I'm the kind of guy who can't ever leave anything stock, so my opinion will be somewhat biased.

I've owned both 5.2/5.9 and 4.7 dakotas.

I've heard horror stories of catostraphoc failures of 4.7s. Lots of them. Most of the time these get chalked up to poor maintenance. I also know of a few 5.2/5.9 horror stories--also from poor maintenance.

The 4.7 truck I had, was bought used with 35k miles on it. I changed the oil every 4-5k miles. At 100k miles it developed a tick that sounded like a valve noise, but drove it another 20k miles with no oil pressure issues, no loss of power, and no misfires or engine codes.

I don't like the 4.7 because there's virtually no aftermarket support for it. As for daily driving, it was ok. Got around 17 mpg in a 4700 lb truck. (Quad cab dakota). For towing, it was weak. Required lots of RPM and downshifting. I couldn't imagine this same engine in a full size truck trying to pull 7k lbs like they were rated for.

I like the 5.2/5.9 because there's a ton of aftermarket for them, and they respond well to mods. I've never towed with a 5.2 or 5.9 though. They can be fairly bulletproof though and when maintained will easily go 250k+ miles with minimal wear because of the efi. I've opened up 100k plus motors and found original cross hatching still in the bores.