Towing with V6?

[Geerhed]

Greetings!
I've spent the better part of an afternoon trying to find out towing capacities, and have yet to find a good source of information!
Here's the deal: we just purchased a 24' camper, dry weight of 3900#, 'wet' weight of 6000#. Tongue weight of 450#.
I know with those types of numbers I'm definitely going to need stablizer bars on my tow setup, but how much truck or van do I need?
Today I happened on a beautiful 1994 B250 van, with some conversions (captain's chairs, couch in the back, but no running boards or hi-top.
It's only $3000, but (and there's always a "but") it has the 3.9L v-6 engine. I have no problem installing a tranny cooler and even differnent rear end gears, but does the 3.9 have the torque/hp to move this van AND a 4000 pound trailer?
Any and all information appreciated.

[Dodgevanman]

The 3.9 is only rated at about 175HP..not sure of it's torque numbers.

For towing a trailer of that size, I would recommend you find a van with the 5.2L or even better the 5.9L. The 5.2 is rated at 225HP and the 5.9 is rated at 245HP.

You could put steeper gears in to help, but then you start sacrificing fuel mileage and the engine RPM's will climb just to get more power out of that V6.

[McClane]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the Dodge vans only had the 5.2 as an option, even the 15 passenger vans were 5.2. I didn't think you could get a 5.9 in the vans, unless it was US only.

???

[Dodgevanman]

Nope....the 5.9 was available in 3/4 ton and 1 ton.

Heck, back the mid-late 70's you could get a van with a 400 or 440.

[McClane]

Thanks for clearing that up. I just remembered reading one of the dodge van pamphlets and it didn't list the 5.9 as an option. Perhaps it was the newer year vans, the years just before dodge discontinued the ram vans.