i am planning on getting a new truck soon and was looking at the dodge dakota with the 6 speed manual tranny. does anybody have one with the 6 speed tranny, if so how do you like it. can you get that tranny with the v8 or just the v6. also what kind of rpms are you turning at 65 mph or so. thanks

 

Hay, prob not much help as you are looking at new. I had a v8 (318) with a 5 speed a couple years back. It was a '96. It served me very well, only sold it as I needed a bigger truck. If you are pulling quads or puttin gonein the bed you should be fine unless you are trying to pull like 10 of them. I pulled a car on a flat trailer several times with mine, a little heavy on the hitch depending on how you loaded the car. For say a 5 or 6 by 12 or so utility trailer and some quads I would say you are good to go. As the v6 or v8 thing, what are the milage numbers from Dodge? When I had mine I also had 2 buddies with V6 models. We never got down and overworked the math but in general I got better milage than they did. They were autos, however. We mused that, driven on the calm side, and given the stick, it was easier for the drive train to get my truck moving compared to their V6/auto combos.

take care and good luck.

 

if its anything like the bigger trucks, 6th gear is the same as 5th. The only diffrence in the gear box is 2nd,.3rd and 4th is a tighter ratio. 5th is the same as 4th on a 5 speed and 6th is the same as 5th.
2,3 & 4 are tight to get the load moving.

 

I had an 01 Dakota club cab 4x4 with the 4.7L 5 speed manual. It was a great truck. Plenty of power to pull a few quads. I know a guy with the 6 speed manual in a Ram (same engine and tranny as the new Dak) and it seems even better. Get it with the 3.92 gear ratio. The 3.55 doesn't gain you any mpg and will hurt towing ability. I got 16.5MPG driving back and forth to work and about 20 on the Interstate in mine with the 3.92 gears.

 

the towing capacity increases with the 6 speed but you will be rowing the gearshift alot more ofter (kinda bugs me)
I would go for the 5 speed auto instead!!!!