'03 Dodge Dakota

[276KEY]

'03 Dodge Dakota build up

Who: Isaiah Downing
What: 2003 Dodge Dakota SXT Club Cab, 3.9 V6
When: 3 years till present
Where: N. America, currently Northwest USA
Why: Why not?
How: Cheap DIY...hahaha, um no such thing.

Lets see...I bought this truck sometime in 2006 after doing a lot of research about small to midsize trucks. I had my mind set on the Dakota after seeing all of the other options (i.e. Tacoma, ranger, frontier, s-10) because of the relatively large interior space and adequate bed space. At the time I had no intention of modifying or prepping this truck for boondocking, overland, or expeditioining. I simply wanted the largest compact/small truck that I could get. The tacoma was a close second but I ended up saving between $3,000-$5,000 by going with the Dakota. At the time I lived in Colorado and the Toyotas pulled a premium price. Anyways, fast forward to 7 or 8 months ago when my plans changed and the truck played an integral part of my plan. After a short road trip to see my parents over Christmas break out in CA and right after an emotional break up I decided that with graduation looming only a few months away that the best possible thing for me to do was quit my job, sell almost everything that I own, pay off all of my bills, pack up the dog and hit the road for a year of living out of my truck! Sounds rational right?

As it sits right now, I have sold everything, packed up and moved to CA, I am finishing up some of the last parts of the truck so I can finally hit the open road. It feels like I have retired 40 years early! It is nice not to have a deadline for any of this to get done...I just work on my truck when the heat isn't too bad. When the heat is too bad I go down to the lake in Mt. Shasta and do swimming with my dog!

I graduated with an art degree with an emphasis in photography in May 2009 from University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. I am geeked out on photo gear and built my truck around a few prinicples: straight forward and easy to access storage, livable bed area that allows me to sit up right/indian style without hitting my head on the topper, compact configuration (i.e. no bed campers, or pop out camper shells), weatherproof.

That being said I will start with the pictures and explain as I go so you don't have to read paragraphs upon paragraphs of mindless ramblings!

First thing to do was optimize as much space as possible. The rear seats were first to go and for good reason, they are small and inadequate. However, they are much better than the jumpseats that were in mid-90's S10's.

 

[276KEY]

Lumber awaiting measurements and installation.

Getting an idea of what I wanted the layout to be like for the elevated floor. 6 gallon water jug from Wal-Mart. Let me preface this now so I don't have to do it later. I hate hate HATE Wal-Mart for a few popular and unpopular reasons...so bad that I didn't shop there for over 4 years, I refused to give them my money. That being said, I have sourced a few items for my truck through them recently.

Cardboard template with measurements on it...measure twice cut once!

Blue tape to refine the rough cuts that I made earlier.

Close up of tape edge to show clearance

Head board cut and installed, you can see the 'desk' in the middle underneath the runners that provide the height of the floor...remember I want to keep the floor low so that I have enough room to sit upright.

Foot board cut and installed. I ended up cutting a new one that had the wood grain going in the correct direction providing the right kind of lateral stiffness that I was looking for. Also, shows 'cutouts' for the water jugs that will be going on either side of the bed.

Four runner provide the lift and support of the elevated floor. The wide gap in the middle is where the 'desk' slides into place when not being used.

L-brackets modified for bed rails and 'desk' Later I painted these black so they wouldn't look so horrendous. I haven't welded in about year or so and on top of that when I did learn how to weld it was all self taught.

Detail of how the 'desk' simply drops into place

 

[276KEY]

Me test fitting the height of the 'desk' and the height of my head when the topper will be installed.

Table installed...it still needs to be routered, sanded, and coated.

Test fitting the Yeti cooler in the back storage area. That is a 45 quart Tundra series cooler...so far I am super happy with it, coming from coleman and igloo quality coolers this one is 1500% better quality. Also, shows the mounting location for the auxiliary battery.

Another template

Test fit of the 1/4 inchish ply for the rear cargo/dog area

Decided to hinge the floor last minute so that I could utilize the extra storage area.

Grinding down the screws that barely pushed through the bottom. Better to do it now than suffer bloody knuckles in the future.

Hinged and supported! I am glad that I decided to do this...there would have been a lot of unused space.

Drivers side is stationary to hold the Auxiliary battery, the storage underneath is accessed from the hinged side of the storage area.

 

[roostercruiser]

we have a dakota and its a great truck

 

[cowboy63645]

Very nice, I love what you have done with it, and cant wait to see what comes next!

 

[GlennA]

Who: Isaiah Downing
What: 2003 Dodge Dakota SXT Club Cab, 3.9 V6
When: 3 years till present
Where: N. America, currently Northwest USA
Why: Why not?
How: Cheap DIY...hahaha, um no such thing.

Lets see...I bought this truck sometime in 2006 after doing a lot of research about small to midsize trucks. I had my mind set on the Dakota after seeing all of the other options (i.e. Tacoma, ranger, frontier, s-10) because of the relatively large interior space and adequate bed space. At the time I had no intention of modifying or prepping this truck for boondocking, overland, or expeditioining. I simply wanted the largest compact/small truck that I could get. The tacoma was a close second but I ended up saving between $3,000-$5,000 by going with the Dakota. At the time I lived in Colorado and the Toyotas pulled a premium price. Anyways, fast forward to 7 or 8 months ago when my plans changed and the truck played an integral part of my plan. After a short road trip to see my parents over Christmas break out in CA and right after an emotional break up I decided that with graduation looming only a few months away that the best possible thing for me to do was quit my job, sell almost everything that I own, pay off all of my bills, pack up the dog and hit the road for a year of living out of my truck! Sounds rational right?

As it sits right now, I have sold everything, packed up and moved to CA, I am finishing up some of the last parts of the truck so I can finally hit the open road. It feels like I have retired 40 years early! It is nice not to have a deadline for any of this to get done...I just work on my truck when the heat isn't too bad. When the heat is too bad I go down to the lake in Mt. Shasta and do swimming with my dog!

I graduated with an art degree with an emphasis in photography in May 2009 from University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. I am geeked out on photo gear and built my truck around a few prinicples: straight forward and easy to access storage, livable bed area that allows me to sit up right/indian style without hitting my head on the topper, compact configuration (i.e. no bed campers, or pop out camper shells), weatherproof.

That being said I will start with the pictures and explain as I go so you don't have to read paragraphs upon paragraphs of mindless ramblings!

First thing to do was optimize as much space as possible. The rear seats were first to go and for good reason, they are small and inadequate. However, they are much better than the jumpseats that were in mid-90's S10's.

Enjoy it before you pick up baggage like a job, marriage, mortgage and children. One those come along, it may be a while before a year long trip is more than a dream.

 

[276KEY]

A job, marriage, mortgage, and children are very scary thoughts! Please stop scaring me. :Wow1:

Anyways, I have been working on the truck a lot lately! Most of these pictures are 3 weeks behind where I am at now.

Here is my truck being loaded up and getting ready to head out to CA. This is pretty much everything that I own at this point!

Here is a departing shot from the house that I lived in for the past 11 years in Colorado Springs. I am glad to be out of there and out of the neighborhood.

Sunset near the Bonneville salt flats!

A lot of rearend weight.

In CA and hour outside of Reno...Nevada, what worthless state.

New tires arrived from discount tire direct...$40 online discount plus free shipping = $100 cheaper than buying them at the store! Hankook Dynapro ATM RF10 P265/70/16 I opted for the P vs. LT tires because I will be doing a lot more on road travel with a relatively light load and didn't want to give up the softer ride for the 8 ply LT tires that were going to be stiff.

Made a trip to Burney Falls State Park......its a very cool place that probably won't be open after this summer when the state of CA cuts funding to some state parks.

 

[cowboy63645]

Burney Falls State Park looks like a gorgeous place, sad to hear that it might not be open much longer. So, 3 weeks behind huh? Whats the hold up!! lol j/k

 

[276KEY]

My pictures are 3 weeks behind...I am on schedule to leave CA sometime this week. I have been working on the truck and getting my web hosting sorted out. Onto the pictures!

I installed a cheapie JVC head unit that has AUX input for the ipod! yay...should have done this a while ago. I also powered it off of the aux battery rather than the truck battery.

Sizing up the mounting location for the Hella off-road lights. I put them as far forward on the Thule box as I could while still keeping the mounting bar parallel with the ground and not tilting upwards.

Another shot...after mounting I realized that it was going to need some extra support, the box transferred too much vubration.

Lights installed and aimed...also enough clearance for the Thule to open up freely.

I wired up the switches. The auxiliary power feed comes in through 10 gauge cable and ties into a 10 spot fuse block that I mounted underneath a dash panel out of the way. The switches are also mounted on this dash panel.

Switches mounted and dash panel replaced! One project done!

Made an executive decision to move the auxiliary battery up to the engine compartment rather than having it in the cab behind the drivers seat. This would create a lot of extra storage for me in a high traffic area. The stock airbox had to be removed and replaced with a cone filter. I welded up a box for the battery out of 1" angle iron then fabricated the mounts for it from 1" square tubing.

With all of the extra space I found a perfect spot to put the 160 amp battery isolator and the 100 am circuit breaker. I welded together some scrap metal to create the mounting brackets.

Here is the battery mounted, isolator mounted, and circuit breaker mounted.

Updates will be coming more frequently as I finish up tasks on the truck. It is coming together nicely so far!

 

[cowboy63645]

Nice work! I like the auxiliary fuse block and the location of the second battery. Well thought out!

 

[Funrover]

Wow.. that is a quest. Build looks great, I wish you the best

 

[276KEY]

Thanks Cowboy...I am happy with the way things are turning out. It ends up being a lot of test fitting and measuring before everything gets finalized but it makes the final product better in my opinion. I have made everything out of cardboard first before welding anything together.


Funrover...I should also clarify that "I hope that I can stay on the road for a year" In all reality one year doesn't seem like enough time to explore and see everything that I want to. I hope that my money will last long enough for me to stay on the road for a year...in all reality it will probably dry up sooner than I expect. But, I will cross that bridge when I get to it.

 

[276KEY]

I put in the rear cargo panels today. Even though they are low and flat I can fit a good amount of gear underneath. This will be my dogs primary spot while traveling. She will have a bed behind the passengers seat. Behind the drivers seat I will have a couple of Rubbermaid action packers filled with miscellaneous gear, as well as quick access to my photo backpack.

Here is the passenger side cargo area. 3 road flares, emergency rain suit, 3 ratcheting cargo straps, mechanix gloves, small towels, cheapie flashlight, various emergency jack parts, and bright reflective safety vest.

Behind the drivers seat. Emergency tarp/poncho, jumper cables, tow strap. Not shown; K&N filter recharge kit, bungee cords, emergency jack.

Cargo panels installed after being painted. I used outdoor deck paint which should be more than durable enough to handle the small amount of traffic the area will be seeing.

Here is the lid lifted up showing the accessibility to the items.

I started working on curtains the other day after getting a quick tutorial on the operation of a sewing machine. Simple straight forward design. I was lucky enough to pick up the material for $1.50 a square yard. Anyways the curtains are held up by 4' long 1/2" diameter wooden dowels. The dowels are secured to the window frame with 1/2" plastic P-clips. The curtains roll up and are velcroed into place when traveling.

One curtain completed. I was surprised that everything fit right the first time. The curtains are snug when lowered and clipped into place and are very small and out of the way when rolled up.

 

[276KEY]

All the wiring is done on the truck. I used #1 welding cable as the supply line back to the power inverter which is mounted behind the drivers seat on the wall of the cab.

Here is the power running through the 100 AMP circuit breaker.

The cable runs under the truck and is held in place by P-clips

Then runs up through a hole in the floor.

Test fitting the curtains and getting them secured into their final place.

Re-installed the floor and cleaned everything up. The curtains work out pretty well.

At the last minute I decided to build a raised sleeping platform to utilize some more space that would otherwise be wasted!

Bed installed and all that extra space. I built it out of 3/4" square steel.

 

[Deleted member 9101]

Nice man, I really like it