
Trade in on the Mazda: 5000
new Hyundai: 30000
Cash outlay: 25000

That leaves 10000 or so for a truck (figuring say 5000 value of the D100) Not shabby at all. Now what to do with that:

Option 1: fix up the D100, getthe engine right, swap in the OD trans (whenthe engine is right the gear spread won't be a problem) Add sound deadening, new seats and aftermarket a/c. I dislike rear disc on trucks, especially for towing and stick shift, most disc parking brakes are pretty worthless. Hydroboost is personal preference, for me I don't care for it. It can be added easily enough if you insist. What I would do is upgrade to later 11" rear drums with bigger wheel cylinders and an adjustable proportioning valve to optimize the factory setup. It wouldn't be hard to add in the 87-93 rwabs system if you swap in a complete later rear axle. A weight distributing hitch with sway control and good trailer brakes will easily make up for the minor infraction of the shortbed. The a/c will eat up the largest part of the budget but I think you could pull this off and stay within the numbers. And yes you'll never get your money back out of the truck when you sell.

Option 2: this is probab;ly the better one for you, sell the D100 and use the 10k in cash to find a 12valve Cummins truck. Finding an excellent condition 2wdauto extended cab for less than that shouldn't pose any challenge at all. You would probably like the 94-98 trucks much better than the 89-93, i think most of those were hydroboost, pretty much all had a/c, and rwabs was standard with (i think) 4wabs optional. Note, 5 speed and 4wd add quite a bit to the ca-ching factor.

The important question here really is: Do I want a truck?

The OP has stated he's doesn't want one but has occasion to need one.

Hence steering away from buying a new truck and getting an older cheaper one.

Trucks are great ! I have two of them when you have one you realize how handy they are. However over six years ago when I accepted a job 30 miles one way from my home driving my H.Q.C. every day was getting expensive. I did it for a year or so then bought a Civic for commuting saving a ton on gas plus preserving my truck from everyday wear and tear. I recently traded my Civic on a new Honda HRV AWD for commuting so every time we get an inch or so of snow I don't have to get my H.Q.C. all full of salt and crap. I see nothing wrong with SUVs we have had seven of them over the years, my wife works in a hospital and has to get to work regardless of weather I want her to have AWD. I had two Durangos on 00 and an 02 I towed my enclosed trailer with for six years all over the place. One of my fellow Mopar racers at the track tows an A body on an open trailer with a New Durango V6 and says it tows fine, BTW he raced it and it ran 15s. The new Ram 1500s are really nice, I race a lot and if I was buying a new truck it would be a 2500

Oh I don't disagree with a truck as a dd, currently running my 77 W300 crew cab most days.

But I'm only doing about a 35 mile round trip, I'm guessing the OP does more.

Wow, thanks for the thoughtful response ruderunner and everyone else who has replied.

Frankly, the Mazda runs great, I could probably get at least another 50K out of it and it's been paid off for a long time. But, the value will only keep going down the longer I drive it. And, like I said previously, it gets tiring driving it in stop and go traffic for hours on end. It's time to move onto something new.

I've thought hard about keeping the D100 and fixing it up. I looked for a '70s SWB truck for a long time. I had to do a lot to it when I first got it. I had to put new axle bearings and seals in it so I sprung for new drums too and made new rear lines. I rewired the entire truck as well, everything works as it should. I lowered the rear 2". It actually handles OK for what it is. It's been fairly reliable after all the stuff I did to it.

That said, it mostly just sits and I feel bad about that. It needs to be driven regularly like any other vehicle. It's hard to justify spending a bunch more money on it to make it marginally better. I dunno, a new truck just seems like a better idea for the long haul.

If I can swing it, I'd probably sell the D and find a driver type Mopar to spell driving the truck every day. I could do the daddy taxi thing in the AM then hop into something cool to get to work. That's most likely what I will end up doing.

My wife drives a Subaru Outback that replaced our '01 Cherokee. They are really similar vehicles actually. Our kids are 8 and 4 so they are still little. The little one is kind of a pip squeak so he's still in a car seat. They would love a truck, we've talked about it a lot. They like daddy's green truck but they can't really ride in it.

Still unsure whether a Durango would be sufficient but it seems like 11secdart did it with an older one. I'm surprised you were towing an enclosed trailer with one of those? Guess it was OK? Wonder how they stack up against the newer ones? Can't image they were more powerful (unless it was modified) and the transmission was not as sophisticated. I have no doubt the newer ones can pull an open trailer, they advertise them like that.

'76 D100...Utiline/stepside?

The Durango towed pretty well it was a 4.7 with 3.91 gears, trailer tow pkg and air bags in the rear. The trailer was a 20 ft Haulmark enclosed with my Dart, quad, tools etc. I towed as far away as Indy, Virginia and Pittsburgh from my home in North Jersey with no problem, of course my H.Q.C. tows even bettet.

Huh, who knew? And with a 4.7 even - with 3.91 gears - what was your mileage towing, like 8mpg? Those things drank gas even without towing. I was never a fan of them.

A GenIII Hemi has to be a better performer than the 4.7 so if you did it well enough with that combo, maybe I should re-think the Durango.

Again, I have no doubt it will do fine with an open trailer. I just don't like the idea of potentially going to somewhere like Carlisle or Lebanon Valley from Long Island with an open trailer. I know plenty of people make do with what they have but if it can be done easily enough, why not go for the enclosed?

Especially with Carlisle, you always hear stories about cars being stolen from the hotel, just seems a lot less likely with an enclosed. I dunno, I could be wrong about that.

Not to mention sudden summer monsoons. I've been through enough of those at ETown just as a spectator...

A slightly different approach, but you could get your wife a Durango or Grand Cherokee and then switch vehicles with her on days you need to tow. This assumes your wife is comfortable driving a larger SUV. If you did this, you could drive whatever you want every day.


Edit: I don't think you will find many older full size trucks with gasoline engines that will get much more than 15 mpg running empty. If you want to get over 20 mpg, you will probably have to get a diesel or a fairly new truck. Diesel engines save fuel, but cost more in other areas. Newer trucks are nice, but the fuel savings may fail to offset the depreciation on a truck that is not driven very often.

When towing with older gas powered trucks like your D100, I've frequently gotten around 8 mpg. It depends a lot on what you are towing and where you are towing it. I had one truck that would get 9 or 10 mpg towing. Another one only got 6 mpg on one trip, but that was towing a large, heavy camper through the mountains.

If you want an overdrive transmission and want to tow with your D100, I'd find a 5 speed out of a 1990's 2500 truck. Those have a lower first gear ratio than your 833OD and have an overdrive. A 5 speed would cost a bit more, but having that lower first gear would be real handy when starting off on a hill when you are towing a heavier load.

Rmchgr, you are getting confusing. You have stated a couple times you DON'T WANT a truck but you seem to be talking yourself into one.

Which is it?

If you want a truck that's manerouvable as a car and gets 30 mpg, forget it, especially if you want to tow.

And I'm going to call BS on your claim that the Eco Boost gets 18 towing. They're luckily to get 18 unloaded.

Frankly I don't see Anny one vehicle meeting your goals.

Well, that's the whole point here is that I am unsure about what would be best, just weighing pros and cons. There's a lot of variables that are factoring into the decision.

Started out thinking I would be getting a truck but when I really put some thought into it I realized some things that were not so appealing.

I drive a LOT, like 25,000 miles a year. Just have to justify to myself whether its worth driving a truck that much as a regular car when not being used for it's intended purpose.

As far as the 18 mpg, I was just repeating what I read on Edmunds. They did a long term test on a 2014 Ram Ecodiesel.

"...Towing was a big deal for us, and the logbook entries associated with towing amount to 9,307 miles. Our Ram was pulling a trailer 19 percent of the time it was moving, and quite possibly more if the logbook didn't get the proper notation every time.

The trailer in question was typically a car hauler hauling a car, not a blunt-faced camper, so the fuel economy didn't sag as much as it might have. Still, 6,000 pounds is 6,000 pounds. Those 9,307 towing miles came and went at an average of 18.1 mpg.

Here is a summary of the usual stats:

EPA MPG Rating: 22 Combined (19 City/27 Highway)
Average Lifetime MPG, all miles: 21.8 (4.6 gallons per 100 miles)
Lifetime MPG, towing excluded: 22.9 (4.4 gallons per 100 miles)
Lifetime MPG, towing only: 18.1 (5.5 gallons per 100 miles)
Best Fill MPG: 27.9 (20.7 when towing)
Worst Fill MPG: 17.4 (15.1 when towing)
Best Range: 700.2 miles
Final Odometer: 50,084 miles..."

Dope slap for me, Eco Diesel not Eco Boost..

Regardless, I think its going to come down to numbers. Price, economy, insurance etc Perhaps making a spreadsheet so things can be directly compared.

Frankly, I have never associated anything "Eco" with trucks. Kind of an oxymoron really.

All the branding nomenclature can get confusing. Everyone knows giant trucks are not economical in any way, shape or form but that does not stop the automakers from trying to market them that way.

The Edmunds report is a good read. I believe they present things in an unbiased manner. Obviously you take everything with a grain of salt but if they really did go about their testing in a relatively scientific fashion, averaging 18mpg while TOWING is pretty remarkable. I am definitely liking the Ecodiesel more and more.

The GCWR of a Crew Cab Ram ED with a 5'7" bed and either 2 or 4wd is almost 15,000 lbs with a 3.92 gear. The Hemi can tow a larger trailer in the same configuration but gets WAY less mileage doing so. I figure a 3.55 gear would be sufficient with the 8 speed trans. The Hemi usually gets an RFE trans but has the 8 speed option with the towing package.

The Ecodiesel does add several grand to the initial price of the truck though which is unfortunate. So it boils down to this; pay more for the Ecodiesel and get a little less towing capacity than a similarly equipped Hemi but get more mileage or get the Hemi and tow anything you want but get way less mileage.

See how things get a little fuzzy? Go beyond the numbers and factor in the actual driving characteristics of the truck and how much time I spend on the road and the choice becomes less clear...

I really like that advice. Compare all the vehicles that you're considering side-by-side. It should narrow the choice(s) way down, making your final decision much easier.

I wouldn't have any issues over choosing between a Hemi truck and any diesel truck, but then, I'm not driving 25,000 mile a year either. In addition to the better fuel mileage, you need to add the higher upkeep costs, the higher up front cost, and the higher price of fuel for that diesel truck. I'm betting the cost breakdown over a 5 year run given the same mileage will probably be pretty close to each other, or lean towards the gas powered truck.

Then, you really need to determine how often you really will be towing with that truck, or how often you really needed a truck at all, out of the 25K miles a year your driving. How does the cost of either truck compare to what a car would cost over the same time/miles?

I suspect you would be ahead of the game if you updated your D100 for the towing purposes, and maintain your current car for daily transportation, until it needs to be replaced because it died. Having been around car dealerships for many years, I don't buy into the "value of a trade in", its a big lie. But then you don't get something shinny and new. Gene

We have 4 Ferd Ecoboost trucks in the fleet where I work, all 4-door shortbed 4x4's and they get worse mileage per gallon then my 2015 Ram 2500 longbed 4x4 5.7 Hemi! The Dodge half ton diesel does get great mileage, if you can afford one and the $160 oil changes...

Funny, now that this idea is right in the forefront of my brain, I can't help but notice how many 1500 Rams are out on the road and only a very small percentage are ever towing anything. Guess this is what people drive nowadays. Maybe I am stuck in the past thinking that trucks are for work.

So another 2 + hour commute today then the additional 30 min. round trip in heavy local traffic to pickup one of my kids. I swear, it's draining doing it every day. Gotta think a larger vehicle would be a lot easier to be stuck in for hours at a stretch, maneuverable or not.

Maybe the maneuverability is what makes it tiring. Earlier in the thread I said I would probably have to alter my driving habits a little. I tend to be an offensive driver, trying to find the path of least resistance. The Mazda makes that easy to master, I don't even have to think about it, it just goes right where I want it to. Maybe it would be easier to just relax and go with the flow a little more often.