They are never finished.

When I got the truck the dash was already lightened. I was able to loose all the rear leaf spring hangers when I made hangers and installed afco sliders. I cut the majority of the spare tire holder out. The doors are heavy, looking to trim some weight out of them. The frame from the cab forward is crazy heavy. The customer has the pics he took. I need to get him on here to post them. They are very finicky about appearance. They had painted the frame after cleaning it knowing I had to cut and weld on it. My grinder eats paint very easy though.LOL 100 bs has easily been trimmed from the rear of the truck. The holeshot wheels will cut a lot of weight too.

Here is how we tried to get rid of some weight out back on my truck. Now the focus is on the front, but I am trying to do it without losing some of my amenities like heat, stereo, and interior.

How do you plan on reducing the weight off the front, swiss cheese the frame?

Do you think that that front crossmember can just be removed? All I have is an 8 point roll bar right now.

If your not hauling anything ditch that boxed crossmember with the bed mounts.

What do you do for bed mounts? You mean the one over the fuel tank right? Do you just cut the middle section out or the whole thing?

I dont think losing two of the eight bed mounts will hurt anything. Im removing the whole thing from my gen II.

Fair enough, consider it being chopped out when the fuel cell goes in.

also lose the c channel that holds the front of the tank up.

True, damn my fab guy is going to love it when I get home.

It all unbolts......

Man, I thought everything there was welded and the only thing holding the tank was the straps. Ok, I will stop threadjacking. Sorry Leon.

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No, I just removed it, I see no need for it. It doesn't make the truck go faster and as far as safety, I have installed a 12 pt cage so it got the gas ax. Thanks!


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Cool, I've been thinking about cutting it out ever since I did my first engine swap and got a good look at it. Any idea how much it weighs?



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^^^^^^^^STILL my favorite gen3 Dakota.....

I don't know how much it weighs but it's heavy enough to make it worth taking out. Every little bit helps.

DakotaRTGuy why are you still running the 9.25 rear? Could you shoot a pic of the upper coilover mount. Can't make out the details in the pic you have.

Because I am stubborn and want to keep all the stock electronics. I am sure you know but the ABS and speedo work off the exciter ring. I did chop the ends off and put big ford ends on them to get rid of the C clips.

Here is a better picture.

Thanks that pic cleared it right up.

I thought about doing a mopar green bearing housing end on the 9.25 rear. But, you still have the issue with no available spools. We went with a Dana 60 spools 35 spline axles and if you need to use the exiter ring they were available on 93 3/4 ton HD dodge trucks. It think a drill to drill a hole for the pickup. A spool for a thick gear, the ring and thin gear will bolt together.

Coilovers look set up right?

Yea, I heard you can also use the ford 8.8 and that the exciter ring is close, just need to machine it and everything else works fine. Only key is you have to drill the pumpkin to mount the sensor. Ah well, should be plenty strong for what I am doing.

Here is the whole album on some of the progress I have made since I bought this pig new in 03.

http://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d197/Davidsalazar03/Truck/

Well we know what cheap ass it's not going to be.

Pointing at you Dave.

I have a brand new Dana 60 4.10 posi with the sensor boss and ring. It was a take out out of a late "D" series with zero miles so they definately made them.