I've had several 87-96 Dakota's. Done shocks on all of them. I don't remember those being so bad.
Now the tops of my 12 Dodge ram1500 now THOSE suck. Especially the driver side. Had to heat up a wrench and bend it to get to the nut on the inside, right up against the gas tank. Rears on ford rwd and their vans also bring a whole new meaning to "changing shocks on one of these SUCK".