anyone know anything about vehicles??

I'm no mechanic, but it sounds like it might be your sparkplugs- have you checked them?

nope...my boyfriend thought it could be my spark plugs too. He said he can change them on a 4 cylinder, but it's too hard to do on a v6...

When I was younger and would take the family car somewhere and then tell my dad about the funny noises it made, he'd tell me to turn the radio up louder [].  Sorry...I know that doesn't help, but I absolutely hate car problems, but worse than that is my fear of breaking down somewhere.  I think I'd do my best to find someone trustworthy and have it thoroughly looked over.  You don't have to do any, or all, of the things they recommend, but at least you'll know what you're dealing with.

I'm no mechanic either, but from my rudimentary car knowledge I'd guess that one of your problems is a bum alternator.
 
Try looking through Car Talk - you can search for your problem in their archives and/or look through the Mechanic Files.
[linkhttp://www.cartalk.com/menus/info.html]http://www.cartalk.com/menus/info.html[/link]

DH (who is a "Car Talk" on NPR fanatic) says the squeak is probably a glazed belt, which is cheap. The gravel  sound could be very expensive, however, anything from a bad bearing to a water pump, or alternator, which would explain the lights dimming problem. Alternators are in the hundreds of dollars range, water pumps as well. Bearings, depending upon where they are, can be hundreds to thousands. The sound through the straw could be a leaking vacuum hose, which should be pretty cheap, dollars to replace but probably  $45 to diagnose it! The leaking vacuum hose could cause the car to idle badly, and the shaking can be from the idling badly. So most likely it's more than one thing, but it could be either just a bad alternator or a bad hose (plus the belt) and you could get out of there for $300 or less. Go to www.cartalk.com and find the mechanX files and then you can search for local mechanics that others in your area have recommended. Good luck, and let us know, he's curious. BTW, he says you'd be an excellent caller to the show, they like it when women call in and make the noises their car is doing!

wow, you guys are awesome! Hopefully it wont be too expensive. My mom said that she'll pay for it, but i'll feel bad if it's a lot. It's probably about time to have my transmission fluid changed too

If it's an older vehicle that you aren't going to keep that long, and it turns out to be an alternator, you could try buying a rebuilt and let a local mechanic put it in for you - check prices and ask first, though, because some will want to help you out and save you some cash, others want to make their money on the parts markups.  

By the way, while browsing through the Car Talk archives just now I came across this - good to know!
 
Tom: You've just illustrated beautifully a major difference between men and women when it comes to cars, Phil. If your wife had come to us, she would have said something like "The car stalls sometimes when I stop after a long drive."
Ray: To which we would have asked a few questions and said, "OK, we'll take a look at it."
Tom: Whereas you, Phil, said, "Could this be happening because the engine has stopped firing instead of going into the idle mode?"
Ray: To which most mechanics would say, "Absolutely, Phil, probably due to a misaligned anti-bozerus valve and a calmly flexing multi-platinum port socket. Big money, Phil. But an excellent diagnosis!"
Tom: And you would have forked over 1,200 bucks and walked away proud that you sounded like you knew what you were talking about.
Ray: For some reason, men feel a need to act as if they know what's wrong. Whereas we believe you get better service from a mechanic if you tell him the symptoms and let him make the diagnosis. That way, you won't inadvertently lead him astray (remember, most of us mechanics aren't that bright, and are easily swayed) and, more important, HE'S then responsible if the thing he replaces doesn't fix the problem.

Husband agrees with Saved.
 
Good luck!
 
Dawn

I sell auto parts for a living.  Been in the business for quite a while.  I would say the biggest problem, given the miles and the symptoms is that your serpentine belt tensioner needs to be replaced.  This belt tensioner keeps tension on the belt which prevents the belt from just spinning on the pulleys (which is what causes the squeaking you hear.)  The good news is that this part is not usually all that expensive, relatively ($40-60)  The bad news is that the labor could become a bit expensive (2-4 hours.)

The car could be stalling out for a variety of reasons, the most likely is that the idle control motor (also called a idle air control valve) has a build up of carbon inside the air passageways.  This, in most cars, needs to be removed from the vehicle to be cleaned out manually.  Carbon buildup is a natural by-product of combustion-nothing too terrible, nor too major.  If you need to replace the part, those usually run anywhere between $40-100. 

Recommendation to you:  get a good fuel injection cleaner (good ones start at about $10 or so) and run that through your gas tank at regular intervals.  Also have an air induction service done on your car- that cleans out all the air passageways from all the dirt and carbon that has built up. 

I don't think it's the alternator for this reason:  You stated that the engine starts to die and then the lights dim, as soon as the engine revs up the lights come back up.  The lights dim because the current from the alternator is decreasing, due to decreasing engine revolutions.  Also your truck should have an idiot light that would come on when the voltage from the alternator drops to an unacceptable level. 

I hope this helps, feel free to PM me if you'd like.

However, also when i accelerate i hear a sound that almost sounds like gravel bouncing arond in a plastic box and  something that sounds like someone blowing through a straw. 

Where is this sound coming from?  Is it from the front of the vehicle or the rear?  From the sides or from the middle?

You may laugh but you may actually have gravel on top of your skid plate.  When you accelerate the bouncing of the chassis causes the gravel to bounce up and down.  It may be something entirely different, however depending upon the location of the sound.

The air whistling might be, as in my previous post, your idle air control motor, or possibly your EGR valve.  I'll check with my buddies over at Dodge tomorrow and check on some common problems for you.

the gravel sound kind of sounds like it's right underneath my feet. This has only happened once, but i was merging onto a highway and it started making the sound the loudest i've ever heard. My truck kind of felt sluggish and had a hard time speeding up. As soon as i hit 55, it was fine and the sound went away.

If it happened only once and hasn't recurred at all since, it's not something that could be diagnosed or repaired without alot of exploration:  And that's if there actually is a problem.  I personally wouldn't worry about it, if it were my vehicle.  It could have been a million things or nothing at all.

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you...I checked with my guy at dodge...the prices for the belt tensioner:  $112 and IAC $75.85