1997 Dodge Ram extended cab, while speeding up on the freeway why does it randomly seem like its sucking up air bubbles from the gastank for 5-10 seconds, making what sounds like faint backfiring as is struggles for gasoline?

Especially during winter, if you don't keep your tank full or near full, condensation will form inside the empty tank and flow to the bottom, and it can be a fair amount of water collect in there. I don't mean top it off every day, just don't put in $10 on a empty tank, especially since that truck probably holds a lot of fuel. Try some alcohol based water remover and at least a half tank of gas, that won't hurt anything and just might solve it. Maybe.